“Two hours!” a man griped. “We've already waited for one!”
“I know. I know, and I'm so sorry. I overslept.”
“Overslept?” a woman guffawed. “That's a good excuse … if you're still in high school.”
God, if you only knew the half of it,I thought.
“You're right,” I sighed. “It's not an excuse. All I can say is that I'm so sorry.”
She threw up her arms, tossed her copy of theTimesto the sidewalk and walked off. “Forget it. Good luck with your business.”
***
When Piper walked in at noon, she gasped.
The bakery looked like a bomb had gone off in the kitchen. Dirty pans everywhere, spatulas strewn all over, mixing bowls tossed this way and that, an inch of flour covering every surface, random spills lingering dangerously on the floor.
“Camille …?” she asked, cautiously. “How, um, did it go?”
“I did my best,” I said, broken down and defeated. I fought back the tears. I refused to cry. “I'm so sorry, Piper. I screwed it all up.”
“What happened?”
“My phone died. I woke up late. I got here and there was a line of people circling the block. Now I completely destroyed any of the hype that article might have generated for us …”
“Shit, man.” She hugged me. “We'll bounce back. Don't sweat it.”
“Aren't youfuriouswith me?” I asked.
In a way, I needed her to be mad at me. After the way I defiled her bed, my guilty consciousness demanded punishment.
But she shrugged it off and immediately started helping me clean instead. “Nah. What's the point of that? Anger doesn't solve anything. And like I said, we'll bounce back. We wouldn't be the first business to have a terrible opening day, you know. Look on the bright side! At least there was a lot of interest.”
“You're not mad? At all?” I asked, disappointed.
“No, but if you wanna make it up to me, I've got a few things I'd like explained.” She grinned mischievously, and I knew I was caught.
“Oh?” I mumbled.
“Yeah. You can start by telling me what happened last night.”
“What about last night?” Lord knowswhyI was playing dumb, but I was.
“Let's see. The last thing I remember is sitting in that booth with Beau's teammate. Then I woke up on my couch. I mean, how the heck did I ever get back home? You know how I am when I fall asleep: the ol' immovable force. Someone big and strong must have helped carry me up there.”
I stammered. I wasn't sure how to tell her.
She continued. “You told me you slept in, and yet here you are, dressed in my clothes.”
My cheeks smoldered with a heat.
“Then, forsomereason, this morning I noticed that my bed sheets had been changed. It's almost likeroom service visited my apartment last night!”
“I fucked Beau in your bed last night, okay!” I suddenly blurted out.
The two customers we had still sitting in the shop peeked up from their lemon cake and gave me a disturbed stare.
Piper grinned, her eyes rolling in the back of her head with amusement. “Duh.Anyone could've figured that out, Cammy. I have to say, though, I was almost sure you'd deny it.”
