The next morning was overcast and dreary, in direct contrast to what Evy was feeling inside. The air was wet with drizzle and tasted sweeter than ever before. Everything looked magical, like seeing it for the first time through a child's eyes. The birds sang out from above, their spiraling trills music to her ears. A Monarch butterfly flittered along and accompanied her through a quiet stretch of downtown, before pulling over at a purple coneflower for breakfast. Even the bums looked peaceful, like they had recently showered and shaved. A thin man with a bushy gray beard leaned against a closed up liquor store. He tipped his tattered cap and returned her warm smile. She told him good morning and started to hum.
Evy had already tried thinking about something else, anything to keep the titillating distraction of Dean Jacobs at bay, but it was too much work. She shook her head, ashamed for letting some strange guy pull her thoughts from Sugars. It was her baby and here she was already thinking about something else. She owed it to Brooke and Ben to stay focused. It was their baby, too.
She rounded the corner as the early morning sun began peeking out from the rolling clouds, her upbeat mood seeming to give the burning star the extra boost it needed. Her pulse quickened when she saw the spot where they had kissed last night in front of Sugars. She could still feel his warm lips on hers, his hands gently exploring her trembling body, the smell of his cologne stirring her hormones into a whirlwind. She fumbled through her keys and unlocked the glass door, ringing the bell when she pushed through.
Brooke looked up from a square table where she was wrapping silverware inside burgundy-colored silk napkins that had cost them a fortune.
"Sorry I'm late."
Brooke set a completed roll inside a gray bus tub, a sly grin pilfering her expression. "Well, well, well, I don't think I've ever seen anyone look so good to bake cupcakes and turnovers." Brooke crossed her arms and eyeballed Maris from top to bottom. "Expecting a visitor today?"
"I heard Ryan Gosling is in town filming the next Bridesmaids," Evy replied sarcastically, going behind the counter.
Brooke's shit-eating grin plunged into her lap. She sprang to her feet and followed her sister into the kitchen. "Don't even joke around about something like that, Evy! We'll close up shop for the day and go watch." She trailed Evy into the tiny office and watched her deposit her purse onto a wooden chair with wheels. "So, how'd it go last night?" Brooke asked, leaning against the door frame.
"It went good," Evy answered, lacking conviction in her voice while flipping through some recently opened bills.
"Just good?"
"It was..." Evy trailed off for a few seconds as an image of Dean's soft lips slipped through her mind. "...pretty good. We weren't out long."
"No?"
"No."
Brooke nodded slowly. "So did you take my advice?"
Evy looked up from the bills and narrowed her eyes.
"Ya know, did you put frosting on his cock and blow his doors off? I left it sitting out on the counter last night." She gestured to the kitchen behind her without looking.
Evy dropped the bills back to the desk and tried not to laugh. "No, Brooke I did not put frosting on his cock and blow his doors off," she said, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. "Where do you even come up with this stuff?"
"With Ben," she grinned. "Why do you think we're always low on whip cream?"
"Ewe," Evy squealed, shaking off a sudden case of the creeps and pushing past Brooke.
"Don't worry, we always sanitize everything when we're done." Brooke added, following her back up front where the morning sun was starting to come through the windows. "Oh my God! Don't tell me he has a banana dick! I knew he was too perfect."
Evy stopped behind the bowed case of tarts, apple strudel coffee cake squares and frosted pumpkin bars. "What? No!"
Brooke stepped closer, studying her sister through grave eyes, and lowered her voice. "Did you sleep with him? Tell me the truth."
"No, I did not sleep with him."
"Then how do you know he doesn't have a banana dick?"
Evy threw her head back and laughed. "I don't!"
"Well, you better find out, because that's a deal breaker."
Evy pulled a black apron over her head and tied it behind her back. "I'll be sure to get right on that, Brooke," she scoffed, finishing the bow with a solid tug.
Brooke leaned up against a counter already supporting a fancy espresso machine. "That was the first thing I checked on Ben."
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Evy mumbled, firing up the heavy duty espresso and coffee machines.
"So...did you at least kiss him?"
"Nope."
Brooke took a few seconds to study Evy's face. "Really?"
"Really," Evy replied, pulling some empty trays from the glass case and closing it back up.
"Not even one little smooch?"
"Not a one," Evy replied smugly, whisking back into the kitchen.
Brooke followed her like a shadow and watched Evy dump the empty trays into a large sink with an industrial sprayer mounted above it. "I think there's something you should see."
Evy started rinsing the trays off. "And what's that?"
"Come and see."
Evy looked over her shoulder and stopped the sprayer. "See what?"
Brooke nodded toward the office and started walking. Evy sighed and followed, drying her hands on her apron. Brooke took a seat in the chair behind the desk and flipped on a computer monitor as Evy came around and sat on the desk's edge. Brooke shot her a sardonic look and hit play. The monitor blinked to life, jerking a grainy image into focus.
Evy inhaled sharply, the blood rushing to her head turning her face beet red. "Oh my God!"
Brooke turned back to the screen just in time to see Dean yank Evy's head back by her ponytail.
Evy watched in horror, her hands over her mouth. "Turn it off!" she said, watching their lips mingle with a passion on the screen that still gave her the goose bumps. The grainy color video sucked her in, taking her back to last night with its regalia of flickering lights and mind numbing explosions. Her insides turned to mush and she tried to look away but couldn't as Dean cradled her cheek and inhaled her in. It was euphoric and made her wet between the legs. She wanted him and wanted him now. The way he looked into her eyes when they pulled apart tugged at her heart.
Brooke pointed to the screen. "Is that a boner?"
"No!" Evy snapped, reaching over and shutting off the monitor.
Brooke leaned back in the chair and interlocked her fingers behind her head. "Thought you said you didn't kiss him."
Evy pointed to the screen. "That is an invasion of my privacy!"
"Why didn't you let him go all the way?"
Evy stormed out of the office in a huff with Brooke hot on her heels. "We just met."
Brooke threw her arms out. "Hey, at least you let him get a little boob."
"Brooke," Evy groaned.
"Evy, that was the sweetest thing I've ever seen. It was like a movie."
Evy grabbed the sprayer but didn't squeeze the handle, staring down at the dirty trays in the sink through faraway eyes. "It was a mistake."
"Excuse me?" Brooke gasped. "How can that be a mistake?" She pointed to the scene of the crime. "I haven't seen that much passion since I drank an entire bottle of wine by myself and watched Dear John!"
Evy exhaled slowly and squeezed the sprayer, blasting frosting and crumbs from the yellow trays with steaming hot water. "He's a player, Brooke. You should've seen the girls falling all over him last night," she said, placing the trays into a plastic green rack. "I bet he's slept with half the women in this town."
Brooke threw her hands out in frustration. "Exactly! Which means he's good in bed!"
Evy rolled her eyes and slid the green rack into a silver dishwasher, pulled the roll-top door down and pressed a green button on its side, igniting a loud hum inside as the machine began its soaking cycle. "It's not a good time. I need to stay focused on this place."
Brooke stepped closer and took her sister's hand, their eyes meeting. "Honey, listen, you are more than capable of handling two things at one time."
"I know I am, but I just don't..."
"Evy, sweetie, you can't go around thinking everyone is a jerk-off like Richie because they're not. Trust me." Evy opened her mouth to protest but Brooke pressed a finger to her lips. "Richie was your high school sweetheart who never grew up. He was like Peter Pan with a little tiny peter. You said it yourself."
Evy frowned and tried to pull her hand back.
Brooke tightened her grip. "Now is the time to start taking some chances. Sugars is doing awesome and, let's face it, you're not getting any younger."
"Thanks."
"Listen, you can't go around letting one asshole rule your destiny because you're afraid it will happen again." The dishwasher kicked into a different gear and Brooke squeezed Evy's hand and pulled her into the middle of the room. "Leave the past in the past and just use Dean for mind-blowing sex. That way you won't get hurt."
"Brooke, you know I'm not good with one night stands. They're so awkward."
"I've told you this a thousand times - always have a cab company in your phone, always go to their place, and always leave when they're sleeping."
"What if they wake up?"
Brooke sighed. "Who cares? Most of em are just thankful you're leaving and pretend they're asleep."
Evy inhaled a deep breath, her eyes roaming the kitchen without seeing the kitchen, and exhaled slowly.
"This is how you get good, Evy. Everyone does it."
Evy envisioned Dean on top of her, his sweat running onto her swollen breasts.
Brooke leaned in close to Evy's ear and lowered her voice. "You don't have to marry the guy. Just sit back and enjoy the ride."
Evy shook her head, hating it when her sister was right.
"And by that I mean I want you to fuck his brains out."
Evy laughed out loud and crossed over to a dry goods rack on the other side of the room.
Brooke watched Evy fill her arms with boxes of straws, napkins and candles. "You're still on the pill, right?"
"Yes," Evy replied dully, heading for the swinging door. "Not that it's any of your business."
"Then I want you to whip out his giant cock and fuck him ten ways to Sunday until you've gained fifteen pounds from his salty semen!"
Evy pushed through the door and stopped in her tracks. Brooke crashed into her from behind and poked her head around, gaping at the slack jawed man staring back from the other side of the counter. He tipped a white peaked cap at them with an uneasy smile. "Mornin."
"Oops," Brooke murmured.
"I...just need a signature." He nodded to the dolly of stacked milk crates next to him.
Evy dropped her load onto a counter and rushed over to sign the man's electronic tablet. "Thank you," she smiled, her face flushing as much as his.
He looked from Evy to Brooke in a staggered moment of silence before wheeling the cart back to the walk-in cooler.
Evy turned a pointed glare to Brooke, who quietly shrugged in response.
"Nice job locking the door," Brooke whispered, glancing into the kitchen. "He could've been a serial rapist."
"See? I'm forgetting stuff already. I can't get mixed up with anyone right now."
Brooke stepped closer, gritting her teeth. "I am telling you right now...if you don't get some of Dean's big hard dick, someone else will. Guys like that don't stay on the market for long."
"So I've heard," Evy muttered.
"He likes you, Evy," Brooke moaned. "The least you could do is let him eat you out."
"I really like what you've done with..." the milk man trailed off, coming back up front with his empty dolly, "the place." He cleared his throat. "If you ever need any help...changing a light bulb or anything, I'm always around."
They stared at him with blank expressions. He stretched his lips into a tightlipped smile and rolled the dolly toward the front door, a squeaky wheel loudly protesting along the way.
He turned at the door and swallowed thickly. "Okay, sounds good then. Have a nice day." He used his butt to push on the door, which didn't budge, and quickly realized he had to pull to get out. With another tip of his hat, he flashed them a sheepish smile and stumbled outside.
They watched him hop up into a boxy truck and speed away, crop-dusting the sidewalk with gray fumes.
Brooke snorted. "We're going to need a louder bell."
Dark clouds rolled in during the afternoon, reclaiming the sun and bathing the day in a foreboding grayness that drained everything of its color. Dean shut the door on his Jeep Grand Cherokee and started across the parking lot with last night's events replaying through his mind like a broken record. It took everything he had not to call Evy right now. He was dying to know if she had even given him her real number, but mainly he just wanted to hear her voice again. He kicked a rock across the pavement, still not convinced he wasn't coming down with something. Normally, the last thing he wanted to do the day after a date was talk to them on the phone.
A wide smile crept across the hostess' pretty face when Dean stepped through the double glass doors. The cool air conditioning washed over him as she pulled a menu from a nearby stack without breaking eye contact. "Just one today?"
"I'm meeting some friends," he answered, glancing around the crowded room. The place suddenly exploded into wild cheers and applause as the Milwaukee Brewers drove in another run on the many flat screens lining the tall walls. "They're probably outside."
"Let's go take a look," she smiled coyly, leading him across the buzzing room.
He scanned the absorbed faces and couldn't imagine concentrating on a baseball game right now, which only fueled his suspicions he had contracted some form of a debilitating virus. He loved Brewers games but today they seemed like background music at best. He followed the hostess outside onto a spacious patio, the sports bar's clamor fading as the door slowly swung shut behind them. Shaun waved from the far side where he sat with Jon.
"Over there."
She followed Dean's gaze and continued their trek.
"There he is!" Shaun bellowed, dropping a balled up napkin onto a pile of others. "The man, the myth, the urban legend!"
The hostess set the menu on the table in front of Dean. "Is there anything else I can get you?" she asked, batting her lashes while awaiting his next command.
"IPA on tap?"
A grin sliced across her youthful face, clearly pleased to be making a return trip. "I'll be right back." She turned for the door without asking Shaun or Jon if they needed anything and cut through the spattering of tables and chairs.
Shaun watched her go, munching on a maple-honey-hot wing. A brownish red sauce lined his lips, making them look bigger than normal. "How do you do it?"
Dean glanced over his shoulder, catching a parting shot of the girl's tight little butt. "It's a gift."
"God, I'd like to hit that," Shaun whispered, taking a sip of his beer. "If I had a get-out-of-jail-free card I'd use it on her in a heartbeat."
"I'm recording this entire conversation," Dean said.
"No you're not."
"Gonna play it back for Carrie later tonight."
"No you're not."
"Nice!" Jon said, pumping a fist while focusing on one of the three flat-screens hanging beneath the striped awning. "Brewers are going all the way this year, fellas! Hear me now, believe me later."
Shaun paid the game no attention, keeping his eyes glued to Dean. "So, how'd it go with you last night? I heard ya ghosted Jon at the club."
"Yeah, what's up with that?" Jon said, not taking his eyes from the TV. "Never leave your wingman, yo!"
Shaun slowly shook his head in disgust. "Never leave your wingman, yo."
"Sorry, but Becky showed up and scared off Evy," Dean said, stealing a drink from Jon's beer while he wasn't looking. "It wasn't pretty."
Jon's Brewers t-shirt bounced on his shoulders when he shrugged. "It's all good. I ended up pulling both of those hotties I was dancing with anyway."
Dean scrunched his face up. "Seriously?"
Jon finally turned to him with a shit-eating grin. "You're not the only playa in town, dude."
"What about you?" Shaun asked, biting into another wing and looking at Dean. "Did you pull?"
"I did not."
A heavy frown stole across Jon's face. "What? Are you getting sick or something?"
"Holy shit, he must be in love! Deano never lets em get away."
Jon fanned a hand through the air and turned back to the TV. "He's not in love."
"I don't know man, you shoulda seen the way he was drooling all over this girl last weekend at Panera."
Dean leaned back in his chair and massaged his face with both hands, unable to even respond to something so ridiculous.
Shaun swallowed. "You wanna talk about it, big baller?"
Dean pulled his face from his hands and found Shaun's expectant eyes. "Talk about what?"
"What you're feeling."
Dean laughed out loud, his face flushing with nowhere to hide.
"Don't do it, Deano," Jon said, locking his fingers behind his head and stretching out in his chair. "I'll pay ya not to talk about your feelings."
"I'm not talking about my feelings."
Shaun's face wrinkled. "Why not? Carrie took the girls to the mall. I got all afternoon!" He cleared his throat and took a drink of his beer. "So what happened after you guys left Jon hanging?"
Dean leaned his elbows on the table and rubbed his hands together, still feeling her skin on his. "We kissed."
Shaun leaned back and whistled loudly. "Now, we're getting somewhere. Did you see explosions?"
"He didn't even see boobs!" Jon laughed, nudging Dean's shoe and nodding behind him. "How about that hostess? She's pretty hot, man."
Dean hesitated before twisting in his seat. The brown haired girl smiled at him, coming closer with a tall glass of dark beer in her hand. Dean turned back around and started checking his phone.
"Look at him!" Shaun laughed. "He doesn't even care. Evy has him whipped already."
Dean looked up from his phone with a frown. "No, she doesn't."
Shaun coughed into his hand. "I think she does."
"Here ya go," the hostess said warmly, setting a coaster down in front of Dean and then the beer on top of it. "Anything else I can get for you?"
Dean sat up straighter and cleared his throat. "How bout your number?"
A bashful smile slid across her smooth complexion. She scrawled something down on a napkin, her face blushing, and set it next to his beer.
Dean raised his glass to her and smiled. "Thanks for the beer. Put it on their tab," he said, taking a quick sip.
She laughed lightly and floated back across the patio as Dean waved the napkin in Shaun's face.
Shaun watched her disappear back inside, shaking his head. "Man, you could have any girl you wanted."
"Exactly!" Jon said, tipping his Corona back and swallowing with a loud sigh. "You have a gift, Deano, and so much more left to do. You cannot waste that gift on just one woman. That's not fair to anyone."
Shaun snorted. "Yeah, especially you, because once Deano is out of the game it's all over but the cryin."
"What are you talking about? Did you just miss my nice little threesome story?"
Shaun dug into another wing. "Dreams don't count."
"Did that really happen?" Dean asked.
Jon nodded proudly and tipped the bottle back, sending a lime wedge tumbling through the golden liquid in slow motion. He swallowed and wiped his upper lip. "Shit got crazy, too."
Shaun stopped chewing. "You roll tape on that?"
"Had my hands full, dude."
Shaun pursed his stained lips and added another napkin to the pile. "One of you guys has got to start rolling video! I see the same woman naked day in and day out. The least you could do is help a brother out."
Jon jerked a thumb at Shaun while staring glumly at Dean. "See what you have to look forward to when you squander your gift?"
Shaun belched into his fist and ignored him. "Dean, I'm tellin you, you can't let this one get away without giving it a decent shot. Trust your feelings," he said, doing his best impersonation of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Dean watched beads of sweat trickle down his pint glass, Evy's smile running through his mind. He was way ahead of Shaun but didn't want to let on. He and Jon would never let him hear the end of it.
A burst of warm air ruffled Jon's lips. "Whatever, man," he muttered, as if reading Dean's mind. "It's your funeral."
"When are you going to see her again?"
Dean shrugged. "Not sure."
Shaun folded his arms across his pink button down and stared off into space, thrilled to be talking about something that didn't involve dance recitals or yard work. "Here's what you do...stop into her bakery tomorrow morning and get a dozen muffins for some meeting you have."
Dean's eyes narrowed.
"Ask her out for that night and take her somewhere nice, like PF Chang's."
Jon's face twisted. "PF Chang's? Man, you've been out of the game way too long."
"Trust me, Deano, girls hate it when you leave em hangin. You gotta get in there and make it happen."
Dean leaned back, his chest rising beneath the white v-neck throttling his biceps as he inhaled a thoughtful breath. He stroked the two-day-old stubble his face wore like a coat. Tomorrow morning was too far away. He wanted to call her right now, but that went against everything he had ever known. He was dying to know if she had even given him the right number. Deep down, however, he already knew the answer. Had seen it in her eyes, felt it in her lips, heard it in her voice. Dean knocked back a slog of beer with Shaun watching him like a hawk.
Shaun lifted his eyebrows. "In the meantime, who's up for hitting a strip club? I need to see some boobs that haven't been manhandled by two kids yet."
"I'm in," Jon responded automatically, sticking a finger into the gray sky.