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I pulled him to the living room with our snacks and we spent the rest of the night deciding what we would do for our event while movies played in the background.
24
Liam
“Why don’t we just set up the table right here?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at Emma. She was stressed to the max and overthinking everything, but I was worried that I would only make it worse. I tried my best to stay out of her way as she zipped around the sidewalk, looking for the best placement of things.
She stopped suddenly, turning to me. She looked at where I pointed, the one of brick where the paint changed from pink to dark navy. With her head cocked, she stared at the space, contemplating my option and probably life itself. Her mind liked to race a million miles a second and there was no slowing it down, usually.
The day of our collaborative event was finally here after three weeks of planning, and she was so worried that it wouldn’t go well. Not that it would matter for her, because her store was booming as always.
Grady stood off to the side, smirking as he wisely kept his mouth shut. It seemed he understood Emma too and wasn’t going to poke the beast while she was working.
“That could work.” She tapped her chin like a real thinker, and I had a hard time not laughing at how adorable it was. I knew that would just make it worse, though, so I bit my tongue. “Okay, let’s just try that.”
I picked up the large table and set it down in the perfect spot. The paint line bisected the table down the middle, and I hoped that it would please Emma, because honestly, there weren’t many other options. Personally, the details didn’t matter that much to me, but it was obvious it mattered to her, so I would be a good sport.
“Do you like it?” I asked, hopeful that I wouldn’t have to move the table for a fifth time. Emma just continued staring, squashing my hopes.
“It’ll do.” She turned and marched back into her bakery to grab more stuff. I glanced over to Grady, who was also holding back his laughter.
For our event, we decided to do a cookie bake-off. It seemed like a competition between the two of us, and in a way, it was. But we knew it would garner attention and get people to come out to the stores, so neither one of us cared.
Personally, I knew that her cookies were better because, after all, my recipe was what she called her “unperfected” version of her recipe. And I agreed on it anyway.
We promoted on social media and in local media that we would be having the competition and invited customers out to enjoy half-price cookies at both of our stores so they could try them. Emma and I both made different versions of the same five cookies, and clients would cast their votes for each.
As for my business, I knew that today would be a good sales day, but I wasn’t concerned about anyone liking my cookies. In a few weeks after Jackson and I finalized all of the plans, I would propose to Emma that we combine our stores in the middle and convert mine to a coffee shop so that we would be out of competition with each other and continually support one another. It was over a month in the works, and keeping it a secret from Emma had been the hardest thing I’d ever done. I wanted to tell her after everything was ready to go, so that she could see how serious I was. That I would change my entire business for her. And then, I would finally ask her out on a real date and ask her to give us a chance again.
It was all my master plan, and it was going perfectly according to schedule.
Emma came back outside with a bright pink table cloth and I helped her lay it over the table. Part of me wanted to argue with her about the color just to mess with her, but the look on her face was so serious that I knew I’d better not. Instead, I helped her set up the ballot box on the table along with little punch cards that allowed customers to shop at either of our stores and earn free cookies or baked goods. Another great idea that she came up with in order to drive more traffic to our stores. I knew she was feeling guilty about her store doing so well and mine just doing okay, and that was why she did all of this. It was endearing how she showed her care for me in this way, and every day not telling her about how I wanted to make her mine was agonizing.
But it had been so long since we’d rekindled our friendship after she’d gone viral, and I was almost scared to ruin it. Though I was fairly certain she felt the same way, I worried that I would reveal my feelings to her and she would turn me down. That was something I knew I wouldn’t handle well. So I had to wait for the right moment. And it couldn’t come fast enough.
Sometimes I just stared at her lips, whether we were watching a movie, baking, or walking on the beach together. I stared and thought about how they used to feel against mine and how much I wanted to claim them once more. How I wanted her romantic affection more than anything else in this world.
She could have my store. I would literally give it to her at this point. She could have my money. She could have my soul, because she already owned it. She owned every piece of me and I would gladly surrender it all to her if she’d let me.
Once the table was set up and Emma checked everything inside her store again, she finally sat down in her chair behind the table, sighing.
I walked into my store and straight to the back to grab a few water bottles. When I got back to the table, I set one down in front of her.
“Thanks.” She smiled at me appreciatively, but didn’t move to pick up the bottle.
“Drink it, Emma,” I commanded, though I did so gently. “I haven’t seen you drink anything today, and you’ve been running around like a mad woman. Drink.”
She tended to everything and everyone else before herself, and I felt the constant urge to take care of her because of it.
“Aye aye, Captain,” She responded, picking up the water bottle with a smirk.
Soon enough, the event time rolled around and a constant stream of customers was walking between our two stores, buying their cookies and placing their votes. Many of them stop to talk to us while we sit outside, and Emma chats with all of them as if she’d known them forever.
“You two are dating, right?” A teenager asked us as she placed her ballot in the box. She and her best friend stood in front of our table with pink and navy bags. “Because I will give up all hope for love if you’re not.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but nothing came out. How does one respond to a teenager saying something like that?
“I can’t reveal that! You’ll just have to keep watching the videos to find out!” Emma answered with a giggle. “Can’t have you giving away secrets on the internet!”
