Chapter 4
4
Belinda lingered in the doorway, her gaze following Aaron as he walked to his vehicle. She admired the way his deputy’s uniform clung to his muscular frame. As he drove away, his glance met hers, and he returned her wave and smile. And if she wasn’t mistaken, he winked. Such a simple gesture, yet it filled her with eager anticipation for their date.
The click of the door’s lock echoed in the quiet bakery, and she turned to walk toward the back. Her feet stumbled at the sight of Bess leaning against the doorframe between the kitchen and the shop. Her sister’s exuberant smile lit up the room more than the afternoon sun.
“What are you staring at?” She tried to hide her own smile as she feigned innocence.
“My beautiful sister who has caught the eyes of a really good-looking guy, who also happens to have a good job, who also happens to be local, so it’s easy to know he’s a good guy, and?—”
Throwing up her hands, Belinda said, “Okay! Okay! I get it. There are a lot of goods in your analysis of my upcoming date.”
“Are you going to see him again?” Bess cried, her smile widening.
“Yes. He’s coming by tomorrow for some coffee before work.” Belinda tried not to laugh at her sister's fallen expression. “Oh, and I have a date for Friday night.”
Bess jumped up and down, clapping her hands, looking more like a teenager than a twenty-eight-year-old who runs her own business.
Sighing, Belinda ushered Bess back into the kitchen, looping arms with her. As she looked around, she could see that Bess already had the kitchen clean and the prep work for tomorrow finished. “You know, it’s not like it’s been forever since I’ve had a date.”
Bess nodded. “I know. It just seems like you and I don’t have great luck in the romance department. We have no trouble meeting guys. We have no trouble getting a date. But it’s hard as hell to make it to a second date, much less anything more. There’s little time when you’re running your own business.” She planted her hands on her hips and blew out a breath that pushed her curls away from her forehead. “And why is it that men, even in this day and age, seem to want the little woman to be available at their beck and call? As soon as someone figures out your schedule and realizes you can’t spend all your time waiting for them, they decide to move on to easier pastures.”
Belinda couldn’t help but laugh in the middle of Bess’s heartfelt tirade. “The saying is greener pastures.” Her sister had a habit of tossing out old sayings but somehow messing them up and creating her own. It was one of her many endearing qualities. That, and being unfailingly loyal.
“Easier… greener… whatever! I just mean that you and I haven’t found anyone willing to put in the work it actually takes to date someone.”
After another moment of silence, the two locked up the back door after taking out the trash. They walked up the steps to their apartments and stopped outside their doors.
“Well, at least, we can hope that Deputy Bergstrom wants to take a chance to get to know the real you.”
Belinda agreed with a nod and reached out to grab Bess’s hand. Giving it a little squeeze, she pulled her sister in for a hug. With good nights said, they each disappeared into their identical apartments.
As soon as Belinda stepped into hers, she glanced around and had to admit that other than the floorplan, she and her sister's apartments were not identical.
Her apartment stood in quiet contrast to her sister’s vibrant sanctuary. Bess would often spend her evenings experimenting in her kitchen. She had various cooking and baking books taking up space on the coffee table, her small dining table, and the kitchen counter. Bess’s interior was an explosion of bold colors, infusing every room with red, blue, and purple.
Belinda closed and locked her door and smiled as she looked around at her canvas of her life and interests, and the familiar calm enveloped her. She had not inherited the cooking gene, and her kitchen was functional, unlike her sister’s creative hub. With a one-bedroom apartment, there was no separate place for an office, so she opted for a large kitchen table that served mainly as a desk. Computers, monitors, and camera equipment filled most of the space, leaving only a small area for her to sit down to eat.
Her coffee table was filled with photography books and magazines. She kept her decorating palette neutral to be a backdrop for the framed nature photographs she’d taken and now hung on her walls. Her apartment was an extension of her soul… a place where light, shadow, and color all told stories without words.
For a while, she lost herself in editing the last photographs she’d taken, but soon, thoughts of her impending date encroached. Hitting save, she gave up and walked to her comfortable sofa, falling backward onto the cushions.
At thirty years old, she rarely returned her thoughts to high school, but now she gave way to the memories pushing in. Considering she and her sister never kept secrets from each other, Bess was the only person in the world who knew her secret adolescent crush had been Aaron Bergstrom.
She would surreptitiously watch him in the halls and often volunteered to take photographs of the football and baseball teams so she would have a few seconds to snap pictures of him. All while she stood on the sidelines. Since she was never invited to dances, she would volunteer to take pictures for the yearbook. Homecoming. Winter fling. Spring prom. Aaron was always with a different girl on his arm, and if he’d been an octopus, he could’ve easily had eight different girls vying to grab one of his tentacles.
That caused her to snort, and she sat up, pulling up her legs to prop them on the coffee table.
Aaron left a slew of broken hearts behind, but she never heard anyone say anything mean about him, and as much time as she secretly watched him, she never witnessed him being rude or mean to anyone. He was loyal to his girlfriend of the month… it seemed he never stayed with the same girl for long.
She leaned her head back and stared at the ceiling for a moment. “I am so ridiculous,” she said to the empty space in her apartment. “I’m giddy because I got asked out on a date. It’s not like that’s never happened before, but not with somebody I used to have a crush on years ago. God, I hope I don’t make a fool of myself!”
Turning on the TV, she immersed herself in the historical drama she’d been watching, glad to take her mind off Friday night. But by the time she showered and was ready for bed, she lay awake, her mind no longer on high school crushes but on the man she hoped she’d see the following morning in the coffee shop.