“I promise that it will be worth your time. You have to eat, and I have to eat. It doesn’t matter the time, or if you need to change the day, we can do that too.”
She smirked at me and lowered her gaze as she folded the towel. She reached across to where I was folding one and straightened the edge a little. Her finger brushed mine, and I lifted my gaze to her when she snatched her hand back.
I stretched my hand out and grabbed hers and rubbed my thumb in the center of her palm. My eyes grew heavy as I watched her breathing hitch in her chest.
I wasn’t sure what it was, but there was something special about her, something magnetic that pulled me in and incited arousal just being in her presence. Walking away wasn’t an option.
There was a gentleness in everything that she did, and I loved how she seemed to always have an optimistic attitude. I could tell from some of the designs that I had seen her create on her cupcakes and cakes she had baked over the last few days that she was a creative type, and she was obviously independent.
For all those good things that drew me in, I noticed there was also a certain alert and focused temperament about her. I wasn’t sure where that came from, what her past had been.
“Or we could just stick to early morning coffee dates,” she replied with a smirk, folding another towel.
“Or we could just find time to eat, even if that means we do it over folding towels.”
She met my gaze with a light smile. “You are something else, you know that?”
“I know that I want to be something else, something more than a member of the welcoming committee.”
“You two look cute over there,” one of the girls stated.
“Mimi, don’t you have some books you need to be studying?” she asked the young girl who giggled and walked away.
“She ain’t lying, though, boss lady,” one of the men proclaimed.
“Warren . . .” That was all she said, before the man backed away with his hands up.
“You’re right, . . . you’re right. I have a lot of things I can be doing to get ready for the launch party.”
When he walked away, and there was no one out front but her and me, I reached out and stroked her cheek with the back of my hand. Her eyelids fluttered before she allowed them to close briefly.
When she opened them again, it was after I removed my hand. “We’re going to have that dinner, and you’re going to be just fine.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“It’s all good. Don’t give your people a hard time about that either. They’re just observing what I’m waiting for you to figure out.”
“Which is what?”
“That we belong together. I’m coming hard after you, Baby, and I won’t let up.”
She blushed again. “I told you to only call me that?—”
“When we were in the same space alone. We’re very much alone.”
Shaking her head, she declared, “I’m going to have to watch you, I see.”
“Damn right, you’ll have to watch me. Watch how I’m coming for you.”
“That was my part-time sales assistant, Mimi, and Warren, my pastry chef.”
“Pretty cool peeps,” I declared, folding the last towel.
“Pretty nosy peeps who need to mind their own business.”
“Yeah, a’ight. Just know that I’m coming for you, beautiful,” I reminded her as I stood.
“Where are you going?”
