It's no secret that Richie's stubborn like a mule, and once he sets his mind on something, he'll be damned to follow through with it, even if it bites him in the ass. The fact that he was attracted to you to begin with should've been a big enough red flag, but God, you just had this charm about you; this allure that made all of those warning bells inside Richie's head go completely silent when they should have been blaring sirens with a big, yellow ’WARNING’.

Like the fact that you’re completely, utterly off-limits. You were Carmy’s goddamn younger sibling. You’d come to help out at The Beef and the rest was history.

Go figures.

And now for a few months, Richie's been hiding his secret relationship with you from your brother and the others at the Beef like it's a goddamned federal crime, too. It'd be a catastrophe if Carmy discovered what was going on between you two; your brother would be pissed at Richie, and he'd try to send him to the guillotine.

It'd also be a problem for the two of you, so you'd prefer to keep things the way they are for a bit longer until you can figure out how to handle telling Carmy. If he ever would.

For now, he showed you some lovin’ in the kitchen. Discreetly.

There were a few times Richie got a little too handsy, where he'd let his fingers linger on your hips a bit too long, or his lips got a little too close to your ear, but he never strayed too far off the set path in the kitchen. He was a lot more hands-on with you compared to your other coworkers; constantly getting on your ass to do this and that, or make this and that.

There isn’t anything overly sweet about the way Richie treats you; he’s just as sarcastic with you as he is with everyone else, but hey, you’re the only person in the world who can calm his ass down like you have a special cheat code.

Richie watches with a smirk when you struggle to pick up the heavy bag of flour. “Ya good?”

"You can handle everything in the kitchen but the heavy lifting, huh?—”