Page 75 of Meet Jon, the Billionaire

Amelia entered the bakery first. A larger group had gathered in her absence, including the friends and family of the staffers. Amelia warmly greeted a woman and two teens who bore enough resemblance to Pedro for me to connect the dots. I sort of hung out in the entrance, feeling self-conscious for one of the few times in my life.

This was a big deal, you have to understand. The staff at Breadcetera weren’t just employees to Amelia; they were family. Essentially, I was meeting my girl’s family for the first time. Yeah, even billionaire titans of industry can get nervous. It’s what keeps you sharp when making a deal, but damn annoying when you’re trying to play it cool in front of your girlfriend’s family.

At length, one of the teens noticed me, and I got dragged into the milling throng of humanity. Someone poured me a glass of champagne, which I barely touched because I was so busy getting introduced to everyone crowding the bakery.

Everyone was nice, gracious even. I had expected a lot of ill will. Unfortunately, I found that I was being lulled into a false sense of security.

At one point, Pedro and Yerkov approached me and held up three Cuban cigars.

“I saving these for special occasion, da?”

I didn’t think anything of it. I accepted the olive branch and stepped out into the alley behind Breadcetera—which happened to be dark and deserted.

Yerkov lit the cigars and we puffed them to life. As he waved off the match, he turned to look at me and in all deadpan seriousness, said;

“If you hurting Amelia, I will cut off your balls.”

“And I’ll make them into puff pastries and feed them to you.”

Then they both clapped me hard on the shoulders and laughed. We enjoyed those cigars to their fullest, but let me tell you, they never once said they were only kidding.

Now, I wasn’t about to blow my miraculous final chance with Amelia. No way. I’d sooner invest my entire portfolio in cryptocurrency pushed by McGruff the Crime Dog than do that.

But I decided it was probably a good thing for my sake that I had no intention.

After the party, Amelia and I wound up sitting together on the prep table as the last of the guests filed out.

“Did you ever think it was going to end like this?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “Did you?”

“I didn’t have a clue.”

We both laughed, and I took her hand. Our fingers weaved together, and we just sat there and stared into each other’s eyes for a long time.

“I love you, Amelia.”

“I love you, too, Jonathon,” she whispered.

Then we kissed, and yes, it was divine and well worth the wait.

Epilogue One

Amelia

After Jonathon and I became a legit couple, it was like life shifted into a higher gear. The renovations on Breadcetera to expand into the corner lot progressed with remarkable speed. We remained open during the entire renovation process, which was at times not a whole lot of fun.

If you’ve ever had to run a business while someone ground floor tile right outside, you have some idea of what I’m talking about. But we persevered, working out of the old Breadcetera until the time came to knock down the wall and connect the space to the new Breadcetera, tripling our space.

Then we moved into the ‘new’ Breadcetera and worked out of there while the two stores became one. My aunt also got a major upgrade in space and comfort, and an elevator to boot. No more having to use the clunky wheelchair lift.

All of those changes were on the Breadcetera front. There were changes between myself and Jonathon, too.

First of all, we spent as much time together as we could. That wasn’t easy to do with me overseeing the expansion efforts and him being a jet-setting billionaire with business interests all over the world, but we made it work.

Once he surprised me with a trip to London, a mix of business and pleasure. Another time he proposed a visit to the Bahamas, but a tropical storm dashed those plans. I didn’t mind so much, though. Anywhere was good for me as long as Jonathon and I could be together.

Finally, the day drew near where we made the grand opening of the all-new, all-complete Breadcetera. A fair amount of press was there, which was nice, but the real caveat was all the people wanting to be the first in line so they could post it on social media.

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