"Mom, my business is going fine." Her mouth twitched. Sometimes when she went a few weeks without calling her mom, she forgot how hard conversing with her could be. "In fact, my sales have been going up since February."
"Oh." Her mom sounded insultingly shocked. "What is it, then?"
"I'll tell you when I come over," she said.
"Why don't you come over tonight?" her mom said. "I'm making stuffed peppers. You love stuffed peppers."
"Not tonight." Emmy had to come up with a game plan. That way, she would be less likely to jump out a window due to prolonged exposure to nagging.
"But I'm making my famous coconut cake," her mom said.
"Not tonight." Not even the richest cake in the world would convince her to enter her mom's house unprepared.
"Oh, phooey." Her mom sighed. "Fine. Call me before you come so I can cook you something. I still say you're too skinny."
She rolled her eyes. "All right, Mom."
"Bye, sweetie," her mom said. "Love you."
"Love you too."
Emmy ended the call, wondering when she was going to have the courage to face her parents after her mistake.
****
Nothing made a woman hungrier than puking. At least, it seemed that way to Emmy as she stumbled out of the kitchen, feeling ravenous. She headed out to the dining room, expecting to see Sebastian parked at a table with his laptop where he'd been all day.
Unfortunately, when she headed around the corner, he was still at his table, but he wasn't alone. Annabelle and Tina were hovering over him, making goo-goo eyes. An angry tiger roared in her belly that she was ninety-nine percent sure hadn't been there before. Either that, or it had been hiding in a dark corner, concealing its carnivorous intentions.
Scowling, she marched toward Annabelle and Tina, thinking of all the ways that she could make their lives miserable if they didn't get away from Sebastian in, oh, the next two seconds. Like usual, they were so busy talking that they didn't notice her coming up behind them.
"Why don't you go out for smoothies with us?" Annabelle tossed her platinum hair over her shoulder.
"No, thank you. I'm not much of a smoothie fan." Sebastian shook his head. "Besides, I'm already spoken for. It would be inappropriate."
"It's just lunch," Tina said. "And we could get Chinese instead."
"Or Mexican," Annabelle suggested.
"I know this great Indian place." Tina batted her eyes.
Sebastian shook his head, frustrated. Unlike Annabelle and Tina, he'd noticed Emmy was there and rolled his eyes at the two girls.
"How about Thai?" Emmy placed her hands on her hips as both Annabelle and Tina froze in horror. "I bet you'd love Thai."
"You know what, Thai sounds amazing." Sebastian's stood up and kissed Emmy on the lips.
"You two are together?" Annabelle gaped.
"I'm her fiancé." Sebastian gave a satisfied smirk.
Annabelle gazed at Emmy with unflattering disbelief. "Really?"
"Yes. And I believe your job is to man the register, not pick up guys." Emmy gave her a pointed look. "Unless, of course, you'd prefer not to have a job at all."
"Well, there weren't any customers around." Annabelle was already inching her way toward the cash register.
"So sorry." Tina dashed off as Annabelle followed behind her.
Shaking her head, Emmy turned her attention back toward Sebastian. The man wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her closer.
"How long were those two bothering you?" She pressed her palms against his muscular chest.
"It felt like forever." Sebastian moaned in frustration. "I'm in my thirties, and they're, what, eighteen? I don't understand why they thought their behavior was appropriate."
"Girls like older guys." Which unfortunately had the angry tiger roaring again.
"Hmm." Sebastian patted her rear end fondly. "How old are you?"
"Twenty-eight," she said.
"That makes me an older guy." Sebastian nuzzled her neck.
"Guess I'm lucky."
Even though she shouldn't have been canoodling in the middle of the bakery, Sebastian's body pressed up against hers felt oh so right.
"So, how much do you like older guys?" He grinned at her teasingly.
"Well enough to go eat Thai with them," she said.
"I want to do more than eat Thai food with you." His grin widened. "I was thinking more along the lines of a sexy afternoon in bed. Though I think bringing dessert into the bedroom would be acceptable."
"Yummy." A shiver ran down her spine.
"Just wait until I break out the chocolate sauce and whipped cream." He pressed a hot kiss against her earlobe.