CHAPTER 8

That was a mistake. Audrey tried to work the rest of the morning but every time she saw Enzo, her brain turned into chaos.

“Be efficient,” she ordered out loud.

“Be. Efficient.”

She rubbed her forehead.

You’re here to work, not to flirt with anyone. What’ll happen when he rejects you?

She turned around to see the damn picture he’d complimented just a few days before. She even framed it. Yeah, keep pretending you did it because you want to remember how it felt to be in High School.

She snorted at the thought, snatched the picture and hid it in the desk’s drawer.

***

The remaining days of the week went by fast. She’d managed to avoid Enzo as best as she could, just keeping him updated on fundraiser changes or news.

It was Friday, at last. One day left for the event. It had been a crazy week, but finally, most of the school’s finances started to make sense. That was a good start to put everything in order.

She opened the door to her apartment. It was big for what she paid. An apartment like this in Portland or Seattle (or worse, the Valley) would’ve cost her what, ten times more?

Audrey dropped her keys on the entrance table and headed to the kitchen. She was tired and really didn’t want to do anything, but if she didn’t start with the cupcakes right now, she would regret it. I’ll end up baking until past midnight.

She needed her beauty sleep, tomorrow was going to be a big day, time to work.

She took out a couple of cupcake mix boxes from the cupboard and read the instructions.

“Okay, first, preheat the oven...”

She dialed the wheel up to 325° Farenheit and started getting nervous. She cooked her own meals of course, but she wasn’t the best at it, and baking was a whole different beast.

Just follow the instructions, don’t be such a wuss.

It was easier than she thought, she had everything ready in five minutes and mixing the ingredients together took her less than twenty minutes.

Easy peasy.

She put the pan in the oven and set the timer on her phone. She was eager to lay down and chill for a minute, so she ran to her sofa, turned on the TV and left it on a crime show. She’d already seen this episode but there was nothing else playing.

Audrey took a deep breath and put her phone on the floor, took her shoes off and laid there like a champ.

Finally!

She lowered the TV volume and kept on watching, just a few more minutes and she would be done.

***

A maddening beeping noise woke her up. Shut up, She thought, still half asleep, but then a sudden realization washed over her.

“Oh my God,” she said out loud, springing from the couch and bolting to the kitchen.

She imagined she’d face a huge fire, her walls devoured by the heat, her floor engulfed in flames.

But she was lucky.

She covered her nose with her inner elbow, holding her breath to avoid the stinging scent of burnt bread.

She turned the oven off, stepped away from its door and opened it. The smell was overbearing.

“Shit!”

She opened the kitchen’s window, located above the sink, but she knew it would take a while for the smell to dissipate.

“God damn it!” she said, finally opening the oven to see the burned out mess she’d made.

“What the hell happened?”

There was nothing she could do there, she had to wait for the pan to cool down, then she’d throw it in the trash can, it was ruined.

She ran to the living room, turned off the smoke alarm and found her phone. What happened to the alarm?

She opened the app to see she hadn’t done anything wrong. What? She tapped on the screen and set the timer for five seconds.

She waited for the countdown to end and then realized the blinking, vibrating phone was set on mute.

Of course.

She didn’t want a personal call to interrupt her during work hours, and she forgot to unmute it.

“What a fucking idiot, Audrey!”

Tears welled up in her eyes, you could’ve died, people could’ve been hurt! She was stupid. So freakin’ stupid.

But tears didn’t run down her face.

She took a deep breath, calmed down and then saw she had four missed calls.

“What?”

They were all from Enzo.

They exchanged numbers just in case they needed anything for the fund raiser.

He’d sent a text here and there, all strictly professional, but this was different. He never called her.

She opened her text app and lo and behold, there he was.

“Hello, there,” it read, “are you busy? Need to know if Larry has the gym keys for tomorrow.”

Then a few minutes later.

“Never mind, he just replied. He does.”

Then half an hour later, “hey, everything all right?”

Her phone rang again. It was him. She swiped right and answered.

“Hello?”

She tried to hide the cracks in her voice as much as she could.

“Oh, finally! Hello.”

“Hi, Enzo, just read your messages.”

“Yeah,” he said with a big sigh of relief, “I was just checking on you.”

“What do you mean?”

Silence on the other side of the line.

“I... just... I wanted to talk to you,” he finally said.

She smiled.

“You sound weird,” he said, “are you okay?”

Did he notice it in my voice?

“Yes,” she replied, “all good...”

Silence, this time he waited for her to speak.

“Well... I just burned the cupcakes, if you can believe that.”

“What happened?”

“Fell asleep, I’m an idiot.”

“Don’t say that,” he said in a firmer voice, “it happens to everyone, do you need help?”

She looked around her apartment. It was late, but there were still some threads of sunshine on the horizon.

“Well, I... I don’t know... I made a mess, it’s gonna take me a while to clean everything up, and I still have to go to the store to get more cupcake mix.”

“Your legendary Cupcake Mix recipe, I get it.”

“Stop it,” she said, trying to hold her smile back, “it’s not funny.”

“I’ll bring the mix and help you clean, if you want to.”

She wanted to. And she had no other choice, right?

Right. She snickered.

“I’ll start cleaning up, okay? Bring two boxes one vanilla, one peanut butter, I’ll pay you when you arrive.”

“Perfect, send me your location, I’ll be there in half an hour.”

They hung up and she was surprised at how nervous she was. It wasn’t because she just had a big accident.

It was the thought of seeing him after school that was dangerous.

And wait. The guy can bake? Not only was he incredibly hot, he was kind and cool and was going to help her with the cupcakes? Who did he think he was, Mister Perfect?

It doesn’t matter, she thought, but she was on the verge of trembling.

This was going to be the first time she saw him outside of school... wait. Her place was a mess.

She barely had enough time to make it presentable, get on it, you dork!