Page 46 of Desserts for Stressed People

“No, no,” I immediately say, grabbing my bag, but Emma’s in the hall before I can stop her. “Shit,” I mumble, closing her apartment door.

Though I try to keep up, but my heels make it difficult to run after her down the stairs. “Stop it, Emma! Stop!” I half-scream as she keeps laughing and rushing to the ground floor.

“You’re crazy if you think I’ll miss the moment in which his eyes first land on you.” She joins her hands and brings them under her chin, batting her lashes dramatically.

“Promise you won’t say anything. Donotembarrass me.”

“I’ll do my best,” she says with a motion of her hand as we reach the entrance of the building. She gives me a quick hug, then a slapping noise echoes off the walls as she spanks my butt. “Go get him.”

Chuckles are still bubbling out of my lips when she opens the door.

He’s parked on the other side of the street, pacing and looking at the ground as he speaks on the phone. He’s wearing a dark blue suit with a striped gray tie—does he know it’s my favorite color on him, or is it yet another coincidence? It’s like he’s inside my brain.

I hesitate for a couple of seconds before finally advancing toward him, still walking and mumbling at the phone.

Crap. He is so handsome, I think my jaw fell off a few steps back. What if he sees me and has no reaction whatsoever? What if he doesn’t even notice my dress?

Once I’m halfway across the street, his head turns to me. My heart beats dangerously fast, and I fight the urge to cover up as his gaze roams down my body. “Hi,” I say.

I somehow manage to take the final steps to reach him, and now we’re standing in front of each other. His lips are ajar as he looks down—maybe at my obscene décolleté, or at my legs, which he can see a good portion of. A few seconds pass, and I can hear the person on the phone calling his name. But he’s still gaping at me, definitely distracted.

“Shane?” I whisper.

“No—yes. Hi.” It takes him more than a little effort to speak, or maybe to look into my eyes, and I try to hide how pleased I am as gushes of laughter explode behind me.

We both turn to Emma, who’s waving goodbye.

“Have fun!” she shouts.

I’ll murder her as soon as I get the chance.

“I’ll have to call you back,” Shane says to whomever he’s talking to on the phone, and the person is still speaking when he hangs up.

I tilt my head. “Bad habits are hard to kill.”

“I think I forgot how to breathe for a second there,” he says, his eyes quickly drifting down again. I can’t tell if he’s surprised or pleased, but I tuck some hair behind my ear and ignore the fluttering of my heart. “You look beautiful—more than beautiful.”

Well...“Beautiful” is better than “hot.” Much, much better. Or maybe it’s thathesaid it.

“You look beautiful too.” I point at his dark blue suit, my nose scrunching. “I mean, handsome. Handsome.” I shake my head with a sigh. “You know.”

“Who was that?” he asks, nudging his head toward the door.

“That’d be Emma. Sales department. We’ve been friends since we were kids.”

He lifts his gaze in contemplation. “I can see why.”

I wonder why he says that—maybe because we’re so different, we kind of complement each other. “We’ve always been really close. The first few years of high school, she tried to get people to call her Paradise, so that we’d be Heaven and Paradise. She refused to answer to anyone unless they called her that, teachers included.” I pause to breathe, words rolling out of my lips in a haze. “But it didn’t stick. Everyone kept calling her Emma, and one day she had such a big fit about it that she was sent to the principal’s office.”

I stop yammering and inhale. Why am I info-dumping him? Once I muster the strength to look into his eyes, trying not to look as embarrassed as I feel, there’s a smirk on his lips.

“Well...the question begs to be asked.Whyis your name Heaven?” When I grin, he does too. Excruciatingly so, because his cocoa-brown eyes stick to mine, and I can’t look away, and my answer doesn’t come. “Is it a secret?”

“No, not a secret.” I shift from one foot to the other. “I’m just considering which version of the truth to give you.”

“The only version I’m interested in is the true one.” He chuckles as I hum, pretending not to be sold on it. “Is that how it is? After I shower you with desserts?”

“More like you shove dessert down my throat.”

---