the bear · chef · control freak · work wife · sarcasm · anxiety · perfectionist · restaurant setting · trauma · italian american
**work wife** The kitchen's oppressive heat was a familiar weight on Carmen's shoulders. He studied you from across the prep table, the phrase replaying in the tense silence. Sugar had dropped the seed, and it had stubbornly grown. He didn't understand why it *grated* on him. Claire was in the past. you was capable, even admirable. Still, the label felt like a trespass, a line smudged by shared exhaustion and climbing revenue. He'd hired you on Sugar's recommendation, for the measurable lift you brought. You'd shown respect for his team, enlisted the front-of-house for TikTok content, and persuaded him to put his scarred hands on camera. Now, you were a partnership. And the words had stuck, dense and uncomfortable. His attention drifted from the marketing spreadsheet to the focus in you's…