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Grabbing the hand mixer off the counter and returning her recipe, she flipped the mixer on again, cupping her hand around the edge of the bowl to keep the dough from flying out.
“What are you making?” Leigh asked, speaking extra loudly to be heard over the whirring.
“Salted caramel butter bars. I need to run the mixer for another minute and then we can talk.”
Pulling over one of the chairs from the table in the breakfast nook, Leigh scooted it closer to Angel as she watched the mixing process. The kitchen was a little warm, thanks to the pre-heating oven, but Angel had the window open to let in some of the icy winter air to counteract how warm the kitchen got when she was baking. Once the batter was evenly mixed, Angel put the hand mixer to the side and divided half of the dough to go into the bottom of the greased pan.
“Okay, speak.”
“I mean... I can’t pin anything down. He’s being distant. And every time he gets distant I get paranoid.”
“Isn’t he in the middle of some big project right now?” Angel didn’t entirely understand what Michael did. Something to do with business consulting about... something. She had the bad habit of letting people run on and on about work and letting it go in one ear and fly out the other. There was a reason she didn’t have an office job.
“Yeah, the one in London. They’re looking to start trying to branch out to the international market and possibly open an office over there, and he’s in the thick of things.”
“So maybe he’s busy with work stuff. That sounds like a lot of pressure.”
While Angel didn’t like Michael, she often found herself playing Devil’s Advocate for him ever since he’d broken Leigh’s heart the first time. Leigh’s heart had healed enough to give him another chance, but Leigh also still worried sometimes that he was going to do it again. Especially since he hadn’t gotten any experience in dating other women, which he’d claimed had been why he’d broken up with Leigh.
Pouring the melted caramel layer on top of par-baked dough, Angel sprinkled a little bit of champagne sea salt she’d gotten from a specialty store over the caramel before crumbling the remaining dough to make the top layer of the bars. Glancing at her friend she could see the worry still on Leigh’s face and her stomach clenched. Leigh’s instincts might be all messed up since last year when it came to Michael, but she usually saw reason once Angel reassured her. The fact that she was obviously still anxious made Angel even more anxious.
“He hasn’t wanted to have sex this week.”
“That happens sometimes,” said Angel soothingly, although she knew the truth was it rarely happened with Michael. Leigh didn’t believe in TMI, not when it came to her best friend, and so Angel was well aware Michael and Leigh’s sex life was pretty regular. As in once a day regular, or at least every other day; sometimes more if Michael was stressed or under pressure and needed an outlet. Privately she’d sometimes wondered if that was the real reason Michael had come crawling back to Leigh after a mere three weeks, because he’d realized he couldn’t get steady, reliable, safe sex as a single man. Especially a single man just out of a six-year relationship who didn’t have the time to build a new one due to work.
“Not with us,” Leigh said, shooting her a look which said she knew Angel knew better.
Angel pursed her lips. There wasn’t much she could say on the topic she hadn’t already said before and she didn’t think Leigh needed to hear more on Angel’s theory that Michael used her for sex. Well, and because Angel believed he truly did care about Leigh, although she didn’t believe for a second he cared more about Leigh than he cared about himself. But the remnant of love he carried was enough for Leigh to survive on. Of course, that was Angel’s opinion and she also knew she couldn’t see what happened when it was Leigh and Michael alone. She could see he treated her well for the most part. Angel couldn’t get over the callous way he’d treated their short separation and the reasons he claimed he’d come back after his failure at dating someone new. Angel felt protective over her friend, even though she knew her opinion on their relationship didn’t matter in the long run. Leigh sighed and rubbed her hands over her face as Angel popped the pan into the oven.
“Let’s watch The Tudors and have some wine, we still haven’t finished watching the fourth season.”
It was their standard downtime activity. They’d lived together for a while during college, before Michael and Leigh moved in together, and had often indulged in days of sitting around marathoning various television shows while eating junk food. Pretty standard girl stuff.
Leigh brightened a little. “Got any tater tots?”
“Better, smiley fries.” Angel grinned as she pulled them out of the freezer. They’d take a little longer because the caramel bars needed a lower temperature than the smiley fries, but that didn’t matter. They could wait. “They’re so happy to be eaten!” The girls giggled as Angel dumped the fries onto a tray and Leigh got out the wine and wine glasses, already looking a little better at the thought of having some Angel and Leigh time.
About an hour later they were ignoring the smiley fries and gorging on the salted caramel butter bars, which had to be the best freaking thing Angel had ever tasted in her life.
“We can’t eat all of these,” she said for about the tenth time as she picked up her fourth one. “There’s a pound of butter in them. Don’t let me forget that.” She was pretty sure she could feel her arteries clogging with every bite, and yet she couldn’t stop.
“That’s only half a pound each if we share the whole thing,” said Leigh rubbing her stomach. She was on her fifth one. They’d eaten about a third of the pan already. They were warm, crumbly, caramel perfection, with a little bit of salt to balance out the sweet and tingle their taste buds, and wonderfully gooey, melty yumminess. “What else are you going to do with them?”
“What I do with all my leftovers, leave them out for when the guys come home.” Angel smiled smugly. During the past year she’d picked up on the perfect way to try out her recipes without gaining a hundred pounds: bake when the guys weren’t home, eat what she wanted while it was still warm from the oven, and feed the rest to the human garbage disposals she lived with.
“This is the perfect pick-me-up food. Mmmmmm. Oooooo that’s good.” Leigh let out a moan better suited to sex than food. They’d both been doing that all morning. Fortunately, the weather was way too cold in January for the windows to be open so the neighbors couldn’t hear them or they’d probably think there was an orgy going on. Of course, that made Angel think of all the incredibly sexy, authoritative men she’d met last night. Mmm… Dom orgy. Maybe one in particular. Remembering the way Adam’s eyes had seemed to burrow into her, demanding all of her secrets, made her insides clench.
“What’s that look for?” Leigh asked, her own eyes looking rather demanding. They’d known each other for long enough she could read Angel like a book. She sat up, looking excited. “You got all far away and dreamy looking. It’s about a guy, isn’t it?”
Angel moaned and picked up a pillow, burying her face in it for a moment. Her friend knew her way too well. “I met a guy yes, and he’s super-hot and incredibly sexy and no I’m not seeing him again. I met him at a club.”
“When?”
She hesitated. “Last night.”
“I thought you were staying in last night.” Leigh was looking at her expectantly. Angel felt like burying her face in the pillow again. Even though they were seated on opposite sides of the couch she knew Leigh wasn’t going to give this a rest, and if Angel took too long about answering she’d find Leigh invading her side of the couch and probably poking Angel’s side with her finger. First came the begging though. “Come on Angel, I need to live vicariously through my single friends. It will make me feel better and distract me from all my woes.”
She gave Angel a comically miserable face with her lower lip pouted out, but Angel could still see the real hurt in her friend’s eyes, the desire to forget about her problems with Michael.
