On a Roll by Beth Bolden (free ebook novel .txt) 📗

Clearly Ash had moved on from this guy might be cute and could be interested to I don’t like him. Didn’t bode well for Lennox getting into Ash’s pants—or the other way around.

“Well, unfortunately he’s a highly recommended professional who already knows how our business works,” Tony said, not sounding sorry at all.

Ash glanced at Gabriel, the look full of mutual commiseration, as Tony continued prattling on and on about how qualified Lennox was.

Yeah, Tony had definitely managed to screw both of them over, that was for sure.

A few minutes later, the meeting broke up and Gabriel guzzled the rest of his beer, wondering if he might have time to grab another before he had his inevitable confrontation with Tony.

But before he could make a break for it, Tony appeared at his right elbow, steering him towards the bar.

“Hey,” Tony said in a low voice. A quick glance around told Gabriel that Sean had already left. Before Gabriel could even proposition him for another night of hot sex. Yet another thing that Tony had screwed him on.

“What do you want?” Gabriel asked, leaning against the bar, gesturing to Shaw that he wanted another beer. “You got any other bright and wonderful ideas designed to ruin my life?”

“That wasn’t . . .” Tony started to say but Gabriel held up a hand.

“Don’t even try it,” Gabe said. “I know what you’re about. Well, what someone is about. This plan is too smart for you. Who came up with it?”

“What do you mean?” Tony asked.

“I mean,” Gabriel said, taking a drink of his beer, “that this is a little subtle for you, dude.”

“Hey, you know, I told you guys to fix the name shit, and instead of doing it, you started fucking. So I figure, you’re getting along so great, might as well work together some more.”

“That is . . .” Gabriel groaned. “That is not the point.”

“Well, it kind of fucking is,” Tony said pleasantly. “I expect to see your collaboration up on both of your menus next week.”

“I really hate you, you know,” Gabriel said, equally pleasantly. “You are determined to make this impossible for me. For us.”

He’d been depending on the fact that they didn’t really work together to keep this new harmony continuing. But forcing them into the same truck? To develop a recipe? Well, their professional relationship had been a disaster from the first moment, and Gabriel was afraid this was just going to be more of the same.

“I am, huh? Then why did I have to find out from Ren that you already have a new name all picked out, with a logo and everything?”

“I don’t . . . it’s just a mockup,” Gabriel said hurriedly. Why had Ren sold him out that way? Why would he? He was not ready, goddamn it. Sean wasn’t ready. Not even remotely. They were still trying to figure out how to hook up without awkwardness.

If it fell apart now, it would fall apart.

And Gabriel hadn’t figured out a way to fix it yet, or even tougher, to come to terms with it.

“Really,” Tony drawled. “Okay, then, you have a mockup all ready to go. So, go.”

“It’s complicated,” Gabriel said defensively. “Did anyone interfere when you and Lucas were figuring your shit out? When you didn’t fucking listen to anyone about that asshole Jeremy who was stealing from you?”

“No,” Tony said. “Though maybe in retrospect, you maybe should have been more forceful about it. I really fucked that up good.” He took a deep breath. “Kinda like you might fuck this up with Sean, if you’re not careful.”

“I’ve got it under control,” Gabriel insisted. Even though he definitely did not. Not even by a long shot. “Though if you keep fucking interfering, I definitely won’t anymore.”

“Hey, I haven’t heard you guys snap at each other for two weeks now. That’s practically a honeymoon period.”

“Tony,” Gabriel warned.

Tony threw up his hands. “Okay, okay, I’ll back off. But the collab plan? It’s still on. And for the record, the whole thing was originally my idea.”

“Really?” Gabriel was not convinced.

“Well,” Tony corrected, “the collaboration might have originally been my idea, but I wasn’t going to implement it this quickly.”

“I thought so.” Gabriel stared at his bottle of beer. “I’m gonna have to fix this mess you just created.”

“Or you and Sean could fix it together, which is the whole fucking point, you know? I told you to take care of it, and I thought you would. If you had, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.”

Yeah, and Sean and I wouldn’t be fucking right now.

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

“Fix this,” Tony said, stealing his beer and taking a huge gulp of it. “I mean it.”

———

An hour and two beers later, Gabriel was listening to Ash bitch about Tony and about Lennox, when he got a text. When he glanced at his phone, his pulse increased. It was from Sean.

Maybe he was inviting him over anyway. It was late, maybe, but as far as Gabriel was concerned, it was never going to be too late.

But when he opened the text, instead of a late-night booty call, Sean was asking when he would have free time in the next few days to start their collaboration.

Even worse, his words felt formal and strained. Like the last thing Sean wanted to do was collaborate with Gabriel, but he was doing it because he had to.

He hadn’t intended to actually groan out loud, but he must have because Ash finally stopped talking and stared at him. “You okay?” he asked.

“No,” Gabriel said, rubbing a hand across his face. “No. Tony is determined to hack this all up.”

“I’m hardly a fan of his at the moment,” Ash said precisely, swirling his bourbon in the squat glass, “but I’m wondering if you didn’t get at least halfway there, all on your own.”

“What do you mean?” Gabriel wondered, even though he had his suspicions.

“I mean, just fucking change your name,” Ash said. “It can’t be that hard, can