3. LEO
I’d accidentally got myself sucked into this entire situation. It wasn’t technically a situation, more like me helping Henry out and then leaving with some more cupcakes for the time I’d spent there. I half thought he was going to put his hand around my waist or lean in and kiss me. It was a silly idea and an even sillier dream for him to do that. A, he was still covered in paint... and B, he was new to town and just being nice. Adding in C, he seemed like he wanted friends.
I was just a friend.
At the town hall, I waited until Oliver was done with his last meeting of the day. He looked exhausted, rolling his neck and letting out deep sighs. “Tell me your day was better than mine,” he said.
“No.” I returned the sigh, sitting opposite him at his nice, fancy desk.
“But you went to the bakery,” he said. “You’ve got to have had a much better day than me. I mean, it’s practically impossible to have had a worse day.”
“Well, yeah, sure.” I rolled my eyes. “There’s just something about Henry that I can’t shake, but I don’t think he sees me as anything but a friend.”
Oliver scoffed. “Well, the best romances come from being good friends. You’ve just got to be a friend, and see if he you know... bats for our team.”
“Hey,” I said in a chuckle. “You’re happily married.”
“Well, I can look, and so can Mason,” he said, wiggling his brows. “I’m kidding, obviously. But we can all appreciate a good-looking man.” He took my silence as a reason to fill the void with all the boring stuff he’d done today, admitting himself just how boring it was to talk about reports and town finances. “So, areyou going to let me drone on, or are you going to tell me what happened?”
I told him everything, about how I got roped into painting, and how he was a nice guy who’d let me use his bathroom, even if it had smelled a little like mold. That was nothing the smell of paint hadn’t overpowered anyway. Finding a man for me was a lost cause. I was picky, and that was never a good trait.
“When the time’s right, it’s gonna be right,” he said. “But every single time we have our pride events, you don’t get involved. You know you get in your own way, right?”
“I’m trying not to anymore.”
Oliver smiled and sighed. “Was there any flirting at all?” he asked. “I know you can be a bit oblivious to it sometimes. Remember that absolute bear who was in town last year?”
“Big D,” I said, recalling his name fondly. He was hot, so body positive. “And he had a boyfriend.”
“Open relationship.”
“I’m monogamous,” I said. “I’m a one Daddy type of guy, and I don’t want to share.”
A knock came at the office door, startling me into near whiplash from the speed in which I moved my head in the door’s direction. Mason was standing there with a brown paper bag and an accompanying plastic bag. “I didn’t hear it all,” he prefaced. “Just enough.”
I presented my forehead to the desk and pretended to whack it. “I bet Oliver told you all about it.”
“Of course my little Oli-bug told me,” he said. “I’m rooting for you.”
“We were all rooting for you,” I said in sync with Oliver from the famed Tyra Banks meme. We both burst into laughter.
Mason looked worried, walking toward us. “I can leave if you two are having a moment,” he said, placing the food on thetable with a thud. “But I brought you food, since I knew you’d be too hangry to get home and eatmyfood.”
“I’m leaving anyway,” I said. “Just giving Oli-bug the updates.”
“I wish you luck,” he said.
The smell of fragrant Chinese food from one of the nearby takeout spots wafted toward me. I was starving. All I’d eaten was some more of Henry’s samples, and while his buttercream was delicious, it hadn’t done the job of filling me up.
“I’ll call you tomorrow or something,” Oliver said. “Unless you’re busy at the bakery again.”
The truth was, if Henry called or texted and asked me to help him again tomorrow, I would. Even if I did have to be at the community center early to get some admin done for the bulletin board, and then work a couple of hours at the library. I would fit him in, and the naughty part of my brain wanted that to be physical.
I got back to my apartment after a nice leisurely walk with the sun setting and the air growing cooler. I should really have been on my bike, but I hadn’t really intended on walking all the way to the bakery earlier. I’d just started walking, and before I knew it I was there, texting him to see if he was around. Replaying the moment over in my mind, I wondered what was going on in his mind about me. I’d helped him out, so it couldn’t have been all that bad.
My apartment was a studio, with a murphy bed that folded out from the wall. Everything else was covered in collectable Sublime teddies. They probably weren’t worth much seeing as they were all out of the boxes and I’d given each one so many cuddles, and most importantly, used them in my teddy bear cuddle puddle.
From a box, I poured mac and cheese mix into a pan, followed the instructions, and whipped up a quick dinner. Iwolfed it all down and finished it off with a strawberry milk carton. Except for in my coffee, strawberry milk was the only time I drank milk.
