Page 86 of Baking and Angels

“Yes! For our first date,” she said, giving his cheek an affectionate peck. She still wasn’t seeing the problem.

“This does not seem like… the right store?”

“Oh, I know, but that’s alright, this store also has another service where they sell high-end clothing including tailored uniforms. What we want is in the back,” she insisted as they passed through a pair of swinging doors.

The back area was starkly different than the front. For one thing, a small platform, covered in the same gray-blue carpet as the floor, stood in front of a semicircle of mirrors. A little stand stood next to the platform where Honey had placed an open notebook. The clerk had draped a roll of measuring tape over her shoulders and was jotting down something into that notebook. A second after they had entered, she looked up, beaming a smile as big asher hair.

“Come on in, don’t be shy, sugar drops,” Honey invited, gesturing toward the platform. “I was just joking before about getting naked. Though do shrug off that coat. I’m fairly good at eyeballing you, but for this special order, we need to get it right.” She winked at Helena, who grinned like this was all some sort of joke.

Rafferty sighed. “Okay, let’s get this over with,” he stated, firmly stopping Helena’s tugging toward the platform. “But I don’t understand what’s wrong with a standard chef’suniform.”

Helena’s cheerful face melted to concern. “This is for your new uniform, for the competition. It’s like half kitchen scrubs, but also half costume, you know, for the show. You’ll be a celebrity chef! You need to have a signature look!”

“I’m thinking of it like a Formula One racer’s jumpsuit,” Honey chimed in, spooling the measuring tape between her fingers.

“Oh, and before I forget!” Helena scurried over to a briefcase he hadn’t seen before leaning against the wall with her purse and coat. She pulled a small stack of papers out of the briefcase. “I need you to sign these. This is your contract for the event, just like you wanted.”

Rafferty’s heart clenched at the word “contract.” It made Honey pause as she measured around his chest. Their eyes met briefly, but before he could interpret that look, Helena came up beside him on theplatform.

“And look!” She flipped the pages in her hands to one in the middle, then thrust it up to him, bending the papers so only the text she wanted to highlight was easily read. It wasn’t a word; it was a number. “Fifty thousand dollars. That’s your pay for doing this event.”

“For cooking for one night? That’s quite a deal!” Honey declared, shifting her tape down to measure first his waist, thenhis hips.

“Yeah!” Helena agreed. “And that’s just what he gets paid for doing the show. If you win, the grand prize will be another$50,000!”

“Is that a lot of money?” he had to ask.

“It’s a really good yearly salary. I made sure,” Helena assured him.

“I don’t make that much working here every day, that’s for sure,” Honey said pleasantly. “It looks like you’re moving up in the world, my little crème brûlée.”

The older woman then went around, giving his rear a little pinch in time with her crème brûlée endearment. He jumped out of his skin with a little yelp. Immediately, Honey put her hands up, closing her eyes in self-consternation. “I am so sorry. I’ve already been talked to about that. My fault, I’m aware. That is unacceptable. It won’t happen again,I swear.”

“It’s fine,” he assured, relaxing his shoulders back down. “Worse has happened to me in my time, believe me.”

“Oh, but that just makes it more… ohhhhh,” Honey continued as she knelt down beside him to lay her tape along the outside of his leg, measuring from his waist to the floor. “I promise, Honey is going to be a good girl from now on.”

Honey continued to chastise herself as she worked, but Rafferty stopped trying to put her at ease. Instead, he glanced at Helena, who smiled warmly, still offering him the contract. Except he wasn’t taking it, and he couldn’t return her smile. He just wanted her to get the damn thing away from him. Since he didn’t have the will to do that, however, he remained frozen, unsure of what to say.

A moment later, her own smile began to falter, and worry lines appeared between her brows. “What’s wrong? Is there something else you would want?” She turned the contract toward herself, flipping the pages again. “I can fix it. Just tell me whatyou want.”

“No, it’s not that,” he said. “It’s good. Thank you. That is very generous, but…”

“But, what?” Helena urged with the eagerness of a puppy. Her beautiful gray eyes were stormy with the lightning strikes of gold flashing through them.

He cleared his throat. “Where is this money coming from?”

Why am I questioning this?he thought.What do I care where the moneycame from?

“Oh,” she said, relief washing her face back to a grin. “I’m getting several advertising companies to agree to sponsor this event. I’ve also made a deal with another production company to do the TV production.”

“All within a couple of weeks?” Rafferty exclaimed. He had very little knowledge of such things, but the TV executive who he had once cooked for in the ’70s had waxed poetic on “What a real pain in the ass it is to get everyone to agree to any and every little decision.” Which was why it would take years to even start production.

Helena blinked at his question, the pucker returning between her brows. “Has it only been a couple of weeks?” Her gaze went internal for a second. Then she started shaking her head. “No, no, it’s got to be closer toa month.”

“But still…” Rafferty wanted to argue, but he wasn’t sure it was trulyworth it.

“This child’s working like lightning,” Honey chimed in as she shifted from the stand where she had been jotting down her measurements. “And now, chocolate muffin, I need to get in there for some more personal measurements. Do I have your permission?” She indicated his inner seam.

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