Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Cam
I pick up my wineglass and lean back into the oversized chair in Margie and Cornelia’s apartment.
“I can’t do this,” I state as I drown my sorrows in wine.
It’s only been twenty-four hours since I made the cookies for Fletcher McDowell and I’m already in deep regret about my decision to work with him.
“Sure you can,” Margie encourages. “You’re in the thick of it now. You just need to see it through, win the damn contest, and take all that money to invest in your business.”
“No, you need to weasel your way onto his good side. Find out all the branding and menu stuff for that new store and then we rebrand you in a way that usurps anything they can do,” Jocelyn says.
We all turn to look at her.
“What? I love a good rivals-to-lovers story,” she says with a shrug.
“This isn’t a rivals-to-lovers story, Joc. It’s my actual life,” I groan.
Cornelia pats my leg. “Sweets, you just need to focus on winning. Let us brainstorm ways to build your business. Margie and I have hoards of time on our hands, don’t we?” She turns to her best friend.
“Speak for yourself. I have a date on Friday,” Margie huffs as she reaches for her wineglass.
Roxy and Carly giggle and I roll my eyes. “Let’s just talk about something else, anything else. I need to take my mind off the café for one night. I’m already nervous about leaving Adriana over there by herself tonight to close.”
“She’ll be fine. I mean I let Joc close all the time,” Roxy teases and Jocelyn flicks her off.
“Hutch figure out who leaves those flowers every day on the park bench yet?” I ask.
Roxy shakes her head. “Nope. He thought it was Troy the other day. He followed him on his walk. And then Al and then Bray on one of his runs. Oh, and that guy who lives two doors down.”
We all look at her with scrunched faces as we try to figure out which guy. “Who?” I ask.
“You know, that weird guy who always wears sweater vests even when it’s summer,” she says.
“Oh, that’s Wayne. And yes, he is weird,” Margie states.
“What about Herb or that woman…” Carly trails off as she thinks. “The one with the bright purple hair.”
“Denise?” Margie asks.
“No. The other one,” Carly says as there’s a knock at the door. She gets up and opens it to let Jessa in.
“What’d I miss?” Jessa asks as Margie pours her some wine.
“We’re guessing the flower person again,” I state.
“Oh. I love that game. What about Mr. Jenkins next door?” Jessa asks.
“No, he’s too grumpy,” Jocelyn says. “I saw him push Licorice out of the way with his cane last week.”
“What? If he so much as touches a hair on my baby’s head again, I will throw down,” Roxy says, her jaw clenching.
I start laughing. “Mr. Jenkins is like ninety. What are you going to do? Take his cane?”
She rolls her eyes. “No. But I’m not above yelling at him. I don’t care if he’s one hundred.”
We’re all quiet for a moment as we consider who it could be. Hutch has been so obsessed with this over the past year. I feel like he’s using it as a distraction but I don’t think anything is wrong in his life.
“Why does Hutch care so much about this?” I ask, voicing my thoughts aloud.
Everyone shrugs. “I think he’s bored,” Jocelyn says.
“Bored? He’s always so busy. I think he wants to be the one that finds the answer,” Roxy suggests.
“I think Hutch is a closet true crime fan,” Carly muses.
“You all are crazy. Hutchinson is just a good boy trying to do a good deed,” Margie declares.
We all giggle.
“I’m not sure he’s all good. Didn’t he, like, get caught with his teammate’s girlfriend?” Roxy asks.
“No way. It was his teammate with his girlfriend,” I say.
Roxy’s and Jocelyn’s eyes widen.
“Damn,” Jocelyn says.
“Yeah. It was pretty fucked up. I only know that because he once mentioned it to Drew during guys’ night and Drew told me,” I say.
“Yeah, Bray said something similar,” Carly agrees.
“Anyhoo, enough about the men in our building. We need to figure out how we can get intel on McDowell’s,” Roxy says.
Everyone is silent for a moment as we each consider the best way for me to go about finding details on what this new McDowell’s will serve.
I have given a lot of thought to ways to differentiate myself from them, but without knowing what they plan on doing, it’s hard to predict.
McDowell’s is known for making each location unique.
They aren’t a cookie-cutter type of store, so the predictability isn’t there.
“Hear me out,” Jocelyn starts and we all turn to her. “What if…you sleep with him.”
My eyes widen. “W-what?” I manage. Piper is sitting in the corner and she giggles.
Jocelyn waves her hands in a “simmer down” motion and speaks again. “Why not take the whole keep-your-enemies-closer thing all the way? There are so many great spy stories in history where women spies slept with men to get access to their secrets. So, what if you become a spy.”
Sadly, she’s not wrong about that. There are plenty of those stories on and off the big screen. I just don’t think I could do it.
“I don’t know,” I say. “That seems…I don’t think I could do it.”
She frowns. “OK. What about just seducing him a little?”
Carly starts laughing. “What does a little mean?”
“Like, turn on the Cam charm. Make him think with his dick instead of his brain. Maybe he’ll slip up and spill some secrets,” Jocelyn says.
Roxy elbows her.
“Ouch! What was that for?” Jocelyn says, glaring at her boss and friend.
“You have got to stop reading mafia romance books,” Roxy says with a roll of her eyes.
Jocelyn shrugs and pulls out her phone, typing away for a few seconds. “I mean, you have to admit. The man is hot as fuck,” she says as she turns her phone around. Roxy swipes it from her hand and whistles.
“OK, yeah, maybe we revisit the sleeping-with-him thing,” Roxy says as she looks at some photos of him.
“Not happening. He’s a billionaire-heir playboy asshole.
No way. I don’t care…” I trail off as Roxy turns the phone around and I’m greeted by a photo of Fletcher McDowell in only his underwear.
It’s clearly a paparazzi photo. He’s on a rooftop deck with earbuds in and a phone in his hand.
But it’s not his surroundings that draw my attention.
Nope. That would be his perfect male physique and the enormous bulge in his gray boxer briefs.
“You were saying?” Jocelyn teases.
Carly leans forward and gulps. “I think you should take one for the team,” she whispers in a breathy voice.
Roxy gives her a little shove.
“What? I mean…I know I haven’t had any in a while but look at that man,” she says as she glances over her shoulder at Roxy who just nods.
“Let me see,” Margie insists as she holds out her hand. Jessa and Cornelia lean forward and the three of them all look at the photo as their eyes widen.
“Wow,” Margie says after a beat.
“Wow? More like hubba hubba,” Cornelia says. We all giggle at her words.
Jessa looks over at me. “What is your plan?”
I sigh and consider all the things I’ve thought about so far.
“I think I need to call a truce, and then once I have his trust, I’ll start asking about the new place, little by little until I get a better picture of what it will be.
Then, I need to come up with my own marketing campaign and adjust bakery items and such. ”
“OK, how will you gain his trust? He’s a playboy, but he’s not stupid,” Roxy says.
I nod. “I know. I—”
“Mom!” Ava yells out her window.
Carly pokes her head out of Margie and Cornelia’s window. “Ava, so help me. Get your head back in your room right now.”
“But, Mom, I need you to text Unca Bray and tell him I can have a second cookie,” she whines.
“Ava, go brush your teeth. It’s bedtime,” Carly screams.
“But, Mom,” she whines.
“Sorry, Carly. I got this,” Bray’s voice calls out.
“Do you? Because it does not sound like it,” she says as she leans out the window and stares in the direction of her apartment.
“Yep, all is good. Someone is a little sour about no second cookie tonight,” he replies.
“Yeah. Tell me about it. I’ll be up in an hour,” she says.
“Take your time,” he replies.
Carly pops her head back into the apartment. And suddenly, I have an idea.
“I need to win over his family,” I state.
“Huh?” Carly says in confusion as she sits back down.
“Think about it. We all trust each other because we’re like family, right?” I start.
Everyone nods. “So, if I can win over his family, he’s more likely to trust me.”
Piper finally pipes up. “Project Infiltrate the McDowell Family starts now. We need a plan for you. These are billionaires. They aren’t just going to trust any old person.”
Everyone stares at Piper, mostly because she’s got a point.
“What? I watch a lot of reality television shows with rich people,” she says with a shrug.
“Alright, what’s your plan, then?” I ask her and she grins as she rubs her hands together.
“We need to do some reconnaissance and I know just the hacker to help us,” she says with a grin and a wink as she motions to Kasen’s apartment across the hall from this one. Dear God, what am I about to do?