Ruth’s POV
Okay, I knew that I would have to wake up early today to go back over to the bakery, but I didn’t think Serena meant before 10 a.m. I made a poor choice in staying up late last night attempting to write a poem for a client which didn’t go well and I threw my journal against the wall out of frustration; poetry is not my forte. So now I am facing the consequences and trying my hardest to not look or feel like a zombie as I sit down on the empty seat between Serena and Ashton at the table.
“How are you two doing this morning?” Ashton asks in a professional tone.
“Great!” Serena chirps.
I make an inhuman noise that translates to: “It’s too fucking early; leave me alone before I bite your head off.” Both Ashton and Serena laugh at me, but I ignore them and rest my cheek on my propped up hand.
“Let me get you something that will wake you up,” Ashton chuckles as he goes around behind the counter and pulls something out of the display case.
Serena taps on my shoulder and whispers to me, “That’s nice of him.”
My eyes flicker back and forth between my best friend and the boy behind the counter. He did tell me that I would have a treat for breakfast last night, so I’m assuming that’s what he’s getting for me. “Yeah, it is.” I agree. It’s free food, of course it’s nice.
The door heading to the kitchen swings open and Michael practically comes frolicking out and turns his attention towards me and Serena.
“Hey, Ruth,” he greets and comes to stand by our table.
I muster up the strength to be polite and not sound like an animal and greet him properly. “Hi, Michael.” Serena looks to me with confusion and I forget that she has no idea who Michael is. “Oh sorry, Serena, this is Michael. He went to high school with me.” I introduce him.
Her mouth makes a large ‘O’ shape and gives me these eyes that say, “we’re going to talk about this later,” before holding her hand out for Michael to shake. “It’s nice to meet you, Michael.”
“You too,” he smiles down at her with sincerity.
Ashton comes back around and places a square plate centered with a slice of strawberry shortcake in front of me. The right side of his lips curves up, revealing only one of his dimples and I give him an appreciative smile in return.
I look down at the plate and the square-cut cake split into two layers with a whipped cream filling in between them wakes my senses. Not to mention the beautifully sliced strawberry that garnishes the top of the cake. He took into account what my favorite berry is; that’s thoughtful of him. I guess this is why he asked me about it last night.
“Thank you,” I say before grabbing the silver fork next to the dish, prepping to cut into the cake.
“It’s my treat,” his smile grows wider and sits down.
Michael interrupts me from slicing into the cake and clears his throat. “Ruth, why don’t you go back into the kitchen with me?” he requests. “You can take the cake with you and we can talk about what I mentioned yesterday.”
Ah, I almost forgot. Maybe he found a place for me to live. In all honesty, I hope he did because when I searched online, there was practically nothing available in my price range.
I place the fork onto the plate and stand up. Ashton looks disappointed that I am leaving with Michael and Serena makes the same confused face at me again. “He’s helping me find a place to move into,” I tell her and her eyes grow solemn. She’s still upset, but I give her a pat on the shoulder to assure that it’s okay and help her not cause a scene. “Just let me know when you guys are done. I can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with.”
I follow Michael to the swing door which he holds open for me and walk back into the kitchen. Looking around, it’s much cleaner than the last time I came in here, although, when I look to my left and see the large sink piled up with baking pans and mixing bowls, I can tell that someone just decided to throw everything in there and call the place ‘clean enough’.
“Sorry,” Michael rubs the back of his neck in embarrassment. “I tried to clean up as much as I could of Ashton’s mess, but I took the easy way out as you can see.” His eyes dart over to the sink that I took notice of seconds ago.
I laugh lightly and grab the fork off of the plate and point it at him. “I’ll give you props for at least trying,” I say, acting as if I’m impressed by the cleanliness of the place and stands next to me with amusement spread across his face.
I finally cut into the cake and take a bite. Once the moist sponge cake hits my taste buds, I can already tell that this entire thing is handmade. However, it’s the whipped cream that sends me through the roof. Blended into the cream are little chunks of fresh strawberries that sweeten the cream naturally and adds a little pink to the color.
“Damn,” I drag out the word, lacing it with the sweet sound of satisfaction.
“That good?” Michael raises his dark eyebrows, amused by my not-so-subtle reaction. I place the fork loaded with another piece in my mouth and nod happily. I wasn’t awake before, but if I were an athlete, I could probably run a marathon from the amount of energy that I have acquired. “Ash has never made shortcake before and I’m surprised for his first try,” he snags the last bit of cake that is on the plate and stuffs it inside his mouth, “he did a pretty damn good job.”
“Hey,” I complain, “That was mine.” A little bit of happiness was just stolen from me.
He grins smugly and takes the empty plate from my hand and places it with the rest of the dirty dishes. “So I found a place for you,” he says casually, leaning his weight against the metal counter.
“Really?” My spite towards him for eating my cake diminishes and is replaced with surprise mixed with gratitude. For telling him no more than twelve hours ago, he sure works fast. “Where?”
“A couple living in my complex is moving out and their place should be up for rent soon. I checked with them last night to make sure and they told me they’d be out by the weekend. The monthly rent isn’t that bad either. Mine is about five-hundred a month which is a steal in that particular neighborhood.”
“That’s it?” I ask in disbelief. That’s less than I pay now. “Now these aren’t cheap apartments right? There are no leaky ceilings or questionable stains on the floor? This is legit?” I have standards and living in a dump is not one of them.
He chuckles and bites his bottom lip. “I swear I’m not lying to you. If you want, you can come and check out what mine looks like for reference. All of the apartments look the same for the most part. They layout may be a bit different, but they’re generally the same.”
“I’ll have to take you up on that offer.” I was expecting it to take weeks before I found a new place to live, but here I am, already planning on how I’m going to furnish this place that I haven’t seen yet. “Thank you so much, Michael. It’ll be good to live somewhere where I know someone. And this will give us the chance to catch up and hang out more often.”
“I think you’ll like it. The people are nice and I’m sure you’ll make another friend or two while living there.”
“I’m already sold on the place even though I haven’t seen it yet. No need to continue your sale’s pitch.” I joke and hold my hand out in ‘stop’ gesture. “So when can I see it?”
“Depending on how fast or slow today will be we might close early around six, so around then if you’re free?”
Little does he know that I’m always free thanks to my at-home job. “Yeah, that works.”
“Great! Let me go write down the address for you.” He pushes himself away from the counter and exits the kitchen only to quickly peek his head back in. “Serena wanted me to tell you that they’re done so you can come and check out what the cake is going to look like.”
Already? I nod and walk out with him to the front of the shop where it is still empty. They must not be busy in the mornings. I go around the counter and over to the table where Serena is smiling ear to ear and is glowing with sheer bliss.
“Ruth, come look,” she points to the drawing in the sketchbook that Ashton slides over for me to view more clearly.
On the white paper is a classic three tier wedding cake, but it’s the design on the cake itself that stuns me. Each tier is simply white, but the thin, cerulean blue ribbon that lines the bottom of each one and the very detailed flower trail starting wide at the bottom and growing upwards is what makes this cake elegant, yet modern-chic. Day lilies are placed strategically around the cake, separating the top and center tier from each other. The flowers act as a tier of their own and as I picture the real thing it in my head, it’s already so beautiful.
“That’s gorgeous,” I breathe, still shocked at what Ashton has created on paper. I’ve seen the pictures of the cakes in the binder that we looked at the first time we came here, but this is completely different from all those. It’s like he made sure to get every detail possibly that he can onto this one cake and yet still have it look simple.
“You completely exceeded my expectations,” Serena praises him like he’s a god who has answered her prayers.
“I told you I could make it better than what you wanted,” he smirks.
There it is. Just when I thought that we could go this entire visit without him making a cocky remark. You were doing so well!
He wipes the smirk clean off of his face when I quickly glare at him out of the corner of my eye and he bows his head sheepishly; like a child who got caught eating dessert before dinner. I chuckle under my breath and pat him on the shoulder.
I’ll let it slide this time, Irwin. I’d brag too if I could come up with a cake design a beautiful as yours.
“So now that we have a design planned out, all that’s left for you to do is put a down payment on the cake and then schedule a time for you to come back in and do some taste testing so that you can choose the cake flavor,” Ashton informs. “Michael will be helping me out on everything relating to your order so if I’m ever unavailable, you can contact him.”
Serena nods and digs around in her purse for her wallet and pulls out her credit card and hands it over to Ashton. “So how soon should we come in for the taste testing?”
He stands up and goes around the counter to the register and Serena meets him at the front. “As soon as you’d like,” he says while swiping her card through the machine and handing it back to her. “As long as you come in before you have to pay the second half of the payment in May, you can come in at any time between now and then.”
“Okay,” she smiles brightly at him. She’s so excited for this cake. At least now we have one major decision out of the way. We still have to worry about finding her a dress as well as ones for the bridesmaids. “I’ll call and let you know.”
“Sounds good.” He rips the receipt from the machine and slides it across the counter with a pen sitting atop of it. “Just sign this and you’re good to go.”
She grabs the pen and quickly signs her signature that basically looks like a bunch of squiggles. The only letters that you can make out are the ‘S’ in Serena and the ‘M’ in Matthews. “Thank you again, Ashton, and it was nice meeting you, Michael.” She pulls on my sweater and drags me as she walks over to the front door, not even giving me a chance to say goodbye as we exit the small shop and head in the direction to her car.
“What’s the rush?” I remove her hand from my sweater and smooth out the knit fabric. For a tiny girl, she sure has a strong grip.
“What’s up with you and that Michael guy? And why is he helping you find a place to live?”
Shit. That reminds me, I wasn’t able to get the address to the apartments. “Nothing’s up with me and Michael. He’s just a friend,” I assure. She gives me this look of suspicion and I roll my eyes. “I asked him last night if he knew any places around here and he told me in the kitchen that there’s going to be a vacant apartment at his complex soon. I’m going to go over later today and check out what it looks like before I call the landlord and try to snag it before anyone else can.”
“So, that’s it? He’s just a friend helping you out?”
I sigh loudly, “Yes, Serena.” Michael should be the least of her worries. If anything, she should be keeping a close watch on Ashton, but she’s completely oblivious to anything that is going on between us.
She walks around the front of the car and over to the driver’s side before unlocking the doors. “Alright then, but you’d tell me if there was something going on, right?”
“Of course,” I promise while climbing into the passenger seat.
“Good,” she chirps, turning on the ignition as well as the heater. “Now let’s go tell Calum about the cake.”
__________
Michael, being the savior that he is, was kind enough to text me the address to his apartment shortly after we made it home. I thanked him as many times as I could until I exceeded the character limit in the text. He’s such a good person; a very reliable friend. I’m really glad that we ran into each other or else I wouldn’t have this chance of getting a new apartment so soon.
Just like Michael predicted, they closed the bakery early and he told me to meet him at his apartment. The drive over there isn’t that far of a distance from my apartment now, so it will be easy to visit Serena whenever I want to. As I drive into the parking lot, I find an empty space and park almost perfectly between the two white lines.
When I get out of the car, I examine the building itself and am immediately surprised at the quality. The large, white brick exterior separates each floor and makes the place seem larger than in actually is. The dark grey shingles that line the roof are a great contrast to the light color of the brick and I’m beginning to wonder if Michael is lying to me about the monthly rent. There’s no way that it can be that cheap. The way each complex is set up reminds me of a hotel which kind of sucks because I would have liked to have a small balcony or something, but beggars can’t be choosers.
I pull out my phone and dial Michael’s number and he answers right after the second ring.
“Hey, I’m here.”
“That was fast. I barely got here a few minutes ago.” He laughs and then proceeds to ask if I was speeding on the road which I quickly deny. “I’m up on the second floor. Number 225.”
I begin walking over to the staircase that leads up to each floor and grasp the metal railing. “Okay, I’ll be up in a second.” I hang up the phone and shove it into my jean pocket before climbing up the steep steps. Once making it up two flights of stairs, I make it to the second floor where I walk down the open hallway and pass each door until I find the one with Michael’s number on a silver plaque.
I ready myself to knock on the door and just as my fist makes contact, an accented voice gains my attention.
“Ruth?” I turn to look and there standing next to the staircase is Ashton.
“What are you doing here?” I question, taking a step away from the door. He walks down the short hallway and stands in front of me.
“That should really be my line,” he teases. “I live here—well, not here exactly; up on the third floor,” he uses his index finger to point up.
“Wait, what?” I blink slowly. Turning of the locks can be heard on the other side of the door and with a swift pull, Michael opens his door.
“Hey, Ruth,” he pauses when he sees the tall figure in front of me, “and Ash.”
I turn my head slowly to meet Michael’s guilty face. “Why didn’t you tell me that he lives here?”
“Wait, you didn’t tell her?” Ashton cuts in before Michael can answer.
Michael laughs hesitantly, “Surprise?” We find no amusement in this new revelation. His hand quickly latches onto the door knob and he slams his door shut; seeking shelter away from us.
“Son of a bitch,” I yell at the closed door. Good person, my ass. Did he set this up? He knew Ashton lived here. I would’ve liked to have known that one of my future neighbors is actually someone who I am playing a silly game with.
“Well,” Ashton clears his throat, “I hope this doesn’t put a damper on your plans for living here. Just think of it this way: we were already planning to get to know each other; this is just going to make it easier.”
My jaw drops slightly and I’m pretty sure my left eye is twitching a bit. I don’t really have much of a choice. If I did, I would be hightailing out of here and looking for a different place. Maybe it won’t be so bad. Maybe it could work in our favor.
I let out a heavy sigh and drop my head. “Since douchebag here is being a coward and has locked himself in without showing me what these apartments look like on the inside, show me yours,” I order. “If I’m going to be potentially living here, I need to see if it meets my standards.”
He gives a small laugh. “Up we go then,” he sings.
___________
A/N:
Yeah, another update after just one day!
So yeah, Michael was being a total sneak and decided that it would be fun to not tell Ruth that Ashton lives in the apartments. And you all thought he was such a good person being all cute and whatnot.
I actually really like this chapter. What do you think about Serena pestering Ruth about her and Michael? Will something develop? They were old crushes of each other after all…What do you think will happen between Ruth and Ashton now? Will he annoy the living shit out of her, or will he stick to his word and be a good boy and not an asshole? He’s been doing a good job so far.
Thank you all for continuing to read, vote, and comment! Please continue to do so!! I really like hearing what you have to say and all your comments make me smile. Thanks for your support! Now, I have to go work on PYW so I don’t know when I will update again, but hopefully it will be by next week. You got two chapters this week, so that should tie you down for a while (maybe?). I love you guys!! –Rebecca xoxoxoxoxo