Page 14 of Cakewalk
“The cake shop is yours, regardless if our parents wanted us to split it equally. I might take a small commission off the rent though, for groceries.”
“For a lot more than that. I know those student loans weren’t cheap.”
“I’ll pay those off another way. Seriously, you just worry about yourself.” My phone dinged, and I took a moment to glance at it.
It was a text from Griffin.
Griffin: You busy tonight?
I don’t know how she did it, but Courtney was right over my shoulder in the split second it took me to read the text. “You better tell him you’re free tonight,” she said, pinching my arm.
I slammed my phone screen against my chest to hide it from her, then mumbled, “Yeah, right.” I had a feeling he just wanted to sort out the rental details, or maybe see if I’d volunteer to help him move in. There was no way he was asking me out. I stood and backed away from Courtney. “I ought to get back to King Kong. And I need to send out some job applications too.”
That seemed to ruin Courtney’s wistful mood, which was for the better. Anything to make her forget about Griffin’s existence. “Come on. You really ought to take a couple of days off before looking for another job. I mean, you just fired yourself.” She winked. “You deserve some recovery time.”
“Better to get back on the horse,” was the trite reply I pulled out of my ass. The truth was, my finances were going to look dire real fast, so a day or two of me-time was really not on the table.
Courtney gave me a quick hug, then headed back behind the counter. “Fine. You’re not off the hook, though. I expect a follow-up about this hot new beau of yours.”
Oh, she was going to get a follow-up eventually, all right. Whether either of us liked it or not. “Yeah, sure,” I said, before heading outside, wondering how exactly I was going to answer Griffin’s text.
Chapter 6
Jade
Mr. and Mrs. Davidson’shouse wasn’t in too much disarray from King Kong’s usual rampaging this evening. The rooms and hallways had branches installed along the walls, perhaps in a sad attempt to keep the giant lizard from climbing the furniture instead, but he had knocked over a few books and ship models in his wake today. Definitely not as bad as that one time he knocked over the flatscreen TV though.
The massive iguana skittered into the hallway as I assessed the day’s damage, giving me a big yawn as he waited expectantly for his dinner. The beast’s body was about the size of my leg, and his whip of a tail had necessitated making the entire house lizard-proof. But Mr. and Mrs. Davidson loved the green spiky bastard enough to go through the trouble.
And they even loved him enough to hire me to pet-sit him while they were enjoying the summer months in their second house up North. That momentarily solved my housing situation, as I was allowed to stay in the guest room, but they’d be back in a couple of months, and then the free ride would be over.
That was why I needed a job, stat.
Not to mention the student loans…
As I was hanging my purse and keys, King Kong aggressively licked at my sneakers. When that didn’t get a response, he whipped his tail and eyed me, his pupils dilating.
“All right, all right, I’m gonna feed you! Yeesh.” I kicked off my sneakers, tucked my phone into my pocket, then hurried to the kitchen.
The Davidsons’ kitchen was bigger than any house I could probably afford, and its state-of-the-art equipment was wasted on me since all I ever did was use the microwave. Still, I always had to admire the sleek surfaces every time I turned the kitchen light on in the evening.
I opened the massive fridge door and pulled out the makings for King Kong’s dinner. As I tore up some fresh spinach and vegetables and set them on a plate, I wondered just how I should respond to Griffin. At this point, it had been thirty minutes since he texted me, and I wondered if my silence would be interpreted a certain way. Would he think I was ignoring him, and not interested at all? Would he think I was trying to play some sort of game with him, acting like I wasn’t at all desperate to respond?
I wasn’t sure why I couldn’t just text him back. His question was rather vague, though. “You busy tonight?” could be, as I first suspected, him just wanting to settle some rental business. Or worse, wanting me to help him move in his stuff.
Not that I’d mind helping him move in his furniture or boxes, but considering my long and storied past of dropping and breaking things, it wouldn’t be such a good idea. I was worse than King Kong in that regard. And I doubted he’d find my klutziness so endearing when he was on the receiving end of it.
Was it really better, though, if he was asking me out? What could a super rich, high society, big city guy like him have in common with me?
Ugh, there was my overly naive thinking again. If he was texting with romantic intent, he probably just wanted to hook up, have a little fun. Normal people did that all the time, didn’t they? It didn’t have tomeansomething.
And maybe it wouldn’t be so bad for me to casually hook up with someone. Lord knows I took my last relationship way too seriously, which set me up for massive disappointment and embarrassment that I was still reeling from years later.
I pulled out my phone, forgetting about King Kong’s spinach feast as I typed a response.
Me: My night’s free. What’s up?
I didn’t press send just yet, setting down my phone on the marble counter and contemplating whether the “What’s up?” was too casual for our level of familiarity.
