Page 100 of Salty, Spiced, and a Little Bit Nice

Some customers who were waiting for their coffee orders were starting to watch us.

“I still haven’t forgiven him, but I felt sorry for him. He’s done time, paid for his sins, and now he’s got the rest of his life to live with the consequences, alone and miserable. Everyone that used to matter in his life left him, because he turned his back on them,on the people he was supposed to love. And I thought to myself,what a sad, sad life.”

The crowd watching us slowly grew, and God forbid I had another viral social media moment—this time with the man who broke my heart. I gave them all a polite smile, then dragged Alec away to the office and closed the door.

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“Because seeing him has made me realize that I didn’t want that kind of life. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life being sad, miserable, and away from the people I care for, from the people I love. From you. I’ve wasted the past decade living thousands of miles away from you, Ellie. And I don’t want to waste even one more day if I don’t have to.”

My heart stilled for a couple of beats.Do I need my ears thoroughly checked and cleaned, or did he just imply that he… loves me?

I held my breath and ignored the uninvited cheers and fanfare that erupted from the depths of my brain.So much for being cautious, brain.

“I thought about what you said to me. That one hypo episode isn’t a reason to freak out and pull the plug on a relationship. And you’re right. I might have turned my back on you once, ten years ago, and I still don’t know if I’m good enough for you, but I want to be there for you, Ellie. To go through the ups and downs together with you, no matter how hard. I promise to do better, if you’ll give me another chance.”

As I stood there gaping at him, still trying to process everything, he pulled out a thick white envelope from his back pocket and handed it to me. I didn’t take it, and my brain took that as a cue to hum ominous doomsday soundtracks, and vivid mental images of sharks, snakes, and crocodiles began to play in Technicolor. He placed the Twisted Sweets box on my desk and the thick envelope on top of it.

“Eric also told me how your mother is still raging at you, and me, because you refused to return home to be with your family. Kept ranting about how your family name couldn’t be associated with someone like me, how you belong with someone who comes from a family of your financial status. And I finally understood that she will never change. She never cared about you, or your health, or anything else, and probably never will. All she cares about is your family’s reputation, the business, the money, and all the privileges that came with it.”

“Yeah.” It was a bitter pill to swallow, but he was right.

“I also went to see Jacqui. Last week.”

“You’ve been busy,” I said.

He gave a small chuckle. “I apologized to her. Told her everything, and explained that yes, it was a ruse at first, but it’s gotten real for me, and how I’ve had real feelings for you from a long time ago. That it wasn’t your fault, because it was all my idea from the beginning.” He shoved both his hands into his pockets, his eyes searching mine. “And I asked if she would consider giving you another chance.”

I gaped at him. “You did… what?”

“She agreed. Carmel will be in touch with you to place a new order for the party.”

“But… what about your business agreement with her?”

“We worked something out. She was still offended by our elaborate stunt, but she’s also a shrewd businesswoman. The numbers didn’t lie. It was still a wise business decision to invest in my company.”

“That’s wonderful, Alec.” Relief went through me. “Did she say why Phil did it?”

“He was trying to get her to invest in his business, to save him from financial trouble. Jacqui wasn’t interested, so Phil thought he could persuade her that his company was a better investment than mine. That’s why he started looking for dirt he could use todiscredit me. Last I heard, he’s dissolving his business and filing for bankruptcy.”

For a moment, I felt a twinge of pity for Phil. No matter what he’d done, he was just doing what he thought was best for his company.

“I know you might not want to see me again after this, given everything that I did. So I’m going to give you some space to think about it.” Alec pointed at the white envelope. “Everything you need to know is in there. I’ll leave it with you, so you can read it in your own time.”

He walked backward toward the door. His eyes were still on me, his hands paused on the doorknob. “It’s good to see you, Ellie. I’ve missed you so much.”

With one last look, he walked out and disappeared from view, and I stood there, trying to compose myself. My eyes drifted to his envelope, and that’s when I realized he’d left his Twisted Sweets box underneath it.

I grabbed the box, with every intention of rushing out and going after him, but something caught my attention. My name was scribbled at the top, written in his handwriting.

He ordered these… for me?

Placing it back on the desk, I untied the white ribbon and lifted the lid open, immediately recognizing some of our customized sugar cookies. He’d ordered cookies shaped like oven mitts, mixing bowls, aprons, and colorful swirly cupcakes, all neatly arranged in rows inside the box. Behind the row of apron-shaped cookies, there were some alphabet-shaped, pink-and-light-green dotted ones.

I didn’t know how long I stood there, just staring at those pink-and-green cookies.

Because the letters read,

I.

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