Page 5 of Baking it Merry

“You heard me.”

“You’re the one who wasn’t watching where you were going,” she told him.“I just put a tray of cupcakes down.A few seconds earlier, and they would have been ruined because of you.”

Was she seriously trying to blame this on him?

“The landlord is a personal friend of mine,” he lied.“And all I have to do is make one phone call, and you’ll be removed.This building houses a lot of multimillion-dollar businesses, and we don’t need the circus coming to town for the holidays.”

He didn’t think it was possible for her eyes to get any wider, but…they did.“Did you just call my business a circus?”

Tristan just stared at her blandly.

“Look, what is your problem, huh?Have I done something to offend you?In all the years I’ve been setting up here, no one’s complained, but every time I see you, it’s like you hate me, and you don’t even know me!”

Sliding his hands into his coat pockets, he shrugged.“I don’t like what you do to the integrity of this building.From January through the end of October, we are an upscale, executive complex, but for the last two months of the year, it looks like…this.”He motioned to the space around them.

“Festive?Cheery?Do you see all the smiling faces?”

He didn’t respond.

“Youdorealize you’re the only person here who looks like he sucked on a lemon, right?”

“Excuse me?”

She leaned in ever so slightly and threw his words back at him.“You heard me.”

Well played, he thought.

“Consider this a professional warning,” he stated firmly.“Stay out of my way or I’ll call the landlord.What I want holds a lot of weight around here.”

“Your ego alone,” she mumbled.

He had to admire her tenacity.“This was a professional warning.The next time, I’ll make the call.”And before she could utter another word, Tristan stepped around her and walked away.

Let everyone else gush about these seasonal shops.All he wanted was to get some fresh air, eat lunch, and get his work done.

Two

The first two weeks of Daphne’s Delights were a tremendous success.

Every day she sold out and went home with more requests for the next day.Plus, she was already getting special orders!

Was she exhausted?Yes.

Did she sleep most of the weekend?Yes.

Was she psyched to do it all again on Tuesday?Absolutely.

The only negative thing—if she had to find one—was her interaction with that jerk, Grinchy Grincherson.

“I should probably ask around and find out his name,” she murmured as she pulled a tray of blueberry muffins from the oven.She had spoken to Ann, Marcie, and Kaitlyn and none of them had anyone threaten them.Hell, everyone had been super nice to them, and they’d had zero drama.

Which left Daphne with a bit of a complex.Like she had an almost daily obsession over what she had done to offend this guy.

Although, to be fair, he just seemed like the kind of person who was majorly uptight and easily offended.She was curious as hell about where he worked and what he did for a living.But basically, the dislike was mutual.

“Hopefully he doesn’t work with the public,” she said, placing a tray of banana nut muffins in the oven.“That guy should definitely work alone.”

After his little tirade, she had considered calling Sara and seeing if she had any pull with the landlord—because two could play at this game—but ultimately she decided to be the bigger person.And it was a good thing she hadn’t been impulsive because she hadn’t seen the guy since.

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