Chapter 5
FIVE
ADAM
Adam was starting to think that Simon could be right. Maybe he and Evie had been squealing accurately. Any time Adam had been anxious over the last three weeks, he’d consoled himself that these still weren’t dates, so it was okay.
But… he was pretty sure you didn’t think about kissing a friend—even a good friend—as often as Adam had started thinking about kissing Calder.
He was still scared, but every time Calder demonstrated that he was still interested in Adam despite everything, Adam couldn’t help but feel reassured.
Only… could it simply be because Calder wasn’t interested in Adam romantically?
Was he less annoyed because he was less invested?
This seemed like the most likely answer given the other interactions Adam had had in his life, except… Except the way that Calder looked at him sometimes made it hard for Adam to believe that everything between them was strictly platonic.
They’d hit a point where Simon checked in with him practically every day at work.
“Have you kissed him yet?”
And then Evie would holler from the front, “Well?”
Adam rolled his eyes. “Simon, if a kiss happens, you’ll be the first to know. Let’s be honest: you’ll probably work it out with one look at me. You don’t need to keep asking every day. Calder and I are friends.”
Simon slung a towel over his shoulder, his eyes twinkling. “Only I think I do need to keep asking, because there’s no harm in you getting extra reminders about what you’re missing out on. Maybe it’ll make you act faster.”
Adam was pretty sure that nothing could make him act faster.
Yes, he wanted to kiss the other man. He longed to know what his lips tasted like.
But what if Adam was wrong? What if everything between them really was platonic, and Adam had gotten everything backward, and instead of getting a kiss, he ruined the best friendship he’d ever had?
It couldn’t possibly be worth the risk.
And so Adam stewed, night and day.
Plus, it really was getting busier and busier at work.
Adam was glad of the business for Maggie’s sake—and his own, he supposed, since her success kept him employed—but he still wasn’t convinced that Valentine’s Day wasn’t a whole lot of pressure for not enough reward.
He was up to his ears in pink, red, and white icing, heart-shaped everything, and an unfortunate number of rose-shaped decorations, be they icing, fondant, or spun sugar.
He enjoyed making flowers within reason. In February, reason was abandoned.
On top of that, the more time he spent in the bakery getting ready for Valentine’s Day, the less time he was spending with Calder.
The wonderful man still seemed as understanding as always, but Adam worried there’d still be a tipping point.
And even if nothing went disastrously awry and thus defied the lessons that Adam had learned through his life, it meant that he was spending less time with Calder, and he didn’t like that at all.
He wasn’t sure that it was fair to say that all these feelings had sneaked up on him, since he’d been kind of low-key obsessed with the man since he first saw him, but Adam somehow hadn’t expected to be this invested.
He’d thought keeping everything platonic would help, but he wasn’t sure that was true anymore.
He should head to bed soon, but he was relaxing on the couch, not really watching whatever movie he’d turned on.
He perked up when his phone rang, despite the fact that Calder had told him he was busy tonight, and he deflated a little when he saw it was his dad calling—and then felt bad because of course he wanted to talk to his father. He swiped to answer.
“Hey, Dad, how’s it going?”
“Not so bad, kiddo, how are you?”
“Apart from the fact that I’m being buried in pink frosting, I’m okay.”
His dad laughed and groaned at the same time, sounding commiserating as he said, “This damn time of year.”
It wasn’t just because of the baking that Adam didn’t think much of Valentine’s Day, though it certainly hadn’t helped.
Sure, it was great when it went right, but it was awful when it went wrong.
And while they generally saw the positive side of it at the bakery—leaving aside how Adam felt about the workload and the commercialism—even there, they’d seen some Valentine’s go spectacularly wrong, including cakes, cupcakes, and other treats being smashed into people’s faces.
“You’re sure you’re okay?” Adam pursued.
“Yeah, of course,” his dad assured him. “You know me. I’m more worried about you working yourself to death covered in icing.”
Adam laughed. “At least they could say I was very sweet on my tombstone.”
His dad scoffed. “There is that. But you’re sure you’re not being overworked?”
“I’m fine,” Adam promised. “Joseph’s been really reliable compared to the last driver, which has left Simon and Evie able to do their jobs, which means I can do mine.”
Getting pulled up front because Simon had to do an emergency delivery had not been good for anyone.
“He’s the shifter, isn’t he?” his dad said suspiciously.
Adam rolled his eyes. “Yes. Joseph’s a great guy.”
“You know what shifters are like,” his dad warned. “Just because they seem attractive doesn’t mean—”
“Dad,” Adam protested, “that wasn’t an expression of interest. He’s twenty-one. He hasn’t even finished school. I’m just saying he’s kind and really nice.”
His dad was silent for a long moment before finally saying, “As long as you’re being careful.”
“I’m being careful,” Adam repeated dutifully.
For a wild instant, he considered mentioning Calder. But it felt a little ridiculous to tell his dad that he’d made a friend, and he couldn’t truthfully say anything more than that at this point.
“Okay, good,” his father said gruffly. “And at least we’ll get fifty percent off chocolate on the fifteenth.”
Adam made a pained sound, and his father laughed, as expected.
“I can ship you something,” Adam assured him. “Please don’t eat drugstore chocolate.”
They chatted for a few more minutes, the mood lighter.
“Love you, kiddo.”
“Love you, too, Dad.”
Adam stared at the phone for a long moment after they’d hung up. His dad had been alone for twenty-four years now. Adam didn’t want that pain… but he wasn’t so sure anymore that just being alone and skipping the heartbreak was what he wanted, either.
If only there was a way to guarantee avoiding it. Two witches couldn’t bond—but that hadn’t helped his dad.
He leaned back against the couch cushions, closing his eyes. If only life were straightforward.
In the two weeks before Valentine’s Day, they kept the shop open on Sundays.
Although Maggie did a lot of corporate events that kept Evie run off her feet, Valentine’s Day ensured a larger-than-normal proportion of individuals who were interested in the bakery, either for immediate consumption because sweet treats were on their mind, or in order to book something for Valentine’s Day itself.
(In addition to cakes and cupcakes, dozens of cookies that were heart-shaped or decorated with something romantic were particularly popular.)
Adam had always agreed to have the Mondays off and get the overtime from Sunday along with his extra-long hours on the other days of the week. Maggie made enough during this period to cover it, and Adam, disliking Valentine’s Day or not, didn’t have anything better to do.
For the first time since he’d started working at Divine Confections, he wanted all his days off.
He didn’t want to lose a day that he could be spending with Calder, but he couldn’t leave Maggie in the lurch now.
No one baked as well as he did, and it wouldn’t be fair to change the plan this close to the stupid holiday.
They were busy, and Adam was baking full out, making tray after tray of cookies and pan after pan of cake.
It was a good thing he’d gotten so good at the unbreakable and stasis charms. It was second nature to sketch the spell with his finger and then infuse it with his magic.
There was a brief moment where the spell hovered and glowed with magic, and then it sank into his baked good or kitchen equipment, and there was a much better chance that he wasn’t going to destroy anything today.
It was harder to maintain his concentration and focus when the speed picked up so much, and that meant more accidents were likely to happen.
They did happen, because Adam was Adam, but the equipment didn’t usually break, and sometimes the cookies even survived a fall, if it was the whole tray. It was more stressful than usual, that was for sure.
He was going to put his foot down next February. Yes, he’d make sure that they hired someone else, and he could spend more time with Calder, and…
Adam froze. Was he really thinking about next year? Was he planning his life around him and Calder still being friends and spending so much time together in a year? Did he actually… did he actually think Calder would like that?
Adam had spent most of his life watching people get annoyed with his clumsiness or not seem to find enough value in his friendship.
He hadn’t had close connections in school for the most part, and the best friends he had now were his coworkers—mostly because Simon was stubborn and didn’t take no for an answer.
Adam wasn’t sure when exactly it had happened, but he’d mostly started assuming that distance was the norm, and he didn’t let himself get his hopes up because there were only so many times he could handle being disappointed. But now he was… hopeful? Making positive assumptions?
The thing was, even recognizing he was doing it now didn’t bring the stir of panic that he’d half-expected.
Because Calder had defied all of his expectations from the moment he’d met the man.
He’d accepted Adam just the way he was, had accommodated his hours and busy times, and had made clear at every turn that he wanted to spend as much time with Adam as possible.