Six Rules: Book Two in the SIX Series (13 page)

          
“This
will
work, Mallory. Just give me a chance.
I’m really trying here. Just go out to dinner with me tomorrow night and if you
still hate me by the time it’s over, I’ll let you go,” he said, staring into my
eyes as he put his right hand on my hip.

          
“Why are you always so sure of yourself?” I asked. He
genuinely seemed so calm and collected all the time, even when I felt
completely rattled.

          
“I’ll come by the bakery at six-thirty tomorrow night. If
you’re still busy, I won’t say a word. I’ll just wait. I’ll wait around as long
as you need me to, even if you’re still working at eleven o’clock,” he said
sincerely. “I never meant for any of this to hurt you.” He kissed me again, and
I felt a surge of electricity course through my body. Unfortunately I couldn't
decipher if the surge was invigorating, or if it was slowly electrocuting me
and taking me down.

Chapter 18

          
The next morning I was in the bakery a little before six
o’clock and Addie arrived shortly thereafter. She could tell by my puffy eyes I
had been crying the night before. I reluctantly told her the whole story,
reiterating how unsure of this whole relationship I was.

          
“You and Griffin just clicked instantly, right? You spent
time together, fell in love, mushy mushy. Now you’re engaged and you’re always
glowing and happier than ever. I just don’t understand this whole thing with
Greyson. It’s like everyday we go from zero to eighty miles per hour. Some days
we coast and it’s amazing, and the other days we crash into a turnpike,” I said
dramatically.

          
“Well, let’s think about this,” Addie said objectively.
“You’re a pretty intense person, right? I mean, you’re fun and carefree and all
that, but you’re also pretty direct. You’re focused, you know what you want,
and you have a very busy schedule, especially since the bakery’s been open
full-time,” Addie explained matter-of-factly. “So think about Dillon for
example. He was so blasé about everything, right? That didn’t work out with
him, and instead of going from zero to eighty miles per hour, you guys were
stuck in a school zone going about twenty-five. Sure, it was easy and safe.
Months went by and there was no drama, right?”

          
“Yeah, for the most part. He just constantly whined about
me working too much,” I said, rolling my eyes as we mixed up large batches of
brownies and cookies. “But otherwise it seemed easy. He didn’t boss me around
like Greyson does.”

          
“Exactly. But easy didn’t work for you either. You were
complacent. But with Greyson, when you talk about him, you seem much more
passionate,” she said whimsically.

          
“Yeah, except that passion is more like anger half the
time,” I retorted.

          
“There’s a very fine line there. Think about it. It takes
just as much emotion from you to love him as it takes to be mad at him. The
fact that you have such strong feelings either way has to mean something. You
cried over him last night and you’ve only been together a week. You were with
Dillon for months and you didn’t even shed a single tear when he broke it off.
So the fact that Greyson can stir up that much feeling from you… I don’t know,
it’s kind of romantic in it’s own way,” Addie said thoughtfully. “Maybe we
should have Megan come in for lunch. We can get her take on it,” she said as
she poured brownie batter into several large baking pans.

          
“Yeah right. Her advice would be to dump him and start
dating his best friend,” I said with a smirk.

          
We worked throughout the morning and around noon a small
white van pulled up in front of the bakery. A red-haired guy, probably in his
early twenties unloaded some bags of food out of the van and brought them in.

          
“Lunch delivery,” he said casually, setting the bags down
on the counter. I could smell the food immediately, and it smelled delectable.

          
“Addie, did you order something?” I asked, a little
confused.

          
“It’s from Luca’s,” the guy said. “Here.” He handed me a
small white envelope and walked out of the bakery as Addie and I thanked him.
There were at least seven different containers in the various bags, so we
called Megan to come over and join us for lunch.

          
As Addie started spreading out the food, I opened up the
envelope.

          
Inside was a small note card with five simple words
written out on it.
Don’t give up on me.
That was it. Short and I suppose
relatively sweet. This guy sure knew how to get to me.

          
We sat around eating the delicious food. There were a
couple of different kinds of pasta, some roasted vegetables, and some chicken
parmesan. Megan and Addie gushed about what an amazing cook Greyson was, and I
had to agree. He really made amazing food, and I was proud of him in that
moment for the business he had created. If this was what his customers were
getting, he was absolutely worth the jobs he got. I rehashed the entire Brianna
story to Megan, and as I suspected she had little advice for me. She always
jumped ship at the first sign of catastrophe, but she did point out how
obviously smitten I was by this guy and that perhaps I should at least stick it
out for the full three weeks. After thinking about everything last night, I
wondered how I would make it any longer than that. Once the novelty of our
ridiculous agreement wore off, I wasn’t sure there was enough left to keep us
going.

          
Fortunately we wrapped up in the bakery just before six,
so I had enough time to run upstairs to my apartment to take a quick shower. I
dried my hair as fast as I could and put on some light makeup and a light blue
cotton a-line sundress. I ran back down to the bakery around six-twenty-five,
determined to make it seem like I had been at work the whole time. I didn’t
want him to know that I put any specific effort into my appearance for tonight;
that would go to his head for sure. Instead I felt more comfortable with him
just thinking I always looked this good and refreshed after a twelve hour day
at work.

          
I thumbed through some of my upcoming contracts and
orders, and sure enough Greyson knocked softly on the bakery door at exactly
six-thirty. I opened it, happy to see him dressed up in a grey button down
shirt and some black pants. He looked more handsome than usual, his blonde hair
perfectly combed and his skin glowing with his usual tan.

          
“Thanks for opening the door,” he said softly, stepping
inside the bakery. He gave me a kiss on my cheek and it felt genuine and sweet.

          
“No two year old in tow tonight?” I asked. I really didn’t
mean to bring up the issue so soon into our night, but it just fell out of my
mouth.

          
“No, and there won’t be one. Do you want to hear about the
whole conversation now, or do you want to save it for dinner?” he asked,
genuinely ready to answer for the entire thing if I wanted to know right now.

          
“We can save it. I’m sorry, I don’t know why I even
blurted that out. I’m not trying to get this off to a bad start. I got your
lunch today. That was really sweet,” I said, grasping his hand and holding it
in mine. His palm felt warm and comforting, and I knew he would have me falling
for him all over again by the time this night was over.

          
“I wasn’t sure how many people worked with you, so I hope
there was enough food,” he said politely.

          
“There was more than enough. It’s only Addie and me for
now, but we called my friend Megan over to eat with us. They loved all of it.
You really do make amazing food.”

          
“So I am at least winning over your friends I’ve never
met?” he asked with a raised brow.

          
“Possibly,” I remarked with a flirty smirk.

          
“So this is your bakery? It’s really nice in here,” he
said, looking around at the white floors and the small bistro tables I had set
up in the lobby area.

          
“Yeah, I love it. My grandparents left me this old
building when they passed. I think this used to be some kind of shoe repair
business back in the day. My friends kind of pushed me into opening up this
place. They actually did most of the work. One of my best friends, Steve, he
did all of the counters and shelving,” I said, pointing to the bakery cases and
behind the counter area. “They did an amazing job.”

          
“They sure did. It’s great in here. Are you going to give
me a tour?” he asked inquisitively.

          
“Sure. You really want to see the back?” I mused.

          
“Of course. I want to be inspired for when I get my own
kitchen,” he replied, following me into the back of the bakery. I took him on a
small tour, showing him my prep room, the baking area, and how I organized all
of my supplies. Perhaps he was being overly polite, but he asked a lot of
questions and seemed genuinely interested in everything I was showing him.

          
“So these stoves were donated?” he asked as I explained
where all of the equipment came from.

          
“Yeah, my dad knew some people who were shutting down one
of their restaurants after they had a death in their family. They gave me a few
of their appliances. They’re really old,” I said, pointing to the wiring and
plugs everywhere behind the equipment. “It’s a good thing this building is old
too, so it kind of accommodated this old stuff. But I can’t wait until I can
upgrade all of it eventually.”

          
“One of my good buddies is an electrician. He could rewire
all of that for you,” Greyson stated, looking around at the equipment. “It
looks kind of dangerous with all of those wires sticking out.”

          
“Eh, I’m sure it’s fine. I don’t think there’s any point
in messing with it now. I’m really hoping to change out a lot of this stuff by
the end of the year, actually. Business has been pretty good, so that’s the
next thing I want to invest in.” Greyson and I talked about some of the
appliances we both hoped to own some day, although some of the really
high-grade stuff was out of both of our grasps at this early stage of our
careers.

          
We finally headed out to dinner and found ourselves at a
small little diner about ten minutes away from downtown. We kind of just drove
there aimlessly, hoping to find a place neither of us had been to before.

          
“So how do you know what to order for the first time at a
new place? If you’re so used to getting the same thing everywhere you go,
doesn’t this freak you out a little bit?” Greyson asked as we were seated in a
small booth in the back of the diner.

          
“Come on, I’m not that rigid. It’s not that I don’t like
new foods. I actually do like finding new things to eat. It’s just hard for me
to turn down something I know I already love.”

          
“Is that why you agreed to go out with me tonight?”
Greyson asked with a boyish smirk.

          
“I wouldn’t be so confident if I were you,” I said trying
to keep a straight face. With his handsome blue eyes staring back at me, it was
hard for me not to smile back at him. “You said I had until the end of dinner
to decide whether or not I even like you, so don’t get ahead of yourself.”

          
“Well let’s get it all out then. Maybe ask me anything bad
now that you want to know. That way you can ask me about more impressive,
charming things towards the end of dinner when you’re actually making up your
mind,” he said, pushing his menu towards me.

          
“What are you doing? You haven’t even looked at the menu
yet. If you’ve never been here, how do you know what you even want?” I
questioned.

          
“Why don’t you order for me? Maybe you know me better than
you think you do,” he said, as if he was challenging me.

          
“I don’t know what kind of game you think you’re playing,
but how do you know this will work in your favor? What if I am torn between two
entrees, and I just order you one of the two I want so I can have some of them
both? How do you know I won’t make a self-serving decision on this?”

          
“You couldn’t disappoint me, Mallory. Not even if you
genuinely tried. Ask me something. I’m serious, ask me anything. I want you to
know that I’m not hiding anything from you so we don’t have to repeat last
night.” He shifted in his booth seat and rested comfortably on the backrest, as
if he planned to sit that way for a long time.

          
“That’s the only secret I knew you had. How do I know if
you have any more?” I said, not even totally sure what I should be asking.

          
“Well we can get out some of the basics. I’ve never
murdered anyone. I have no criminal background whatsoever, and I’ve never done
any drugs. I didn’t even drink my first beer until I was twenty, so I think I
led more of a sheltered life than you think,” he said, taking a sip of water from
a glass the waitress had set down on the table.

          
When she asked for our order, I realized I hadn’t even
looked at the menu yet. “I’ll tell you what, we’ll keep this simple. You don’t
care what you eat, then I don’t care what I eat.” I flipped open the menu and
blindly pointed at two different spots on the menu. “He’ll have whatever this
is,” I said to the waitress, motioning with my right finger, “and I’ll have
this,” I said, tapping on another part of the menu with my left finger. I never
took my eyes off Greyson as I spoke. I snapped the menu closed and handed it to
the waitress, and Greyson smiled.