The Billionaire’s Full Figured Desire

His eyes were wide, his pale face even paler than usual as it drained from color, even as she watched on. This wasn’t the expression of surprise or shock, this was one of dread – there was no other word for it.

“Terrence!” Frida exclaimed his name but to no avail.

Terrence didn’t reply, he just stood there, stock-still, staring at his phone screen as if he’d just got the news that a family member or long-time friend had died. Shock seized Frida’s heart; what if one of his family members had died?! He’d mentioned having two siblings; an older sister and an older brother! That would be terrible!

“Terrence,” Frida said, much more softly this time. “Are you okay?”

This time her words penetrated and found their way home. Terrence looked up at her, and they made eye contact. There were no tears in his eyes, which suggested to Frida that there hadn’t been any death. But even if the ultimate tragedy hadn’t occurred, Frida knew that whatever Terrence was looking at wasn’t good news.

She stood up, crossed the lounge quickly, and stood next to him. “What’s happened?”

Terrence didn’t respond immediately. He tossed his phone onto the sofa, presumably so that Frida couldn’t see the screen, and then went to sit down, holding his head in his hands.

Frida was becoming quite alarmed at this point. “What’s the problem, Terrence? You need to talk to me!”

Finally, Terrence spoke, although he made a big deal of dragging his head out of his hands before he did it. “Those texts,” he said slowly. “Were from my promoter.”

“Your promoter?” Frida asked, puzzled. “What do you mean, your promoter?”

“Well, you know how I critique restaurants,” Terrence said. “My promoter finds the places and gets me in the door. He’s just a dogsbody, really…but that’s not the point.”

“So what is the point?” Frida asked. “Because I’m confused.”

Terrence sighed with such sudden exasperation that Frida was shocked. “You don’t get it, Frida. My promoter, he just sent me the name of the next restaurant that I’m going to be reviewing.”

Frida glanced down and saw Terrence’s phone lying face down on the rug. Of course, it was facedown, that phone seemed to have tremendous dramatic timing. Even as Frida leaned down to reach for the phone, she felt sure that she knew what was waiting for her on the screen. The only words that Frida knew of that could possibly cause Terrence to break down in such away. As her fingers touched the phone, she felt the heat of the screen warming her fingers gently. She turned it over, and her eyes were greeted with a text chat between Terrence and a man who she could only assume was his promoter.

The date of the messages went back months and years, so they knew each other well, she could see. But Frida wasn’t interested in the many messages that they’d shared with each other, because her eyes were drawn right into the last message sent, by Terrence’s promoter, Jarvis, scarcely a few minutes before. Terrence had asked him what was the name of the restaurant that he was supposed to be critiquing. And Jarvis had answered in no uncertain terms with a name that turned Frida’s world upside down.

L’ULTIMA CENA.

*****

Once Frida had had a chance to recover from the shock of seeing that Terrence was due to review her restaurant in scarcely a week, she began to realize that the situation was not as catastrophic as Terrence was making out. In fact, Frida began to smile at how much of a big deal he was making it out to be. She had no idea he was such a drama queen.

“Okay, what’s the big deal?” she asked, sitting down beside him and rubbing his back in smooth circles. “So you’re due to critique my place, that’s not so bad. We’re a pretty good restaurant, you know!”

“That’s nothing to do with it!” Terrence exclaimed. “Don’t you see what an awkward position that this puts both of us in?”

“No, frankly.” Frida shook her head. “What could go wrong? You review the restaurant, you give your honest opinion, and Robert’s your mom’s younger brother.”

“No, it’s not so simple, damn it!” Terrence hissed. “You don’t understand, I don’t think you understand how it goes with these things.”

“I don’t understand the world of food and critiquing?” Frida drawled. “You’re sure about that, are you?”

Terrence’s expression softened, and he seemed to remember who he was talking to. Frida Carter, Chef Extraordinaire, not just his squeeze. “Sorry,” he apologized humbly. “But seriously, Frida, this is bad news.”

“You still haven’t explained why.” Frida shrugged.

“Okay, then let me explain properly,” Terrence said, placing his hands in his lap. “Have you ever heard of any chefs marrying a food critic?”

“Is this a proposal?” Frida asked. “I must say, I didn’t see it coming, but-”

“Frida, please, be serious,” Terrence said huffily.

“Fine.” Frida nodded. “Then no, I haven’t.”

“What about any food critics being involved romantically with chefs?” Terrence followed up.

“No, I haven’t heard of that either,” Frida admitted.

“No, you haven’t,” Terrence agreed. “And I’ll tell you why. It’s because it’s generally a bad combination. Now let me explain what will happen if I critique your restaurant. If I give you a good review, someone will find out that we’re…” He suddenly trailed off.

Frida frowned, confused at his hesitation, and then all of a sudden, it hit her. “Terrence, I…I understand that we haven’t actually clarified what this is, but I don’t think now is the time.”

“Agreed.” Terrence nodded firmly. “So…if they find out that we are…involved, then that would be catastrophic. People would assume that I let you off the hook because we’re…involved with each other. If that happened, then your rival restaurants in the area would put in a complaint with the District Attorney, and they could take legal action to have your restaurant shut down.”

“What?” Frida exclaimed. “Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously.” Terrence nodded grimly. “I told you that it was serious, didn’t I?”

“Okay, I’m hearing you now,” Frida assured him. “So what can we do?”

“The only thing I can think of is to go the other route,” Terrence said.

“What’s the other route?” Frida inquired.

“We tank the review on purpose,” Terrence said shortly. “It’s the perfect plan. Even if somebody finds out that we’re involved, my integrity won’t be called into question because I gave you a bad review. People will assume that I’m honest.”