Chapter 17
IN A RUT
“Why do you seem so out of sorts today?” Tonya asked.
She turned and looked at her coworker.
The one who got her spinning in this crazy vortex dating world that she was trying to navigate.
Not that she was doing that great a job at it either, but she was damn well trying.
“I’m not,” she argued.
“You’ve been quieter than normal,” Tonya said. “You’ve been that way for a week. Normally you’re all geeked out about things going on here.”
She wouldn’t take offense to that comment. There was no reason to.
She loved her job and if she got excited over it, then she did.
Her employers loved her commitment and enthusiasm.
“We all have days,” she said, her head down looking through the microscope again. She wanted to have some time to herself. She had a plan to make something and didn’t want a lot of questions.
Not that people questioned her when she was baking at work.
She could just mix this in with a project. A few extra wouldn’t hurt in the least.
Kind of her part of trying too.
It’d be a nice gesture in her eyes, and she’d bet that Dean would appreciate that she’d thought of Jonah too.
“Most do, but you don’t,” Tonya said. “You are almost always annoyingly chipper.”
She was.
And she hated that since she’d met Dean she stopped that.
She’d been so caught up in trying to be someone else over her clothing, that she forgot about the person she really was.
There was nothing wrong with being excited and happy over changes. Even nervous.
But the tears, the frustration, even the self-pity. She wiped all of that out of her life years ago.
“You know what,” she said. “You’re right. Maybe I was just in a rut, but I’m not going to be anymore.” She felt a smile fill her face. “I guess sometimes we need someone to point those things out to us.”
Tonya left a few minutes later and Molly got back to work, then finished what she’d had planned for the day.
Hours later, she was in her house and trying to figure out what to wear.
Nothing super sexy this time.
That’d be over the top.
It’s like she’d said to him before, he got sex, maybe he felt he didn’t have to work as hard.
But she wasn’t going to play those games.
She wasn’t going to work hard either.
She was going to be herself, and that meant what her sisters had been telling her to do.
After her shower, she kept her hair down with a slight wave to it. No reason for it to be slicked back. He’d seen it in a messy ponytail.
She’d checked out the restaurant, just wanting to see their dress style since she’d never been there before. Other than her few new clothes, she didn’t have much.
But she had a pair of cotton pink pastel pants. They were baggy on her and when she put on her normal wide shirts, she looked as if she didn’t know her size.
She pulled them on, then found a fitted white T-shirt that she normally only wore under things, but this time was going to let it hug her body, then the elastic waist of her pants going over the bottom of the shirt.
Her shoe collection wasn’t that massive. A bunch of flats and her sexy nude pumps, which didn’t feel appropriate with this outfit, so she pulled out a pair of chunky wedges that she hardly ever wore. In white, they actually would go well and the pants would cover them a bit.
There, her old wardrobe, but done up a bit more. A bit more stylish.
But with a flare of confidence that she needed.
When there was a knock on her door twenty minutes later, she took a deep breath, composed herself as much as she could and marched to open it.
“You’ve seen him naked. He’d seen and tasted parts of you no one else has. You’ve got this.”
And when the heat filled her face, she realized maybe she shouldn’t have given herself those words as a pep talk.
“Hi,” he said, pushing pastel flowers out toward her.
Holy shit, no one had given her flowers before. Not even her father.
Don’t cry. Don’t cry.
“Wow,” she gushed. “Those are pretty.”
“Looks like fate again. It matches your outfit. I like it. You look fresh.”
She smiled, her head dipping down and inhaling the scent of the bouquet in front of her. “Thanks. Come in while I put these in water. I’ve got something for you too.”
“You do?” he asked. She thrust the white box at him. “What’s in it?” he asked.
“Cupcakes.” There were six of them in there.
He opened the lid. “Did you make these or buy them? They are huge and look fantastic.”
They were decorated but not anything professionally. She didn’t have that much talent. At least not when it came to food and design.
“I did,” she said. “This afternoon.”
“When did you find the time? Or did you get out early again?”
She grinned. “I actually made them at work.”
The deep sound of his laughter spread chills of arousal on her skin. “You get to bake at your job? I mean, to take home like this?”
“It’s part of one of my projects. Don’t worry, though I’ve got a few hidden ingredients in these, they aren’t anything that is outrageous or nasty that I’m trying to camouflage.”
“Do I even want to know?”
She laughed. “Probably not, but remember I joked about Brussels sprouts cookies once.”
“Yeah.”
Because she hadn’t wanted to bore him too much.
“It was one of the projects I was working on. To make pistachio cookies—store-bought ones for a big brand—healthier. Since they were green I was trying to freeze dry different cruciferous vegetables and then grind them up and mix them in the batter.”
“Like turnips and mustard greens?”
“Oh, mustard greens. I’ve got to try that. Even turnips might work.” He cringed. “Funny how you went with those vegetables. Most say cabbage or broccoli when I mention cruciferous.”
He seemed to hesitate over his answer and she didn’t know why. “We had a lot of vegetables in my house growing up. My sister went through a vegan stage.”
“I try to tell people all the time a well-rounded diet is the best, but to each their own.”
“So I’m going to guess your cookies were a failure? You used Brussels sprouts?”
“Yes, and you should see your face. I thought they were good but I like Brussels sprouts. Anyway, they bombed big time. Matter of fact that failure led to the blind date bet I lost, ultimately bringing me to your bar. Now I guess it really wasn’t a failure.
Anyway, these are cupcakes with a few spices in them.
We’ve got a client who wants us to test the packaging and the ingredients.
It’s one of those mason jar things, so they are trying to figure out how long they last in the jars, how it bakes afterward, different spices and so on.
Those are chocolate with spices and cream cheese frosting.
I’m not sure if Jonah can have them, but that is why there are so many. ”
“That actually sounds pretty interesting,” he said. “And he’ll love them. That was sweet of you to think of us.”
“I like baking. And I thought it’s kind of my olive branch too. Like you with the flowers.”
He nodded. “If you’re ready, we can go and you can tell me more about this project that led you to bring cupcakes to me.”
“I don’t want to bore you.”
“You’re not.”
She grabbed her purse, put it over her shoulder and followed him out.
“You just don’t get answers overnight. We have to have them stored and labeled and tested to see when they might go bad, when they don’t bake as well.
Anyway, when I was testing one of them, I put my own spin on the ingredients.
They ask us to do that too. Do you want to know what I added to it? ”
“Yes,” he said.
“I’m geeking out over this, and I’ll stop. They tell me at work I’m always so excited over the weirdest things.”
“You be you,” he said.
“I hope you like spice. I put ginger, cinnamon, a little bit of cayenne pepper.”
“Those sound great. I can’t wait to have one.”
“We can leave them here so they don’t melt in the car. Or the frosting doesn’t. Just remind me when you bring me back to grab them.”
And it would have him coming back to her place too. No sex today. That isn’t happening. But she wanted a kiss for sure.
“It still sounds good. It seems like you enjoy your job.”
“Of course,” she said. “So many people don’t. What a waste of our lives if we are stuck doing what we hate.”
“You’re right. You’re absolutely right.”