𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐝; 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐲 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐨

꒰ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐞𝐧 ; 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 ꒱

After the meeting with Carmen, Grace went back to the apartment to chill and watch TV shows, but after an hour had passed she got bored and went to The Beef. 

"Hey look whose back!!" She heard Richard yelling from the kitchen "whats up Richie" She high-five'd him "nice to see you back here Jeff" Tina said with a smile on her face "yeah, did you guys clean up here? It smells like shit" Grace sniffed the air, it wasn't pleasant. "Nah, we didn't" 

"why aren't you guys cooking?" She asked, the ovens and stoves were on but no one was cooking food which confused the woman. "Carmen said no service tonight, a fucking bachelor party is happening." Richard told Grace, she sighed but also thought of the good things. "So... you're telling me i'll get free booze?" She asked Richard with a smile on her face "Fuck if I know... if there is i'm going to fucking party all night"  She laughed it off with Richard, booze does sound good.

"do we still cook food for the bachelor party or...." She trailed off "I guess.?" Richard raised his eyebrow "I don't fucking know" He shrugged, not knowing the answer. Grace knew where Carmen was, in his office per usual, worrying about bills and money. On her way to the office, she bumped into Tina, to her surprise, she was wearing the navy blue apron. "holy shit who is that?" She asked Tina "Like it?" She twirled in a circle "Hell yeah, but I do miss your old apron..." Grace admitted, it fit her personality better than the plain old navy apron. "It was way better. But, I'm apart of the familia now!" Grace nodded her head "you've always been, I mean, I heard you've been here for quite some time.." 

"Oh yeah I have, long time full of shitty customers who yell at you and your food." "I hate those people, annoying fuckers. Make your own food if you don't like it" Grace started to get annoyed, she had that happen to her multiple times, including her own father. "anyways, I'm going to see Carmen and see what he's up to" She told Tina "He's looking at money and bills and shit." Tina informed the brunette "Oh okay, thanks." 

Grace made her way to the office, she knocked on the door frame with her knuckles, the metal rings making the knock louder than it's supposed to be. "Hey" He said, not looking up from the papers. "You good?" She asked him, taking a step inside the office. "Yeah, perfect" He hit the pen on the desk "Damn" She looked at the bills, there were a lot of bills they had to pay in order for the restaurant to stay in business. "That makes it ten times better" He finally looked up at Grace, she was staring at the paper and the handwriting, some of it she couldn't even read.

"We'll figure something out" She tried to make him a bit better "Maybe we will, if we don't, who the fuck cares?" Carmen questioned, she knew he didn't mean it. "I thought you said this shithole meant a lot to you?" She turned the papers, only to see more bills. "Yeah it- it fucking matters to me but we don't have the fucking money we need!" He started to get mad, just thinking about the money and bills got him angry. "Remember what we talked about? Don't get angry so easily. Take deep breaths" Carmen started to take her advice, and it did infact help him with his anger. 

"Well. get. though. this. I'll get three jobs to help get money" She suggested "No, don't do that. Don't be ridiculous." She saw him roll his blue eyes  from her comment. "Maybe we should ask for help from Sugar?" She asked, Sugar was the smartest one out of Carmen and Richie "I don't want to put our problems on her" Grace nodded her head in agreement, but they needed a plan so they could keep business running. 

Grace's phone started to ring yet again, this whole week has been her phone blowing up. "I will break my phone in two fucking seconds."  She sighed and took her phone out "you should answer it, maybe they will stop annoying the shit out of you?" Carmen suggested "Okay but if I get scammed I will murder you." She joked and Carmen laughed "yeah okay"

Grace walked out of the office and went outside because Richie was arguing  with Fak for something stupid. She clicked the answer button and brought her phone up to her ears. 'Hello?' She heard a familiar voice, she couldn't put a name on it though. "Hi, who are you?" she asked the person on the other phone 'you seriously don't remember? Noelle, your sister.' Noelle answered her younger sister question, 'please don't hang up.' Noelle pleaded, like shes in front of Grace because she was about to turn her phone off. "tell me why I shouldn't? Its been nine months since we last talked." She waited for a response 'We're moving to Chicago.. me, Oscar, dad...' Grace felt her heart skip a beat, her dad will be in the same place as her.

"Um, w-what?" She asked and waited for her sister to reply 'Yeah, look we're going to be there like next week...' Noelle responded "why? Why are you coming here?" Grace asked and wanted to know. Of course she was happy she'll live closer to her siblings, but she wasn't happy about her dad moving closer. 'My phone is dying, I'll tell you when we get there, promise you will pick up the phone when I or Oscar calls?' Grace clicked the hang up button, she didn't know what she was feeling. Happy, mad, sad, shocked. Shes surprised that they would want to move to a shit place like Chicago... 

TIME SKIP

It's now night, Grace was inside The Beef where there were a lot of drunk people and women barely wearing anything, since it was a bachelor party. She got her glass cup and took a sip out of the burning flavor of vodka, she felt like her throat was on fire and like she drank lava from a volcano. Minding her own business, a fight had happened and the guy elbow hit Grace in the cheek, causing a bruise. "What the actual fuck." She got up from the chair and moved out of the way so she wouldn't get hit anymore, that elbow hurt her badly.

Carmen and Richie ran inside since they heard the yelling, they both punched the men who had been fighting, the guy hit his head on the counter which caused him to get knocked out. "Well, that went well." Grace saw sarcastically "What the fuck happened to you?" Richie asked Grace which made Carmen to look at her "Oh you know, got elbowed. Typical day for me."She said calmly and took another sip from her drink, as if nothing happened.

"fuck, we need to get you ice" Carmen said, he brought his index finger to her cheek and touched it softly, which caused Grace to flinch away "Nope, I'll just sip away my misery." Carmen grabbed Grace's hand and brought her where the ice stayed, in the freezer. He grabbed a Ziploc bag and put a few cubes inside of it. He carefully placed it where the bruise started to form "Fuck" she moved away from the bag, it was way too cold and hurt. 

"Are you drunk?" Carmen asked her, wanting to know what happened. "No, wish I was though." She grabbed the Ziploc from Carmen's hand and placed the ice on her cheek by herself. "who called you? You've been acting differently." Carmen looked at her and waited for an answer, "My sister called. She said they are moving here..." She told him, looking into his blue eyes. "Is... he coming too?..." 'he' meant as her dad.  She nodded her head slowly and took the bag off of her cheek "Honestly can't wait for him. I'll blow up." She put the ice bag down, near the sink. 

"I'm not a therapist or shit but I don't think that's a good idea." Carmen was right, it wasn't a good idea.  If Grace talked back to him, he would say even worse things that he said before, it was bad. "Okay, yeah. True. I just- I don't know what to do. I mean yeah I'm happy but... I don't want him to be here. Last time I saw him it was a disaster." Grace put her head on Carmen's chest and started to sob, maybe its the vodka talking but, she just needed someone to be there for her.

"It'll be ok, I'm here" He put his arms around her and rubbed her back in comfort "i'll be here..." He laid his head on hers...

A/N

we finally know who the stalker was calling her :) trust me, the chapters for the next season will be crazyyyy (I hope so)

Published: September 5th, 2023