And that clown, Sebastian! I had wanted so badly to ask Rayna what incited her to give his ass the time of the day. I hid my detestation for him beneath my false na?veté last night though I had far more revelatory things to say to him, but the last time I used my discretion with him I damn near lost Rayna and I wouldn't risk that again.
As I showered and had breakfast, I couldn't shake how Rayna made so little of Thompson's offenses. He was way out of line and I'll be sure to be a little more aggressive the next time I see his ass. That morning Rayna and I exchanged very few words. I could guess she was still upset from last night and truth be told I was still perturbed my damn self. I was sure that Chef Boyd could cut the tension in the kitchen with one of his high-end cutlery pieces.
By the way she was dressed, I could tell Rayna was planning to workout before work. Before parting ways I gave her a slow and meaningful kiss on her head, grateful that she would still allow me to. We said our goodbyes and parted ways.
My day began at eight and started hectic as usual, but today with an unusual turn of events. I wasn't even scheduled to be in town but that didn't lessen my responsibilities. I participated in a conference call from my office at the rec for the first hour. Brett made me aware of a few executive performance evaluations I needed to tend to, but before I was scheduled to do that I insisted that I went ahead with my cafeteria appreciation act.
We'd purchased gifts for the culinary staff and because of my hectic schedule recently I hadn't gotten the chance to present them. I went down and hurdled them to bestow words of motivation and encouragement. I caught the batted eyes and giggles from a couple of female admirers. I had become accustomed to that type of behavior but didn't allow it to faze me or cause me to conduct myself as anything less than their professional leader. I didn't care for the horribly hidden attempts at flattery by them, but put it aside for the task at hand. They worked hard and was highly recognized by local appraisers. I was proud of their efforts to take my vision of affordable, yet distinguished culinary works and garner accolades.
As I was speaking I saw Petey burst through the silver double doors of the kitchen leaving them flapping in the air. His face was placid but his aura was far from calmed. He approached me and leaned in my ear, “Yo, Duke, Tara went into early labor. They say she needed a emergency blood transfusion.”
Why hasn't someone called? I go to reach for my phone and immediately realized I’d left it charging in my office. It died on me last night and I was so fucked up from those events of the gala that I headed straight to bed and forgot to charge it. My thoughts shifted to Rayna wondering if she’d tried contacting me since I've been away from my phone.
I wrapped up the pep talk understanding they had to get back to work themselves. After flying upstairs to my office to retrieve my things we headed over to Cedars to see about Tara. On my way I viewed my missed calls and texts, relieved that none were from Rayna. I'd thought to hit her up but quickly decided against it recalling how distant we were just a few hours before. I did shoot Ray a text telling him where to meet me for pick up. I'm sure Petey had his own packed agenda and I'd needed a lift from the hospital. Ray hit me back in receipt.
Then inspiration hit me and I called Brett asking to have flowers delivered over to Rayna’s office only to have him check her calendar and learned she was in a staff meeting at the main branch. Callow thoughts raced through my mind to question if Thompson was in attendance of that meeting with her. I managed to fight it off.