by Skylar Dawn
When Lou left the office to help me, the place was already packed. I hadn't even noticed the flow of people, I was lost in my thoughts. He stayed on the cashier and I was taking orders, the more mundane tasks for me the better. Lou flashed me a concerned look, noticing my phone buzzing non-stop.
“What’s going on?”
"Brett," I looked at Lou from the corner of my eye, waiting for his reaction. "He's been calling me like crazy from the moment I said I moved here and hung up on him."
Lou's face was one of disgust.
"Saint Cabernet will remove this plague out of your life. He is worse than your chafed legs, the less you touch it the worse it gets."
I burst into laughter. It was true, I still had marks on both my legs.
"He was different."
Lou looked at me with narrows eyes and put his index finger in my face.
"You're not falling for that guy again."
"I'm not," I cried, "but he was different. He said he misses me."
"Emma, wake up. My last fling misses me every Friday at three in the morning when he's full of alcohol. A jerk is a jerk."
I rolled my eyes, annoyed.
"Relax Lou, first of all he's in Boston, and second because..."
I couldn't finish my sentence because Noah had crossed the door, handsome as always. He wasn't dressed for a date, but he wore dark jeans and a plain white T-shirt. His wavy hair fell over his eyes and he tried to tidy up without success. He walked up to the counter and my heart started to pound so loud I was afraid he would hear.
"Hi Em," he held my hand, "how are you?"
I pulled my hand slowly but kept looking at him and smiling.
"I’m good."
Lou interrupted us, shaking Noah's hand and inviting him to the office. The two went in, but before Noah disappeared he turned and looked at me. I winked in return.
"Good luck," I whispered.
They stayed in there so long that my hands were sweaty from nervousness. I didn't know if this was because Noah was around, or if it was because of the possibility of him working there. Maybe both. At least Brett's had given up calling in the last half an hour, so I had one less distraction. But what the hell could they possibly talk about for so long? Not even to write the Constitution took all this time. I was taking orders on the counter, and looking at the clock on the wall at every two minutes. Finally they came back outside.
"It's going to be great," Lou laughed and shook Noah's shoulders, "welcome aboard."
I decided to turn around and join the subject.
"So? How was it?"
"Noah will take care of our kitchen," Lou smiled, "Initially we're still going to have suppliers, but when we're at the point of getting him helpers, he takes over everything. But Noah's going to do new things for us to repaginate the menu. Like that cheesecake."
Noah was excited.
"And there are some recipes that I want to test too, they matches the Caffé."
"I'm glad it all worked out."
"The only boring part is that now you're going to spend a good part of your day with this creature here," Lou winked at me.
“Hey!”
Noah shook his head and smirked.
"What a nightmare."
"I'm right here," I teased.
"Lou, I'm going to stick around today and give you a hand, it helps me see the flow and how you two work, is that okay?"
Lou's eyes widened in surprise.
"But of course! That’s how I like it! Proactivity."
Since the place was still packed, Lou took over the cashier again and Noah helped me with the orders at the counter. After my butterflies calmed down, I could see the flurry of women flirting with him. Playing with hair, the typical hysterical giggle, too much hand gestures. That was ridiculous. Jealousy hurt me from the pit of my stomach to my throat, like when we choke eating eggs, only a strong slap would get it out. I couldn't say anything, but I was so red with fury that Lou came over to whisper calming words in my ear.
"Relax girl," he whispered, "they may throw themselves at him, but look closely. He's not even paying attention to any of them."
"That's not how I see it," I retorted, "he's being very nice to them."
"You're the one who's dying of jealousy," Lou laughed.
Of course I was. I never had the opportunity to interact with Noah for a long time outside a safe environment, that is, where there were no pretty skirts chasing after him. At home, there was no one except for that Jesse who kept calling, but at least I stopped witnessing conversations. Okay, I was blocking anything that was related to her, but that's a different story. Yesterday when we went out I was so crazy that I didn't pay attention to anything other than him, so this whole thing was new to me.
My cell phone buzzed again. Two, three, four times.
"It's not that jerk again is it?" Lou asked.
"I didn't check."
"Jerk?" Noah turned to me curious. Lou and I looked at each other with the typical expression of someone who said too much and I continued to cut the slice of cake as if the subject was trivial.
"It's Brett, he's been calling me all day with this weird talk."
"Weird talk?"
"That he wants to see me, that he misses me, these sort of things."
Noah let out an angry breath.
"And you're not falling for that, are you?"
Lou clapped his hands and threw his hand in the air.
"Thank you, Saint Merlot. That's exactly what I said."
"Of course I'm not."
Noah spent the rest of the day frowning at me. Well, if he was that jealous, why didn't he talk to me and we could solve this situation? And if it was to look after my well-being, the ugly face wouldn't solve anything. At least I felt avenged for enduring the flirting all day long. I couldn't wait for him to stay in the kitchen, where I wouldn't have to hear another giggle two octaves above the tone of a normal person. And I could always go in there to see him.
When we closed the Caffé, Lou had already left to the gym.
"Do you want a ride home?"
"Sure, thank you."
We went to his car and the ride home was the epitome of embarrassment. He didn't say a word all the way back and neither turned on the radio to break the awkward silence. I looked out the window thinking about what I would say, but I ended up not saying anything and not mentioning the night before. And the awkwardness followed us to my front door, when I finally decided to break the ice.
"Don't you want to come over and order Chinese? Mia must have eaten everything in my fridge."
Noah didn't even look at me.
"Not today, Emma, I'm tired."
CHAPTER eleven
Oops I Did it Again
It was weird to go to work with Noah, and even weirder to spend the day with him at Lou's. Mia warned me about my tendency of letting things get weird before she went back to Boston. Of course I wasn't complaining, after all, since I had crossed the portal of acceptance of my feelings, with no return, every second of my day with him was worth it. It wasn't supposed to be like this, I had promised myself I'd get out of it, and I was doing everything backwards. But the more I tried to let it go, the more I thought about it. And worse, now I had moments of total blackout of my reasoning where I looked at him and thought about things that we don't even mention to avoid falling into temptation.
The fact is that I was losing focus. Even Mrs. Dunn noticed that last week. It was as if I didn't want to go after anything I had set my sight on when I moved to Las Vegas. It was not the time to let that happen, a couple weeks before my audition.
I was relieved when Noah said today he was going to stay in the kitchen, baking new cakes and pies. First of all because it took him out of sight. There were vultures who only went into the Caffé to see him, and then because it gave me a chance to talk to Lou.
"You need a shock treatment," Lou concluded after listening to my entire speech.
"How will I do this?"
He took the
last slice of black forest cake and two forks for us to share.
"Girl," he thought for a second. "If you think the best option is to forget Noah, you need a distraction."
I took a bite, annoyed.
"I know what kind of distraction you're talking about, but I don't want to get involved with anyone."
Lou raised both open arms, questioning me.
"You want to know what I really think?"
I nodded with my mouth full.
"You won't like it," he warned me.
"Talk away Lou," I sighed. "I don't like the way things are anyway."
He took a deep breath and looked at his fork.
"There are feeling on both sides. Okay, I know you're scared of his cell phone ghost, but look, have you even seen this girl? Have you ever heard anything suspicious?"
I stopped chewing for a second and dropped my fork.
"No."
"So you don't think you might be fantasizing things a little? Just because you're used to deal with guys like Brett it doesn't mean Noah is one. Plus, did he happen to give you any reason to think any of that about him?"
I hated to admit it, but no. It was much easier for me to assume that he was in a relationship, or that he wasn't different from Brett instead of going after the truth.
"No."
“Girl, I think you are afraid. That’s all.”
Lou was right. I was terrified. I was already hurting myself before I even gave in completely to what I was feeling. Deep down I knew Noah was special, but that didn't mean our paths were going to cross in that way. He may not feel anything for me, and so far that was the premise.
"Of course I am. I don't think he feels anything, I don't see any of it, Lou, and if I cross the border of friendship and babble on about everything, I run the risk of pushing him away."
Lou pondered for a moment.
"That can happen, yes, but it's the price to pay."
I shook my head in denial.
"It's too much for me to afford."
It was better to opt for the distraction, now more than ever, because I knew I wouldn't be able to fall for anyone else thinking about Noah twenty four hours a day. I needed a distraction, a big one.
I picked up my phone and pressed Brett's number.
"When are you coming to Vegas to see me?"
Brett laughed the other side.
"Whenever you want, muppet. I miss you."
"Then come in the next few days. Call Me when you get here."
"Sure."
I hung up the phone and ran into Lou throwing me the biggest frown.
"That's not what I meant!"
I took care of the orders on the counter again.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s done.”
Lou went to the cashier to help me. He punched the register so hard that I almost switched places with him, but then I remembered that it was better for him hit something hard than to screw up every order.
"Emma Woods, for Saint Merlot, why are you going on a damn date with this guy?"
Noah had come out of the kitchen with two pies in his hand. Lou and I glanced at each other.
"What guy?"
Lou punched the cash register again.
"The ultimate jerk!"
I shrugged my shoulders and went back to taking care of the orders. Noah ducked on the side of my legs to put the pies inside our display. He looked angry, but I didn't want to wind either of them up.
"Are you going out with Brett?" He asked without looking at me.
I replied in a dry tone.
"I will."
He continued packing the pies.
"When?"
"As soon as he gets here, in the next few days. Or during the weekend."
He stood up and stared at me for a moment. His gaze was disappointed, but I couldn't let myself be carried away by it.
"Why?"
I took a deep breath and arranged the trays with the orders.
"It's part of my revenge plan."
"Okay." Noah didn't looked at me again and stomped back to the kitchen. If I didn't knew him, I'd say he was jealous. And if it was, it was well done, he was in this mess with me and chatting with Jesse on the phone all the time.
Lou spent the rest of the day talking only what was necessary. The funny thing is that he found the story of revenge amusing, but by the time I decided to do it, he was angry at me. And he was the one who suggested a shock treatment, it wasn't my idea. There was no greater shock than going out on a date with Brett, and I was determined to go ahead with it.
#
Friday had arrived and my anxiety was high. No sign of Brett in town. If he didn't show up I would be in this huge mess with everybody for nothing. At least Noah was back to normal, but I hadn't said anything else about the date. Lou was still frowning on me, full time on team Noah. This time I was on my own team, the problem was that my head wasn't very much in my favor.
I had spent the whole night having flashes of moments with Noah to the point of hiding my head under the pillow like Ham. It didn't help, but at least I wasn't delirious, dreaming about a fictitious musk smell. All product of my out of control imagination. By the way, since I'd assumed I was crazy about him, my mind was out of control.
I got out of bed earlier than usual and paced in my living room without being able to concentrate. Brett still had the power to make me anxious. Showing up or not, he still affected me. I decided to open the refrigerator looking for answers, but I only had a bottle of water, half a dozen apples and eggs.
Eggs then.
I made an omelet so big it almost didn't fit into the frying pan. If I was going to eat it, it was another matter, but I needed to get distracted. From the kitchen I heard my cell phone buzz and ran into my bedroom. A huge weight came off of my shoulders.
I’m in town muppet.
I hated it when he called me that. Okay, during the first month it was kinda cute, but then it made me want to puke. But this time I would have to endure.
Where?
I was surprised when he replied at the same time.
At the Venetian.
I decided to schedule our date.
I'll see you tonight at the Venetian then.
He offered to pick me up, to come to my house. But I'd rather keep some distance, even if it was minimal. It was all set anyway. So I decided to go straight to the Caffé and dismiss Noah's ride. Going back to bed wasn't going to be productive and I didn't want to stay home overthinking things.
When I arrived at Caffé, Lou was opening the doors.
"Someone fell off the bed," he said in a dry tone.
I was mad at him.
"Will you please stop treating me like this? I'm only going on a date, I'm not marrying him or anything."
He made a face.
"I'll stop when you stop this nonsense."
"What nonsense! You were the first one to push me on dates and going out, having fun."
We went into the Caffé and Lou walked in front of me to the counter.
"Not with someone who doesn't suit you."
I narrowed my eyes at him so angry that I was sure he had felt his back burn.
"Weren't you so adept of having fun with the wrong ones until the right one appears?"
Lou rolled his eyes and gave up.
"I was," he sat on the cash register and held my hands, "but this is not for you. You deserve to be happy."
Tears went down my cheeks. Lou was a good friend.
"I'm sorry, Lou."
He hugged me and stroked my hair.
"I don't want you to get hurt. You're gonna destroy my botox if I have to put your little pieces together afterwards."
"I swear I'll be careful."
Lou released himself from our hug but returned to hold my hands.
"So the date is going to happen?"
I nodded.
"He's already here. I'll meet him at the Venetian tonight."
His lips turned into a line.
"It's in Saint Cabernet's
hands."
When Noah texted me asking if I was ready, I replied that I was already at Lou's and fifteen minutes later he parked right at the door.
"You're up early today."
"Good morning to you too," Lou joked.
Noah smiled.
"Good morning, I'm not late, am I?"
“No. I was sleepless and I came early. "
It was a good thing I got here early, because Lou asked me to give a weekend push on social media. It was all I needed, not having to take orders and being able to stay on the computer figuring out ways to make this place crowded. And I also avoided having to talk to Noah and could omit the fact the date was actually going to happen. He didn't need to know. What I least wanted was people judging me for it.
I put my headphones on and hid behind the laptop screen all morning. Noah had already put the treats of the day in the display and was helping Lou on the counter. Around eleven o'clock in the morning he came to my table with a croissant and a cappucino, winked at me and went back to Lou. Pure evil. He was too charming for my own good.
Lou would sometimes look at me with a long look and then back at Noah. If he was planning to do something, not only he did nothing but also kept quiet. Everything was too quiet to be honest.
I went out for lunch alone, using the excuse I had a meeting with Mrs. Dunn, but in reality, I had to organize my thoughts and distract myself from what Noah was doing. The less I saw him or thought about him, the easier it would be to focus on this whole thing with Brett.
I wasn't sure I wanted to go, but it was already set. I was trying to convince myself mentally that this revenge, plan, crazy thing, was what I had to do. Deep down I knew that if Noah invited me over to watch an old movie and have a pizza, I wound't think twice about it. But it couldn't be like that. I couldn't let go of everything I was doing because of Noah. This has always been my biggest flaw. Even my internet audience told me not to go out with Brett, but I was stubborn and wouldn't change my mind so easily.
