Knead Love | ✓

11

"Mom doesn't give free cookies to anyone except her favorites. I don't think you are her favorite so suddenly," I said. As if on cue, to undermine my point, mom came downstairs with a big smile on her face.

"Oh, he's definitely my favorite now," she said, completely dissing my point.

Whose mom was she?

She was supposed to be on my side. But then, it wasn't much of a surprise. With Noah's charm and mom's extremist behavior, I knew there were only two outcomes. It was in my best interest that she liked Noah, even if she liked him more than she liked me, because if she didn't...

Well, I would never be able to even dream about dating Noah.

"Now, Ali, you can get back to work," Mom said, snapping me out of my thoughts. I turned to her, my face reflecting the betrayal I felt.

"Mom?!" I cried out in outrage but got back to work regardless. There were no making excuses when she was around. And it was just a matter of one day. She would be going back to granny's tomorrow, anyway. If I did fail the test, I would have to go with her. I wasn't looking forward to that.

I wouldn't be allowed to play candy crush when mom was eyeing all my moves like a hawk. It was hard not to immediately reach for my phone when there was not much rush in the place. It was a habit to fiddle with it whenever I had nothing to do. But mom had a policy that restricted us to use cellphones during work hours. It was both a blessing and a curse.

"Hey, Ali?" Noah said after his shift had ended. It was becoming a routine for him to get done with work and treat himself to something sweet while sipping on his chocolate drinks or milkshakes. 

It was nice having Noah around. Often times, he came twice to West Point and his presence made everything feel ten times better. Even when he would read a book, sitting feet away from me, it would be nice to look over and see the way his eyebrows pinched together.

"Yes, Noah?" I answered, keeping my stance professional so that mom wouldn't find that I was totally slacking off. God, a nap sounded so good about now. I would kill, maybe, literally, to go and take a nap. My break was due in a few minutes and it was the only thing I was looking forward to.

"Why don't we have a carrot cake?" he asked, his eyes wide with curiousness as he took a sip of his coffee. He licked his lips as I pulled a face.

"Probably because it sounds disgusting?" I replied lamely.

He gasped like I had physically hurt him.

"Oh, wow, clearly you haven't had a good carrot cake, before. If you had, you wouldn't be saying it. And watch your tongue, lady, carrot cake happens to be my favorite cake."

"I never had a carrot cake because it doesn't sound very appealing, Noah," I said and he looked severely offended.

"That's the reason you are not salivating at the mention of carrot cakes," he said as he looked at me with mild disgust. His expression told me that he found it deeply sad that I didn't have a carrot cake in my life but I could also see that he thought I was otherworldly for not eating the said cake.

"Nobody mentioned that carrot cakes are good," I replied with a shrug, sorting through the bills on the counter. The counter was a mess and since I could no longer play games on my phone.