by E. L. Todd
“Absolutely.” I’d ask her to move in if it weren’t too soon.
She placed the key on the counter. “Thank you. I’d give you mine but—”
“I don’t want it.” Not when Francesca was still living there. I never wanted to walk in when she didn’t know I was coming.
Marie gripped the front of my shirt and pulled me in for a kiss. “Thank you. That was sweet of you.”
“I’m a sweet guy.” For her.
The doorbell rang and shattered the moment.
She eyed me with a raised eyebrow. “Expecting anyone?”
“No.” No one even knew I lived here. “It’s probably a girl scout or something.” I walked to the door then peeked through the peephole. To my surprise, Hawke was on the other side.
I opened the door. “Hey, what are you doing here?”
“Hello to you too. You invited me to come by and check out your place.”
“I did?” I didn’t remember that. “When?”
“A few weeks ago. I just didn’t have time until now.” He spotted Marie over my shoulder, and a slow grin stretched his face. “Looks like you’re busy…”
“Uh, yeah.” Now I was grinning.
He clapped me on the shoulder. “Good for you, man. Let’s meet up for a beer tomorrow—if you’re free.”
“Yeah, I’ll text you.”
Hawke waved over my shoulder. “Nice to see you, Marie.”
“You too,” she said with a smile.
I shut the door then came back to her. “He was rooting for us as much as Francesca was.”
“It’s sweet.” She finished dinner then handed me a plate. “Our best friends want us to be happy. And in my book, that makes them good friends.”
***
“I haven’t been to my apartment all week. I need to go.” She had her bag over her shoulder with a remorseful expression on her face. Every time she tried to reach for the door I stopped her.
“Stay.” I kept grabbing her and pulling her back into me. Our week together passed within the blink of an eye. I remembered every single moment with her, but somehow the time passed in a crazy blur.
“I have no clothes.”
“Wear mine.”
She rolled her eyes. “I can’t wear men’s clothes to work.”
“You’ll make them look sexy.”
“And none of your stuff is Prada.”
“They’d really fire you for that?” I gripped the small of her back, wanting her back in my bed.
“I haven’t seen Francesca in a week. I need to check on her.”
“She’s fine.” And if she wasn’t, who cares?
“I’m out of underwear.”
“You don’t need them anyway.” My hand moved up her skirt until I touched her cheeks.
She slapped my arm playfully. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”
“You’ll be back in a few hours?” Could I really survive a few hours without her?
“I was thinking maybe tomorrow night.”
“What?” I blurted. “That’s too long.”
“I can’t just abandon Francesca and my apartment.”
“Then I’ll come over.”
She cringed. “That apartment is too small as it is. We can go a night apart.”
“Speak for yourself…”
She cupped my face and gave me a slow kiss. “Have a guys night. Do something with Hawke.”
“Hawke isn’t sexy like you are.”
“I would hope not.”
“And his dick gets in the way.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, just use your imagination.” She kissed me on the cheek before she walked out.
Ugh. I felt dead inside the second she left my arms. I was always smitten with her but now I realized I was purely obsessed. “Text me when you get home.” I peeked my head out the door and watched her walk down the hallway.
She kept walking but glanced over her shoulder. “Okay.”
“And text me before you go to bed.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
***
Hawke and I met at a sports bar to watch the basketball game.
“So…how long are you going to make me wait?” His eyes were on the TV.
“You buy me a beer and think you’re going to get some action?”
He grinned. “What happened with Marie?”
“I took your advice and hunted her down.”
“That doesn’t sound romantic…sounds scary.”
“You know what I mean. I didn’t give up.”
“Good for you.” He took a drink of his beer. “I’m surprised you aren’t with her now.”
“I would be if she didn’t go home. She said she wanted to spend time with Francesca, some crap like that.”
“I see how it is,” he said with a chuckle. “You’re with me because you have nothing else to do.”
“Hey, cut me some slack. I’m in love. When you’re in love that person is all you think about. It’s like, I breathe just so I can survive to see her again. I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”
The atmosphere suddenly grew tense.
I realized my mistake. “Sorry…”
“It’s okay,” he said. “I know exactly what you mean.”
I stared into my beer because I still felt foolish for what I said.
“I’m happy for you, man.”
“Thanks…”
He clanked his beer against mine. “Enjoy every moment.”
“I will.”
He watched the game for a few minutes before he circled back to his favorite subject. “How is she?” He almost never referred to her by name.
“She’s good. Waiting for the remodel to be finished.”
“She didn’t raise any questions about the money?”
“I told her it was all me. I felt deceitful taking all the credit, but Marie thought it was sweet.”
He chuckled. “Maybe I helped you get back together.”
“You already did with that dinner you arranged.”
“What can I say? I’m a matchmaker.”
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and set it on the table. If Marie texted me I would know about it immediately. “Anyone special in your life?” Hawke used to tell me about the girls that visited his bed. He would go into detail about it, but after Francesca came into his life he didn’t tell me anything.
“There’s never anyone special.”
“You know…just because it didn’t work out with Francesca doesn’t mean you can’t tell me things.” It was awkward but we had to move past it. I’d accepted the fact they were never getting back together, and Since Francesca was in a good place their break up didn’t seem to matter anymore. Slowly, things were returning to the way they used to be.
“There’s truly nothing to say. Last night I met this girl on the subway. We talked for a little bit and then she spent the night. This morning we went our separate ways.”
“Why were you on the subway?”
“Had to visit a client in Brooklyn.”
“And that’s it? You’ll never see her again?”
“Honestly, I’m not even sure what her name was. It was something exotic, one of those names you can’t pronounce.” He said it with bitterness, like his conquest made him feel worse rather than better.
“If you’re this miserable why don’t you—”
“Please don’t go there.” He held up his hand to silence me. “She and I are never getting back together, even if she does live in the city. That’s just how it is.”
“I would accept that…if you weren’t so depressed without her.”
He looked down into his beer. “I don’t deserve her and I never will. End of story.”
“I don’t know…you still do a lot of stuff for her.”
“That’s different. I can give her the world and I still wouldn’t deserve her.”
I wasn’t sure why I kept bringing up this subject when I understood it less and less.
“One day she’ll get married a
nd forget about me entirely. And I’ll be happy when that day comes.”
She’d been a lot happier lately, and I knew she would find a good guy someday. But I suspected she would never forget about Hawke no matter how much time had passed. I knew I wouldn’t forget about Marie no matter what happened between us.
“Let me know when they’re done with the remodel. I’d like to see it.”
“Sure. It’ll be a few weeks.”
“Keep me posted.”
I kept glancing at my phone, waiting for Marie to text me when she was going to bed.
Hawke noticed my behavior. “A watched pot never boils.”
“Am I making it that obvious?”
“Axel, you’ve been making it obvious for an entire year.”
Love In Bloom
Marie
“It’s weird seeing you around here.” Francesca teased me every time I walked through the door. I was at Axel’s place more than I was at the apartment, so it didn’t surprise me.
“You must be enjoying it. Having the place all to yourself.” I set my bag of dirty clothes on the couch.
“You would think, but not really. It’s actually a little lonely…”
Now I felt guilty.
She turned off the TV. “Everything still great with Axel?”
“It’s perfect.” There was no better way to describe it. He treated me like a queen, pampered me like a goddess, and he looked at me like I was the greatest piece of art the world had ever seen.
“I told you.” A triumphant look was in her eyes. She loved being right—and making sure everyone knew it.
“Alright. I’ll give you the win.” I didn’t have a problem doing that because I was so happy.
“He’s wrapped so damn tight around your finger.” She shook her head. “I’ve never seen a man whipped harder.”
Hawke was pretty whipped when they were together. “What have you been up to?”
“Met some guy the other night. We went out for a few drinks then stayed at his place.” Francesca was returning to herself in stages. Now she was almost exactly where she used to be before Hawke stepped into the picture.
“How’d that go?”
“He was hot and good in bed but I don’t see it going anywhere.”
She slept with him? She really had jumped back on the horse. “Why not?”
“He’s a hotdog vendor.” She cringed. “That’s just not sexy to me.”
“You want to open a bakery.”
“That’s different. My store won’t be outside on a street corner. And hotdog vendors pick their noses…”
“Says who?”
“I don’t know…people.”
“If you didn’t like him why did you sleep with him?”
“I didn’t know about the hotdog vendor thing until after I slept with him. If he told me before…it probably wouldn’t have happened.”
I laughed. “I didn’t realize you were so picky.”
“I’m not. But that didn’t get my fire burning, you know?”
“So, when is the shop going to be open?”
“I don’t know…not for a few weeks. Now I need to start finding some employees.”
“You need to jump on that.”
“Yeah…I just don’t know where to start.”
“Well, I can help. Axel can too.”
“When you say help do you mean actually help?” she asked sarcastically. “Or just make out the whole time?”
“Hey, you want help or not?” I put my hand on my hip and gave her attitude.
She knew she was in the lower position. “I’ll take whatever I can get.”
“What have you decided to name the place anyway?”
She looked down at her hands for a second before she looked at me again. “The Muffin Girl.”
I remembered the times when Hawke called her that. It eventually became shortened to Muffin. It wasn’t clear if she picked that name because of him or because she thought it was appropriate. And I didn’t ask.
She answered on her own. “I can’t shake the name off. It’s fitting and it has a ring to it. Honestly, the name will always remind me of him but that’s not a bad thing. When I think about him it doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“For what its worth, I like it.”
“I do too.”
“It gives it a small town feeling in a big city. People will like that.”
“Probably.”
“It’s a good marketing strategy.”
“So…when do you think you guys can help me?”
“Well, I’m available now. And I know if I called Axel he’ll be here in a heartbeat.”
She chuckled. “To suck your neck.”
“He’ll be productive. Of the three of us, he wants you to succeed the most.” He took out a loan in his own name just to help her get started. If that wasn’t a declaration of belief then I didn’t know what was.
“Then give him a call.”
***
We worked at Axel’s apartment since it was four times the size of mine. There was a lot more room, and our elbows weren’t wedged in each other’s sides.
“I like this girl.” Axel held up the application. “She worked in a bakery for four years. She’s done pastries, cookies, pies…everything you can think of.”
“What about wedding cakes?” Francesca asked.
Axel skimmed through the application. “Doesn’t look like it…”
“So strange.” Francesca grabbed another slice of pizza from the box. “I can’t believe not a single person has any experience.”
“Maybe they already work full time somewhere else,” Axel said. “You haven’t posted any full time positions.”
“Well, I will. I just can’t afford it right this second.”
“I’m just saying…” He held up both hands and retreated. “You can’t expect competitive people to apply if you don’t offer competitive salaries.”
“I’m a bakery, not an investment company,” Francesca argued.
“Whatever.” Axel kept going through the pile. “This guy is good. He worked as a cook in a few diners then as a chef in a high-end café downtown. I think he’ll be good for the lunch portion of the bakery, sandwiches and stuff like that.”
I took the application and read through it. “He sounds great on paper.”
“Alright,” Francesca said as she chewed. “He’s in.”
Axel grabbed another folder and handed it to her. “These are all the manufacturers I could find that will help with your products. Flour, sugar, eggs, etc. If we buy in bulk the price is pretty cheap.”
Francesca looked through the items. “I care more about quality than quantity.”
“They’re good,” Axel argued. “They are suppliers to all the big places in Italy. Shipping will be a bitch but your stuff will be so delicious it won’t matter.”
Francesca nodded as she kept reading through it. “What about the shipping costs?”
“That’s a little pricey…” Axel shrugged. “But it’ll be worth it.”
I felt like I wasn’t contributing to this at all, but I really had no input. Axel and Francesca were good with numbers. I was good with words.
While Francesca was occupied with the list, Axel turned to me. He gave me a smolder then rubbed his leg against mine under the table. His look was as easy to read as a book.
Francesca didn’t look up. “Please don’t start making out.”
“How did you know?” Axel snapped.
“I can just tell.” She flipped through the pages. “Alright. I’m in. With all the competition in the city I definitely have to be different. Quality product is key to that.”
Axel kept staring at me, but his affectionate look disappeared. “I have a great idea.”
“What?” I suspected this had something to do with me.
“Marie, can you write something about The Muffin Girl when it opens?” he asked. “Even just a paragraph? Tons of women read Prada.”
“I can’t just write anything I
want.” If that were the case I’d have the best job ever.
“Maybe you could pass it along to your boss?” Axel asked.
“I haven’t been there long enough to stick out my neck like that.” I turned to Francesca. “I’m sorry. You know I would if I could.”
“It’s really okay,” she said. “No hard feelings.”
Axel fell silent, still brainstorming.
“Alright,” Francesca said. “I’ll call these people for interviews and get the ball rolling. We’ll need to order our first batch of ingredients so they’ll get in here in time. We still need a marketing strategy. There’s not much point in having a bakery if no one knows about it.”
“I’ll keep thinking.”
“Yeah,” Axel said. “We’ll come up with something.”
***
Francesca left and I stayed with Axel. I didn’t have much choice in the matter because Axel refused to let me leave. He wanted me by his side at all times—not that I minded.
“How about I take you out to dinner?” Axel pulled me onto his lap as he sat on the couch. “Somewhere nice? I can feel you up in the bathroom.”
“How romantic…”
“Come on, you hungry?”
“A little. But I don’t really want to go out.” I straddled his hips and massaged his chest.
“That works for me.” He grinned from ear-to-ear. “I can order another pizza.”
I’d been eating out way too much. Every since I started this new job and got back together with Axel all we ever did was eat and screw. “Can we just eat something here?”
“Sure…but I don’t have anything.”
“You never go to the grocery store?”
“Not unless I need toilet paper and beer.”
“Well, I’ll have to make more stops at the store.”
“You do have a key…”
“Is that the reason you gave it to me?”
He shrugged. “It may be one of the reasons.”
I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Baby, you know I’m kidding.” He pulled me against him and kissed my neck. “You know, we can just eat you instead.”
“I doubt that’s very nutritious.”
“I disagree.” He kept kissing me.
Someone knocked on the front door and shattered the heat between us.
“Do you think that’s Francesca?”
“No. It’s probably Hawke.” He sighed before he lifted me and returned me to the couch.
