Grace looked over her
shoulder at Kam standing in the doorway of his office and swallowed hard. She
squared her shoulders as she walked into Kam’s office.
“Shut the door, please.”
Grace bit her lip but did
as she was told before sitting down and staring at the man in front of
her. Why
did he have to be so good looking? Why
torture innocent women?
“You know what? I think
you should cut your hair,” she said, without thinking.
Kam’s eyes widened as he
automatically pulled his hand over his ponytail. “What? Why?” he demanded, frowning at her.
“Because it tortures
women, that’s why,” she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest. “And maybe wear long sleeves, too. Those tattoos are just as bad.”
Kam blinked a few times
and then grinned at her. “Wait. You’re
saying I’m torturing you?”
Grace nodded her head,
frowning at him. “It’s cruel to be
honest.”
Kam laughed and pushed a
small box closer to her. “Well, maybe
this will make up for it.”
Grace felt her stomach
growl as she reached for the box, hoping against hope that it was what she
thought it was. She hadn’t had time for
lunch and this could very well put her in a better mood.
“Oh please, please be
something yummy,” she murmured, opening the lid to see the biggest, most
decadent cupcake ever made by human hands. “Oh my word. It’s too beautiful to
eat.”
Kam shook his head. “Not even. Take a bite.”
Grace lifted the large
cupcake out of the box and stared at it for a moment before taking a large
bite. She closed her eyes, shaking her
head at the explosion of flavors in her mouth.
“It’s too much,” she
whispered, licking her lips. “This has
to be what heaven is like.”
Kam laughed and put his
hands behind his head, leaning back in his chair. “Your hair is pretty.”
Grace smiled and leaned
back in her chair, now much much happier than when she’d entered his office.
“Really? Thanks, Boss.”
Kam smiled back at her,
just looking at her. Grace blushed, now
feeling weird, eating in front of him as he just sat there watching her.
“And what did you pick
from the bakery today? Did you stick to the parfait, or did you venture out and
try something new?”
Kam motioned to an empty
box on his desk. “Kit convinced me to
try her newest creation. It was a looped
churro dipped in chocolate and nuts. It was amazing,” he said, sighing happily.
Grace laughed and licked
some icing off the side of her cupcake.
“And to think I had to force that first banana parfait on you. I love it.
Next time I’m there, I’ll pick up a couple for both of us.”
Kam cleared his throat and
looked down at his large hands. “Um, yeah, that would be great. Maybe we should just uh, go together
sometime?”
Grace raised an eyebrow at
Kam over her cupcake as he looked at her with a strange expressionless look on
his face. She tilted her head as she
studied him. Two things. The man had just sort of asked her out. And he was super nervous about it. She grinned at him and pointed her finger at
him.
“Boss, you just asked me
out.”
Kam cleared his throat
again and began fidgeting with a pencil.
“Nah, not really. It was more
like, if you’re going and I’m going and we happen to be going at the same time
and we both want a churro, maybe we should just go together. That’s all.”
Grace laughed and shook
her finger at him. “No way. You just asked me out.”
Kam’s face reddened as he
looked up at the ceiling and sighed pitifully. “Why do women make life so
hard?” he asked the ceiling.
Grace sat back and sighed
happily. “Oh you’ve done it now. We’re
going on a date. We. Are. Going. On. A.
Date.”
Kam groaned and rubbed his
face before staring at her in exasperation.
“Well, can you blame me? You come in here, singing and dancing and
tempting me with desserts and making me laugh. And Gracie, you flirt. You
flirt with me like crazy. What’s a man
to do?” he demanded.
Grace grinned and took a
bite of her cupcake as she wallowed in her happy glow. “Oh I get it. I forced you to ask me out. Is
that it? You poor little thing.”
Kam sighed and shook his
head, looking even more befuddled. “Of course not. No, I’ve been wanting to ask
you out for two weeks now. I’ve just been, . . . I’ve just been a little hesitant
is all.”
Grace smiled at him. “Two
weeks? You know, I was about to give up on you.
I was thinking if you didn’t ask me out, I was going to take Baby and
run away to Hawaii.”
Kam grinned, looking very
satisfied for some reason. “Oh, that’s why you wanted to run away, huh? Good to
know.”
Grace raised an eyebrow at
that. “Oh, so you do enjoy torturing
poor, innocent women. Well, then I
deserve this date. For making me wait,
for the hair and the tattoos, I think I deserve something more exciting than Belinda’s
Bakery though.”
Kam tilted his head. “Oh
yeah? What did you have in mind?”
Grace sat forward,
grinning. “Dancing. I want to go
dancing with you.”
Kam narrowed his eyes at
her. “We’d have to leave a little early
Saturday night, but there’s a club I know that stays open until two. If you’re not too tired, we could leave here
at ten.”
Grace stood up and popped
the last of her cupcake in her mouth.
“It’s a date then,” she said and saluted him before walking out into the
kitchen.
It was only later that
night when she was laying in bed, trying to fall asleep that Anne’s words about
always coming in second place in Kam’s heart began to play on repeat through
her mind. She sighed and turned on her
stomach, watching the shadows play against her wall.
Could she do it? Could she allow herself to fall for a man who would
only give her half his heart? She
frowned at that, feeling the automatic punch to her gut.
The answer to that was, she didn’t know.
Becca McCulloch is a wife, mother, professor, and writer but rarely in that order (if in any order at all). At night, she transitions from mild-mannered educator into mild-mannered artist, writing about LDS (Mormon) issues in a modern and complex world. In 2016, she won the Storymakers' First Chapter Contest/General Fiction category. In 2019, her novel, Hermana, was named the General Fiction category winner for the LDS Publishers Media Association.
