CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Natalie's P.O.V.

I sat in the office, feeling tons of paper was due on me, the morning sun lighting the restaurant right through the windows. But I just sat there working those numbers, though my mind kept going back to the fight the prior night that Brandon and I had had. It was tension like it had never been between us, and I was feeling more of the sting from his words, hurt boiling underneath the anger.

Wouldn't allow the luxury of it. Not now. Work had always been my solace, my refuge from the tempest that rattled at the gates of my personal life. Today would be no different.

I exhaled and pushed thoughts of Brandon to the back of my mind, burying myself once again in the reports in front of me. My restaurant was doing well—I needed to do well. I had to be top, right from the word go and to make sure everything was perfect, more so now that we were entering into peak season.

There was a very light, soft knock that soon ushered in heavier raps before I was seized from my inventory