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“In my apartment?” I asked, instantly growing nervous. This wasn’t in our new normal, and though I wasn’t against it, I was worried. Was my apartment clean? Did it smell okay? Did I have good snacks?
“Yours or mine.” He grinned, and I couldn’t help but nod and return the expression. In fact, I was almost giddy with excitement over the way he just invited himself to watch a movie at my apartment tonight.
“Mine it is,” I responded, walking us into the front room. I pulled my bag off of his shoulder and hung it on the hook by the door before walking straight for the kitchen. My eyes glanced over everything to make sure it was presentable. I supposed being gone almost all day every day for the past few weeks had its perks, because my apartment wasn’t nearly spotless.
Liam followed me as I opened the pantry door and looked for snacks. There would be no proper movie night without popcorn and fruit snacks, and if I had to make Liam walk to the CVS down the street, I would.
“What is your movie snack of choice?” I asked, rummaging around my organized but full pantry shelves. I found the popcorn behind a stack of poppers chips and pulled out two bags. I knew what he used to like at the theater when we would go on dates, but I wondered if that had changed over the years.
I felt the heat of his body behind mine as he stepped up to look around in my pantry. I tried not to move, but I wanted so badly just to lean back so that my shoulders rested on his chest. His arm was less than an inch from my face as he reached into the pantry to pull out the fruit snacks bin.
“I’m really not surprised that your pantry is organized by color. Nor am I surprised by this.” He stepped back and I turned to him as he held the bin that was completely dedicated to fruit snacks. I may have been passionate about baking and able to make even the hardest pastries, but nothing beats fruit snacks.
“Are they still your favorite, too?” I said lowly. His eyes trailed up to meet mine. With a smirk on his face, he nodded.
“Of course they are. One doesn’t just grow out of their fruit snack addiction.”
“Exactly!” I pushed past him and waved my hands around for emphasis. “No one seems to understand that fruit snacks are for life. Not just for a phase.”
Liam’s deep chuckle stirred something in me, and I looked away quickly as my cheeks heated. For a few seconds, I struggled with wrapping around the popcorn bag, and I almost just gave up. I didn’t know why I couldn’t just open the dang thing, but Liam stepped up and took it from me, pulling the plastic off with ease. My cheeks grew even hotter as I snatched the bag and shoved it into the microwave.
We both stayed silent while the popcorn popped, and I pulled out two Dr. Pepper Zeros from the fridge. I didn’t know what he drank these days, but this was the only option besides water, so it would have to do.
“Have you thought about letting Anne and Maddie run the store by themselves? You could really use some time off.” Liam’s voice was no longer playful like it had been a few minutes ago. I turned to his serious face.
“I couldn’t do that to them. It’s hard enough to manage with just the three of us. And you even help sometimes. It was true. We’d been consistently busy both with online orders and in-store orders. More custom cakes, cupcakes, and cookie orders were placed every week, and there didn’t seem to be any signs of it slowing down. And I didn’t want it to. This is what I’d always hoped for.
“Hire someone else. You need to have a break every now and then, Em.” He crossed his arms over his chest, giving me a stern expression.
“What would I even do? I would just worry about the bakery.” I shrugged, turning to pull the popcorn from the microwave before it burnt.
As I pulled out a large bowl to dump it in, Liam continued. “You could go on a trip. Go to Disney World, spend time on the beach that you live ten minutes away from. Anything but work, which is all you’ve been doing since you opened your store.”
“I don’t know. I’m just not that worried about it. But what about you? All you seem to do is help me out or work on your stores. Do you take vacations?” I gave him a pointed look.
“No, but I’m not doing labor sixteen hours a day. There’s a difference.”
I contemplated his words, but realized he was partially lying. There were days that he came intomystore, not even his own, and worked just as long as I did. Anne had told me that there was still a good amount of business at his store, but not as much as there used to be. And it made me feel guilty.
“Hey,” I said, deciding I would shift the subject. “Would you want to do a collab between our stores?”
“Like an event?”
“Yeah! We could cross-promote it and make it like a wholething.” I motioned with my hands as if they would make my vague description even clearer. “It could be really fun and I bet the social media world would love it.”
“That they would. They’re quite invested in our story.” Liam laughed, shaking his head.
Over the past few weeks, Grady really used any and all footage of Liam and me to boost engagement, which only increased my views. Followers were obsessed with the idea that Liam and I were rekindling an old love, and they came up with theories and backstories about us. It was actually hilarious, if not slightly embarrassing. Liam and I usually steered clear of the topic, because it was a part of a much bigger conversation that I could tell neither of us was ready for. However, that didn’t stop me from sharing pictures of us on my social pages. At least once a week, I would post pictures of Liam or us together to my stories, which would garner so much attention.
And to be honest, I liked taking pictures with Liam. I liked taking pictures of him. Regardless of how our situation turned out, it was incredibly special to me that he was always so willing to help me out. He rooted for me daily and it nearly made me a blubbering mess just to think about.
“Speaking of, I wonder how they would feel if we showed them that we were watching a movie together tonight.” I threw the idea out there to see how he would react, and the wicked smile on his face told me everything I needed to know.
I pulled out my phone and grabbed the bin of fruit snacks, shoving it into his hands. Once he was holding it in front of him, he raised a brow and frowned, which wasn’t unusual for him behind a camera. I snapped a picture and got to work adding it to my story. I even added a little poll to the story to ask my followers if they preferred fruit snacks or popcorn for a movie snack. Giggling, I pressed share, knowing the havoc this would create.
“Back to the collar, we really should do one. I think it would be fun.”
“Whatever you want, Emma,” He answered, giving me a grin now that the camera wasn’t in his face.
