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“Taste this,” she said by way of a greeting, thrusting an odd-shaped biscuit in my face.
I took a bite and almost choked on the dried-out clump of awful. She handed me a napkin to spit it in and a cup of water. “Why would you tell me to taste that?” I asked, coughing into the napkin. “That’s terrible.”
“Because I wanted your honest opinion. Plus, that’s payback for ghosting me after you went home with Cal last week.”
“I have not ghosted you.”
Lauren pulled her phone from her apron pocket and showed me our text exchange for the week, which consisted of my one-word replies and her increasingly agitated texts. The last one was just a GIF of a kitten breathing fire.
“I had a lot to think about. But that’s no reason to poison me. What was that?”
“A basil-lemon scone.”
“It tasted like a dish detergent tablet. Not that I’ve ever eaten one, but the consistency is so bad and the lemon is way too strong. I didn’t taste any basil, but I’m not taking another bite to confirm.”
Lauren nodded. “Agreed. I can’t serve these. I’m going to have to taste test everything in the display case. Mr. Wilson pointed out this disaster. Poor thing. I felt so bad, I gave him free coffee all next week.”
“For once, I don’t think you’re being too generous.”
Lauren sighed and dumped the entire tray of pastries into the trash.
“You should have saved one to give to the bakery when you ask for a refund.”
Lauren shook her head. “I called and told them, thinking they’d want to pull the product before selling it to anyone else. They said my customer had an unrefined palette. I told them the scones tasted off to me too, and they said that maybe my coffee was distorting the taste.”
I let out a snort of laughter before I could stop myself. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t laugh, but that’s so ridiculous it’s funny.”
“No, I’d be laughing too if I didn’t have to find a new baker ASAP. This is it for me. I won’t subject my customers to sub-par food. Are you sure you won’t consider baking for Karma?”
I blew out a breath. “I’ve been considering a lot lately.”
Lauren put her hands on her hips. “Ok, I’ve been patient. But you need to tell me what’s going on before I force feed you another scone, straight from the trash.”
I cringed but then my face warmed, thinking about what I was about to tell her. “I’ve been sleeping with Cal since Friday.”
Lauren clapped her hands and did a little dance, hopping like she had a trampoline behind the counter. “I tried to getconfirmation from Poppy, but she just gave me a death glare and told me to ask you.”
“Well, you know we went home together after Church.”
Lauren nodded. When I didn’t say anything else, she yanked a scone from the trash. “Details, woman. I’ve been dying over here.”
“It was amazing. But before it happened, he clarified that he didn’t want a relationship. It’d just be sex.”
“Oh,” Lauren said, her smile falling as she tossed the scone back in the garbage where it belonged. “Well, at least he was up front about it, right? You’re coming off a really bad breakup, so hot sex with no feelings might be just what you need.”
I nodded. “But then he took me hiking on Sunday, and it felt like a real date, like the start of something.”
“Oh, I like the sound of this,” Lauren said. “Both the date part and the fact your back must be doing better if Cal took you on a hike. He seemed really worried about you on Friday.”
“Yeah, he’s stopped being so careful with me.” I glanced around to make sure the café was still empty and someone hadn’t wandered up from the book shelves in the back. “We had sex in the trailhead parking lot in the back seat of his SUV like a couple of horny teenagers.”
Lauren threw her head back and laughed. “You did not. Which trail?”
“Sawtooth.”
Lauren laughed so hard, she bent over and clutched her stomach. “That parking lot is crazy. I had no idea you were such a freak.”
“I’m not,” I said, blushing. “We just got caught up in the moment. And it’s been like that all week. After my PT session on Monday, we had a quickie in the building’s elevator. He’s invited me over for dinner twice, and I stayed the whole night bothtimes. I’ve had more orgasms this week than the last year of my marriage.”
