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“It can’t be nothing. You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Tell me, what is it?”
As she stood there waiting, the bell rang over the door again.
“You better get out there. I need to get through these applications,” I gritted.
Melinda looked at me again with concern, then nodded, taking off to the front, and I sat down and pulled the letter out of the envelope. I never thought I’d see his name again, I thought to myself, yet here it was. Could it actually be the same guy I’d gone to culinary school with? He wouldn’t be working for some measly little magazine—not with the connections he had. There was no way, I thought to myself, then let out a laugh. He was probably a head chef in some fancy New York restaurant now. Perhaps even running two or three restaurants and was now up for his second or third Michelin Star by now.
I laughed to myself as I folded the letter back up, shoved it back into the envelope, and pegged it to my cork board. Then I turned to the computer screen and read through the last two applications. Yep, that was it. These were the girls. I printed off their applications and made a mental note to call them later tonight. Then I got up, washed my hands, and got to work baking the cookies and cupcakes for the online orders that had just come in.
Brooke
July 2009
I ran down the road toward the small coffee shop on the corner. I’d been in the city for two weeks and wanted to get acquainted with the surroundings so that I knew, for the most part, where I was going, instead of having all the pressure of starting a new school in a new location all at once. I’d spent the morning at a yoga class and was now late to meet Emily, my roommate, at the local coffee shop. I pulled the door open and ran inside, only I didn’t get very far. Instead, I hit something, flew backward, and landed on the pavement, my water bottle flying from my hand.
“What the hell?” I yelled, as I watched my favorite purple water bottle fall into the street where it was crushed by an oncoming truck.
“My God. I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you. Here, let me help you up,” I heard a deep voice say.
I didn’t have time to protest because before I knew it, I was already standing on both of my feet looking into the face of an extremely handsome man.
“Thank you,” I muttered as I brushed myself off, somewhat embarrassed at the fact I’d literally run into him.
“Good thing I decided to stay and have my coffee. This could have turned out to be much worse than it is.” He chuckled, his blue eyes sparkling. “You sure you’re all right?” he questioned, bending to meet my eyes.
I nodded. “Just got the wind knocked out of me,” I mumbled, just as the door to the coffee shop opened and Emily came rushing out. “My goodness are you all right?” she said, rushing to my side.
“I’m fine,” I mumbled, looking into the face of the tall blond-haired, blue-eyed man. He was gorgeous, and I could feel the butterflies in my stomach at the fact he’d had his hands on me, even if it was only to help me up. “I was rushing because I was late,” I whispered to Emily.
“You should be more careful next time,” the man across from me blurted out as if I had been talking to him.
“Excuse me?” I bit out. “I was speaking to my friend. And why should I be more careful?”
“Well, running into doors where people on the other side could be walking out of carrying hot liquid isn’t that smart, so, yes you should be more careful.”
“Perhaps you should be the one who is more careful and check to see that someone isn’t running inside before walking out of said door. Did you ever think of that?” I said defensively.
“Whoa, you guys, it was an accident. Surely, neither one of you meant to run into one another.” Emily giggled.
Emily was right, this was ridiculous, fighting over something so silly as whose fault it was to run into one another. As Emily laughed, I could feel the twitch in my lip start, and soon I too began laughing, then so did the gorgeous man in front of me. People were beginning to look at us as we all stood there laughing.
“What’s your name?” he questioned.
“Lila,” I lied, giving him my mother’s name, which did happen to be my middle name. Emily looked at me with a frown.
“Well, Lila, it was nice to meet you. Hope to run into you again some time.” He winked. “Not in the literal sense though, but perhaps we could have a coffee date sometime,” he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a card, holding it out for me to take.
When I didn’t immediately take the card, Emily reached out and grabbed it. “Thank you.” She shoved the card into my hand as he smiled at me. “She’ll call you.”
“I look forward to it,” he said, his eyes washing over my body. He smiled, then turned and walked down the road in the direction I’d come from.
“What the hell was that? Your name isn’t Lila.” Emily said as soon as he was out of earshot, shocked at the fact I’d lied.
I shrugged. “Mama told me not to give my real name out to complete strangers, but it wasn’t a full-on lie. It is my middle name. Besides, it’s not like I’ll ever see him again,” I said, throwing the card into the garbage.
“What are you doing?” Emily squealed, practically diving into the garbage after the card and rescuing it.
“I’m not going to call, nor have coffee with him, so there is no need to keep the card.” I shrugged.
