Love Actually (Love By Design 5)

Taylor: Obviously, sweetie. Maybe you two can commiserate over cupcakes?

Surely she wasn’t suggesting…

Cupcakes?

It took forever for Taylor to respond to me.

Taylor: She’s a cake designer over at Cake and Battery on Main Street…

Cupcakes… I could do cupcakes, but I wasn’t convinced. I was more of a pie or cheesecake girl. Substance and sustenance. I’d learned my lesson last time and I wasn’t about to let my hormones rule my decisions here. Besides, Syd had soured my sweet tooth considerably.

Not sure she’s playing on my team.

Taylor: She plays the field, I wouldn’t worry so much.

&nbs

p; So much for my hormones.

Taylor: Come on. It’s her shop and she’s designing my wedding cake as a huge and lovely favor. So I need my best girlfriends to come and help me pick out my cake flavors.

Bingo. Sometimes I really loved my friends, but I was still going to play this causal. I could never have too many friends and if it happened, then it happened. It probably wasn’t going to happen. In fact, I was going to completely strike the thought from my mind.

Really?

Taylor: She was my roommate for two years. I would know.

Huh, I guess that explained it all. Right?

I’m taking things slow getting out there again.

Taylor: Then we should go taste samples at the bakery and see what we like. And by samples, I mean cupcakes. *smile emoji*

I laughed because my mind was in the gutter along with Taylor’s innuendoes. I couldn’t indulge more of this conversation right now and switched gears.

What about Hunter?

Taylor: Oh please, my caveman doesn’t care as long as it’s got some form of chocolate inside.

Taylor lucked out getting to hook up with her high school crush. I still couldn’t believe it had taken them that long to figure out their attraction but I guess like fine wine, all good things took time. I was willing to put time into this thing, whatever it could be with Carmen.

You tell me the time and I’m there.

Taylor let me know me the details for later this week and it worked for me. I would have time to forget about my attraction to Carmen or figure out what questions to ask Taylor about her without coming off like a crazy stalker woman. I was willing to taste anything Carmen made; the bonus would be getting to see her again.

10

Carmen

“Hey Kristen, can you help me with the coffee? In the kitchen. Like now?” Taylor wiped her hands on a towel and then grabbed a startled Kristen dragging her into my kitchen leaving me with Louisa.

It was the first time I was alone with her since my hair coloring incident. Was it supposed to feel weird? Only because Taylor was setting us up. I could feel it, see it, sense it by the pair of eyes I was certain were watching us from the window in the kitchen door.

I turned back and saw a blonde and brunette head drop down from the door. Yeah, not awkward at all.

“Well that wasn’t glaringly obvious.” Louisa said popping the words from her mouth.

“No. Not at all.” I took my fork and sectioned off a small piece of cake savoring the delicate flavor curious if I could make the cake lighter without having to make it sweeter. Every baker’s challenge.