Kiss the chef

ISABELLA

"Rip the band-aid off," I whispered, mostly to myself. It was easier said than done. Hell, ripping off a literal band-aid was much easier than the figurative one in this case. I hesitated with the phone in my hand, trying to figure out how to do it.

Pacing was certainly not the answer to that, so I dialed the number I'd given up dialing three times in the last two minutes.

It went straight to voicemail. I don't know why that relieved me so much but it did. However, I also knew I couldn't completely avoid doing this. It was Sebastian's suggestion and I knew he was right. He had never been wrong. He had never lost a case before—exactly why Misa had recommended him despite what he represented. Which is why I believed he had thought about this at length and decided it was the best way to handle Max, before he made the suggestion to me.

So I took a deep breath and redialed. This time, Max picked up on the first ring.

"Hello, beautiful."