Chapter Fifteen
Aaron
I spent the day with my head in the clouds. I couldn’t stop thinking about my day yesterday, my night with Finn in my bed, and our morning together. And the smile on my face lingered all through my day at the hospital. I was working a twelve-hour shift—seven to seven—and for once, I was hoping to get off early… yeah, right.
“Okay, spill,” Evelyn said as she came over to fix a cup of coffee.
“What?” I asked.
She eyed me like I was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever seen. “You’ve been prancing around all day. What’s going on?”
I snorted. “I do not prance.”
She waved me away. “Sweetie, I’ve never seen you smile as much as you have today. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good look, but what, or should I say who, put that grin on your face? Did you get back together with Tad?”
I made a face. “No, it’s not Tad.” When I didn’t say anything else, she waved at me to continue. For some reason I was reluctant to tell anyone about Finn, as if it would somehow jinx it. But I knew that was absurd, and she’d just keep bugging me until I told her, anyway. So I said, “I ran into my… old boyfriend from high school.” I didn’t like the sound of calling him my ex-boyfriend. “And we’re… dating… again.”
She stared at me for a few seconds before asking, “Is this the guy you told me was the love of your life when you were drunk?”
I cringed at that. Evelyn had taken me out for drinks a few years back when we’d lost a patient. I was pretty sure I’d told her my life’s story by the time I was a few drinks in. I didn’t drink often, but when I did I became really… chatty.
I sighed. “Yeah, him. His name’s Finn.”
“Oh, honey, I’m so happy for you!” She was smiling brightly and patting my arm.
“Thanks.”
“Tell me about him.”
Before I could even open my mouth, we both got paged for an incoming ambulance. As we walked through the hall, she said, “I want a full report the next time we get a break.”
I chuckled at that.
***
I was still in a fantastic mood when I got off work. Evelyn must’ve asked me about a billion and a half questions about Finn. Once I’d started talking about him, it was kinda nice to share and hard for me to shut up about him. I was beyond excited to be picking him up. Of course I didn’t get off work early like I’d hoped—what did I expect? I never got off early. But I was still so freaking eager to see him. So rather than drive all the way home to shower and change, I showered at the hospital and changed into an extra outfit I kept there. Then I headed straight to the bakery, even though Finn still had at least an hour of work left. I was hoping that my coming there early wouldn’t be an issue.
When I walked into the bakery, Layla was helping a customer, but she sent me a bright smile. I waited until the customer left before heading to the counter.
“Hey, it’s good to see you,” she said. “You wanna come back? Finn’s finishing up an order.”
“Oh, you think that’s okay?” I still wasn’t sure if I should bother him while he was working.
She huffed out a little laugh. “Yes, it’s fine.” She waved me around the counter. “Come on, then.”
I hesitantly followed her through the door to the back room, but the bell over the front door went off, so she left me standing there while she went back out front. Finn didn’t notice me at first. He was too busy concentrating on whatever it was he was working on. I watched him from across the room for a moment. I couldn’t see what he was doing because I was too far away and it looked tiny, but I couldn’t help but smile at him. He was pursing his lips in a way that I was very familiar with. He’d done that for as long as I could remember every time he was concentrating. It was fucking adorable.
He finally looked up and did a double-take, then his whole face lit up like the sun. His blue eyes were twinkling with some little crinkles around them and his smile was wide. He was breathtaking. He got up and walked over to me, and as soon as he was within reach, I grabbed his face and brought him to me for a quick kiss before resting my forehead on his. We were both smiling at each other.
“Hi,” I whispered.
“Hi.”
“How was your day?”
“Good… but better now.”
I smiled at that and kissed him again. I stepped away from him when I heard a throat clear, but Finn reached out and grabbed my hand, and then he said, “Shit. Now you’re covered in powdered sugar. Sorry.”
I looked down at my sweater, chuckled and shrugged. There were powdered sugar handprints on my chest.
Then Finn said, “Aaron, this is my other best friend, Griffin. He’s married to Layla. Griff, Aaron.”
I held out my hand to shake. The guy had a strong grip. “It’s nice to meet you. I heard you were sick, are you feeling better?”
The guy lifted one eyebrow, but said, “I am, thanks.” Griffin was looking me up and down, sizing me up. I had the feeling he was worried about me being with Finn for some reason, though I wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t like I’d done anything to make him worry.
“Annnyway.” Finn was eyeing both of us, then he smacked Griffin in the chest. “Be nice.”
Griffin narrowed his eyes at Finn. “I’m not the one hitting people.”
Finn rolled his eyes, but asked me, “Have you ever been rock climbing?”
“Uh… nope.”
Finn looked like he was going to respond, but Griffin cleared his throat, crossed his arms over his chest and said, “Finn and I go at least once a month. We were supposed to go last Sunday, but I was sick, so we rescheduled it for tomorrow morning after we get the baking finished.”
I wasn’t exactly sure what I was supposed to do with this piece of information. I was a little thrown off. Not that I expected Finn to not have a life and not that I expected him to put it on pause for me. I was just surprised since he and I had talked about going out to lunch on his lunch break since I was going into work late this Wednesday.
Finn rolled his eyes and pushed Griffin’s shoulder. “Would you stop?” He snorted before facing me. “Do you want to go with us? I’m sorry I forgot about my plans when we were talking this morning about going to lunch tomorrow. It completely slipped my mind. Maybe you could come with us and we could grab food afterward?” He looked a little nervous, though hopeful, too.
“Is it a problem that I don’t know what I’m doing?” Now I was nervous.
“No, we can teach you.” Finn looked at Griffin. “Right?”
Griffin eyed me again. What is this guy’s deal? Then he sighed. “I suppose.” He was sorta glaring at me.
“You know what?” Finn announced after a minute of uncomfortable silence. He grabbed Griffin’s shoulders, which made me tense up seeing him touch another man, even innocently. Then he turned him around and pushed him toward a small office. “You go back to work. We’ll figure it out.”
I heard the guy sigh, but he simply walked away without saying anything else.
“Just ignore him.”
“Why doesn’t he like me?” I asked.
“It’s not that. He’s just… that’s just how Griff is. He’ll warm up to you.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. I watched the man in question sit behind a desk and start going through some paperwork.
Finn gently touched my forearm to get my attention. “Um, Aar, I have to finish this part of the topper tonight so it can dry overnight before I add the next piece tomorrow. Do you mind hanging out while I finish?”
“Of course not. Just tell me where to go.”
“You can come sit at my table… just don’t bang or shake it, please.”
I smiled at him as I sat at the long steel table. I examined everything on the table while he washed his hands. He had about five trillion little tools sitting on the table and just as many bags of different colored… clay-like stuff—fondant, maybe?—and food coloring and a bunch of things I’d never seen before. There was also a foam block covered in foil that had a pair of tiny legs in what I assumed was a dancer’s pose on it. But it was just the legs. Though they were anatomically correct, with pointed toes and everything.
“Did you make those?” I pointed at them as he sat at the end of the table.
“Yep.” He started kneading some white fondant in his hands, I guess to warm it up.
“Is it a dancer?”
“It will be. It’s for an engagement party. The groom is surprising the bride with it. She’s a dancer.” He shrugged, then added some kind of powder as he kept kneading. “I’m about to layer the skirt over the legs, then I need to add the body on top before we leave so it can dry before I add the head.”
“You don’t do the body before the skirt?” I asked, now completely curious.
He grinned at me. “No. It’s much easier to layer the skirt over the legs than to try wrapping it around. Once the body is dry, I’ll add the top part of the leotard and a little belt-like piece to cover the seam, so it will look like there’s a whole body under her costume.”
“Hmm.” I didn’t really know what he was talking about.
He chuckled. “I’ll send you a picture when I finish it in a couple days so you can see what I mean.”
I looked at him with wide eyes. “It takes you a couple days to make a topper?”
He nodded. “Only because the different pieces have to dry before you can add the next piece. You can’t really rush that part of it. That’s why we need at least two weeks’ notice for custom work. Obviously I work on several toppers at a time so while one is drying, I can work on something else or even just the other decorations that will go on the cake. But yeah, it takes a few days, depending on what it is.” He rolled the fondant flat and really thin, then used a large circle cookie cutter to cut out three circles before he put some kind of clear gel, like a glue, on the legs, or the hips, I guessed they were. He layered the circles over the legs—there was a lollipop stick sticking up out of the legs and I guess pushed into the foam stand it was on—making it look like a perfect flowing skirt.
When Finn finished kneading and adding powder to another fondant piece, I sat in stunned silence as I watched him work. He was moving so quickly and before I could comprehend what he was doing, he had a miniature two-inch-tall upper body in his fingers and was forming an arm off of it. I could see him making the different arm muscles, then the elbow and wrist, and when he started on the fingers, I was completely blown away. Even the fingers had shape and weren’t just straight, round, sausage-looking fingers. They were delicate and proportionate with the body. He did the other arm in the same fashion, then used that glue-like stuff to attach it onto the legs and the lollipop stick. And he posed the dancer’s arms before he started cleaning up.
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
“What?” He started looking around for the reason I’d cursed.
“You are really talented,” I told him, completely blown away and fascinated by him.
“Oh.” He smiled shyly and started blushing. “Um, thanks.” He shrugged like it was no big deal.
I grabbed onto him and pulled him close so I could kiss his forehead. “Seriously. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
He shrugged again. “Lots of people make toppers and stuff.”
“You’re being modest,” I said before kissing the corner of his mouth. “You’re incredibly talented.”
He smiled a little and whispered, “Thank you.”
I kissed the other side of his mouth. “Can I take you out to dinner now?”
He licked his lips, then cleared his throat. “Sure… just let me finish cleaning up.”
I kissed his forehead again before releasing him, then I attempted to help him clean up, but I was pretty sure I’d only made more work for him. Or at least it seemed that way when he kept laughing at me and having to move every single thing I’d put back. I thought I’d heard Griffin laughing, too, but when I looked at him, he was looking down at his desk.
Finn and I said our goodbyes before heading out to the car. When I started the drive, I asked, “Do you really work more than twelve hours every day?”
He reached over and grabbed my hand, making my heart skip a beat. “No, this month is a big wedding month, so it’s all hands on deck. It’ll slow down a little closer to Thanksgiving. Normally I don’t go in until around ten in the morning, give or take.” He shrugged. “I go in later, but Layla and Griff leave earlier than me, so it evens out. It’ll be busy like this in May and June, too.”
“So you’re not going to burn yourself out?”
He laughed a little. “I’m fine, Aar. I’ve been doing this for eight years.”
I grunted and I heard him chuckle again, but it turned into a yawn.