Carla’s Prince

Chapter 7

After the conversation she’d had with Brenda, Carla was even more focused on Cristoff’s case than ever so much that she actually forgot all about getting back to him. The only thing that was ringing in her mind as she drove down to the vintage store that Brenda had told her about was having a talk with the store owner. But on her way there, she decided to stop by Pete’s restaurant and just have a short talk with him, maybe try to figure out a few rough edges around the story. But it was not until she got to the restaurant parking lot that she realized the one thing that she had not really thought about.

Talking to Pete about the earrings he had so lovingly bought for his girlfriend was how she was going to break the news that he had gifted stolen property to Brenda. She sighed loudly as she got out of the car.

“I really should have thought more about this.”

She walked towards the restaurant as she tried to figure out if there were any light words, friendly vocabulary to break the news. 1however, at the back of her mind, she knew that there was no good way to say those words.

“Hey,” Pete said when he saw her walking into the kitchen.

“Hey, you.”

“Let me guess, you’re either hungry and are looking for a bargain or Brenda has finally realized that she is too good for me?” Pete asked before he kissed her cheek.

“Oh please, if anything you are too nice for her and not the other way around.”

“You should tell her that. Maybe carve it into her wall so she can see it every single morning when she wakes up,” he said as he led her towards a table.

She smiled and chuckled.

“Can I get you anything? Something to eat or drink maybe?” he asked and she shook her head.

“I’m still stuffed from breakfast. Thanks for that by the way.”

He nodded.

“So, what is going on?”

Carla took a long deep breath.

“This is kind of hard to talk about and I truly apologize,” she started and he shook his head.

“What’s going on right now? You are beginning to freak me out.”

“No, nothing’s wrong. It’s just…” She bit her lip and exhaled loudly.

As she sat there looking at him, she realized that she had no other choice but just to say what was on her mind. Besides, it was not like there was an easier way of telling one of your closest friends that he had somehow stumbled onto the case she was working on by buying stolen earrings.

“Remember when you gave Brenda a pair of earrings? Silver and red garnet?” she asked and he nodded.

“Yeah, they were perhaps the most beautiful vintage earrings I had ever seen,” he said. “What about them?”

“I wore them when I went to meet Cristoff and as it turns out, they were among the items stolen from his house.”

Pete’s eyes grew wide.

“No…”

She nodded.

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“I hope it was not awkward for you,” Pete said and she shook her head.

“Don’t worry about it. But if you don’t mind, I kind of need a favor,” she said and Pete shrugged.

“Anything.”

“This incident is as close as I have gotten in this case and I have been in this business long enough to know that if I go in there and start asking questions, it is going to raise a million eyebrows and probably freak out the guy at the store.”

“You want me to come along?” Pete asked and she nodded.

“Yeah, if it is not too much to ask.”

“Sure,” he said and she grinned widely.

“Great!”

“I just have to handle the breakfast rush and then I am all yours.”

“I thought you worked in a Hell’s Kitchen kind of place where you only specialized in dinner,” she said and Pete nodded.

“I do. This is exactly that kind of restaurant usually stylized as a five star restaurant,” Pete said and she laughed.

“Of course,” she muttered.

“Today, we kind of have some celebrity coming in hence the breakfast thing”

“Someone’s been a busy little bee,” she said, smiling. “Farmer’s market and a celebrity breakfast?”

Pete smiled as he got up.

“No rest for the wicked, huh?”

She shook her head.

“I guess not.”

“So, you could just wait here or in the back if you would like.”

She nodded.

“I guess the table at the back is a better option. I could just put my earphones in and work on something on my computer as you do your chef thing,” she said and he laughed.

“Chef thing, that’s hilarious, come on.” Pete said and she got up.

She began following him to the back of the restaurant when she heard her phone ring. She reached for it in her bag and frowned when she saw Cristoff’s name on the screen. She had completely forgotten all about calling him that morning.

“Hey,” she said when she picked up. “I’m sorry I didn’t call…my battery died and I just had to follow up with the earrings. It is the best and only lead I have right now.”

“What you did, leaving so unceremoniously without saying anything, is completely unacceptable in my culture, Carla,” he said.

The way he said it, the coldness in his voice…it was like a completely different person. Not the same person who she had made love to the previous night or woken up next to.

“I just told you what I had to do in the morning, why I had to rush out so fast,” she said in a soft voice as she slowed down

Pete looked at her and she put up a finger, gesturing him to give her a minute.

“Regardless,” Cristoff went on. “You could have left a note or something.”

“It was the first time at your house. I don’t know where you keep your toilet paper let alone a pen and paper.”

“I keep the toilet paper in the bathroom,” he said matter of factly. “Everyone does.”

“That is not the point here…” She exhaled loudly. “What I mean to say is that I was a guest at your house. There was no way I was expected to know where everything was. It is not like I have some kind of x-ray vision.”

“Well, nevertheless, you should have at least left a message.”

“With who? All your house staff was away, remember?”

“Carla, what you did might be considered disrespectful in my culture.”
She rolled her eyes.

“And how would I know what the Danish rules of etiquette are, huh?” she asked angrily. “It is not like I have lived in Denmark long enough to know how you do things.”

There was a long minute of silence before he finally spoke again.

“I thought more of you, Carla Gibson, but as it turns out, you are nothing but a mere gold digger and I want nothing to do with you.”

“Excuse me, gold digger?” she asked angrily. “And what gold would I have dug up pray tell?”