As nights grow longer and the darkness deepens with the soft fall of snow outside, curl up with this collection of romantic short stories to warm the heart. Warning: these stories might also start some fires...
Authors include:
@BrittanieCharmintine...
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My usual cheerful morning ends the moment I see Joshua Lee wearing our uniform polo shirt. It's not because it's pink or has a large sparkly cupcake on the upper side of his sleeve, it's more because I'm used to seeing him wearing the black and white t-shirt of his parent's bakery. Why on earth is our competition's son here?
Frowning, I turn back to my mother's office. "Mom?" I ask as she pushes a strand of brown hair behind her ear, as curly and untamable as mine, before she looks up.
"Yes, honey?"
"Why is Lee's son here?" I move inside the office, not without surreptitiously glancing behind me, hoping that he already left the hall. Thankfully, he's gone.
Mom smiles. "He got the job today! Remember that I told you we needed more help for the holidays? Well, yesterday I placed the sign outside and he applied twenty minutes later." She shakes her head grinning. "What a perfect timing."
No shit. He probably wants to steal grandma's recipes, and so close to Christmas, too!
"Yes, maybe too perfect?" I ask carefully before taking a seat in front of Mom's desk. She's a bit hopeless, to be honest. She sees good in everyone and refuses to acknowledge that there might be evil in the world. Sometimes I wish I could be as sweet and innocent as her, but then I remember that people take advantage of her, like my father. I know better now. You can't trust people just because. Not even the people you love.
Mom continues to type on her laptop before she gazes at me. Her eyes are soft and warm like honey and I know that she's going to ignore my suspicions. Like she usually does.
"He's a good kid, and he obviously knows how to bake. We just need him to follow our recipes and it's all good. I'll say it again, he's perfect for the job."
Mom's kindness will get us nowhere. "Of course, he knows about baking!" I retort. "He works down the street with his father, you know, our one and only competition?" Mom disregards me as she goes back to her computer.
Their bakery opened two months after us. If we lived in a large city, I don't think we would mind having competition, but our town was small and to be honest, we couldn't afford it. To make things worse, their cakes looked incredible. Joshua's Mom took a cake decoration course in the city, so she uses all these fancy techniques to make gorgeous cakes. My only consolation is that our baking tastes better. Which is why Joshua Lee is probably after our recipes.
"Mom, what if he's here to steal our recipes!" I lower my tone of voice, still paranoid that he might be lurking around.
"Josh was lovely during the interview, I'm sure you two will get along." She tilts her head as she looks up. "He's your classmate, and you never complain about him, so that means he's a good student too."
