Egg Whites and Blue

Chapter 1-3

Kiko looked nervous, not his confident, bubbly self. Dom didn’t like that, not at all. He examined the person standing next to Kiko—tall, at ease. Dom had seen him put his hand on Kiko’s from the door, had seen Kiko pull away, and yet…the sooner this man left, the better.

“Dom,” said Kiko, sounding tired, “this is the chef, Sander Koch.”

“You know each other?” asked Dom as Sander put his hand out. Something wasn’t right. They were too familiar with each other. He ignored the hand.

“Sander, this is Dominic Grady.”

“We’re together,” said Dom, not caring that it was blunt.

Sander retracted his hand.

“I wouldn’t have thought you’d go for the jealous type, Kiko,” he said, and Dom tried not to cringe. He didn’t like the familiarity, and he didn’t like that Kiko hadn’t told him about this. It was obvious enough that the chef and Kiko had been seeing each other at some point. He wondered how recently.

“I wouldn’t have thought you’d ever apologize,” said Kiko. “You’ve been back to Mount Angus before. Why find me now?”

“What can I say?” said Sander, shrugging. “It was time.”

“I hope you’re not buying this crap,” said Dom, but Kiko was shaking his head.

“It’s all right, Dom. He wanted to apologize. He did.”

“I want to do more than that,” said Sander, turning to Kiko and staring into his eyes. “I want to make it up to you.”

Kiko actually gave a half-grin at that. Dom felt himself tensing.

“I can’t imagine anything you could possibly do,” said Kiko, but the words were too gentle for Dom’s liking. Sander reached past Kiko, snatched a book off the shelf, and presented it.

“I’ll give you a signing. Five hours on the fifth, after all the festival madness is over. It’ll bring in a lot of business for you.”

Dom felt himself glaring again. This man was an asshole.

“So your plan to apologize is to show off,” said Dom.

Sander pulled a pen from a pocket and shot Dom a smug look.

“What have you done for Kiko lately?” he asked, opening the cover and scrawling in the book. He clicked the pen and returned it to his pocket before extending the book to Kiko. “Here. You can stock up on my books by then, right?”

“Kiko’s not having you do a book signing here,” said Dom, but Kiko was taking the cookbook from Sander. He frowned.

“He’s right,” he said. “It’d be good for business. And after the loss over the Eggstravaganza weekend…”

“It isn’t your business now, is it, Dominic?” asked Sander. “You don’t look like a partner to me.” Dom felt the man’s eyes rove over him. “Well, not that kind of partner. Damn, Kiko always did have good taste.”

“Thanks, Sander,” said Kiko, indicating the book.

“The least I could do after everything. Looks like you made it far without me, too. Congratulations on the business.”

The moment Sander walked out Dom moved close to Kiko, touched his arm.

“Sit with me,” he said. “I need something to drink.”

Kiko brought an eggnog to the table Dom chose, sighing as he sat across from him. He couldn’t meet Dom’s eyes.

“So when were you going to tell me?” asked Dom.

“He’s an ex, Dom,” said Kiko, leaning back and pushing the signed cookbook away with a finger. “You showed up with one of your own a few months ago. I don’t for a moment think we don’t both have more where they came from.”

Dom did not like that Kiko was right about that.

“Why didn’t you tell me this morning at least?”

“Because you were running late. I didn’t want you to lose your job. Or make me late.” Kiko paused. “I had no idea he’d show up here. I haven’t seen him in a decade, Dom.”

“You two looked close tonight,” said Dom, not sure why he was pushing so much when he could see the pain in Kiko’s eyes. But something about Sander bothered him. Maybe it was that he was right, that Dom hadn’t really been doing much for Kiko recently.

“He was my first,” said Kiko.

“s*x?”

Kiko looked around, but the store was empty now except for pale, awkward Chad sweeping the floor.

“Everything. We were together in high school; he was a year older. He graduated and went to a culinary school in Chicago. Didn’t say a word to me again. I…at the time, I loved him. Took me years to forgive him.”

“Great,” said Dom, glaring at the cookbook. He finished his eggnog in one last gulp. How could he compete with a high school sweetheart, particularly one so well off and well known? Sander was a minor celebrity chef. And Dom…Dom did grunt work at an insurance company.

“I hope you don’t feel threatened,” said Kiko, brown eyes meeting Dom’s.

“By a famous chef who wants to get with you again? Oh, no, not at all.”

“Whoa, are you guys having, like, gay drama?” asked Chad, pausing nearby in his sweeping. Kiko actually smiled at that, but Dom was not amused.

“No different from your straight drama. Didn’t you just lose your girlfriend?”

“Dom,” said Kiko, but Chad tried to shrug it off.

“Yeah, well…Em and I weren’t going to work out anyway.” He frowned and started sweeping harder. “It shouldn’t’ve been a problem, y’know? Everyone’s having open relationships these days. Anyway, I’m off to college in the fall so I wanna be free when I get there.”

“Smart man,” said Dom, and Kiko rolled his eyes. He cleared away Dom’s empty eggnog.

“You’re just going to have to deal with it, Dom,” he said.

“I guess I will,” said Dom, thinking. For people like Sander, the only way to get them to back off was to show competency in their chosen field. Or so Dom figured. And since he couldn’t write and publish a book in less than a week, there was only one other option.

“He’ll be gone by Monday,” said Kiko. “But I won’t be. He’s just an ex, Dom.” He paused. “You look like you’re thinking something.”

Dom looked up at Kiko, smiled.

“I am,” he said. “And it’s pie.”