Page 24 of Sweet Rivals

He stared at me for what could have been ten seconds or an eternity before he finally turned and started walking toward the office. “Come on, you can show me in the office,” he said.

I felt a rush of regret at the absence of his body and the passing of the moment that could have turned into something else before I collected myself. As he walked away, I debated just leaving. He had started walking without any concern if I would follow or not. The move screamed of arrogance, and new, angry, defiant Jenna would never put up with that shit. Yet, my feet didn’t move toward the door. Instead, they dragged me, unwillingly, back to the office. I told myself that if I didn’t bring him the binders right then, I would have to come back, which I didn’t want to do. It definitely wasn’t because I was caving. Part of me also wondered if my mom would go so far as to demote me, or worse, fire me for not playing nice with Jared.

When I got into the office, he paused at the doorway before turning to look at me again. “Were you snooping around in here?” For the first time since I met him he sounded genuinely concerned, which triggered my suspicions about what exactly was on his computer.

“Of course not,” I said. My lying skills were not up to snuff for even the simplest deception.

He leveled his stare at me, and I felt my cheeks heat up, but I managed to hold his eye contact. With a sigh, he turned away and unfolded an extra chair, waving for me to sit before sitting in his own and quickly closing the laptop. “Have a seat,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said. When I sat, I realized that, once again, I was far too close to this man. How did this keep happening? More importantly, how did I make it stop? The close proximity made it hard to concentrate, which left me freshly angry. The problem was that I didn’t know if I was angry at myself or him or the universe at large. Likely all three. I opened the binders in front of us and started flipping through the unorganized pages of invoices and handwritten notes with names and numbers on them, trying to find something that might be relevant to a bakery. I probably should have already put a list together for myself, but like most things, I hadn’t gotten that far.

“Like I said, most of this won’t be relevant to you.”

“So, when I ran into you here the other day … you weren’t missing this place?” he asked.

I leveled him with my best blank eyed stare. “You are very astute,” I said.

“If you wanted to open a bakery, why didn’t you?” he asked.

I let out an involuntary sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a derisive snort. “I understand that for people like you, buying a space, renovating, purchasing materials and all the other things that go into opening a bakery is like any other Tuesday. But for commoners like me, it’s a pretty big ask,” I said.

He nodded thoughtfully, choosing to ignore my scathing sarcasm. “I get it. I am not as out of touch as you assume.”

“You sure?”

“I hope so.”

“Here, this one might be helpful,” I said, turning a page in his direction, opting for professionalism.

“So why are you helping me if you have vowed to take me down?” he asked, not even bothering to glance at the page.

I sighed. “You think I want to be helping you? You are right, I should be plotting your downfall, but I don’t have a choice.”

“You don’t?”

Once again, I couldn’t help but look at him with all the disdain I felt clear on my face. He met my gaze with an expression that I couldn’t read. Maybe somewhere in there was his own annoyance for my endless, possibly misplaced anger, or maybe he didn’t give a shit either way. Maybe he came into my life like a whirlwind of disruption and confusion, but I was a blip on his radar like I was in the lives of all the men I met.

Jesus, that was a depressing thought. I had to stop letting my brain find its way down these insane, self-sabotaging pathways. At the same time my thoughts were kamikaze-ing toward self-destruction. I was painfully aware of his physical presence as he almost touched my arm. It didn’t help settle my thoughts or bring any clarity to the situation. It only made me think of his strong arms pulling me close into an unexpected kiss.

What the hell was that anyway? I thought for about the millionth time. Was he just killing time? Did he find some random girl to kiss at every new restaurant location?

“No, I don’t have a choice,” I finally said.

“Why not?”

“Once again, some of us live in the real world. I have a job that I am expected to do whether I like it or not. My mother may be my boss, but I’m not about to throw a temper tantrum because I have to share this binder with you. I’m sure that these vendors aren’t going to make or break the success of this place. I’m even more sure that I can find other ways to bring you down. Even if I have to buy out a shop next door, turn it into a bakery, and run you out of business.”

He laughed, and I rolled my eyes. “You think you could do better business than me?”

I turned, my bare leg brushing against his in the process so I could look him dead in the eye. “Yes, I do,” I said.

“Then maybe we should test that theory,” he said.

“I don’t know how on earth we would do that,” I said. “You may or may not be aware that I don’t actually have a bakery.”

“That does provide a bit of a roadblock, but not one we can’t overcome. After all, I do have a bakery,” he said.

I glared at him.

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