"Good morning." he said.
"Hi." Carla smiled.
Daniel looked over at the window and saw that it was already day. He sighed with disappointment, but then sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes.
"That wasn't like me at all,” Carla told him shyly. "It's going to sound trite, but I really don't usually do this kind of thing."
The same couldn't be said for the lawyer, but he smiled understandingly all the same.
"There's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself. You did enjoy yourself, didn't you?" His voice was slow and teasing again.
"You know I did,” Carla replied, with a self-conscious giggle. "But it was just for fun. I am not really looking for anything serious right now."
Carla was sure that Daniel hadn't expected their one-night stand to turn into a relationship, but she still felt like she needed to express, that for her, this had been a one time affair. She had the feeling that Daniel had had many one-night stands and that he wasn't looking to get tied down to any woman, no matter how electric his night with her had been.
But she still wanted to make it clear by saying it out loud. Carla had enjoyed the night thoroughly, but a playboy didn't fit into her long term plans and she didn't want to walk into another heartbreak by falling for a man who was nothing like her.
"It was fun," Daniel agreed, "but not all things have to turn into something serious. Don't look so worried about it. You had a good time and so did I; aren't we lucky for that."
He leaned over and kissed her softly and she kissed him back. Daniel looked at her with a grin and said, "thank you for a really incredible night."
The baker smiled and was satisfied with that. Sure, it would be nice if mind-blowing nights like the one before came more often. But she knew that sex like that always came with strings attached, so she was happy to just let this be a wonderful and deeply sensual memory.
They went their separate ways after that, and there was no awkwardness between them. Daniel even kissed her once more before she left the hotel room ahead of him. When she was gone, Daniel smiled to himself. Cliff had been right. His encounter with Carla had been unforgettable, but the timing was not right to try to build a relationship with someone new and unfamiliar.
Carla arrived back at the bakery late on Monday afternoon, which made Lily ask a thousand questions about the wedding.
"You hooked up, didn't you?" she gasped. Her voice was shocked. Her boss had never so much as been on a quiet date with a dull man, let alone had a steamy one-night stand with a stranger.
The baker grinned and giggled, giving herself away, and Lily's eyes grew wide.
"Spill it!" Lily demanded impatiently. She began to tense in anticipation for the news and grew more and more restless as Carla took her time in telling her what had happened.
"Oh, come on!" Lily urged her. "Start with the basics. Who was he?"
"The best man." Carla confessed.
"Was he tall with nice hair and eyes?" Lily grinned and folded her hands together.
"Very tall, stylish hair, and about the most amazing eyes I've ever seen."
"So, what happened?" Lily could not contain herself.
Carla shrugged self-consciously and giggled again, shy to be telling this story to her apprentice who was hanging onto her every word.
"He was charming and sophisticated and I suppose I just let go of my inhibitions a little." Carla told her, and then corrected herself. "Maybe a lot."
"He must have been some player to get you interested!" Lily exclaimed. "I've seen a hundred guys hit on you and you always turn them away. You always talk about men being trouble. What was different about him?"
"Oh, I don't know." Carla gave a distant sigh.” I suppose it was his confidence. He spoke to me like he already knew what was going to happen that night and I thought he was so... daring that I couldn't help but get drawn in."
"Daring?" Lily repeated excitedly. "So what happens now? Are you going to see him again?"
"No." Carla said firmly, her eyes serious. "You're right. I think men are trouble and especially this one. He's a player and some big shot lawyer. It was nice to live in the fantasy for a night, but he would never go for a simple woman like me, and I wouldn't want to invite that kind of trouble into my life. I've got my life all worked out and he would only shake things up. I told him it was a one-time thing."
"What's so wrong with shaking things up?" Lily urged her. "You're great, Carla, but you forget you're young sometimes. You should be taking risks and stuff now, before you are old and it's too late."
Carla laughed. "I wish I had your attitude, Lily," she said. "It's just that I like my life the way it is. I just want to keep on building what I have and open a new bakery. I'm the only one that's going to make that happen."
Lily sighed despondently. "I got excited that you were going to tell me you'd met someone to get you out of your shell a little more."
"I was pretty out of my shell last night," Carla said meaningfully, making Lily forget that the gossip wasn't as juicy as she had hoped, and she laughed. The two carried on with their day and Carla tried to forget about the feel of Daniel's hands on her body and his breath on her neck, although the memories came back to her in sweet waves of sensation that made her smile without noticing, although Lily kept casting her knowing glances.
Uptown, Daniel didn't talk about Carla again until Cliff had returned from his honeymoon and they met up for a drink at an expensive bar near Daniel's apartment. Cliff wasted no time in getting to the matter at hand.
"Diane told me that you stayed the night at the hotel with her maid of honor. Well?" Cliff leaned forward and prompted Daniel to speak with an impatient hand gesture and then huffed when Daniel made him wait.
His friend sat back on his bar stool with a cool and self-satisfied smile and Cliff rolled his eyes.
"Typical." he said. "Why is it so easy for you? Why would a nice girl like Carla want to take a risk with a guy like you? Diane said she's just not the type."
Daniel laughed. "She had no complaints."
"God, you're so slick." Cliff told him with a shake of his head. "You're just too smooth, you know that?"
"I know that."
"Of course you know that,” Cliff sighed. "So, what now? Are you going to see her again?"
"No." Daniel said. "She wasn't interested and I had second thoughts about this different girl idea. She's a baker, Cliff. Can you imagine me with a girl like that? If I was desperate to settle down and marry someone tomorrow, maybe I'd had taken her on a date and see how things could be with her, but right now it just doesn't seem like the right thing to pursue."
"Oh, don't pretend that you pulled away because you just had too many options." Cliff scolded him. "You chickened out."
"You think?" Daniel asked with a single raised eyebrow.
"I know,” Cliff insisted, looking at him seriously. "You met a regular, sweet, nice young woman who isn't going to be impressed with all this... "
He threw his hands in Daniel's direction as he searched for the word, "flash.., and you got scared that you'd met your match."
"Not at all." Daniel said with a shake of his head.
"‘Not at all’." Cliff parroted. "You know I'm right."
Daniel hadn't considered it, but maybe Cliff was right. Dan knew that his perfected appearance, expensive suits and impressive career had always helped him to draw the admiration of women from his field, but perhaps he was a bit uncertain about whether a woman who wasn't part of the high rolling world he lived in, would still like him when she wasn't dazzled by his reputation and lifestyle.
"I think it was just the wrong time for her,” Daniel said, pushing his self-doubts away. "She's running her own business."
"And you're busy too. I’ve heard it all before. There's got to come a day when that's not an excuse anymore. I think you should call this woman and take her out on a real date. Spend time with a nice down-to-earth girl for a change."
"No. It's too late for that." Dan told him.
/>
"What do you mean?"
"I'm dating Brooke from Holland & West."
Cliff looked at him in surprise and lowered his brow curiously.
"The lawyer from the other company in the merger?"
"That's the one,” Daniel said with a tilt of his head.
"Let me guess. She's blonde?" Cliff gave a half smile.
Daniel sighed under the inquisition and shrugged unapologetically. "It makes more sense to date someone who does what I do." Dan told him.
"No. It doesn't." Cliff argued. "It's convenient, but it stops being convenient the second you realize that someone as stubborn as you gives you a headache." He pointed his finger in the air to punctuate his statement.
"That's enough about me,” Daniel said quickly, to change the course of the conversation. "How as the honeymoon?"
Cliff eased back and smiled then, letting go of some of the frustrations towards his friend, who he thought always made bad choices when it came to women.
"It was perfect," he said. "Just Diane and I with nothing to worry about." He took a swig from an expensive artisan beer and then sighed despondently. "I suppose it won't last, though." he said. "Diane's already started to talk about having kids."
Daniel chuckled at his friend's predicament and took a swig of his own brew.
"That's marriage," he said. He looked at his watch and drank down the last of his beer. "I'm sorry, Cliff, I have to go. I'm meeting Brooke across town in twenty minutes."
Cliff waved his hand in a gesture of goodbye and stayed to finish his drink. Daniel stepped outside and flagged down a cab to meet Brooke at a restaurant. She was waiting for him on the sidewalk outside with a beautiful dress and a stormy expression.
She was a beautiful woman. She had long blonde hair, which hung in a smooth layer, spilling over her shoulders and framing a face which was the classic picture of beauty. She had light eyes with long lashes and she wore red lipstick, which highlighted her impatient pout. Daniel raced across the road and kissed her formally on the cheek.
"Sorry I'm late." he apologized.
"Where have you been?" Brooke snapped. "It's freezing out here. I've been waiting forever."
"It's mild, darling, and I'm ten minutes late,” he replied calmly. In all his years of dating high-maintenance and entitled women, he had developed a skilled patience for them. He expected snappiness and ingratitude from them, but reasoned that a little selfishness from a woman was a small price to pay for the pleasure of having a beautiful woman and a partner who fit comfortably into his life without him needing to make any adjustments. "Let's go inside."
Brooke stormed ahead and didn't thank Daniel when he held open the door for her. She sat down at the table and only stopped her sulking when he ordered an expensive bottle of wine, which made her attitude change.
"Oh, I'm sorry, darling, for snapping,” she drawled, reaching across the table to squeeze his hands patronizingly. "I'm just so hungry after the case review this afternoon and absolutely nothing has gone according to plan today. My associate did nothing she was supposed to do. The girl is useless! Honestly, these girls get a degree from a reputable college and thinks it makes them invincible.
Well, I told her straight out, I said, ‘Olivia, this apathy will not do. You better get your act together or I will kick you right to the curb and you know that associate positions are hard to come by. Good luck finding another lawyer of my status to take you under her wing!’
Well, obviously, she started crying and I just had no sympathy for her. I mean, does she think the law is a stroll in the park? She is going to be fighting bigger, meaner people than me in court so she better get used to people telling her the truth."
"Didn't you tell me that your associate was just off work because her brother died?" Daniel recalled with a frown.
"So?" she looked at him quizzically.
"Well, maybe that is why she's been struggling,” he offered generously.
"Oh no, darling,” she said, waving her hand. "She's struggling because she's not as smart as she thinks she is." Brooke added spitefully, "Besides, do you think anyone else will go easy on her just because of a bereavement? Would she drop a multi-million dollar case because she's having a hard time? It doesn't work like that at all and, as her mentor, I have to make sure she understands the way it goes. I'm doing her an enormous favor."
Daniel sighed and didn't argue with her. Brooke was a hard lady with sharp edges, but Daniel liked the fact that she was independent and didn't complain when he worked long hours. She worked near his offices and so it was easy to see her after business hours or during lunch and she it didn't hurt at all that she was stunning.
Unfortunately, Daniel's criteria for meeting women were rarely more specific than these, which was why he so often dated women who made him unhappy. Even as he listened to Brooke drone on about how all her colleagues were incompetent, his thoughts turned to Carla who had made everyone smile as she passed them e that day at the wedding. She was in such sharp contrast to these power-hungry corporate women he dated who had superficial beauty, but deep character flaws.
He didn't get much chance to speak himself on that date and afterwards, Brooke came back to his apartment for a mechanical encounter in the bedroom and a quick goodbye. Afterwards, Daniel felt unsatisfied and bored and could only think of how different things had been with Carla that night.
It was two months after the wedding and Carla hadn't gotten Daniel out of her mind either, but there were about to be far greater things on her mind. Missing one period could be explained away as stress or illness, but missing two was cause for concern.
Carla hadn't wanted to test herself for pregnancy because the thought of being left with a child after a one-night stand made her head spin in panic. However, after the test had been done more than once and a tearful doctor's visit had confirmed the suspicion, Carla could no longer escape from the fact that she was pregnant. Lily was the first to know.
"Oh God, Carla!" she exclaimed so loudly that Carla had to shush her before she drew attention. "What are you going to do?"
"I don't know!" Carla had whispered desperately, constantly looking over her shoulder as though expecting to see her customers huddled around the counter, trying to hear the juicy details. "What can I do?"
"Are you going to keep it?" Lily asked with wide eyes.
"Yes." Carla sighed. "Definitely."
"I dunno, Carla. I mean, well, you said it; what can you do? I can come with you to buy a crib or something. Would that help?"
Lily tried to be supportive and comforting.
Carla didn't have a great relationship with a loving partner to ease the worry and work brought on by a surprise baby, and her small apartment above the bakery was no place to raise a child. Where was the baby going to go while she was working? Carla put a hand to her head as a hot flash came over her and Lily ushered her into the walk-in refrigerator to cool down.
There, among the chilled towers of wedding cakes and the dozens of brides and grooms staring at her from the cake-topper shelf, the night of the wedding came rushing back to her.
"I'll have to track him down." she stated. "I'll have to tell him."
"Good, good!" Lily encouraged. "You should go now. Do you want me to come?"
Carla smiled weakly at her concern, but shook her head.
"No, honey. You stay here and watch the store," she told her. "Do you think you'd be able to make a few fresh batches? I wrote this week's recipes on the whiteboard above the equipment bank."
"I can handle it." Lily promised her. Suddenly, the young girl who had such a taste for drama and gossip became serious and laid a hand on Carla's arm to comfort her. "It's going to be OK. I'm going to be here with you through all of this."
The baker smiled again and sighed as she stood up to leave. She knew that Daniel worked at Banks & Porter, which was uptown. She hailed a cab on the main street and headed there. Perhaps it wasn't the greatest idea to confront him with the news in his office, but Carla didn
't have his number and she certainly didn't want to call Diane to ask for it. She arrived at the office late in the afternoon and stepped into the foyer of the elite law firm.
The building was all glass and chrome. It looked like something from the future in its design and everybody was wearing a pristine suit and rushing in all directions with purposeful strides and armfuls of paper. Carla felt so out of place with her simple dress and shy steps. She went to the reception and asked for Daniel Towler.
"Do you have an appointment?" the receptionist asked curtly.
"Well, no, but he knows me." Carla told her.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I can't let you in without an appointment."
Carla was in the middle of protesting when she felt an arm on her shoulder and turned to see Daniel standing behind her. She lost her breath all over again, seeing him as handsome as he'd been that night, and almost at once she was lost in his eyes.
"It's alright, Natalie." he told the receptionist. "She's with me."
He nodded towards the elevators to suggest that Carla should follow him there. Once they were in the elevator, alone together, Daniel looked her over with cool eyes that revealed a slight surprise, although Carla wasn't sure if he was pleased to see her. She thought for a moment of the last time they were in an elevator together and the heat of the memory made her heart beat faster.
"Not that I'm not glad to see you, but it's a surprise to find you here,” he told her with a kind smile.
The elevator arrived at the twelfth floor and the doors opened. Daniel gestured for her to go ahead and he followed her to the twelfth floor. He then guided her to a huge office with glass windows that overlooked the town. His office was filled with expensive corporate furniture and hundreds of books on the law. Daniel motioned for her to take a seat in one of the executive leather armchairs opposite his desk and then sat down beside her. "What can I do for you, Carla?" he asked, with kind and smiling eyes.
"I'm sorry to just come barging in uninvited, but I didn't have your number,” Carla apologized. Daniel held up a hand to tell her there was no need to apologize and she continued. "I was single when we met." she stammered out, somehow. "Then we had our... night, and I haven't been with anyone since then."
The Baby Shower Page 5
