Page 6 of After Midnight

Victor’s face darkened. “Okay, then. Let’s get straight to the point. I want to buy your bakery.”

My mouth went dry and I swallowed hard to get the lump in my throat down. “What?” I managed to squeak out.

#

IT WAS MIDMORNING BYthe time I drove down the hill away from Victor’s mansion in Daisy. It was beautiful outside, and the setting was so peaceful it could have been one of my landscaping portraits I had hanging on the walls of my café. The windows were down, and my arm rested comfortably on the driver’s side door, as she chugged along the highway. The wind whipped through my hair as it inundated through the car and out the other side. It was clear blue skies as I drove, with Lake Bayher to my right. The sun’s beams shone brightly as they reflected off my arm. Any other day, and I would tuck my arm inside to prevent exposure. I didn’t mind tanning, but uneven tans irritated me. I didn’t care today though, as I was too preoccupied with the bomb Victor dropped on me.

As I sped down the highway, my mind was on autopilot. I drove and didn’t know where I was going. My conscious mind was the passenger while the subconscious steered the wheel. Victor hadn’t even had his men remove the eclairs from my car. The box still sat undisturbed on the passenger’s side, and his check to pay for the undelivered treats in the cup holder separating the seats. The more I glanced at the thin rectangular piece of paper with his signature on it, the hotter I became. If I could measure the beats per minute of my heart like the miles per hour on Daisy’s speedometer, it would clearly read in the red.

“I don’t need your dirty money, Victor,” I yelled at the check. “And you’re not getting my bakery.”

I snatched the check from the cup holder, and with both hands tore it to shreds, each rip representing one of the wrinkles in Victor’s face. It was cathartic and healing, but it was also stupid. After I finished my murderous tears, I put my attention back on the road and swerved. My heart leaped into my ears as I slammed on the brakes and watched a man dive out of the way. Victor had me so discombobulated I’d almost hit a pedestrian. He’d been walking along the shoulder, and I was so in my head, I didn’t see him until it was almost too late.

Seconds seemed like hours as my body trembled while I clutched the steering wheel. Daisy was dead still on the highway, as was every other sound of life, save my own heartbeat blasting away in my ears. Tears streamed down my face as I placed my hand on the door handle and pushed. I almost killed someone. There was no coming back from such an egregious error.

“I’m so sorry,” I called out as I moved towards the fallen man, each step more unsure than the last. “Please forgive me, I can’t believe what I almost did.”

The man had moved to a seated position with his back facing me, and his arms wrapped around his knees which were pulled into his chest. He stared into the distance as he sat and remained motionless and quiet, not saying anything to acknowledge my meltdown.

“Please forgive me sir,” I continued as I approached the side of him. “I never meant to— “

“There’s nothing to forgive,” he said.

“Sex-on-a-stick?” I gasped and placed both hands over my mouth.

He looked up at me with a raised eyebrow. “Huh? Come again?”

The sun was to my back as I stood beside him, but my shadow fell further to my right than directly in front of me, which allowed its rays to fall on his face. He shone with a light I wasn’t sure came from the sun, and the world seemed to frame itself around him. The way he looked at me as he squinted made me want to melt. Even through narrowed lids, his eyes drew me in like bait to a fish.

Sex-on-a-stick rolled to his feet and dusted himself off. “Well, look who it is. It’s my favorite coffee maker and baker. You can uncover your mouth now, Dream,” he said.

He wore a cut-off black t-shirt which revealed all of the defined muscles of his chiseled arms and jeans which fit him as if they were happy to be touching his skin. I’d never been so jealous of an inanimate object.

“No harm no foul,” he continued. “And trust me. I know.”

He jutted his chin at an angle and lowered his face till his was almost level with mine, and then his ridiculously sexy smile returned to his lips, as fire flooded my cheeks. I still had my hands covering my mouth.

I lowered them and placed them in the pockets of my frayed blue cut off jean shorts. “Are you okay?” I asked in a whispered tone as I tried to ignore the tingle sweeping up the back of my neck.

“Yeah,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m alright. Are you?”

“What are youdoingout here walking in the middle of nowhere?”

“Well, it’s like I told you yesterday,” he sighed and stepped back to the metal guardrail running along the side of the road. “I’m just passing through.”

“You didn’t tell me that yesterday,” I corrected.

“I most certainly did.”

“No, you did not,” I said and balled my fingers.

“Whoa, Dream,” he countered and pointed at my newly formed fists. “There’s no need for all that. Relax a bit. We’re just having a friendly conversation.”

I threw my head back and blew out a breath. “Yeah, sorry. I get like that sometimes,” I said and unflexed my fingers.

“I can tell.”

“Excuse me?”

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