Delectable • cth

Chapter 5

The restaurant had just closed, everyone was working together to get everything cleaned so they could all make their way home for the night. Everything was going smoothly and slowly staff members made their way out to their cars. With only a handful left, Calum took his chance the next time he saw Ashton, pulling him to the side.

"Hey, I needed to talk to you." The head chef smiled softly as his friend waited for him to continue. Just like everyone else, he was ready to go home. "As you know, I always go home for any holiday I can, and it's been hard lately. But I finally made it work for the 4th of July, and I was hoping since you don't tend to party with your own family, you could come help me with mine?"

"Oh–" Ashton's eyes went slightly wide, staring at someone he'd consider one of his closest friends. At that moment he just wanted to spill his secrets and let Calum in on everything, but he knew it wasn't the right time. "I actually uh– I do have plans."

The brown eyed man's brows furrowed in confusion, shaking his head lightly. "I thought you hated spending time with your family."

"Well yeah, I do." Ashton started nodding, trying to find his words. "But I– I'm going to..." He trailed off, struggling to think of an excuse. He couldn't go to Chicago, he needed to be there, in New York, for the holiday.

Luke came to the rescue, smiling softly and chuckled lightly. "Sorry, Cal. I got to him first, I invited him to spend the day with my family. I mentioned he wasn't doing anything and they insisted I bring him with me."

Ashton just chuckled awkwardly as Calum nodded along, letting off a soft sigh. "Okay, so you both can't come help out, I'd ask Mike but I was hoping he'd take care of the kitchen while I was gone."

"Take Aliyah." Luke shrugged, looking between the two guys he was standing with. "Well– assuming you need someone to come with you because you're cooking for your family again?"

"Yeah, I want to make it all big and special because I've missed a couple holidays now." Calum sighed again, closing his eyes and thinking for a moment. "Y'know what, you're right, who better to have with me than my sous chef? It's not like Brian will let her run things around here for the weekend anyway, she's still too new."

Ashton nodded along, smiling softly. "I think that's the perfect idea, the two of you get along better than any of us."

"Because she's a better chef than the two of you combined." Calum joked in a teasing tone. "Alright–" he paused and looked around at the group of people that were still hanging around the kitchen. "I'll update everyone on the plan for my leave of absence in the morning. Thank you guys."

The two boys nodded as Calum walked away, both of them letting out a quiet sigh of relief and turning to each other after a moment. "You need to get better at lying, Ash." Luke chuckled lightly, shaking his head.

"I freeze up, I don't want to get fired." Ashton frowned lightly, shaking his head. "Especially with him bringing up the rule like that in front of everyone, even calling you out..."

Luke frowned lightly, tilting his head to catch the boy's eyes. "I don't care about any stupid rules, we're gonna have a great weekend. I'm excited for you to finally meet my family and they're excited to meet you too." The sandy blonde sighed quietly, smiling weakly. "I love you, Lu." He whispered, heat rising in his cheeks.

"I love you too, Ash." Luke winked at him before nodding his head towards the door. "I'll meet you at my place?"

The two nodded at each other once more before they went their separate ways for the time being. Never had it been so hard for the two employees to not touch each other while at work. There hadn't even been a no dating rule when the two started talking, but Brian went through a messy break up with one of his employees and pulled the rule out of his ass. He had the mindset that if he couldn't be happy with someone in the restaurant, then no one else could either.