Searching For Jenna novel Chapter 31

"Or what?" Steven asked getting directly in Elliot's face.

"What's going on?" Sandy demanded as she came to the kitchen from the bar.

"I quit!" Cara announced. She took off her apron and name badge, throwing them on the prep counter before storming out of the restaurant through the back exit.

"Well, I hope you're happy, Jackass," Elliot said.

"What happened!" Sandy shouted again.

"Steven fucked with Cara about her sexuality one too many times," Elliot said before going out the back door after Cara.

"Hey!" he called as Cara got in her car.

"What?" Cara snapped.

Elliot gently put his hand on her shoulder and bent to look into her cornflower blue eyes. "Are you okay?"

"No," Cara admitted, dropped her head and started crying.

Elliot squatted down by Cara and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry he's been such a jerk to you," Elliot said and closed his eyes. Holding her felt so good. It had been so long since he'd touched Cara like this. His heart ached and he longed to tell her who he was, but he couldn't.

Cara let him hold her for a few minutes before saying, "I've got to go."

"What about the fish?" Elliot asked, feeling an instant emptiness when Cara moved away from him.

"I'll send my grandfather for it," Cara said and started her car. Elliot stepped away from the car. He watched as she slammed the car door shut and sped out of the parking lot just as Sandy came out with Steven.

Sandy turned to Steven. "Great! She was my best waitress."

"I'm sorry, Sandy," Steven said, looking truly forlorn. "I was just messing around with her."

"He said Cara would come back, but if Steven says one more derogatory thing about her sexuality, she's going to find some way to press charges for harassment against him," Sandy said.

"And she should," Elliot growled. "He should have stopped that shit weeks ago. He's just pissed off that she shot him down and his ego is still smarting."

"I totally agree," Sandy said and leaned closer. "And if I could have, I'd have fired him weeks ago, but we both know why he stays."

Elliot nodded and went to the grill to turn some meat. "I'm going to get back to cooking."

Sandy watched Elliot for a few minutes before turning and going back to the bar. She couldn't imagine how hard all of this must be for Elliot. The waiting, the hiding, the lying. Sandy had been an agent for years and had worked undercover more often than not. She'd been in some tough situations and fallen in love with her share of people she shouldn't have. This thing with Elliot and Cara was huge. Anyone with half a brain could see it, could feel it. Sandy wondered if the young love that had started so long ago would survive all it was going to have to go through in the coming months. Elliot would have to expose his truth to the world, and then have to decide if he should go back to being a woman or remain a man. She had never known him as a girl, but she couldn't imagine him as anything but a man.

It was the first night Elliot had had off in two months. Sandy had agreed to let him off if he made sure Jason could cover for him. Elliot had no doubt Jason could cook everything on the menu just as good as he could.

Elliot hadn't been out to a bar or club in over a year, but he needed to get away from what was happening at the restaurant.

He picked a place in Lexington that he'd found online. They had a band that covered older country bands like Alabama, Brooks and Dunn, and Restless Heart. It was music he'd grown up listening to because his mom liked country music. In high school, he'd listened to current pop music, but he found listening to classic country soothing at this point in his life.