Chapter Nine
When perfection is standing right there , you reach for it.
Will
“What are you wearing?” Roman asks, answering the door for me bright and early Monday morning.
I look down, admiring my Valentine-red business suit. It took all weekend to find it and a hefty bribe to get it tailored in time for work today, the first day of the “Countdown to Valentine!!!”, as Brian’s email dubbed the next twenty something days.
I paired the suit with a very classy white button-down, black shoes, and a skinny black tie. I look good, if I do say so myself.
“It’s my cupid look,” I tell Roman, grinning. “Don’t you like it?”
Ruby looks up from where she’s putting on her coat over a very professional white blouse and crimson red pencil skirt. She’s tied some sort of flimsy black scarf around her neck, and I can’t help but grin at the sight.
We match!
“What’s he wearing?” she asks.
“His suit is red. The whole thing,” Roman answers.
“I look hot, Rubble. That’s all you need to know,” I add.
She snorts.
“We have to wear red for work today,” she explains to her brother. “Or Mr. Warrick will fire us.”
His usually grumpy face gets even grumpier.
“He’s going to fire you?”
“No,” she says slowly. “Because I’m wearing red.” The ‘duh’ is implied.
His face relaxes.
“Ah,” he says. “Do I need to talk to someone for you?”
She glares. “Of course not,” she snaps.
His hands go up, placating.
“We’re not going to be able to stop for coffee if we don’t get going,” I warn Ruby, who looks to be gearing up for a tried-and-true little sister lecture about how he needs to mind his beeswax. “You can yell at Roman later.”
She huffs, snatching up her cane and moving to the door.
“Love you,” she mumbles to Roman.
He hooks an arm around her neck, dragging her in for a hug.
“Love you, too, munchkin.”
My eyes crinkle. They’re so cute.
“Do I get a hug too?” I ask when they’re separated, holding my arms out.
Roman rolls his eyes, but acquiesces, pulling me into his warm embrace.
I sigh.
“I love being the little one,” I comment.
He lets me go immediately.
“I love you. Goodbye,” he grunts, shoving us out the door and closing it in our faces.
“Well,” I say, turning to Ruby. “He’s in a good mood!”
“He perfected his apple cinnamon rolls,” she explains. “It’s made him practically giddy.”
I hum a happy agreement, carefully taking Ruby by the elbow to help her through the slush and ice to my car. “The red suits you, by the way. You’ve picked the perfect shade to complement your hair.”
I resist the urge, barely, to tug on one of her soft, crimson curls. I do, perhaps, lean in and sniff them.
If I am going to embrace the stalk, I might as well embrace the stalk.
“Did you just smell me?” she asks, nose wrinkled.
“You can have a whiff of me, too, if you’d like,” I offer. “I’m wearing your favorite cologne.”
Is her face red because of the cold, or because of me? Delusion says me.
And delusion and me? We’re old pals. I’m sticking by his side. If he says she’s blushing because of me, then I believe him.
“The cedar,” I continue, crowding her. “Go ahead. Deep inhale.”
She makes a show of holding her breath instead, and I laugh.
“That’s okay. You’ll be able to smell it plenty once we’re married.”
An outraged inhale.
“Aha!” Got her!
“You’re obnoxious,” she grumbles as we reach the car. I have her wait so that I can get the door for her, bowing extravagantly once it’s open, hoping she can see my outline against the white-gray of the wintry background.
“Your carriage, my love.”
She huffs, then climbs into what I know is a toasty warm seat, courtesy of the seat warmers I turned on for her during the drive over here. I close the door once she’s settled, careful not to catch her in it.
Once I’m in the driver’s seat and have triple checked that she’s buckled, a glance at the dash tells me we have just enough time to stop for a breakfast treat. Ruby concurs, so I head toward Sweet & Salty Downtown, the closest location to Whirlwind Branding.
Roman works at the uptown location, but Elodie, Ruby’s best friend, works downtown. Ruby practically buzzes in the passenger seat – legs bouncing, hands tapping – at the unexpected visit to see her bestie. It’s adorable. She’s adorable.
It takes a loop or five around the block before we find a parking spot, and we only finally snag one when Ruby digs through her massive tote bag to find her placard for a handicapped spot. “I’m not wasting precious Elodie time looking for a stupid parking space.”
The bakery isn’t too busy when we get inside, likely due to their pathetic coffee offerings. What they lack in coffee they more than make up for in baked goods, though.
Roman’s location is better – duh – but downtown has an almost as good baker, churning out delectable goodies every day. I’m salivating just entering the building, breathing in the ooey gooey, sugary air.
A squeal interrupts my sugar-air daze.
“Ruby!”
“Elodie,” Ruby replies with significantly less squealing. Significantly less being none at all, but she can’t fool me. She had bouncy legs, and she whipped out the placard. She’s totally squealing on the inside.
“What do you want?” Elodie asks, bouncing behind the counter. “I’ll get you anything. On the house!”
“ Not on the house,” Sol, Elodie’s brother and fellow worker, cuts in with a grin. “Sorry, Rubes, but even you have to pay.”
Elodie pouts, but Ruby only laughs.
“Hi, Sol,” she greets him, smile on full, wondrous display.
I stare, transfixed, at her rarely seen teeth.
Her canine demands my attention, as it does every time she blesses the world with a full-blown smile in my presence, and I marvel over the turn of it – a cute rebellion in the line of its straight, well-behaved brethren. I would do anything for that little crooked tooth.
“How’ve you been?” Sol asks as a cloud outside moves, uncovering the sun and creating the perfect halo of light in the bakery, which shines on him, highlighting his golden hair and knife-sharp cheekbones.
I transfer my awe from Ruby’s canine to Sol... Just… All of Sol.
The man may actually be a Greek statue come to life.
He reaches up to run his hand through his hair, tipping his head toward Ruby as she tells him she’s been wonderful, except for the misfortune that is seeing me every day. I don’t take offense. I’m too busy wondering if Sol could teach me how to make the light work for me half as well as it does for him. If I could control the light, I could always be backlit, the better for Ruby to see me!
Feminine fingers snap in front of my face.
“Stop drooling over Sol,” Ruby snaps. “A line is forming.”
A line for Sol’s love, I bet.
And I’m first.
“I’d like one Adonis, please, and a blueberry muffin.”
The muffins here are almost as delectable as the man serving them, piled high with streusel and flecks of sugar. I think they possibly put illegal drugs in the batter, but Roman won’t admit to any such thing. He claims they’re made with “years of education, experience, and talent,” whatever that means.
It’s totally drugs.
Ruby’s eyes roll as I make my bid for the beautiful creature before us, but Sol laughs, and making him laugh might just be enough to soothe the sting from the gentle rejection he gives me.
The beam of light fades away from her brother as Elodie, shaking her head, moves to get my muffin. Without his angelic glow, a single shred of my mental faculties return.
“That’ll be $4.32,” he tells me, but I gesture to Ruby.
“Hers too.”
“I can get my own-”
“And yet,” I interrupt. “I am going to get it instead.”
She pouts but doesn’t argue, likely because of the two people in line behind us tapping their feet and checking their watches. Can’t say I blame them. I’d be impatient too if a bickering couple was blocking my way to Sol.
“A muffin, also, and a raspberry tea.”
Sol nods, then gives me my new total. Ruby’s elbow in my side reminds me to pay after he makes eye contact with me, locking me in his cool blue gaze. I swear he can see into my soul. I can feel him in there, digging around.
“Marry me,” I beg as I tap my debit card against the reader. “I could make you a very happy man for the rest of our days.”
He laughs. Always with the laughter, never with the marriage.
I sigh.
“Don’t let me down easy,” I beg. “If you do, I will live in hope. You must crush me like a bug. Please, have mercy. Allow me to move on!”
More laughter, and not an ounce of crushing – except by me, because I am a hopeless fool.
“You’re going to give Sol all your stores of Ruby love?” Elodie asks.
I tsk.
“Of course not, sweet El. My heart has swollen to double its previous size. Plenty room for two loves. I would never dream of neglecting your dear friend – my truest love.” I bat my lashes at Ruby and sigh at the way her amused disdain makes a home on her face. If she could but see my fluttering, she’d be gone for me in the blink of an eye.
Alas, the powers that be have made my beauty utterly useless.
It’s probably for the best. If I were able to access the advantages my outer visage could afford me, I’d become incorrigible. And we certainly wouldn’t want that.
“Your muffins,” Elodie beams, handing them to us in a bag over the high counter. “And the tea.”
I thank her, winking, and pass Ruby’s drink to her.
“I’ve got the muffins,” I let her know. “You just hold on to your drink – and my heart, of course.”
“Half your heart, I heard,” she replies dryly, then bids farewell to Elodie and Sol.
I give them a wave as well, then brave the frigid, perfectionless world outside the café, far from the warmth of Sol’s presence.
After we’re safely buckled in the car, I pass the muffins to Ruby.
She holds them carefully in her lap, refusing to eat hers, even though I can hear her stomach rumbling. I’ve told her a million times she can eat in my car, but my stubborn love refuses. “I can’t see the crumbs to clean,” she says. “And I’m not wiping my hand around the floorboards where wet, snowy shoes have been.”
I sigh, hitting the gas to get us to the office so she can have her blueberry goodness.
“You didn’t get to really talk to Elodie,” I note.
She hums. “That’s okay. Just getting to hear her voice is a good start to my day.”
I take my eyes off the road only long enough to see the small tilt of her lips, eyes soft and full of love.
Okay, swoon. How much sweeter could she possibly get?
“We’ll have to start your day with her more often then,” I murmur, reaching over to squeeze her knee. “Whatever keeps that smile on your face.”
She swats my hand away.
“I’m going to dump your muffin out the window,” she threatens.
I grin.
“You’re so flirty today.”
The next swat hits my arm. Hard.
So worth it.