Page 53 of Cherry on Top

Yeah, I’ll be in. Maybe we can grab lunch again, together. Plan our next big date.

Maybe they didn’t technically need to do another one, but Will already wanted to.

Sounds good.

Enzo decided to avoid his mom’s kitchen the next morning, because he wasn’t particularly interested in the interrogation she’d give him. So instead, he lit out early, to try to avoid the heat of the day, and stopped by Sweetie Pie’s to get a coffee and a hand pie before he started work on Will’s building.

But Rocco wasn’t the one staffing the front counter when Enzo walked in—and neither was Marjorie, Oliver’s long-time employee.

It was Oliver himself.

“Morning,” Oliver said, grinning, as Enzo approached the counter. “Have a good night?”

Enzo pointedly ignored him, pretending he wasn’t glad that the news had already made the rounds. If it hadn’t, he’d have been disappointed. After all, he and Will had practically designed the date to be the hottest gossip in town. “You heard about the date, huh?”

“I think everyone did. Rocco said you two were practically glued at the hip.” Oliver leaned over the counter. “I’d say he was exaggerating, but he was so flabbergasted by it, and these nicknames he claimed you kept using, that it must be true. Rocco’s smart, but he doesn’t have your imagination.”

“It’s . . .uh . . .it’s new but it’s . . .” Enzo had thought it would be easier to talk about this. After all, he’d basically done it with Luca, before the date.

Oliver raised an eyebrow. “Luca said you were going out with the guy, not that you were going to fall in love with him on the spot.”

Okay, admittedly, convincing his mother was easier, because it was exactly what she wanted to see, but Oliver? Luca? Even Rocco? They were going to be tougher nuts to crack.

But that didn’t mean he wasn’t up for the task.

“What did you tell me about Luca, when you first met him?”

“That he was an annoying, overbearing jerk?” The soft smile that bloomed over Oliver’s face told the whole story, though.

“A hot annoying, overbearing jerk, though,” Enzo teased.

“True,” Oliver admitted with a grumble. “But Will’s not annoying or overbearing.”

“Exactly.” Enzo grinned. “He’s nice like you, the perfect foil to my Moretti-ness, just the way you are with Luca, and he’s hot.”

“Should I be penciling in a wedding date?” Oliver joked.

“No. But you can get me a large iced vanilla latte and one of those sausage and egg and cheese hand pies.” Enzo glanced over at the case, brimming as always with Oliver’s delicious baked goods, each one looking better than the last. “And a cherry streusel muffin. I’ve got cherries on my mind.”

Oliver chuckled under his breath as he opened the sliding door to the back of the case and pulled out the hand pie and the muffin, setting the former on a piece of parchment paper so he could heat it up in the toaster oven on the back counter. “I just bet you do,” he said.

“Rocco’s not here today?”

“Oh he’s in the back. Working on the bread order.” Oliver waved back there. “I’m sure if he hears you’re here, he’ll come out. He’s really confused.”

“He was the one who kept telling me how hot Will was. How could he be?”

Oliver laughed. “Yeah, I don’t think Rocco was expecting that you’d go that route, if you went any route at all. I think he was thinking more of the few weeks of torrid hookup variety, not a sappy love affair.” He paused. “Are you really calling him Stud Muffin?”

“I love cherries and I love muffins and he reminds me of both,” Enzo said with a sly grin, grabbing his muffin and popping a piece of streusel in his mouth. He watched as Oliver went over to Taylor, his bright red Italian espresso machine, and began to make his latte.

“I bet Giana is literally over the moon.” Oliver’s comment was casual, but Enzo knew him well enough to hear everything he wasn’t saying.

When was the last time you gave your mother exactly what she wanted? Wrapped up in a present with a gigantic bow on top?

The answer was never.

He’d never done it.

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