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“Yes. Of course. It’s his work goodbye party. Anyone who works with him is going to be there.”

Gemma was surprised to see a smile spread across Kent’s face and angered by the fact it made him even more handsome. Though, she told herself just because he was handsome, it didn’t make him attractive. No, Kent Parker was not an attractive man at all. Still, the expression remained on his face as he spoke again.

“Well,” he said. “A goodbye party sounds like a perfect reason for me to come along and meet my new staff.”

CHAPTER 10

There was officially no denying it. Kent Parker was the most arrogant, self-centred, egotistical man Gemma had ever come across. And she had come across a few. She felt her hands clench as she stood there, and the muscles around her neck and back tightened. Across the coffee shop, a couple of remaining customers were looking at her. Had they heard what had happened before, she wondered? Were they waiting for her to explode at him for a second time? The pair looking at her had their phones out on the table. Perhaps they hoped to catch her outburst on camera, then place it on the internet where it could go viral. Well, she wasn’t going to lose her cool again. She was still drawing in a long breath, hoping to force her pulse rate down, when Kent spoke again.

“That won’t be an issue, will it?” he said.

Her fists clenched tighter.

Really?

Gemma couldn’t believe his gall. She had met a lot of men who believed that having testicles gave them the automatic right to speak down to women, and unsurprisingly, she placed them a little above a venomous tree frog in terms of creatures she wished to interact with. But he was taking the biscuit.

“First, they are not your staff,” she said.

She knew how it worked in posh restaurants, where the chefs were the top dogs, designing all the menus and bossing all the wait staff around like they didn’t know what they were doing, but that wasn’t the same there. This was her place. Well, it was Oscar’s, but she ran it, and the way she ran it would not change because some man who thought he was god’s gift was now employed there.

“Second, this is a farewell to George. A chance for the people who have worked with him, some of us for nearly a decade, to say goodbye to him. This is a chance to share our favourite stories and laugh and probably cry too, because after today, I won’t come into work and talk to one of the nicest men I’ve ever known. Sophie and I won’t have a man we view more like family than a friend to talk through our worries with, because even though people say things won’t change after they leave, we all know that’s not true. Today is a chance for us to tell George that this place won’t be the same without him. That’s what his leaving do is. It’s not a chance for you to come and wheedle your way in with the staff or to share all the notes you’ve scribbled down on that damn tablet of yours. This evening is about George. So yes, actually, it will be an issue if you come along. You start work here tomorrow with Sophie, and it would be great if you stayed away until then.”

With everything she had wanted to say out in the open, Gemma expelled a long breath. She had failed, that was for sure. So much for promising herself she was going to keep her cool. Something about Kent got under her skin in a way she had never known anyone else to do. Just his presence was enough to make her skin itch, and he could see it by the look on his face.

“I seem to have overstepped a mark, inviting myself tonight.” He clenched his hands in front of him. “I realise that now and I apologise.”

Gemma grunted. If he thought she was going toapologise for the way she had just spoken, then he was sadly mistaken. She had meant every word she’d said.

“Is there anything else you wanted?” she asked instead.

Kent shook his head.

“No, no. I’ll see you Monday then, Gemma.”

“Yes. I’ll see you Monday, Kent.”

A moment later, he was leaving and walking towards the river.

CHAPTER 11

Kent couldn’t remember a time when he had got things more wrong. In his mind, suggesting he attended George’s leaving do had been a way to break the ice. He thought that perhaps, if Gemma saw him outside of the Waterfront Cafe, she would be a little more relaxed. Perhaps they could have had a drink or two and managed a full conversation. After all, that was the first time she had even spoken to him since the incident with the old man, and it would have been great to have been able to explain his side of things.

Although in his defence, Gemma obviously wasn’t that good at reading people, either. If she was, she would have noticed how the old man’s eyes darted around the room when he’d nearly fallen and how the last thing he had wanted was for anyone to make a fuss over him. She should have let him stand on his own and walk out the way he so obviously wanted to. She had handled it badly, not that she realised. And he didn’t hold that against her, the same way he was sure that the old man hadn’t either, because they both knew she was just trying to be a good person. So maybe he should have started by saying that.But there was no way he could go back to change it, so now everything he did focused on moving forward.

He sat on the bench, opened up his tablet, and stared at the list of points he had written down. These were observations he wanted to address with Gemma as soon as possible. He was sure she wouldn’t be thrilled about a couple of them, which was why he wanted to do it now. Then, they’d have the weekend to work through it. Now, though, he would have to go through it with her on Monday morning, and that wasn’t how anyone wanted to start their working week. He had taken on the position at the Waterfront Cafe with such high hopes and confidence that he would make a real difference, but he could already tell that Gemma was getting ready to block his every move. Maybe that was why he found himself thinking about her so often. Why he would find his eyes drifting across the coffee shop floor to watch her talking to Sophie and feel a pang of jealousy whenever a customer made her smile, or worse still, laugh.

He drew in a lungful of air and looked out at the boat. Maldon was beautiful in the sun, and it was no wonder there were so many older couples strolling around, hand in hand. It looked like the perfect type of place to retire and grow old together. Assuming you had someone to grow old with, that was.

The thought jerked him back into the moment. Realising he wouldn’t get anything productive done sitting there on the bench, he glanced back at the Waterfront Cafe one last time, only for his stomach to flip in surprise.

Gemma was walking straight towards him.

CHAPTER 12

Gemma did not want to talk to Kent. Not at all. But that was the thing about being a manager. Sometimes, you had to do things you really didn’t want to.

“You know you’re not the only person who has to work here,” Sophie said as Kent walked out of the cafe.