𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐓𝐨 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫

Chapter One

I'd known Carmy Berzatto for literally my entire life. We grew up next door to one another, and due to my family just consisting of myself and my workaholic mom, I'd spent a lot of time at his place growing up and was extremely close to his entire family.

It wasn't much of a surprise when we'd reconnected only four years ago while both living in NYC. We'd known each other forever, and our families had always teased us about dating each other. It wasn't a surprise, but how it ended sure was.

It ended abruptly, and things went back to normal. Well, a new normal. A new normal where we barely spoke to one another. Now that Carmy was back in town, things were more awkward than ever.

I'd moved back home a year and a half ago to be with my mom, who had mental health struggles while I was growing up that only got worse as time went on and I moved out.

I needed to be home to be with her, and luckily Mikey had offered me a job at The Beef. It was the familiarity I needed and I would forever be grateful to him. Things were ok for a while.

Until they weren't, and things fell out of my control yet again.

When I first arrived home and began working at The Beef, I treated it like an extension of my old job. I'd wear some fancy "business casual" type outfit everyday, and arrive at least an hour early to each and every shift.

Two years later, however, that charade was over. My old clothes were stuffed in a plastic tote in the back of the closet, and most days I wore jeans, a sweatshirt with the restaurant's logo on it, and converse to work. It was a definite change of pace, one that I still wasn't sure I was ok with as it took away a sense of normalcy, and honestly, made me feel like a bit of a deadbeat.

It had been months since my boss and childhood friend/neighbor Mikey Berzatto had died, leaving the restaurant in a state of disrepair. I tried my best to make sure that things stayed the same from the financial side, but to be honest, The Beef was struggling for quite some time and Mikey's death only made the problems seem even worse.

Still, I made sure to arrive at least half an hour earlier than I was supposed to get there because now that I had access to all the financial records (which were previously under lock and key when Mikey was alive), it was a huge headache figuring out how much money the restaurant had to work with. Not to mention that Mikey used codes and abbreviations on everything that I couldn't even begin to figure out the meaning of.

Carmen 'Carmy' Berzatto had been back in town for nearly two weeks now, and was now the de facto head chef of The Beef, which added both a sense of relief and stress for me. Relief because there was finally a sense of organization at the restaurant, and stress due to our shared past and the general sense of awkwardness that existed between us.

While I'd usually arrive at work a bit earlier, today I was almost ten minutes late due to not catching the train to work in time. By the time I arrived, the kitchen was in full swing with people yelling and stressing already.

"Morning Jules!" Tina greeted me as I walked through the kitchen on my way to the office.

"Good morning!" I replied.

I had barely made it to my office when the first crisis of the day began.

Despite the fact that I had specifically put in an order for 200 pounds of beef, only 25 pounds were delivered as that was all we could afford. Not to mention the fact that 25 pounds would probably last us like ten minutes.

Carmy had decided he'd sell some of his clothes to get the money, but considering the fact that his wardrobe basically only consisted of jeans and white t-shirts, I was a bit skeptical of how successful that plan would end up being.