Sweet Addiction(47)

My eyes flick towards the pavement as Joey’s tall frame comes jogging in my direction. Stopping in front of me and pulling his knee to his chest, he looks giddy beyond his usual giddy self.

“Are you going to make me ask?” I question, stretching my arms over my head.

He smiles and switches legs. “Billy asked me to move in with him.”

Whoa. “What? Are you serious? That’s crazy. What did you say?”

“Yes. Obviously.” He jumps up and down on his feet and motions to me that he is ready to start running.

“Obviously? Joey, do you even really know this guy? He could cut out your organs and sell them on eBay. He could have a weird fetish.”

He shakes his head. “I know him as well as you know Reese and you’re in love with him.”

Fucking Juls. Jesus Christ, I needed some new friends. “I cannot believe she told you that. I will cut a bitch next time her skinny ass walks into my shop.” Realizing that Joey has stopped running, I glance back and see his expression. Motherfucker. He is one sneaky bitch.

“I fucking knew it. You love him, Dylan. Oh my God, this is fantastic.” Running up to me, he grabs my shoulders and pulls me against his already drenched shirt.

“Gross you’re all sweaty. And I am not in love with him. Juls told me that she was in love with Ian and I said something about maybe, possibly, doubtfully one day being in love with Reese. That’s it. End of discussion.”

Stepping back and holding me at arm’s length, he studies me for a moment before he speaks. “Okay, whatever. But I think I’m in love so can we focus on that fucking weirdness for a second?”

We hit our stride and I let Joey tell me all about how he’s seen Billy practically every night since they met at the wedding and that he’s never felt anything even close to this before, which I knew already. Joey was never shy about his feelings towards his hookups and always shared more information than I would care to know most of the time. He told me that they were hanging out at Billy’s last night, lounging and watching television together when he just came out and asked Joey to move in and without hesitation, Joey said yes. He said that he didn’t have to think about it, that he knew he wanted to be with Billy every free second he had and that he had never been this happy before with just one person. I was speechless. I was literally without speech. This was Joey Holt we were talking about here. The man who went through other men like he was going for some kind of record. He once hooked up with three guys in one night at a club and did it without them knowing about each other. His longest running relationship was five minutes. And now after a little over a week of knowing somebody, he’s wifing up? I wasn’t sure whose wedding I would be getting fitted for first, Juls’ or Joey’s.

I called Mrs. Frey that afternoon, confirming the details of her anniversary cake she wanted me to create for her since I missed our meeting on Tuesday. She sweetly asked me how I was feeling and told me how excited she was to be celebrating fifty years of marriage with her husband. Fifty years. I couldn’t even imagine. She was a bit undecided about her cake flavors, knowing only that her husband wanted a chocolate cake but not having any other preferences. I smiled to myself when I asked her if the two of them liked mint chocolate and she squealed into the phone. Suggesting my newly discovered chocolate peppermint frosting and telling her how absolutely decadent it was, she settled on her cake and I reassured her it would be ready for pickup on Friday.

After ending her call, I slip my phone out of my pocket and scroll to the contact info of a certain icing lover.

Me: Guess what kind of cake I get to make for someone’s anniversary? I’ll give you a hint. It’s a flavor that you seem to be quite fond of.

I walk into the back as Joey helps a customer and begin pulling out ingredients. I have a good amount of baking to do tonight to prepare for the meeting I’m supplying tomorrow and want to start on it as soon as possible. I decide to make an assortment of muffins, blueberry, poppy seed, and my banana nut ones, some apple turnovers, and a variety of fruit and cheese danishes. The excitement of seeing Reese is almost palpable at this point and I need to stay busy. Placing my mixer on the work top, my phone beeps and I run over to where I had laid it down on the other side of the table.

Reese: Could it be a cake with a certain hot pink frosting that I licked off you?

Me: That’s the one. I don’t think I’ll look at that frosting the same again. Or my work top for that matter.

Reese: Well I’ll definitely never look at my couch the same. How’s your day going?

I giggle and pull the baking flour, sugar, and salt off the shelf.