Page 16 of Emma and the Grumpy Baker

My business would take such a large loss if I converted it to anything that wasn’t food. The size of the building made it impossible to convert it into an actual restaurant, so I’d considered a sandwich shop. Jackson pointed out that there was one only two blocks away, and it was incredibly popular. While the idea wasn’t off the board completely, we’d have to develop an incredible marketing plan for my store to succeed. A coffee shop was still an option, but most coffee shops sold some sort of baked good, and I knew Emma would not be willing to team up.

That left me feeling sick. I wanted her to see that I wanted her success, but I’d already shoved my foot in my mouth enough times that she wouldn’t ever believe that I had her best interest at heart. If I were to come out and tell her bluntly why I wanted to change my business or somehow have our businesses to work together, she would probably laugh in my face. And rejection wasn’t something I could take well from her. Not to mention that confessing anything along the lines of my feelings for her was out of the question now that it was apparent that she had a boyfriend.

So Jackson and I spent days trying to figure out what to do. He was in favor of just leaving it alone to spare us the massive expense of switching gears. In fact, he suggested that he tell Anne, Emma’s employee, that she should gently recommend Emma stop making cookies. That was obviously a terrible idea.

I scoured the internet for ideas, reading journals from other business owners that converted their businesses, even completely unrelated ones, just to get inspiration.

“Have you even left that chair?” Jackson asked as he walked into my office. He had a key to my apartment since he worked with me here so often. I spun around in my chair to throw him a glare. He held coffee in his hands, along with a pink paper bag.

“Again?” I asked, eyeing the bag. Secretly, I hoped that he’d brought me back something.

“Let’s focus on your problems. Not mine.” He placed the drink carrier down on my desk, allowing me to pull my coffee cup out of the holder. Then, he rustled around in the pink bag for a second before setting it in front of me. He smirked when I snatched the bag to see what was in it.

A box of three pink macarons sat inside, and I was already salivating.

“Enjoy them. I barely managed to get them.” He took his coffee to the other side of the room, where he sat down on the dark leather sofa. I pulled a macaron out and gave him a questioning look. “You didn’t see?”

“See what?” I raised a brow and ate the macaron. I had to school my features so that I wouldn’t make an embarrassing face at how good it tasted. It was raspberry cream cheese, and I instantly wanted another.

“Emma went viral overnight. There was a line nearly a block long today. I almost didn’t wait in line, but I needed to—” He cut himself off and looked down at the pink box in his hand. Blush rose to his cheeks.

I pulled out my phone, the other two macarons forgotten. Not once had I considered that Emma would go viral on anything, let alone TikTok. Her social media work was abysmal—at least, that’s what Jackson said. I found her page quickly, seeing that she had over one hundred thousand followers. My eyes widened as I looked on the page to see four videos, all with over a million views. Some had even more.

“Shit.” I was shocked. The videos were extremely high quality and very entertaining. Have I ever had a TikTok with over a million views?”

I watched a video that was only posted one hour ago. It showed bloopers of Emma trying to blow flour off of her hand towards the camera. She inhaled sharply with her hand too close to her mouth, and sucked in a bit of the flour. Then she coughed dramatically, sending the flower flying towards the camera person. As she coughed, she began to laugh, and was joined by the laughter of the person behind the camera. She approached the cameraman, and the clip showed her red in the face but smiling widely. The clip switched to a video of her holding a large mixer bowl in one arm and a dough-covered spatula in the other. She was singingGirls Just Wanna Have Funand using the spatula as a microphone. Just as she reached the sink, she stumbled and dropped the bowl. It clanged around the floor and the camera got closer to her. For a few seconds, she just stared at it before turning to the camera and continuing her off-key version of the old hit.

I let myself get caught up in the videos, watching all of them. My eyes tracked Emma the whole time, and I found myself laughing at her goofy personality and her awkward demeanor when she spoke to the camera. She was beautiful and funny and even in the videos where she wore a hair net and was covered in sugar and flour, I’d never see anyone more breath-taking.

“Liam!” My head shot up and I looked at Jackson. “Did you hear anything that I just said?”

I just stared at him, letting my face return to my normal scowl. I’d forgotten myself.

“Isaidthat we’ve never had even close to that many views. And that everyone in the comments is crazy about her and her boutique. They’re asking her to ship.”

My eyebrows shot up in surprise.

This was perfect for her.

This was exactly what she needed.

Actually, I might not even have to change my business at all if this benefitted her the way it sounded like it would.

“Good for her,” I grumbled, keeping my solemn facial expression and tone. I didn’t need Jackson to know what I was doing. It was embarrassing enough that I was about to visit the girl that I’d been thinking about for the last eight years. I didn’t have to tell him that I was doing it.

I walked to my bedroom and threw on running clothes and shoes before emerging.

“Going for a run. Enjoy your sweets.”

The second I was out of my apartment building, I started running to her store. I wanted to excuse my behavior on the fact that I was literally wearing running attire, but in reality, I was just eager to see her success.

It was nearly 03:00 in the afternoon, so I wasn’t surprised that there wasn’t a line anymore. But the second I walked inside, I realized that no line didn’t mean no business. Every table inside Emma’s shop was full of smiling patrons, each with pink bags or boxes. The store was filled with bright music and the sounds of conversation and laughter.

The girl who I assumed was Anne, was at the counter, smiling broadly at me. “How are you?”

“Good. Thank you.” I kept it brief, looking over her shoulder to the doors that led to the back. “Is Emma here?”

Her eyebrows raised. “I’ll go get her.” There was a smirk on her face as she turned away from me. I looked into the display case, seeing that there were only a handful of treats left.

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