Chapter 6
chapter six
Caeli.
I had been distracted most of the day. The crowd for Indie Love was insane. Although the readers visited us in groups, so the flow was broken up throughout the day, several of the authors showed up that morning to purchase certificates to hand out for readers to come by and pick up a free cupcake with a book purchase over a certain amount. Since they were buying them in bulk, we offered our eight dollar specialty cupcakes for five dollars and at twenty certificates per the six authors that purchased them, we started our morning with six hundred dollars in sales.
By the end of the day we cashed out at a little over two grand, which had me and Ami both exhausted but grinning from ear to ear.
“I can’t believe we survived that crowd,” Ami huffed exhaustedly after packing away the last empty container.
“Me either, I think I’m going home to crawl up under the bed,” I groaned.
“I want to but I promised Ty I would be at UrbanEats.”
UrbanEats was created by Jordan Powell. He wanted to bring together a society of foodies who were also entrepreneurs that would meet and discuss their love for fine cuisine as well as life issues and their business ventures. Ami suggested we join to further our networking opportunities and so far the juncture was successful. Even if I didn’t commit as much as Ami, we formed bonds with several other locals who had a shared interest in community and business growth.
“She’ll understand.”
“I know, but as tired as I am, I’m actually looking forward to it, so I’m going. It’s only once a month so if I miss tonight, I’ll have to wait an entire month for the experience and tonight is an all-white affair. You know I’m going to kill it.” She smiled arrogantly. “Oh and when I was at the permit office applying for Indie Love yesterday, I grabbed the list of other events they have out here. You know if we apply for all of them, we could make this kind of money on the regular.”
“It won’t always be this easy though. Don’t forget the authors purchased vouchers to give to their readers, which meant guaranteed sales. That won’t always be the case.”
Right after winding down the week out here at Food Alley, Camilla saw the article in the Business Consortium stating they had six permits left for Indie Love. We got one. Winning over the secret shoppers for the week out here, then being able to be one of the select food vendors for Indie Love, had my sister feeling like anything was possible. I believed that as well but had to be more practical when it came to business. We kept each other balanced.
“It can be. What if we present the same offer to the other event holders? They can buy certificates to give the customers for their events as giveaways or just something special. Especially if we create a cupcake that focuses just on their event.”
I arched a brow at Ami who had gone back to packing up what was left of our inventory, which was less than two dozen cupcakes.
“Are you venturing into the business side of things?”
“No, well just with the idea, that’s your area of expertise. Baking is my happy place. I’ll let you work out the logistics of how it should work but I think it’s a good idea.”
“It’s a great idea, Ami. Guaranteed sales are the way to go. If all we have to do is hand out products already paid for, it cuts down on our workload. And if we can sell the certificates beforehand, we can better gauge product and production. Give me the list of events and I’ll take a look and see how we can navigate reaching out to the event planners. I’ll put some proposals together and…”
“Lee, slow down. You don’t have to figure it out tonight. Let your brain rest, we just had an amazing day. You’re allowed to absorb the moment. Or just go home and crawl under the bed like you planned. However you choose to celebrate is fine by me, just celebrate and don’t move on to the next thing just yet. Let this settle in. You deserve a moment to press pause. We deserve it. Today was amazing.”
I wanted to complain but she was right. The planning could wait. I needed to embrace today’s success before moving on to the next challenge.
“Okay fine, I’ll only mentally plan while I’m enjoying a glass of wine and a long hot bath.”
“You’re hopeless.”
I shrugged. “This has to work. I’m motivated .”
“It will work. Today should be proof. Can you finish up here? I need to head home and jump in the shower so I can try to relax for a minute before I have to meet Ty.”
“Normally I would give you shit but we killed it today, so go. I got this.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure, embracing the moment means not complaining about you being a slack ass.” I stuck my tongue out.
Ami rolled her eyes. “I work much harder than you, so you could never complain about me being a slack ass.”
“This is me you’re talking about. I could complain about winning a million dollars and have you convinced that it was more of a burden than a blessing.”
“You have a point.” She grinned widely then turned to grab her things. “I’ll be out late.”
“Be safe, Ami.”
“Always.”
After my sister was gone, I finished wiping everything down and ran the subtotals for the day, grinning when the number flashed across the screen of my iPad and counted down the cash which I locked away in the bank bag and tucked into my messenger bag.
Forty minutes later, I was on my way to the car, carrying one plastic container of cupcakes, the only thing we had left. When I reached my vehicle and placed it on the roof of the car so I could unlock the doors, I almost had a mild heart attack when a figure dressed in all black dipped around me and leaned against my driver’s door. I noticed the Smoked & Spiced logo, however, and relaxed.
“What the hell is wrong with you? Maybe make some noise to offer a warning instead of creeping up on people in ninja mode.”
Brayden’s expression contradicted the scowl on my face when he offered a charming smile. Amusement danced in his eyes as he locked his arms over his solid chest. The simple motion had muscles expanding and the black cotton material that covered his upper body stretching to the point of offering more definition.
“My bad, I wasn’t trying to scare you. I thought you saw me when I crossed the parking lot.”
“Clearly, I did not. You should be more careful. Surprising people can potentially be dangerous.”
“For me or you?”
“You!” I glared and his smile expanded.
“Dangerous, how? You plan on assaulting me with puffed sugar?” He paused and reached for the container I left on the roof of the car, yanking off the lid before he angled his head as if trying to identify what he was looking at. “What kind is this?”
“Lemon zest.”
“Oh word?” He tucked the lid, balanced the container with one arm, and lifted a cupcake, taking a huge bite.
I watched his face, eager to see his thoughts. Ami was the baker but because of the increased production, I helped with some of the batches. She did the decoration because that was more of her thing and I wasn’t great with it, but the cake part wasn’t so difficult if I followed her recipes. The lemon zest he just sampled was from the batches I baked.
“Damn, this is good.”
My insides smiled.
“Did you think it wouldn’t be?”
He yanked the paper down with his teeth, since he was only working with one hand, so he could take another bite. Why was that sexy? Because I’m twisted and addicted to this man.
“I didn’t think about it at all,” he said before his tongue pushed through his lips and swiped the bottom one, removing some of the icing left there. “And before you get stuck in your feelings, I’m not big on sweets, so thinking about how good they taste wouldn’t be on my to-do list.”
“Well I’m glad you approve, now if you don’t mind, please give me that and move away from my car. Today was incredibly tiring and I’d like to go home to relax.”
“That’s going to have to wait.”
“Wait? Unless you plan on kidnapping me then I’m most certainly going home to relax.”
The way his eyes flashed with mischief had me internally groaning. I could see him plotting how to kidnap me, just to irritate my entire soul. Not that I felt he would do me any harm. “If the only way I get the dinner you promised is to kidnap you, then I’m not above the idea of by any means necessary .”
“You’re impossible.”
“You love my impossibility.”
“I don’t even like you. Your comprehension skills are terrible. There is no dinner. You misrepresented yourself. I don’t entertain men who are committed to other women.”
“That’s right, the girlfriend thing.”
My eyes narrowed as I yanked the plastic container from him, but not before he managed to snag one more cupcake.
“That’s right, the girlfriend thing and I’m sure she wouldn’t appreciate being called a thing as if she’s not important enough to be more than just an afterthought.”
Why was I defending a woman I had a serious dislike for when I didn’t know a damn thing about her?
What you know is she’s dating the man you’re unfairly attracted to, good enough reason not to like her…
I hit the locks on my car, yanked the lid for the container from Brayden, and snapped it back in place before I pulled open the rear door of my car, placing the cupcakes and my messenger bag inside and lifting my eyes just in time to catch Brayden finishing off the last of the stolen contraband.
He pushed away from my car and stepped into my personal space. I like the feeling of him being close a little too much. There was a light smoky scent that lingered on his skin from being in the food truck but I could also still gauge his cologne and both brought out thoughts of hardworking and sexy.
“I need to head home to shower but I was thinking we could go to Greetings and Salutations.”
“Thinking is good , thinking illogical thoughts is not . Why on earth would I meet you at Greetings and Salutations?”
He edged closer and my body buzzed with awareness when I lifted my chin and our eyes met. “Because you owe me dinner. Mel is one of my best friends, not my girlfriend, and more importantly, because you really want to have dinner with me.”
That stupidly arrogant smile was on his face which sparked a round of defiance. He was right but I refused to give in.
“Again, your comprehension skills are subpar. I do not want to have dinner with you. Girlfriend or not. Have a good evening, or don’t. Doesn’t really matter.”
I attempted to reach around him to get my door open but he yanked me into his frame to move me out the way and opened it instead.
“My comprehension skills are just fine, as is my perception. “Greetings and Salutations at eight, Sugar Princess. I’ll be there waiting and if you don’t show up, I’ll come find you.” He released me, winked, and walked away and I stood there dumbfounded watching him knowing two things.
That man was an annoying combination of everything I liked which meant I would be at Greetings and Salutations honoring the bet I engaged in with Brayden.