How to Bake the Perfect Apple Pie (10 page)

Shiat.
She brought her wedding planner books with her. I take in a deep breath.

“Morning, everybody.”

“Oh, Lauren, I’m so glad you made it through the night.” Megan laughs.

I narrow my eyes at her. “Ha. Think what you want, but that cat tried to suffocate me.” I head for the coffee maker.

“Maybe you were having a dream about not picking a wedding date and that made you feel like you were suffocating.” Megan raises an eyebrow at me and hands me an empty cup.

I poke her side. “Maybe that’s it.” I roll my eyes and pour myself some coffee. I definitely need the caffeine.

“How is Aurora?” I ask to no one in particular.

“She’s got both babies in bed with her right now, switching off and on nursing, with the two.” My mom points at one of the pages in her binder. “Now, this…” She takes in a deep breath and pulls out a tissue from her pocket. My mom dabs her eye. “Oh my, Lauren, isn’t this perfect?” She holds the tissue to her chest.

I peer over her shoulder at the page. I choke on my coffee. It’s an image of a wedding cake that resembles three wooden logs lying on top of each other and there is a faux carving in the side with a heart and two names. On top is a bunch of fake daisies.

Megan bumps me with her hip and rolls her eyes at me, shaking her head. She takes a step back so that she is out of my mom’s eye range. And motions with her hands as if she is cutting her neck.

I roll my eyes and smile. There is no way I’m having a lumberjack cake. I slump my shoulders.
Jack.
I sigh.

“Honey, what do you think? It’s just gorgeous, isn’t it?” She turns back to look at me.

I can’t help but laugh. “Mom, I’m sorry but no, I can’t have logs for a wedding cake.” I shake my head.

“Now, Lauren, it’s not real logs, it’s cake, but artistically done and if we go with the rustic theme it would be perfect.” Her face beams back at me.

I purse my lips. “I…um, I don’t think Jack is into the rustic theme.”

“Oh.” My mom turns back around and flips through her book. “Well that settles that.”

Argh,
I didn’t think coming to Luke and Aurora’s would be an ambush in wedding planning.

“Where are Winter and River?”

“Brian took them to the park.” Megan grins at me. “So, what’s up? Why don’t you have a date yet?” She focuses on my face, like she can read my mind.

My shoulders tense up. “I don’t know. We haven’t talked about a date.” I bite my lip. “We’ve both been really busy at work.”

“Right, but now that he’s hired Corinne, she should be taking over the majority of his workload.” My mom taps on another picture in her book. I don’t even want to check it out. So does everyone in my family know about
Corinne
?

“Um, have you met her?” I take a sip of my coffee.

“Who, dear?” My mom flips the page and holds her place in the book as she continues to skim.

I sigh. “Corinne.”

“Oh, yes, dear, I met her a couple of days ago when I went to pick up your grandmother for lunch. Corinne was having tea with her.” She continues to flip the pages.

Corinne had tea with my grandmother? I shake my head.

“Lauren, are you all right?” Megan touches my arm.

“Huh…oh yes I’m fine.” Jack is supposed to come visit me this coming weekend but I almost want to change that and fly down to see him instead. I shake my head. I’m being really silly. If he’s hired a person who is kind to my grandmother and gets things done at Vintage Estates, this should make me happy, not envious.

“Honey, look at this one.” My mom runs her hands over a photo of a four-layer cake with a lake, trees, and a garden. I’m not sure why we would have a cake like that; nothing about it resembles our relationship at all.

What does resemble our relationship?
We met over Thanksgiving weekend and then we were engaged over the Christmas holiday. I knew it was ridiculously fast, but it seemed right to say yes when he asked. I do love him. And I do want to be with him. But not like this. This is what made me hesitant to respond to his flirting over Thanksgiving. I despise long-distance relationships. Granted, I’ve only ever had one other than Jack and that was with a guy who doesn’t even compare to him. But this back and forth and only getting to see each other every other week, it’s too much for me.

I have my own life in Baltimore, my career is really taking off, and I’ve got a great best friend. But now all of it seems so small compared to not having Jack as a part of that world.

“Honey, is this the one?” My mom turns her head to stare up at me.

“I…I don’t think so, Mom.” I bite my lip. “I think Jack and I will figure out the cake…okay?” I want to be gentle with my mom. I know she is only trying to help. But picking out my wedding cake…I want to do that with Jack. I want to do all of it with Jack. Including exiting this conversation.

“I’ll be right back.” I rush out of the room. I find my phone in my purse and hit Jack’s number.

“Hey there.”

“Hey, listen, we need to set a date.” I let the words blurt out of my mouth before I can be calm, cool, and collected.

“What?” Jack asks as if he didn’t hear what I said.

“I…we…we need to set our wedding date.” I let out a deep breath.

“Oh. Okay…we do…listen, I’m at the office right now. Let me call you in a few minutes, okay?”

“Are you there with Corinne?” Again, I shake my head at myself for not being cool. Why did I ask that? It doesn’t matter if he’s with her or not. They are at the office, so nothing about that would be odd.

“Yes, are you all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine. I’ll talk to you later.” I click end. I broke my own pet peeve of not saying goodbye. I didn’t want to, but I wanted to end the conversation before I said anything else ridiculous. I shake my head as if I could shake off that phone call like it didn’t happen. I’m sure Jack now thinks I’m a jealous or clingy girlfriend—well fiancée…
maybe I am
.

Chapter Seven

I log in into my computer. I barely made it to work on time this morning. I was dragging from my flight being delayed and then getting in late. I woke up late and of course Monday morning traffic was not a breeze. I’m pretty sure I saw Elaine walking down the hallway with a cup of coffee as I shut the door to my office.

A message pops up on my screen.
“How was your weekend?”

It’s Trent. I scrunch my eyebrows. I don’t know that I want to be chatty with him in Messenger. Especially not first thing Monday morning and I haven’t even had any coffee. I minimize my chat screen and pull up the numbers for my team for last week. I need to see where we are at for the goals I set at our meeting. I planned a team chat for one p.m. today. This gives me few hours to go over the numbers and prepare.

I scan the charts and a vibrating sound comes from my desk. I open the drawer to my right and dig through my purse. It’s a text message.

“Hey, I didn’t hear from you last night. Are you back in Baltimore?”

My mouth forms two lines. I didn’t call him back because I thought it would be better if I took a step back and got myself in control. Our last conversation had ended with me sounding a bit crazed and I need for that not to happen again. He’d called a few times yesterday. I texted saying my flight was delayed and that my battery was low, which is why I couldn’t chat.

He asked why I didn’t have my charger on me, and I said I forgot it, which wasn’t exactly true. But I didn’t want to talk.

“I’m at work…I’ll call you at lunch,”
I text back.

“I’m looking forward to hearing your voice. I think I forgot what it sounds like…it’s been over 48 hours.”
At the end of his message is a sad face emoticon.

I laugh.
Has it really been over forty-eight hours since we talked?
A knock sounds at the other side of my door. I hope it’s not Javier. I haven’t gone over all of my numbers yet, and I don’t want to fumble though a quasi-meeting. I pull the door open.

Trent is standing in front of me with two coffees and a stack of papers.

“Hi.” I manage to say.

“Hey, I thought I would bring you some coffee and we could go over the numbers from last week.” Trent doesn’t wait for me to respond and files into my office and places the coffees on my desk along with the papers.

I’m hesitant to allow this meeting to happen. I didn’t ask for Trent’s help or the coffee…though I could really go for some. The aroma of dark roasted coffee beans fills the room. I glance at the cup. They are from Starbucks. My shoulders drop. I can’t ask him to leave when he’s bought me a cup of coffee. Even if he had brought it from the break room I would have a difficult time telling him to leave. This is such a nice gesture.

I close the door and make my way around to my side of the desk. My desk. I need to gain control of this situation.

My backside makes contact with the leather on my chair. I scoot in closer to the reports. I glance up and Trent’s eyes are on me.

“Okay…so what do you have?” I peer over at his stack of papers.

“Here, these are the numbers from last week and these are from the week before. I’ve highlighted the improvements with blue and the fallbacks in red.” He hands the reports to me. As he releases the papers our hands brush. Perhaps it would seem innocent but I peer up at Trent as it happens and his face doesn’t reflect feelings of innocence. His dark eyes are seductively staring at me as if we are sitting by the flickering flames of a fireplace and not underneath the bright florescent lights of my office.

I cut my eyes away and scan the reports. I nod as I read the numbers. Trent’s have drastically improved in all areas, whereas Hallie’s have been on a sharp decline. I’m going to need to meet with her today and find out what’s going on. Everyone else’s numbers are either about the same or a slight increase.

“All right, so you’ve obviously had a great week.” I cast my eyes in his direction. “What have you been doing differently?”

Trent laughs. “You’ll think it’s silly.” He presses his lips together and lets out a deep breath.

I wait for him to respond.

“Okay…well I’ve been applying the philosophy of ‘what would Lauren do?’.” He laughs.

I do my best not to let my eyes bulge out of my head. My cheeks are warm. I do not want to blush in front of Trent.

“All right, and what does that mean?”

“I just ask myself how I think you would handle a situation and then do whatever that is.” He raises an eyebrow at me and nods. “See, I’ve always been good at reading people…”

My forehead wrinkles. “I’m flattered, Trent, but you have to have confidence in yourself and your ideas in order to succeed in this business.” I run my hands over the reports.

“I know, and I do have confidence in myself. I think you misunderstood. I’m not trying to be you. I’m just changing the way I handle customers to reflect more closely what you do.” He taps the reports. “The numbers are a representation of the change in my skill set.”

I shake my head. “Right, you’ve had a great week, but attribute this to yourself not me.”

“Lauren, I do. It is me. But it’s because of you.” He eyes the floor. “Excuse me for being blunt, but you should work on your ability to take a compliment.”

My eyes hurt. Did he seriously just insult my compliment-accepting skills? I let out a deep breath. “Yes, you are out of line. I accept compliments just fine. I appreciate you bringing these reports and the coffee by, but I’ve got to get back to work now.” I press my lips together.

Trent stands up. He turns around and heads for the door. With his hand on the doorknob he stops and faces me. “I’m sorry, Lauren…I—”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” I nod as if saying “there is the door”.

Next time Trent stops by I need to tell him I’m too busy to chat. I flip my hair over my shoulder and tackle the rest of my morning, thankfully without any interruptions. The clock on my computer, along with my stomach, alert me of the time. It’s ten after noon. I grab my purse and march towards my door.

I promised Jack I would call during my lunch. My stomach twists into a ball. I miss him. Not talking for so long is painful. As if I could just push the idea of him into a small compartment of my mind and not think about him. My lungs are compressing… I can’t breathe. The idea of being with him forever makes me giddy with joy…but the constant distance is tearing at my heart. I swallow as I make my way into the empty hallway. Hopefully most people have already left and I won’t get any offers for lunch.

I turn the corner to where the elevators are located and run directly into Elaine.

“Oh there you are.” She taps my shoulder.

“Yes, and there you are.” I nod at her and push past to press the down arrow.

“I asked Trent if you were going to lunch today and he didn’t seem to have an answer.” She inspects my face. “Did you two have a falling out already?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh don’t be silly, like I didn’t pick up on some vibes.” She winks at me.

“I’m not sure what you mean.” I hop into the elevator and she follows me.

“Well, whatever, if you are done with him, then send him my way. I wouldn’t mind going to
lunch
with that tall piece of hunkiness.” She air quotes the operative word and then licks her lips.

“Elaine, I don’t know what vibes you’re picking up on but they are clearly only in your mind. And further if you want to go to lunch with Trent, that’s your business. I’m his manager not his matchmaker.” The doors slide open. I glance at Elaine. She looks a bit dumbfounded. Did I really just say that? I gulp and plaster a smile on my face. “Anyway, have a nice lunch. See ya.” I scramble out of the elevator as fast as I can, almost as if I’m escaping a burning building.

In the comfort of my car I hit Jack’s contact. I immediately press end. I’m not ready to talk to him. I still feel foolish for asking so much about Corinne. And on the other hand I don’t feel bad about it. On that hand I’m still bothered. It might be best for me to hold off on talking with Jack until I’ve chilled out about it.

My phone vibrates in my hand. I glance at the number. It’s not one I’m familiar with.