Melissa pointed at one with marshmallow frosting. “I recommend this one.”
“I’ll take it.”
As Melissa got his cupcake ready, Alexis heard her telling him about how they were going to go to a club that night. She shook her head. Melissa had a habit of treating all customers like they were old friends regardless of whether it was their first time coming into the shop or if they had been coming in since it opened.
“You should come! I’m finally dragging Alexis out to have fun. The more people, the merrier!”
Alexis turned wide eyes to Melissa, but she didn’t notice. She then shifted to Lonnie, meeting his stare over Melissa’s shoulder.
“That sounds like fun,” he said. “I might see you there.”
He may have been speaking to Melissa, but his eyes hadn’t left Alexis’s with his last comment.
He left the shop, and Melissa turned around, clapping her hands twice while bouncing on her toes. “Yay! Maybe you can dance with him. Oh, and maybe he’ll bring some hunky friends that I can dance with.”
Alexis continued to stare at Melissa with wide eyes. “What was that about?”
“That was me getting you a hot man.”
Alexis thought back to her ex, Vic, and how he had been a hot man, too. He seemed perfect, and she thought he was the one she would spend the rest of her life with. Until she came home early from work one day and found him in his office with a gun pointed at someone’s head. She couldn’t speak. All she could do was stare in horror as he murdered a man.
He hadn’t been the person she’d thought he was all along. He was a renowned drug dealer, and she suspected it went much deeper than that. The friends he kept had always seemed too stiff to her, and she realized after that day they weren’t friends at all. They worked for her boyfriend. They had caught her, and she was threatened that she would be killed if she ever uttered a word about what she witnessed.
It took a while, but Alexis was able to get out of the situation by risking her life to go to the police. Then she was whisked away into witness protection and dropped into Cupid City. She was told to memorize her new identity, obey the law, and keep a low profile. The trial for her ex was quickly approaching, and she suspected he had men hunting her ever since she had disappeared.
No witness, no case. She shuddered at the thought.
“I don’t need a hot man.”
Melissa put her hands on the counter and leaned forward. “Everyone needs a hot man.”
Alexis rolled her eyes. After everything that happened with Vic, the last thing she wanted was to be involved with another man. It had been a while, but she still didn’t feel ready. She wasn’t sure she ever would.
“Even if you don’t want a relationship, you can still have fun. And that man—” she pointed at the door “—has a thing for you. It’s obvious in the way he looks for you every time he comes in.”
Alexis looked out at the street, but Lonnie was nowhere in sight. “No, he doesn’t.”
But despite denying it, even though he had repeatedly come into her shop, she couldn’t help the flutter in her chest at the thought of a man looking her way. Although the last thing she wanted to do was put him in danger.
Melissa giggled. “Guess we’ll see, but I bet he shows up at the club and won’t be able to tear his eyes away from you.”
Alexis blushed. She was scared to allow herself to get close to someone again, but feeling that flutter in her chest awoke something inside her. Something she had missed. Since he was friends with Cass, she knew she didn’t have to fear him completely, despite her flight mode telling her to stay away from all men. Yet, she was curious to see what would happen.
Perhaps going to the club wouldn’t be so bad after all.
