“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean.” She squeezes my hand. “This. We tried boundaries for a hot minute and were terrible at them, but we can’t keep pretending that we’re just business partners. And I know I run headfirst into things, but this feels right. Doesn’t it?”

It scares me. Not just declaring us, but how brazenly she wants to show herself to the world. It’s incredibly brave, how vulnerable she’s willing to be.

“What was the offer?” I ask because while she is brave, I am a coward who can’t admit to the woman I love that she is, in fact, my girlfriend. “Paul’s offer? Is he launching a new restaurant or is it one he already owns?”

“Oh. That,” she says flatly. She rolls her eyes and lays it out for me: the travel, the cooking. The absolute celebrity of it all. Her voice is unexcited but a small smile tugs at her lips as she talks about the destinations, the opportunities to cook and learn from locals.

And I can see it. See her on the streets of packed cities. The glow on her face from the heat and her excitement as she cooks in a hundred different types of kitchens. The way she’d charm her hosts, the chefs, the audience.

The same way she charmed me.

“And you said no?” I clarify. My stomach rolls, my skin too hot. “To this?” My arms fall away from where they hug her thighs.

“Yeah. Paul made his pitch, saying I should choose for myself and not let you factor into it but...”

“Wait.” I push my desk chair back until it hits the wall behind me. “You said no to the job, not because of a professional obligation. You said no to the job because of me?”

She frowns. “Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that but...yeah.”

I shake my head. “Sophie, that’s...” I trail off. No thoughts, just confusion.

She laughs, a little cruelly. “What?”

“It’s stupid, honestly.”

“Excuse me?” She hops down from the desk. “My choice to stay here and cook in our kitchen as opposed to gallivanting across the world is stupid?”

I stand now, too. “Can you hear yourself? Of course it is.”

“I thought you’d be happy.” Her voice rises. “I thought you, of all people, would be happy, not just for yourself but for everything we’ve worked for. I’ve sunk my money into this place now, Amy. I can’t just walk away.”

“Happy? You thought I’d be happy that you turned down an opportunity to be a fucking chef superstar to stay here and...and...fucking close this restaurant with me? You know that’s what’s going to happen, right, Sophie? You looked at the numbers. You know Amy & May’s isn’t coming out of this alive.” My voice breaks on the last word and for a moment so does she. Her face falls.

“We will, though. That’s what I wanted to talk about last night. I know how we can fix this.”