Page 106 of A Chef's Kiss for Christmas

Her lips pulled into a small smile. “Sorry I fell for a nice guy.”

Chapter Forty-Three

It was hard for Warren to decide whether Lewis not being at the hotel on Wednesday and Thursday was a blessing or a curse. On the one hand, putting off speaking to him about Anna felt like a relief. At the same time, it meant he hadn’t seen Anna since they got back from Bath.

He’d almost called her the night before, but with only a few days until Christmas, the restaurant had been extra busy and it had been late by the time things had calmed down at work. Plus, he was keen to have a conversation with Lewis first.

And that felt as though it should be a face-to-face conversation.

Thankfully, Lewis was in the office when Warren arrived at work on Friday morning. Otherwise, he’d probably have gone and tracked him down at home.

“Come in,” Lewis said, glancing up from the computer screen but not pausing in typing. “I just need to send this email, but I’ll only be a minute.”

Warren sat opposite him and waited for him to finish what he wasdoing.

“How are you doing?” Lewis asked when he switched his focus from the computer and pushed his keyboard aside.

“Fine.”

“How was the family trip?”

“It was okay. Easier having Anna there.”

Lewis merely nodded. “I guess you want to go over the menu for the next couple of weeks?”

Warren scratched his forehead. “We can go through it if you want.” It wasn’t as though Lewis ever gave much input – he was more of a sounding board. “I talked it through with Liam and Sam. They had some good ideas.” He supposed it shouldn’t have been too surprising that chatting it through with the kitchen staff was more helpful than chatting everything over with Lewis, but they’d got used to doing things a certain way and had stuck with it.

“Right,” Lewis said, his eyebrows pulling together.

“I thought you wanted me to give the rest of the kitchen staff more responsibility and whatnot.”

“I did.” He tapped on the desk. “Ido.It’s good. So you don’t need to go through it with me?”

“Not unless you want me to.”

Lewis shrugged. “I guess we don’t need to.”

“The kitchen and restaurant seemed to run smoothly while I was away,” Warren added. “I can’t say for sure if the staff agree, but I think we have a more harmonious atmosphere in the kitchen. I’ve been trying to make some changes anyway.”

“That’s great.”

“It’s all pretty calm for now. Let’s see if it stays that way. The restaurant is booked out every evening until the new year, and we have a lot of lunch reservations too.”

“You’ll need a break in January.”

“Yeah.” He’d also be in need of some time with Anna. At this rate, she’d have to visit him at work for them to get any time together. With thoughts of Anna swirling in his mind, he sat upstraighter and gathered his courage. “There’s something I wanted to ask you. Not about work.”

“Okay.”

“I was wondering if you’d have any objection to me asking Anna out.” He shifted his weight and rubbed the stubble along his jaw. “On a date, I mean.”

Lewis stared at him as they fell into an uncomfortable silence. “You want to ask Anna out?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you were just friends.”

“We were. I mean, we are… but we’ve been spending a lot of time together and things kind of changed.”