“Oh, yeah.” He wipes his hands on his apron. “I can interview you right now if you have time.”
“As long as I can bring these brownies with me.”
“Of course. Who am I to come between a man and his dessert.” His blush deepens. His face is on fire. “That sounded... Never mind.”
It takes me a minute, but then I hear it back and smother a smile. When he rounds the counter, I’m not prepared for how fit he is. I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed. The lavender T-shirt he’s wearing tightens around his biceps, and he’s nearly as tall as I am. Maybe only an inch or two shorter. A little bulkier, like he lifts. I prefer to run and box, it helps keep my mind right. A focus point to deal with all my bullshit.
Punching Cam is just a bonus.
I follow him to a table, my eyes doing a slow crawl down his back. I have the urge to run my fingers down his spine.
Who the hell thinks that!? “Right, here is fine.” I clear my throat and sit down. “So...” My eyes trace over the curve of his lips. My gaze sweeps down his jaw and neck until my attention lands on his chest and stays there. “Aiden?”
“Huh. Sorry. Um, yes. You were saying?”
Amusement lights his eyes and he nods. “Go ahead and try one.” He points to the box. I take one out and sink my teeth into the brownie.Holy shit. The cool sweetness of the mint cuts through the fudgy chocolate brownie. There are chunks ofchocolate throughout. It would almost be too much without the mint. I lick the corner of my lips then look up. “So, um... good?”
“Oh, yeah. Wow. This is incredible. Best brownie I’ve ever had.”
“Good. I tried a bunch of different recipes.”
“It’s the perfect ratio of mint and chocolate. Sometimes the mint is just off or tastes too much like toothpaste...” I take another bite and swallow, covering my mouth. “But this is perfect.”
“One moment.” He gets up and I crane my neck, watching him walk to the back. It feels like my chest is both on fire and freezing to death. I don’t understand what medical emergency is happening to me. A heart attack? It feels like I’m about to pass out.
That feeling thickens when I watch him come back out with a bottle of water. “Here. If you need more, I have some upstairs.”
“Upstairs?”
He nods. “I live upstairs.”
Upstairs. Which means it could be up there. It’s like the end is right in front of me. No more Ivan. No more sneaking around to see the only family I have left. “So...” He slides the paper across the table. “It’s all standard stuff.”
I finally have a license, so answering questions will be easier than when I went to Cam’s gym that first time.
“You can take that and fill out the questions. If you have any questions of your own, just ask. I’m looking for someone to help with the front end, cleaning, sometimes helping me prep desserts. Just basic stuff. We’re changing our hours, though, when we reopen the first Friday in June. We’re closing at the end of this week until then to prepare and redecorate.”
My eyes slide to the chairs. “It’s not supposed to look like a doctor’s office?”
Sawyer frowns, his eyes sliding into a glare. “No. Not really what I was going for.” I glance at the paper. “After we reopen, those hours on the paper are the ones I’ll need you available for. These next couple of weeks, if you can just come in a few times a week for four to six hours to help prepare for the reopening... After that it’ll be about twenty to twenty-five hours a week.”
“Helping renovate and prepare before, and then what when you reopen?”
“If you want the job, you’ll have to work Friday until about eight. The exact time is still being worked out. I haven’t decided on eight or nine yet. Then Saturday nights, the shift would be from ten till eight. The shift you’ll work will be four till eight. I’d have you running the register and cleaning while I prep for the week. Sundays and Mondays we’ll be closed. The nights we hold events I’ll need you to run the register and anything else our guests will need.”
“Events?” Why ask? It doesn’t matter? I’m not staying here for that long. With access to both his apartment and the bakery, it shouldn’t take me more than a couple of shifts to look while he’s busy.
“We’re reopening the first Friday in June, and we’re going to have a Valentine’s themed reopening party. We’re going to have a queer-safe mixer where people can come meet new friends or maybe something more. My friends are helping me run it.”
“Queer safe?”
He nods. “My friend’s idea, but it sounds like fun. I’m gay. Um, yeah. I just—” He shrugs. “It sounds nice. Not a lot of queer-safe events going on. It’s a good way to meet new people.” His face flames. “Sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing?”
Sawyer’s eyes widen as he stares at the table. “I have no idea.” He laughs nervously.
He’s so awkward, it’s insufferable. “I don’t know anything about baking.”
