GoodnightAidan.
Shae locked her phone and put it back on its charger. Then she flopped on her stomach and took a deep breath before screaming into herpillow.
“Dear God,” she said out loud. “No, scratch that. You’re actually busy with illness and genocide and things. I hope. Dear Santa. Please let this go reasonably well. Please don’t let him be low key dickhead. Or a knife-wielding collector of women’s ears. I just want one good date. Or many good dates. Yeah, many good dates with this super hot guy that I know you sent my way because I have been such a good girl this year. Okay, that sounded really gross. To the republic for which it stands, in Mrs. Claus’s name. I really appreciateit.”
Shae rolled on to her back and stared at her ceiling. This was really happening. She really had a date with Aidan Meyer. Then she picked up her phone again and jumped on the group text she had with thegirls.
Holy shit. I’m going on a date withAidan.
Joanna responded first.PraiseFrosty!
2
Dear Santa,It’s just a date. I can do this.Right…?
“What are you looking at?”Aidan glanced over his shoulder as his business partner, Matt, passed behind his desk. Then he looked back at his screen. He’d been researching events around Los Angeles allmorning.
“Gotta date coming up. I volunteered to planit.”
“What kind of date? A bang ’em and bounce date, or a real date?” Matt flopped down in his chair and let it skid backwards a few feet across the hardwood floor. They were alone in their office. As usual. They were the only full-time employees. Aidan watched as Matt stopped his backward progression with the heels of his sneakers, then started spinning himself slowly around in the chair. One day their company, PrimedRealty.com, would expand and they’d have to act like mature adults in front of what Aidan hoped turned out to be many future employees. For now, he turned down the music they were blasting so he could hear Matt a littlebetter.
“Real date. Met her on MATCHED. Actually, that’s not true. We used to work together and I ran into her again on MATCHED. I'm gotta find someplace nice to takeher.”
“Got apicture?”
“Yeah.” As Matt scooted his chair back to their desks, Aidan picked up his phone and brought up his Facebook account. He wouldn't admit it, but he'd spent most of his night and part of his morning looking at Shae’s pictures on her Facebook profile. When she popped up in his MATCHED feed, he admittedly swiped on her out of curiosity. He’d always had a bit of a crush on her. At first for juvenilereasons.
Shae had the body of an old school pin up—large breasts, large hips and an ass to match. She wore a dress to work every day and no matter how she switched up her look, she always managed to pull off this vibe that was a mix between comfortable, classy and sexy as fuck, while still professional. And then there was the baking. Shae could bake her ass off and she baked all the time. Their CEO had approved a small budget that allowed Shae to bake for employee birthdays and most holidays. That’s how good she was in thekitchen.
As Aidan got to know her, he got to see that she was more than a body and baked goods. She was pretty damn thoughtful and considerate, and she had this great, upbeat personality. Once he found her crying in one of the back stairwells and when he asked if she was okay, she managed to make them both laugh. All that had turned his crush into legitimate attraction, but there was the small issue of her husband. Aidan had seen the guy once in the parking lot of their office building and now he was out of the picture. Pictures he’d been looking at allday.
Aidan remembered what had really sent him over to full crush territory—her smile. Every time he walked down to the payroll department to ask them a question or request paperwork for someone on his team, she’d always greeted him with a warm smile. He wasn’t sure if she was just a master of customer service or what, but after a few months and various company functions, he knew that upbeat demeanor was just Shae. A few times he may have told himself she only smiled like that for him. That was a lie. He wasn’t anyone special in her bright sunny, world. Now that they’d matched, though, maybe that wouldchange.
“Oh.” Matt tilted his head to the side. “She’s hot. You ever date a black girl before? Not that you shouldn’t. Ijust—”
“Once in high school for ten minutes, the whole football player/cheerleader thing, but her dad made us break up so she could make honorroll.”
“Where’s that girlnow?”
“Crystal? Pretty sure she’s a researchscientist.”
“Good call on the dad’s part. Good luck with this one.” Matt laughed as he handed back thephone.
“What?”
“Nothing. From the looks of her profile, she has her shit together and she’s good looking. I know nothing about her, but I’m pretty sure she’s too good foryou.”
“You are probably right.” Aidan felt himself swallow as he looked at his phone as Matt rolled back to his desk. He knew he had some pretty good qualities to bring to the table. Still, this was kind of the girl of hisdreams.
“What does this one do? What’s hername?”
“Her name’s Shae. And she’s a baker now. She owns Sweet Creamsover—”
“That bakery, byPlatform!?”
“I don’t know. Is that bakery called Sweet Creams over by Platform?” The block of new construction was only five years old, but had just started bringing in a lot of business in the last year, or so Matt had told him. Aidan never went over there because parking was bullshit, but there was some Korean BBQ /Mexican fusion place over there another buddy of his sworeby.
“Fuck yeah, there’s a bakery over there called Sweet Creams! Dude. I don’t give a fuck what people say about Confettis. That place tastes like dog crap compared to Sweet Creams.” Matt jumped out of his chair and started putting on his jacket. “Let’s go over therenow.”
