The Bakery Love

18 | Brookies

"No way, no way!" Sam yelled out excitedly. We all stopped our work to look at her, she was jumping up and down. She came to stop opposite me and hugged me. I hugged her back.

"What happened?" I asked as she clutched me in her arms. I pulled her and waited for her reply.

"I knew it, I told you all didn't I?" she said instead. Now we all were more confused than before, what was she talking about, and what made her so happy and excited.

"Sam, you have to share with us the news so we could join in your excitement too." Noah reminded her.

She looked at me with a big smile on her face before she cleared her throat. "We got in! We went to the next round of the competition." She declared. And on cue, everyone started clapping and hugging each other. I was too surprised to act, I knew we did good but it's a whole different thing to have validation of the same. And what could be better than getting into the next round of one of the most prestigious baking competitions to exist.

"Wait, but there's more too," Sam said. We all looked at her with barely concealed excitement. "Since we are entering the next round which will be going live on television and the internet, they will send a person who will shoot videos of our progress and process to get ready for the next round. These videos will then be a part of our introductory videos. And so we can expect that videographer to arrive within next few days." She read out the email and looked around at us. She grinned before she added, "And now cue the celebration."

Since I was still processing everything I felt two muscular arms wrap around my waist and pull me to a hard chest.

"Congratulations Isabella. I knew you could do it" Noah whispered into my ear, his warm breath tickled the side of my face as he bent down to whisper. A shiver ran through my spine as my body, my traitorous body might I add, reacted to his actions. I slowly bought my arms up to wound his waist as I hugged him back. I felt his lip curl in a smile as he felt me hugging him back.

"Noah, don't steal our superstar. We also want to congratulate her." Alex teased us as he put his hand on Noah's shoulder. I immediately leaned back from his firm chest and my body felt cold without his warmth and his enticing scent. I hugged Alex to dissolve any awkwardness that I felt at that moment but my eyes stayed on Noah as he slowly walked away. He stood at the far end of the room and his eyes immediately found mine. He gave me a small smile as he noticed my eyes were on him.

My lips curled up in response. He gave me a wink and I felt my cheeks redden.

I immediately averted my gaze from him and made a point to not look in his direction still reeling from that wink, a very simple action that should not have made my heart beat quicken but it did. It truly did. And it was best to stay away from him and his everything. I straighten my shoulders as I made up my mind to stay away from him.

My resolve was still going firm and I was proud of that fact. I haven't looked in his direction for more than necessity despite the fact that I really wanted to but all of that progress went down the hill after the incident.
I was alone in the kitchen making brookies when Noah entered the kitchen. He nodded in acknowledgment and I nodded back. It was mostly silent as he was decorating the cake and I was busy mixing the dough. I let myself immerse in mixing the dough and scooping out the dough onto a baking tray. I picked up the tray and walked towards the oven to place the tray inside, I didn't even realize that I was humming this whole time until Noah joined me.

"Heaven, when I held you again,
How could we ever just be friends?" I hummed softly.

"I would rather die than let you go,
Juliet to your Romeo" Noah joined in, his voice like velvet gently caressing the space between us.

And since I was so caught off guard by his humming that as I was closing the oven door my hand bummed inside the hot oven.

Before my mind could realize what happened, my body reacted. "Ouch!" I whisper-yelled as I held my hand which was now sporting a new burnt mark. I could feel my eyes water as the pain started to make its presence known.

"Isabella" Noah shouted as he saw me clutching my hand. He rushed to my side and immediately held my hand in his. "Bella, you need to be more careful. It must be paining a lot." He said with eyes swimming in worry and concern. He looked at me for an answer. And when he didn't get any, he gently ushered me to the basin where he held my hand under the water. One of his hands was still holding mine as he gently twisted my hand so the burnt part would be under the flow of cold water. His other hand was on my wrist and his thumb made gentle circles on the skin of my wrist. The action was so soft yet the impact was so loud that I almost forgot that I had burned my hand. His concern and worry for me surprised me so all I could do was look at him.

He looked up and held eye contact. He slowly removed the hand that was on my wrist and bought it close to my face, his palm held my cheek as he gently swiped my cheeks with his fingers. "Is it still hurting?" he asked gently, I shook my head. The burn was probably the last thing in my hand and all I could feel was him. His presence, his smell, and his voice.
Whatever was present on my face convinced him that I was no longer in pain and he shut off the tap with his hand still holding mine. He looked at me with his deep ocean eyes.

I stared back at him, too consumed by his presence that I couldn't have helped myself even if I tried. He placed one of his hands on my cheek again and I leaned in the warmth of his palm. His face became soft as if my leaning into his palm was so unexpected that he was stripped out of all his guards. He traced my cheekbone with his index finger, he leaned in slowly until our faces were a few inches apart. I closed my eyes in anticipation and just as his lips barely touched mine.

"Bells, can you help me with this?" Peter's voice was like pouring ice-cold water over the moment, over us, and importantly over me. I immediately walked back and bumped my hip against the counter. Noah reached out to me as he looked at me with worry and the remnants of want that showed brightly a few moments ago.

"Are you okay?" Peter asked me as he walked towards me.

I nodded and cleared my throat. I avoided looking at Noah and asked Peter what he wanted my help with. But no matter how hard to forget the moment before, it all but consumed my head. The way that he looked at me with so much worry and concern when I burned my hand or the clear want that showed in his blue eyes when he almost kissed me again. I was relieved that we didn't kiss but then a huge part of me was disappointed and mad that we were interrupted again. I was also mad at myself because I know that if he had kissed me then I would have kissed him back without a second thought. And I don't know what would have happened next after that.

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