“Dang it,” Luca says, waving his hand in front of his eyes. “Got us all choked up, boss.”
We all laugh.
“Okay. Let’s get to work.”
“One more question?” Casper asks.
“Sure.”
“We’re invited to the wedding, right?”
Smiling, I nod. “Of course.”
Briar
I’m setting up my workstation for the day when Saint comes in. He let me start later to get over my weekend, which I’m really grateful for. I couldn’t handle starting at five in the morning today.
“Hey, Briar. How was the wedding?”
“Hi, Saint. It was really good. Is it possible to pull everyone together for like five minutes? I’d rather update everyone at the same time.”
“Sure, but do you have a few minutes first? I’ve been wanting to talk to you.”
“Oh. Of course.” I follow him down the hall to his office, slightly worried. Maybe my work slacked while I was distracted with all this wedding stuff?
“Have a seat,” Saint says.
I sit across from the imposing man, nervous as fuck.
“I’ll get right to it, Briar. I have an opportunity to expand the bakery.”
“Okay.”
“I’ve been thinking about it for a while. When I originally opened the shop it was for the Latin pastries, but over time it’s taken on a life of its own, and it’s hard to balance it all. I can’t do everything.”
“Of course not.”
“My idea was to expand into the shop next door. It’s been empty for a while, so I negotiated with the landlord. I want to separate the special occasion side.”
“That’s my role.”
“Right.” He smiles. “I want to offer it to you. To run the shop, hire the bakers you need, book the events. All that.”
My eyes widen. “What?”
“You’re more than capable, Briar. You have exacting standards, and you do the majority of the baking anyway. I’ve seen the way you interact with customers, and I like it. I trust my brand with you. I’m bringing in a formal accountant now that we’re big enough to support it, so it would just be day to day operations. I’ll train you.”
“You want me to run your new shop?”
“I do. My idea is that it’s by appointment only, maybe once a week open to the public for select offerings. Then this bakery can focus on the Latin offerings. We’ll bust an opening through so we can easily move back and forth. You can take Gen. He’s a great baker.”
“Oh my god.” My breath is heavy in my chest. “I can’t believe this.”
Saint scrunches his face. “I can’t tell if you're happy or terrified.”
I finally laugh. “I’m happy, Saint. Sorry. I just…I never thought of myself as someone who could do this.”
“That’s a funny thing about life. We don’t always see ourselves the way others do.”
“Very true in my case.”
“It would be a few months before it’s operational, but if you accept, you’ll shift from hourly to salaried, and I think you’ll be very happy with the amount I’m thinking. It’s more than double what you make now.”
“Seriously?”
“It’ll be a lot of work, Briar. You can’t just power bake all day. You’ll be handling a lot more, but I think you’re ready for it. What do you say?”
A million thoughts go through my head. Michael’s voice telling me I was complacent, lazy, not willing to level up. Jude telling me I’m smart and can do anything I want. My parents telling me I can have anything I want if I just accept it.
“Yes. I’m ready for this Saint. Thank you for believing in me. It means a lot.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad you’re on board. I didn’t want to distract you before the wedding. It all went okay?”
“Better than okay.”
“Well good. Let’s go pull the group together. You can share your update, and I’ll share mine.” He extends his hand and I shake it. “I’m excited about the future.”
“So am I.”
We walk back to the main part of the bakery. I’m so excited, and I can’t wait to tell Jude. As soon as I can, I’m running across the street.
Everyone gathers, watching both Saint and me.
“Briar has an update from the weekend.”
I laugh, nodding. “It was very successful, thanks in part to all of you for helping me and Jude pull it off.” I pause for a second. “Um, Michael was still very much Michael and we had some words on Saturday night. He actually tried to hit on me even with his fiancé present.”
“What a dickhead,” Tate says.
“Twat waffle,” Gen adds.
“Loserville,” Cairo says. “Did you blast him?”
“I didn’t have to. His fiancé overheard.”
“Oh, snap,” Cairo says, dramatically.
“Are you okay?” Saint asks.
“Oh, yeah. I’m amazing. Sunday morning Michael and his fiancé wanted to talk to me and Jude. Michael admitted some pretty heavy shit that caused a lot of his bad behavior, and he apologized to me for the things he did. It felt good in a way. Like it wasn’t because I didn’t matter or wasn’t good enough. It’s because he doesn’t know how to accept love. He didn’t want to lose Patrick the way he lost me, so he admitted his troubles and they’re gonna try to work through it.”
“Interesting,” Tate says. “How do you feel now?”
“Good. It was nice to have that closure. I felt like I can put it all behind me.”
“So, they bought the fake fiancé thing, huh?” Cairo asks.
I nod. “We were very convincing. So convincing it was hard to remember we were acting…until we both realized we weren’t.”
Gen’s eyes widen. “What are you saying, Bri?”
“Jude told me he’s in love with me.”
Tate throws his arms in the air. “I knew it! The last time we were out I was positive Jude was catching feelings.”
“You were right.”
He crosses his arms with a smug look on his face. “You all owe me coffee.”
“We never agreed to that bet,” Gen says. “For the record, I believed it too, but I didn’t think he would cross over so easily.”
Cairo grins. “I’m shook. I thought he was just a really good actor.”
Saint chuckles. “I wasn’t present for this discussion.”
“Anyway,” Tate continues. “He’s in love with you?”
“He is, and I fell in love with him ages ago. Probably. I just didn’t think it could ever happen, so I shoved it down.” I smile, feeling my cheeks burn with heat. “But we had a very real weekend getting to know each other on a different level.”
“Oh, that sounds like some brown chicken brown cow,” Gen says, shaking his hips.
“Let’s just say Jude was paying attention to our lessons.”
“Nice,” Cairo says, offering his hand for a high five. “You deserve it, Bri. Jude’s a good guy.”