Ambi knew she wasn’t going anywhere by arguing. Okay, she’d probably argue herself straight into a migraine and that part of the day was still coming. She had to go meet with Trey at the hall she wanted to use as the venue for the party in less than an hour. She couldn’t afford to explode what remained of her brain cells.
Or to go soft. No, she definitely couldn’t afford that. Thoughts about Trey in any capacity other than him being a massive jerk who wasn’t good enough to lick the bottoms of her boots were strictly off-limits.
“Thanks for making the best cakes, Marcella. I’ll see you in a couple of weeks to pick it up.”
Marcella nodded and smiled knowingly like she and Trey were in on some big secret that Ambi didn’t want to be a part of. Fricking Trey. He even got Marcella to like him. Not that it was hard. Marcella was an extremely nice lady. She was as grandmotherly as she looked. Ambi wished that she would have been one of those mean grannies when it came to Trey. The kind who lured a person in with pastries then shoved them in the oven or baked them into a pie.
Trey pie.
It would probably be delicious.
Just like the rest of him.
Shit. Shit on a freaking stick. Her brain was already betraying her. Her body was doing that stupid buzzing thing like she’d just stuck a knife in a toaster and jumped in the tub with it.
Ambi shook her head and waved to Marcella as she turned and started for the door.
“Wish your mother Merry Christmas from me,” Marcella called.
Ambi turned and waved again. “I will. See you in a few weeks, Marcella. Thanks again for everything.”
She made a hasty exit before Marcella could sing any more of Trey’s praises. As she slipped into her car, she had to grip the wheel to keep her hands from shaking and the frigid cold had nothing to do with it. Ambi sank her teeth into her bottom lip and worked it until she could taste blood. She had to be composed. On her game. She still had to meet with Trey at the stupid hall and she wasn’t going to walk in there with anything less than the toughest poker face in place.
She was filled with resolution when she started driving, but by the time she reached the first red light, something more than dread was churning in the pit of her stomach.
Marcella’s words were like seeds from the most insidious weeds. They planted themselves in the barren garden of her heart and refused to give up, sprouting and growing without sunlight or water or even warmth.
CHAPTER 7
Trey
The hall. Yet another convenient excuse to meet with Ambi.
Trey knew he could be a first-rate asshole. Usually, he tried to keep that shit to a minimum. He made a point of not treating people the way his father did, like he owned them just because he paid their salaries. He didn’t want to treat Ambi that way. He didn’t want to be a jerk. He didn’t want her to think he was trying to assert ownership over her just because he was paying for some stupid party.
He just wanted to spend time with her. A few minutes here and there was so much more than he’d had in the past five years. Those few minutes were everything. She’d always been what he thought about at the end of the day, his last thought, and his first thought in the morning.
That kiss- that kiss at the bakery- it had been two days and he still couldn’t stop thinking about it. He felt it with every fiber of his being. Every shred of who he was wanted a repeat, even if it was glaringly obvious that Ambi hated him.
She acted like she did. She said she did. Then there was the hesitancy in her kiss. She hadn’t pulled away. Slapped him. Kneed him in the balls. All of the things he deserved. No. She’d let him kiss her until her better judgment kicked in and she remembered that she was supposed to hate him.
Waiting for Ambi to show in the hall’s entrance made Trey feel like he was going to explode, at least on the inside. He’d pretty much been a wreck for the past two days. He tossed and turned all night, trying to come up with a game plan, but there was nothing. He was still winging it and with Ambi, that was far from good enough.
He almost thought she was going to stand him up just to teach him a lesson, but then she breezed through the door, twenty-five minutes late. He was more annoyed at this pathetic puppy dog reaction to her than he was about her being purposely late. He wanted to wag his tail, jump all over her legs barking wildly, and pee all over the floor in his excitement.