by Fiona Grace
“Wow, it’s really relaxing,” Ali said.
“Shall we sit?” Seth asked, gesturing to a mound of flat-topped rocks suitable for sitting on.
Ali lowered herself down. Seth sat opposite.
“So, what’s the deal with you and your brother?” he asked. “If you don’t mind me asking.”
Ali paused, quizzically. “What do you mean?”
“You two were clearly in the middle of some kind of disagreement,” he commented.
Ali was surprised at his astuteness. She thought she’d hid it quite well.
“It’s… complicated,” she said, as her mind turned over the old, familiar father abandonment issue for the billionth time in her life. “It’s about our dad.”
Seth looked at her with a curious expression. “Oh?”
Ali was hesitant to divulge her family history and drag all the skeletons out of the closet. But Seth’s expression was so open and inviting, she found her usual defenses come down.
“He left us,” she replied. “When we were kids. Teddy took it the hardest because he’d only just come out. I don’t think he can disconnect the two things in his mind. But I know that’s not why dad left. It has nothing to do with it. Something else made him go. Over the years the contact dwindled down to nothing, and now we don’t really know where he is.”
“Oh, Ali,” Seth said. “I’m so sorry. That’s heavy. I don’t know what I’d do without my family. My mom and dad are my life. I could give or take a couple of my siblings…” He chuckled at his own joke.
“A couple?” Ali asked. “How many do you have?”
“Oh… just five,” he replied.
Ali’s eyes widened, making Seth laugh.
“It’s what you get when you have Italian Catholic parents,” he explained.
“Wow,” Ali mused. “That’s a lot. I mean I only have Teddy and my sister Hannah and they’re more than enough.”
Seth let out a light, musical laugh. “I remember. Your sister Hannah who lives in New York City with her two sons and... your gay ex-boyfriend, was it?”
His eyes sparked with amusement, but Ali cringed at the memory of their first meeting when she’d accidentally interrupted him during his initial renovation work at the hot dog store. She’d been so shocked by his gorgeousness she’d turned into a babbling fool and blurted out all kinds of details that were certainly TMI.
“Er, yeah, well Hannah doesn’t live with my gay ex, they’re just in the same city.” She felt herself recoiling in on herself with embarrassment, like a dying star self-imploding. “I wish you hadn’t remembered that.”
He laughed. “How could I forget?”
Ali squirmed. “You must’ve thought I was nuts.”
Seth’s dark brows darted in together. “What? Not at all! I thought you were adorable. In fact, that was the moment I pretty much fell for you.”
Ali’s breath caught in her lungs with astonishment. Seth’s forthrightness had taken her completely off guard. She knew Seth had never been one for beating about the bush—unlike Nate, who’d flip-flopped back and forth before taking months to make his intentions known—but his honesty still always caught her unawares.
And that was quite the revelation! He’d fallen for her? At first sight? Or, more correctly, first babble?
Feeling her palms get sweaty, Ali shifted guiltily on her rock, and tugged nervously at her thick, blond braid.
“I’m sorry,” Seth said. “That was too forward.” His shoulders sunk. “I just thought since you’d moved our date forward, you were as eager to see me as I was you.”
Ali felt terrible as she realized Seth had gotten crossed wires, and how it must have looked from his perspective. She’d extended their date because she wanted to get away from Teddy, not because she wanted to spend more time with Seth…
Suddenly Delaney’s and Piper’s warnings to keep everything aboveboard swirled in her mind. She owed Seth an explanation. The truth.
She took a steadying breath. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to give you the wrong impression. It’s just…”
She halted—the name Nate on the tip of her tongue—as the terrible look of jealousy she’d seen in Seth’s eyes when he’d incorrectly misidentified Teddy as her date flashed through her mind’s eye. He wouldn’t take to the whole situation well at all. He was traditional at heart.
With a sigh, Ali shook her head, losing all her nerves. She couldn’t find the words to tell him right now. She would simply have to make her decision sooner rather than later and find a way to be honest.
“... I want to take things slow,” Ali finished.
Seth nodded. “Of course. Whatever you want.”
Silence fell. Ali studied the side of Seth’s face. Was she being absolutely crazy not throwing herself into his arms? Seth was so uncomplicated. He was open, warm, caring. But Nate held a special place in her heart for being the person who’d helped make Willow Bay feel like home. They had history there. Chemistry. There was no denying that.
And then there was the other side of the whole situation, too. Otis had been Ali’s boyfriend for three years. He’d broken her heart, and her trust, through his duplicity. Maybe Ali asking for things to be slow wasn’t about the love triangle at all. Maybe she instinctively knew she wasn't ready to be in another relationship yet.
“So, how’s business?” Seth asked, in a clear attempt to divert the conversion.
“Good,” Ali replied, grateful for the switch in gears. Suddenly, she remembered Arlo Hudson and his girlfriend Ophelia’s trip to the store yesterday morning. “Oh, that reminds me, did you hear about Arlo Hudson moving to town?”
“Who’s that?” Seth asked.
“Oh, good, I’m glad I’m not the only one who didn’t know who he was,” Ali replied. She got her cell phone out of her pocket. “He ran this website, where amateur chefs could submit recipes and win prizes.” She began scrolling through looking for the website. “Made himself a reputation for being a bit cruel. Now he’s been snappeed up by a publication in Cali. Oh look. Here.”
She paused as she found Arlo’s website, which had automatically redirected her to the website of The Herald he was now writing for. Next to an image of him folding his arms, wearing his hat and visor, with his face in total shadow, was the heading Seaside Sweets Sucks.
Ali’s chest pounded.
“What is it?” Seth asked with concern, his gaze fixed on her.
Ali’s eyes scanned the article, and she began to read aloud. “Seaside Sweets is a basic little place, positioned in an awkward alcove on Willow Bay’s boardwalk. At first sight, it looks entirely out of place sandwiched in between two upmarket Italian pizzerias.”
Seth scoffed. “Did he really just call Emilio’s and Marco’s pizzerias upmarket?”
Ali continued reading aloud. “But it’s when you step inside that things get worse. You’re greeted by the stench of sugar and syrup, made even more disagreeable by a vapid blond girl-child waitress, so eager to please it makes your toes curl. When the owner and proprietor comes in to save the day moments later, I’m relieved, only to find she is visibly dirty and smelled pungently of sweat. It is around this time my stomach began to turn.”
Out of the corner of Ali’s eye, she could see Seth grimacing. She continued.
“The variety of unremarkable flavors are presented as intelligent and edgy. No, sweetie, you didn’t invent lavender as a flavor. Add to that the cutesy rainbow-colored hues, which were evidently only there to mask poor quality ingredients, and you can understand why I choked on every single one of them.”
Ali could feel bile inching up her throat. The more she read, the more furious she was becoming.
“When Ophelia shows me the receipt after, I’m left with an even more bitter aftertaste. Not only is Seaside Sweets a deplorable eatery, it’s also excessively overpriced. My little taste test venture sets me back in the region of a hundred dollars. I’d have gotten better value for money if I’d put it straight in the overflowing garbage can o
utside, which is the only place the desserts in Seaside Sweets belong. Overall rating: Negative stars!”
“Oh, Ali,” Seth said. “I’m so sorry. He’s horrible.”
She flashed him an incredulous look. “And a liar! He didn’t choke on anything. He barely took big enough bites to taste the damn things, let along choke on them!”
“Do you think maybe he thought he was being funny?” Seth asked cautiously.
“In what world is that funny?” Ali exclaimed, waving her cell phone around emphatically.
“Well, for all the people reading it,” Seth offered. “Not for you, of course.”
Ali felt devastated. Her bakery was her baby. She’d poured her heart and soul into it. Now some jerk from Chicago had come along and bashed it! How dare he?
“I’m sorry, Ali,” Seth added, clearly seeing how upset the review had made her.
“Can we… can we go home now?” Ali asked. So much for Arlo Hudson choking on her food, she was choking now on her own grief.
“Sure,” Seth said, softly.
At least she could rely on him to be understanding.
They headed back for the car, and Ali felt dispirited. Could that one review ruin everything she’d painstakingly built up over the last months? Arlo’s switchover to the publication had come with a lot of fanfare by the looks of things, and there were probably many eager eyes reading his first review, now thinking she ran the world’s worst bakery!
She slumped down in the passenger seat beside Seth as he quietly turned the car on and reversed them out of the lot. As they began the drive back along the coastal route, she caught flashes of him out of the corner of her eye studying the side of her face with a worried expression.
“I’m sure nothing will come of it,” he offered. “It will blow over quickly.”
“Mmm,” Ali replied, non-committedly. The review had left her so desolate, she couldn’t even form sentences anymore.
Seth gave up trying, and quietly faced the front. Ali felt bad for the forced silence, but she was in too bad a mood to attempt conversation. It would take a while for those vile, cruel words to lose their impact.
As Seth reached the outskirts of Willow Bay, Ali suddenly spotted two figures on the sidewalk. A tall woman in a long dark coat, with black, purple-tipped hair, and a thin man in a hat. It was Ophelia and Arlo.
“Stop the car,” Ali blurted.
Seth’s face darted to meet hers. “What?”
“Stop the car!” Ali exclaimed again. She was already reaching for the door handle, leaving Seth no choice but to pull over.
“Ali? What’s going on?” he asked as he slowed to a halt beside the sidewalk. “Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not,” Ali said through her teeth, tugging on the handle to open the door. “I need to give someone a piece of my mind.”
Leaving Seth looking flabbergasted, Ali got out of the car and marched in the direction of Arlo Hudson. Time to give him a taste of his own medicine.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Hey!” Ali cried as she emerged from Seth’s car onto the sidewalk. “Arlo!”
The two figures ahead paused and turned. Ophelia took stock of Ali’s furious stance—legs wide, hands on her hips, deeply scowling—and looked immediately panicked. Arlo, on the other hand, merely smirked.
Ali left Seth looking perplexed in his car idling by the side of the road and marched toward the two figures. “I have a bone to pick with you!”
“Oh, Ali,” Ophelia said in a timid, apologetic voice as she staggered toward her.
“Not you,” Ali said. “Him.” It was Arlo she wanted to speak with, not his spokesperson.
Ophelia looked at her boyfriend with a panicked look. Arlo kept his eyes on Ali and glowered at her meanly.
“What is it you want to speak about?” he said.
“Oh. He speaks,” Ali said, thinly. “There was me thinking he needed a computer screen or girlfriend to hide behind.”
“I can speak for myself,” Arlo said. “I just choose not to waste my energy on lowlifes.”
Ali’s eyes widened with offense. What a terrible thing to say! Arlo Hudson was just as bad in the flesh as he was in his column.
“I want an apology,” Ali stated, folding her arms angrily. “For the column you wrote about me. It was vile. And untrue.”
Arlo shrugged. “So? It’s what people want to read. Did you really think I was going to write a sniveling hype review of your silly rainbow colored desserts? Do you really think people even want to read that sort of thing?”
Ali gasped with astonishment. “You didn’t even mean what you said?”
“Who cares whether I meant it or not,” Arlo said apathetically. “I’m giving the people what they want.”
“I care!” Ali screeched. “Maybe in Chicago people enjoy reading horrible reviews, but here in Willow Bay, we all support one another.”
Alro pulled a disgusted face. “Oh please pass me the sick bucket.”
Ali felt her anger rising. “Are you proud of yourself? Making a career out of bullying?”
“I make a career out of writing whip-sharp copyedit, actually,” came Arlo’s arrogant reply. “Any old fool can bully. It takes a rare intellect such as mine to write satire. Not that I expect a baker to get my level of humor.”
Ali could hold back no more. He’d insulted her behind her back, and now he was doubling down to her face!
“You are a grade A jerk!” she screeched, loud enough to make the seagulls take flight. A couple of passersby turned too at the noise. “A mean spirited, rude, pathetic, vile excuse for a human being!”
Arlo barely reacted. All he did was blink and smirk.
“Darling,” he said condescendingly. “Don’t get mad at me. The person you should be mad at is yourself for being so inadequate. All I did was point it out.”
He went to turn around and continue walking, but Ali grabbed his shoulder and turned him back.
“You’re evil!” she cried. “A total bully!”
Arlo pushed her hand away. “Don’t touch me with your sweaty, dirty hands,” he replied with a sneer, before raising his voice and calmly announcing to the passersby, “I am being assaulted!”
“Assaulted?” Ali cried, incredulous. “Oh come off it!”
But around her, the tourists and other bystanders were starting to film the altercation on their phones.
Suddenly, Seth appeared beside her. He must’ve leapt out of his car the second he saw things getting physical.
“Ali,” he said anxiously, grasping her by the arm. “What’s wrong? What’s going on?”
“This is the jerk who wrote the review!” Ali cried.
The change in Seth was instantaneous. His face went from pure concern for Ali to complete fury at Arlo.
“You?” he said, grinding his teeth. “You’re the writer?”
He squared up to him, and the difference in their sizes was almost laughable. Seth was tall, broad shouldered, with a good physique. Arlo Hudson looked like a peculiar, puny, pale little goblin in comparison.
“Assault!” Arlo cried again, only this time there was an air of genuine fear in his voice.
Ophelia started pulling Arlo back from Seth. “Come on,” she pleaded. “Let’s just go.”
Ali couldn’t help but feel bad for her. What she saw in Arlo as a boyfriend she couldn’t even begin to fathom.
“Yeah,” Seth said through a tight jaw. “Run away, little shrimp. Not so fun when someone bigger than you picks on you, huh? Is that why you picked a five-foot nothing woman to write your vile review about?”
Arlo literally began backing away from Seth. Finally, he turned around, and scurried off with Ophelia.
Seth watched him go with a dark, brooding scowl. Standing at his side, Ali could see he was literally seething.
“What a cockroach,” he said. He looked at her. “Are you okay?”
Ali glanced around at all the people watching, feeling very embarrassed the altercation had been witnessed. She wa
sn’t ashamed of standing up for herself, she just wished her pale skin didn’t go pink quite so easily, and that there weren’t at least a dozen people currently uploading the fight to the internet.
“I’m fine,” she said. “Can we go?”
“Of course,” Seth replied.
Ali kept her chin up and ignored the stares as they returned to the car, which was still idling with its hazard lights on and both doors open. For the first time she took stock of the fact that Seth had literally leapt out of his car and abandoned it to come to her rescue, and she smiled at his instinctive act of chivalry.
As they got inside the car and continued the journey back along the road, Ali’s only regret was that she’d not had enough confidence to slap that smug look right off of Arlo Hudson’s face. She’d have to think of some other way to get her comeuppance against the bully. This wasn’t the end of it. As far as she was concerned, this was only just the beginning.
*
Ali was still fuming as she returned to her apartment. Her horrible encounter with Arlo had literally ruined her date with Seth. If she didn’t know better, she might think it was karma for not telling him about the situation with Nate.
It was as that thought percolated in her mind that Ali heard a knock on her door. She jumped a mile, a disquieting feeling overcoming her. Had she just summoned Nate with her mind? He did live on the same road as her after all, in a matching one-bed seafront apartment cottage — perhaps he’d spotted her hopping out of Seth’s car moments earlier and was coming over to challenge her?
With her heart in her throat, Ali paced back across her small living room and went up on her tiptoes to look through the peephole. With a sigh of relief, she realized it was Delaney standing on the other side.
She pulled open the door to her tall, blond beauty of a friend. Delaney bobbed inside the apartment and stood on the welcome mat.
