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“First of all, there’s something all of you need to know. Emma and I both opened our bakeries without knowing about one another. Honestly, it was a shock to both of us when we found out about each other’s store, and more shocked when we learned that it was each other who owned them. Some of you know that Emma and I have a history together, thanks to Emma’s social media manager. Emma and I dated for five years between high school and college, and now eight years later, the world has brought us back together. At first, I was so angry that we both owned competitive businesses, but now I see that without our bakeries, I might never have seen that perfect smile on her face ever again. I would never have gotten to experience her laughs, her personality, and her drive for life. I’m in love with Emma, more than I was before, and I would do anything for her.
Over the next few days, I’m going to reveal my plan to end the competition between us once and for all. Stay tuned and join me on this journey. I’ll need your opinions, too!”
Liam was grinning the entire time, which was the second most surprising thing about the video. He never smiled more than just a smirk on any of my social media posts.
But the most surprising was his declaration of being in love with me.
I swiped to the next video.
“Part one of my plan, which I have yet to tell Emma about, is to convert my store away from a bakery. Two bakeries right next to each other aren’t necessary, and if I’m being completely honest with you, Emma’s baking is way better than mine. After all, she was the one who taught me how to make cookies in the first place. It was one of our favorite things to do when we dated, and it was why I even openedMidnight. I loved baking because of her, and wanted to share all of the recipes I continued to come up with even after we broke up. So really, she’s the reasonMidnighteven exists.” Tears sprung to my eyes. If his words were true, that meant that I’d always been on his mind. That all of these years, cookies reminded him of me. And opened a cookie bakery.
“But my store is very well suited to food service. I’ve been brainstorming ways to convert my store and still be successful, but a lot of avenues have run dry. Where we’re located, there is a sandwich shop just two blocks down, which was my first idea. But then I looked at how far away the closest coffee shop was. On this side of town, there isn’t one. And since coffee and pastries go so well together, I started to look into that. And I’ve concluded that a coffee shop would be perfect next to Emma’s bakery.
“If you guys have any ideas of what I should change the name to, leave them in the comments below. Ultimately, I’m going to let Emma choose what the name will be, but we’ll give her somewhere to start. Stay tuned for the next part!”
I swiped through the videos, watching all of them. Each one recapped what Liam was talking about, and then elaborating more.
Liam intended to talk to me as soon as I got back from my “vacation” as he liked to call it. He was going to ask me to combine our stores by literally knocking out the wall between them. According to him, he’d already talked to the lessors and gotten permission, contingent upon me agreeing and both of us signing an extension of the contracts we’d already signed.
In another video, Liam showed the preliminary plans he had for the joining of our stores. He showed a video walkthrough of the transformation that would take place—again, contingent upon me agreeing to do it. Liam explained that this was just his initial idea, but that he would let me change anything I wanted. He even stated that we would paint everything pink if that’s what I wanted. My heart warmed every time he said he just wanted me to be happy with everything and make our stores where I loved to be.
The comments on each of the videos were wild, to say the least. Some people did give recommendations or ideas, but most people just commented on how romantic all of this was and how they couldn’t wait for my reaction. Many of them even tagged me in the comments and begged for a response video.
Tears continued to flow as I watched the rest of the videos on his page. Many of them explained the details more in depth, but he even had videos that responded to comments. And the majority of those were about our relationship.
He didn’t give them too many details, but one video made my heart stop.
The comment on the video was, “Why did you and Emma break up the first time?”
Liam stayed quiet for the first part of the video, and then responded. “First of all, we broke up because I’m a dumb ass. I was young and so stupid for ever letting her go. I thought that I would marry her, no. I knew that I would marry her. But instead, I let our families tear us apart. Long story short, our fathers were best friends, and they had a bit of a falling out. Both of our dads demanded that we break up. We snuck around for a while, intent on staying together despite our parents’ wishes. But then, my dad really put the pressure on me. He threatened to pull funding for my college if I didn’t leave Emma. And so I left her. In my head, I wondered how I would ever be able to support Emma and start a family if I didn’t get my degree, but that was the fear my father wanted me to feel. I left her thinking that I would get my degree, get out of my father’s control, and take her back. But I’d done so much damage. I lost something far greater by ending things with her.
“To make things even worse, I found out that the falling out between our fathers was actually a big misunderstanding. My father blamed hers for something that didn’t even happen. All of this could have been avoided had my father told me what the issue was. But that was all in the past, and this is now. And in the now, I’m choosing to do whatever I can to ensure Emma knows that I’m not going to let anyone or anything come between us. Including our businesses.”
I was a sobbing mess by the time I finished the video. It was like a piece of the puzzle finally came together. I couldn’t believe that his father had used his college fund against him like that, especially so close to his graduation. We’d been just three semesters away from finishing when we broke up. And to hear that he thought he would never be able to take care of me if he hadn’t finished college broke something in me.
I didn’t care what happened with our stores. I didn’t care if both of our stores failed and we had to close them. I would go back to waiting tables if it meant that I was with Liam.
Thiswas what he was talking to his father about. How he would end the competition. He would do so by changing his own store.For me. All of this was for me, and his videos reiterated that so many times.
I’d spent over a week crying over something I’d misunderstood, and I hated myself for how I’d turned into my least favorite book trope of miscommunication. Why didn’t I just ask him for an explanation?
I grabbed my purse and left in a hurry, intent on finding Liam. I could have called him, but I didn’t want to. For this, I needed to see him in person.
30
Liam
A little birdy told me that Emma was back in town, but I hadn’t seen her the last two days since I was told. And both days, I was at her bakery with Anne and Maddie. They both gushed about how adorable it was that I posted my feelings and intentions on the internet, and I couldn’t help the blush that rose to my cheeks when they did.
When I came up with the idea, I hadn’t planned on sharing as much as I did. But as the internet demanded more and made it clear how invested they were in the story, I decided to keep posting. It was only growing my page and Emma’s, and since we would hopefully combine our stores, I wanted to continue gathering hype.
The overwhelming support for me and Emma was incredible, and I hoped that Emma had watched. Knowing her, she probably hadn’t been on social media while she was in New York. Especially seeing as she was so mad at me when she left. Whatever I had done, I hoped that these videos would ease her pain. I hoped that they were enough to get her to at least give me a chance to prove that I would never stop loving her and that I would always support her.
It was a Sunday, meaning the girls and I were baking as fast as possible to fulfill the online orders. As usual, this week was sold out, and we each took on a different task. The two ovens in the kitchen weren’t enough, but it was part of my plan to extend her kitchen into mine, using the ovens I already had in my store. That would help her bake much faster. I would also give over my employees if she wanted them. It would allow her to take more orders and also get them done more efficiently.
“I’m going over to my kitchen to bake, ladies. If you need anything, just call me,” I told Anne and Maddie, grabbing the massive mixing bowl I’d made cookie dough in. They had ovens full of cinnamon rolls and bread, and I wanted them to be able to go home as early as possible. They’d been working so hard and they deserved time off. So using my ovens would make things go much quicker.
I walked to the back entrance of my store, finding a cleared prep table to work at. One of my employees was finishing up cookies for the morning shift at the oven on the adjoining wall between my store and Emma’s and she smiled at me as I walked in.
