It sounded right.
I would soon find out.
I hustled back to her place but had to press the buzzer for her apartment to get into the building. All the other times I was able to sneak in with someone else.
But there was no answer.
I pressed it again.
Still no answer.
CHAPTER 15
Maryellen
Shit! That was the buzzer going off like crazy. I didn’t expect him to be back that quick. On Saturdays, the bakery was always packed with the line usually out the door. I thought he would be at least another fifteen minutes. I jumped out of the shower and ran to the intercom, hoping I made it in time.
“Chase!” I screamed into the speaker. “Is that you?”
“Yeah,” he said, almost sarcastically. “Expecting someone else?”
I buzzed him in and went back in the shower to rinse the soap off my legs. By the time he got into the apartment, I was dry and in my robe.
“Do you always leave your door propped open when you buzz people in? That’s really unsafe, Mare. You shouldn’t do that.”
He walked through my tiny hall with his arms full of bags, more bags than I anticipated. Plus, he had coffee. I followed him closely and grabbed what had to be mine from the carrier as soon as he put it down.
“Ahhh.” The first sip was always the best.
“Did I get it right?” He pulled pastry after pastry out of the bags, plus bagels and cream cheese.
“It’s perfect. What did you do, buy out the entire place? We’ll never be able to eat all of this.”
Taking a shower had helped clear my mind, and I felt ready to at least listen to him more. But he had some explaining to do about a couple things.
Well, more than a couple things.
I pulled a platter from a cabinet, and we arranged the food. We grabbed our drinks and brought plates with us to the tiny table I had by my window. It felt nice. I hated to admit how nice it felt, to be doing such a normal, mundane thing like eating breakfast with him.
He sat across from me, gaping at the mountain of food, and laughed.
“I guess I did go overboard. But it’s OK, you’ll have leftovers for a couple days.”
Muffins, croissants, cookies, bagels. He got it all. I grabbed a bagel and swiped some cream cheese on it before taking another gulp of coffee.
“I got nervous down there when you didn’t answer right away.” His mouth was full of chocolate chip muffin, a bit of it covering his lips, and he had crumbs all over his fingers.
“Yeah, sorry about that. I thought you’d be longer than you were.”
My clear head didn’t last long. The muddled thoughts about how I should feel contrasted with how I did feel and made me confused when I looked at him. My brain took over and wouldn’t allow me to continue enjoying this moment. I picked up my coffee, no longer hungry, and stepped away from the table.
“How did you know I had a date, Chase?”
Turning to the table, guilt covered his face. He pushed his plate away, losing his appetite as well, apparently.
“I, um, saw the text from him the other day on your phone,” he said.
It should have bothered me more than it did. I think I was happy it wasn’t something more…stalkier. That wasn’t Chase’s MO, anyway.
