I am sick. I still feel awful but I just wanted to give you guys something.

Enjoy~

"Aren't we too grown for games?
Aren't we too grown to play around?
Young enough to chase
But old enough to know better."

-What Lovers Do, Maroon 5

Chapter 12

"Sarah, hi. What are you doing here?"

My eyes searched his face. No emotions.

There was nothing on his face.

Absolutely nothing.

Did I imagine what just happened between us?

"Well, I thought of dropping by and seeing my boyfriend and my colleague."

My eyes snapped back to Sarah who had drawn up a stool directly in front of us. She gave me a smile and I gave her a weary one back.

"I missed you in the store today. It was—"

"And you didn't miss me?" Soham cut in, making a pouty face.

"Of course, I did, boo," she replied before pulling his face closer and planting a kiss on his lips.

I looked down immediately, embarrassed and a tiny bit hurt at what I just saw.

Damn you, Jennifer. He's not yours. He's dating her and is clearly happy. Shame on you for wanting someone else's man.

I felt a surge of guilt and pity on myself along with a tangle of other emotions.

Luckily, right then a group of customers walked in and I excused myself from the lovers to attend to them.

"Hello, what would you like?" I asked chirpily, not bothering to look up as I busied myself with the strings of my apron because there was only so much I could fake.

"Jennifer?"

I looked up at the familiar voice. Ethan.

Argh, curse my luck.

"Hi."

"Hey. I thought this was your brother's store?"

"It still is. He's sick. I had to take over in lieu of his absence."

And I'm regretting every moment of it.

Of course, I didn't add that in.

"What a perfect sister," Ethan said, chuckling.

"We are hungry, Ethan. Stop flirting with her and order, damn it," someone hollered from his group.

We both blushed on cue.

He cleared his throat and stated the order.

"And-uhm-for me, would you suggest something new? I'm bored of my regular."

"Yea cool. There's mint chocolate cupcakes, banana cake—"

"What's your favourite?"

It was a normal question but I'd like to blame my haywire hormones for sensing intimacy in that question. Like a question meant for only me to hear.

I slid open the glass shelf and removed a slice of the cake I wanted him to try.

"Coffee cake with chocolate ganache," I said, before placing it in front of him.

He smiled at me and I smiled back at him.

It was different from the one I gave Sarah before.

This one was genuine.

With zero guilt.

But even though I was looking at him and he was looking back at me and this was what people watching us would define as a moment, I wasn't a part of it.

Ethan stood in front of me but in my mind, the thing, yes the thing (it will be referred to as the thing from now on), kept replaying.

Again and again and again.

"You never called or even replied to my texts."

I was brought back to reality, the fog of the thing clearing from my mind.

And once again, guilt washed over me.

And embarrassment.

My two new friends for today.

I don't like them much.

I placed the rest of the orders on the tray, averting his eyes before a logical reason came to my mind.

"I'm sorry, Ethan but I've been really busy with my store and now that college is almost beginning—"

"I understand. Seriously, I do—"

"Tomorrow night, dinner? Its on me." I don't what made me say that.

My third new friend today.

Impulsiveness.

"Haha, not on you, but yes, tomorrow dinner."

He gave me a radiant smile again before walking off to his group with a tray of their orders.

"Wow. Someone's got a date," Sarah giggled. I could smell the same chocolate on her that Soham had with me.

She was annoying me, now.

I smiled as I cleaned the counter.

Someone give me an Oscar for fakeness.

Right now.

"Anyways, I gotta go now or your mom will have my head. You're lucky you're excused for today but not me. Bye. Bye Soham. Love you. Call me when you're done here."

With that said, she sashayed her way out of the store as if it was her own personal ramp walk. I noticed some of Ethan's friends checking her out.

I wasn't even blaming them.

She was that kind of girl, who claimed your attention. The kind of girl to walk into a room and get every guy's attention and turn every head.

I wasn't that girl.

"Your favourite isn't the coffee cake. Its the oreo cheesecake," he mumbled while crossing from behind me.

I slammed the glass shelf shut.

Thank god that whatever material it was made up of was not easily breakable or the standing glass shelf would have crumbled in my hands and I would have had to deal with a crying brother.

On second thought, the twit would deserve it after everything he put me through today just because of his low ass immunity.

"It was the last slice. I didn't want it to go to waste."

The rest of the day went pretty uneventful. Me going out of my way to not be in Soham's close proximity which was kind of difficult when you work with that person in a small kitchen, but hats off to me for accomplishing it.

Soham was called off for practice and without even looking back at me, he left. Not even a word of goodbye.

It was better that way.

For me, at least.

I cleaned up the store after the last customer and as soon as my work was done, I called the one person I wanted to talk to.

"I need to tell you something."

"Is it really important? Should I come—?"

"I almost kissed Soham."

"You are at the bakery, right? I'll be there in ten."

~*~

(Notice valid till 15th August, 2020: Hi, help me out?

I have participated in a contest which requires maximum likes to win, so please hit the like button in the link on my message board (will take two seconds, you dont even have to watch it) and share it with as many people as you can and ask them to hit the like button too, its super important for me, so thank you so much in advance and hope you have or had a great day xo)

Who do you think is on the other end of the call?

The first one to guess it right gets the next chapter dedicated to them.

Hehehe.

Alsoo, tomorrow is Valetine's. So tell me honestly, how many of you guys have plans? *smirks*

I really need to go now so I can't write a long author's note.

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xoxo