Page 3 of Buns in the Oven
And I’ve got a damn good feeling about Stella.
As soon as I step into my apartment, I toss my stuff aside and grab a beer from the fridge. The first sip relaxes me a little, but it doesn’t completely quell the annoyance I feel at the fact that Stella is my buddy’s sister. Fuck. Why does it have to be like this? Why does she have to be off-limits?
Oh, screw it. If she’s been on my mind this much, I can’t back away just because of her being off-limits. I’ve gotta at least give this a shot.
After finishing my beer, I pick up my phone and give Joey a call. Because if there’s one thing I’m not going to do, it’s fuckin’ sneak around behind a friend’s back.
“Hey, Wes,” Joey says when he answers. He sounds surprised to hear from me. I don’t blame him. I can’t think of the last time I called him. Usually we communicate via text.
“Hey, man,” I say. “You have a few minutes to talk?”
“Sure,” he says. “I just got home.”
“How’d the rest of your grand opening go?”
“It was great, actually,” Joey says, sounding buoyant. “To be honest, when you came by this morning, I was kind of worried that nobody else was going to show up. But it turned out fine. We had a pretty steady stream of people coming in all day.”
“That’s awesome,” I say.
“Thanks.” He pauses. “So…what’s up? I’m guessing you didn’t just call to ask how our first day went.”
“Nope,” I say. I run a thumb over the label on my beer bottle. “I also called because I want to ask you something. It’s about Stella.”
“Okay…”
“How pissed would you be if I asked her out?”
There’s a pause on the line. I brace myself for a bad reaction from Joey. I tell myself that if he’strulyset against it, I’ll back off. I’m not going to pursue Stella if it means ruining a friendship.
But it’s going to fucking suck if I can’t ask her out.
“Look, Joey,” I say, because he’s still not saying anything, “I know you still think of her as your little sister, but she’s an adult now.”
“I know she’s an adult,” says Joey, his voice tight. Then he hefts out a sigh. “It’s fine. If you really want to ask her out, go ahead. I’m not going to encourage it, but…I’m not going to stand in your way, either.”
I’m so giddy that I can’t help the grin that spreads across my lips.
“Thanks, man,” I say. “Hey, who knows. She might not even say yes.”
“I’m sure she will,” says Joey. “I mean, shit. The way she acted around you this morning…look. Just don’t break her heart, okay?”
“Never,” I say. “Come on. You can trust me. You know me.”
“Just don’t,” Joey says.
Chapter Three
Stella
Iunwind the last section of my hair from the curling iron and turn the iron off. Running my fingers through my hair, the curls gently loosen. I shake them out, then hold up a mirror to look at my hair from the back to make sure it looks okay. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten ready for a date, and I feel out of practice.
I think I’m still a little bit in shock that Wes asked me out. I spent all day yesterday accepting the fact that nothing was going to happen between us—that he was just a hot guy that maybe I would let myself fantasize being with now and then.
But then, this morning, Wes came into the café again and walked right up to me and asked me out. Caught off guard, I looked over at my brother, who was watching us with his lips pressed together.
“Don’t worry about your brother,” Wes said. “I’ve already talked to him about this.”
“He knows?” I looked from Wes to my brother again, and Joey gave me a slight nod. I couldn’t believe it. Wes had actually talked to Joey and asked if it was okay to ask me out?