Now she’s going to cry too. These assholes sure don’t know how to throw a party.
They do know how to make a girl feel very special.
“Besides,” Monroe continues after taking a deep breath, “you’re going after your dreams! People deserve cakes and surprise parties when they go after their dreams.”
“And shots,” Renee adds, nodding at the cake.
I look past the two of them and into the crowd. The whole staff is here tonight. Paige is skulking around near the back in one of her giant hoodies. I spot Roxanne and her boyfriend—no, husband—standing together, and even Valérie is hanging out with some servers with a beer in hand.
That sneaky bitch.
She raises her beer when she notices me watching, and I grin back at her.
It takes me a moment to find him.
Zach. My boyfriend. My handsome, sweet, hilarious boyfriend who happens to be making bank with his online business. After I’ve finished my program at Cheveluxe, we’re going to give Power Couple Extraordinaire Monroe and Julien a run for their money.
He’s standing a few feet away from everyone else, leaning against one side of the bar. His beard is shorter than usual today, giving him that sexy stubbly look I like so much on him. He’s wearing one of my favourite flannels—I know his flannel collection so well by now I have favourites—and he looks so damn handsome standing with one elbow on the bar that I can hardly keep myself from sending the cake flying and running over to jump in his arms.
They must have worked pretty hard on this thing, though, so instead I keep staring at Zach as I lick the back of my hand and pour the little salt packet over the wet spot.
He gives me the finger.
I lift the shot glass up and take one more look around the room, at all these people who came here tonight to celebrate me, to congratulate me, to be with me.
I know that even if none of them showed up tonight, even if I was walking into Cheveluxe this week with nobody but me on my team, I’d still be blasting the doors open and taking haircutting school by storm. It still makes me feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have them all smiling at me now.
I lift the glass above my head and shout, “One for the road!”
The whole room shouts it back as I lick the salt and take the shot.
Most people have gone home by midnight. The last few pieces of cake are still sitting on their tray on the bar. I already ate three, and Zach tugs on my arm to stop me when I try to take another.
“But I waaaant it,” I whine.
I’m a little tipsy.
“You told me to do whatever it took to stop you if you tried to eat another piece.”
I smirk at him. “So what are you gonna do to stop me?”
We’re standing by ourselves at the bar. After cutting the cake and having a few drinks, everybody crowded onto the dance floor for a couple hours of shaking our booties to everything from top forty hits to hair metal. They even played some Cyndi Lauper.
Now it’s just me, Zach, and a few of the people we’re closest with. Monroe is out later than I’ve seen her in a long time, cuddled up with her boyfriend on one of the couches. Roxy, Cole, Dylan, Renee, and Paige are playing some kind of game where they try to flip beer coasters over. Dylan does something they all seem to be impressed by, and I turn back to Zach as the group cheers.
“So? What are you going to do?” I pretend like I’m going in for the cake again.
“Hmmm.” He taps his finger on his chin. “Maybe this.”
Then he scoops me up and lifts me to sit on the bar while I squeal.
“Hey!” Monroe calls out. “No sexual activity on my bar.”
Zach tells her he’s trying to stop me from eating cake. I just flip her off.
“You two are crazy,” she replies, “and adorable.”
Zach and I are officially the cutest couple Taverne Toulouse has ever seen. I like to announce that to the whole bar every now and then. It’s kind of become a thing for us ever since I first got up on the railing on the pier and shouted at those tourists. Zach pretends to get embarrassed, but I know how much it means to him when I stand up and tell the world we’re together, and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
Monroe goes back to her cuddle session. The others are too busy with their game to notice us.
“I’m even closer to the cake now,” I remind Zach.
“Yeah, but now it’s easier for me to do this.”
He steps between my thighs and squeezes one with his hand as the other reaches up to pull my head down into a kiss. He has me turned on and desperate in just a few seconds.
“Still thinking about the cake?”
“Quoi?” I ask, blinking my eyes open to stare at his mouth and think about how much I wish it was kissing me again.
He chuckles. “It seems my strategy was effective.”
“Oh!” I try to shake some of the tipsiness out of my head, but I think I’m more drunk off him than the beer. “Right! The cake. Yes, I still want the cake.”
“Hmm.” He frowns. “You sure?”
I nod, squirming with anticipation over whatever he’s going to do to me next. “I really want the cake.”
“If you want it that bad, maybe I should let you have it.”
I pretend to pout. “I told you not to. You have to protect me from myself. I’m going to eat the whole thing if you don’t stop me.”
He has this very cute and very sexy mischievous gleam in his eyes.
“You do really seem to want it, though. Maybe I should give you some.”
I don’t know where this is going, but I like it.
“Well, maybe...”
Before I even have a chance to realize what he’s doing, he’s grabbed a piece of cake with his bare hand and shoved it into my face.
“TABARNAK!” I scream once the piece falls with a plop on the floor, leaving me with a face so full of icing it’s hard to open my eyes. “You put cake in my face!
The whole room explodes with laughter and gasps. I wipe my eyes and mouth off before glaring at Zach.
“Cake! In my face! You put cake in my face!”
“You were asking fo—”
I lean over and snatch a piece of cake for myself, slamming it into his face before he can stop me.
“HA!” I shout as everyone cheers for me.
Zach blinks his eyes open and stares at me in shock. I didn’t get as much icing on him as he did on me, but I still did a pretty good job.
“Okay, I guess I deserv—”
I cut him off by pressing my lips to his, kissing him hard. I hear everyone whooping behind us, but it sounds like it’s coming from far away. When I’m kissing Zachary Hastings, the whole maudit world can wait. The kiss tastes like icing and batter and him. I’ll never get over the way he tastes. I’ll never get over him. I’ll never get over us.
I’d be lying if I said that didn’t scare me a little, but there are things that are so much stronger than fear, things I feel roaring in my chest every time I look at him.
“Zach,” I murmur when we break apart. My arms are around his neck, and my legs have hooked around his waist. “I love you.”
It’s not the first time I’ve said it, but he looks just as totally awestruck every time I do.