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"That smells so good," Ethan says, finally finished with whatever he was doing.
He walks around and sits on the corner of the desk closest to me.
"I tried something new and I thought of you," I say, and immediately regret it.
I don't want to come off as needy. I don't want Ethan to think I am that naive girl he first met with her head in the clouds. I don’t want him to think this won’t work.
"I mean, I thought you’d like them," I say, correcting myself.
Ethan looks into the box and smiles, shaking his head. "You know, I've had to add an hour to my gym time since you started baking again."
I smile, lifting one out of the box and feeding it to him. "This is business, Ethan, and I know you wouldn't want to put something out there if you didn’t believe in it yourself," I say seriously.
Ethan laughs, smudging icing onto his nose and I move closer to wipe it off with my fingers.
His arm circles my waist and he brings me to his lips. I lean over and kiss him. "Good, right?" I ask, still a breath away from his mouth.
"Both delicious, but I have an obvious favorite," he smiles, kissing me again.
"Ethan," a man says, walking into the office.
I turn quickly and pull away from him. The man blushes as Ethan clears his throat.
"Sorry, Matilda wasn't at her desk and I thought you might know where Ed is. I'm sorry," he says, turning quickly to leave, slamming the door behind him.
I look at Ethan and we both burst into laughter.
"Poor guy is more embarrassed than either of us," Ethan says.
"Aren’t you worried?" I ask. "What is he going to tell Ed about us?”
Ethan smiles and pulls me back into his arms again. "He is going to tell Ed that I have you wrapped around my little finger. He's going to tell Ed how you're bringing me cupcakes to the office in sexy summer dresses," he says, kissing my shoulder. "And Ed is going to be convinced my love formula works," he finishes confidently.
I blush and look down at my dress, then back up at Ethan. He smiles broadly at me, and the words dry up in my mouth. I don't know what to say. My heart is racing and I don't know why.
"Are you happy?" he asks me.
I stammer, because once again, I don't know what to say.
"Because everything is going to plan," he says excitedly, going to his computer to pull up a few files.
"See, we've secured a space for you here. Preliminary market research shows a growing interest in grown-up treats, and the resort isn’t looking too bad either," he gushes. "Everything's coming together perfectly."
I look at his screen, nodding appreciatively as I take in the data. "I'll leave you to it. I know you have work to do," I say, turning to leave.
Just as I reach for the door handle, Ethan is behind me. He turns me around and presses my back to the door, kissing me passionately. Then, moving back slowly, he gives me one more gentle, chaste kiss on the lips.
"I'll call you," he says with a wink.
My heart flutters and I walk out of the office in a daze, almost walking into Ethan’s friend, Edward.
"Cassidy," he smiles. "We might as well get you an office here.” Edward laughs at his own joke as if it’s the funniest thing he’s heard all day.
I'm still dazed, under Ethan’s spell, and I smile and nod my way into a cab back to my apartment.
My day is a blur of thinking about the bakery, and slowly but surely about Ethan, and then chastising myself. If he so much as suspected that I felt anything for him he would call the deal off completely, and I'd lose everything again.
I rush to work in the morning to cover my early shift and hope Ethan will come in. He comes in less and less now that he's busy, and another morning without him there makes me anxious. My mind fills with questions about what he's doing, if he's thinking of me too. And between servings of eggs and muesli, I trap myself in a cycle of thinking of him and trying not to think of him. But that only makes me think of him more.
