“Where’s Jacob?” Elise asked.
“His break’s over,” Tabitha said. Her cheeks were a telltale red and her eyes had that twinkle that they only got when she was with Jacob.
The Jacob Effect, as she and Katerina dubbed it, was simultaneously heartwarming and gut-wrenching. She was so happy for her friend—but seeing that kind of happiness when her own heart was in shambles was more than she could handle.
“I want that,” she said, pointing accusingly at Tabitha’s eyes.
Tabitha and Katerina stared at her like she was nuts. And maybe she was.
“You want my…contacts?” Tabitha asked.
Elise sighed. “No, that look.”
Tabitha’s brow furrowed in puzzlement but Katerina seemed to know exactly what she meant.
“She wants to be happy, like you,” she explained.
Tabitha’s face cleared and was replaced by a look of understanding. She put one hand on Elise’s shoulder and leaned in as if to whisper a secret. “I’m pretty sure you had that look.”
At Elise’s blank stare, Katerina added, “At home over the holidays.”
Elise heard a gong go off in her brain. Or at least, that’s how the revelation sounded and it vibrated through her head and then her body, shaking her to her core.
Had she been that happy?
Yes. The answer was quick and obvious. Even more obvious was the fact that the happiness hadn’t been due to Ben—she hadn’t given him much thought at all over the holidays. She’d been giddy over her that kiss—she still couldn’t get over that kiss—and her upcoming date with Derek.
The date that she’d canceled.
Ugh. Just remembering that awful conversation in the park the day before had her chest tightening in pain and her stomach churning.
What had she done?
She tried to remember her logic, but at that moment it was hard to think of anything other than the flash of pain she’d seen in Derek’s eyes when she’d called things off. Or his words. I don’t want to just be friends….I like you, Elise. I really like you.
Unlike Ben, he knew what he wanted. And unlike her, he wasn’t afraid to admit it.
Ben had told her outright that he still didn’t know how he felt about her. And even if it did, what would it matter? Because seeing him hadn’t brought her joy, or even that flutter of excitement she got when she was around Derek.
It had just brought her more confusion. More pain.
Screw that. She’d spent an entire year agonizing over that guy. And when push had come to shove—and by that she meant, when she’d pushed her lips onto his—it had been… well, anticlimactic to say the least.
There had been no spark there. Maybe all this time she’d had it wrong. She’d confused friendship with something more. Easy to do when you had a friend who was attractive, flirtatious, and a member of the opposite sex.
Just because she’d clung to that idea for way too long didn’t make it true. It just made her a complete and utter moron. Such a total ass that when the real deal walked into her life, declared his intentions, and gave her a kiss she’d remember for a lifetime—what did she do? Push him away.
Oh God, had she really done that?
Her moan was too quiet to be heard over the music but her friends were still watching her, concern written all over their faces.
“I messed up,” she said.
Their faces clearly said “no duh” but they were too nice to actually say it out loud. Instead, her best friends turned into her cheer squad.
“It’s not too late,” Katerina said.
“Definitely not.” Tabitha pulled out her phone and looked at the time. “If you leave now, you can be there before midnight.”
She blinked at her friends. What if he didn’t want to see her? What if she’d ruined everything? “But…I was such an idiot.”
“You were confused,” Katerina corrected.
Tabitha grinned. “And even if you were an idiot, it’s nothing a kiss at midnight can’t fix.”
Katerina nodded solemnly. “If romantic comedies are anything to go by, a well-timed kiss can turn the whole story around.”
“Well, as long as we’re being scientific about it.” Elise tried to laugh but it came out too breathy. Her lungs were having difficulty functioning thanks to the crazy amount of adrenaline coursing through her system.
“What are you waiting for?” Tabitha grabbed her by the arm and started marching her toward the exit. “Time’s a ticking, lady. Go find your date.”
Elise was out of breath by the time she reached Derek’s door. She stopped to catch her breath before knocking. And knocking. And then knocking some more.
She could hear music coming from inside but no voices. Glancing at the clock on her phone, she cursed out loud. It was almost midnight.
Maybe it was the romantic in her but it seemed utterly imperative that she make her grand gesture before midnight. Or at midnight, at the very least. No great romance ever started at ten after.
That was when she remembered. He and his friends, they were going to watch the fireworks on the roof.
Sure enough, when she moved down the hall she saw the door to the stairwell propped open. She had to climb several flights which gave her far too much time to overthink this.
What if he wasn’t happy to see her? Or what if he’d invited another date? Maybe he was just being nice when he said they could still be friends but was secretly hating her guts.
Finally she reached the rooftop door and she flung it open with more force than necessary so it banged against the wall of the apartment building. The sound was loud enough to get the attention of every single partygoer on the rooftop. Conversations stopped as everyone seemed to turn at once to see who had so rudely crashed the party.
Elise could feel her cheeks burning up as she raised a hand awkwardly. “Hi?”
After a heartbeat the partygoers went back to talking and laughing in groups. All except one.
Derek’s gaze was on her and as usual his expression gave little away. If she was a little closer she would be able to read the look in his eyes but from where she stood, he was as unreadable as a statue.
Nerves had her fidgeting with the strap of her bag.
What if he’d changed his mind? What if she’d blown her chance with the guy who made her feel so alive? The guy who took her seriously and asked her questions and listened as if her thoughts were the most important in the world. The guy whose kiss set her on fire and whose very presence made her insides flutter and her heart speed up.
He made no move to go to her and she mentally ordered herself to suck it up. She was here now and she had a job to do. Nerves be damned, she wasn’t going to let this go, not without a fight.
With that thought, she headed toward him, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other so she didn’t do something stupid like run away…. Or faint.
When she was so close she could touch him, some of the nerves faded away, replaced by the heart-tripping excitement she always felt when he was near.
How had she always discounted this sensation? How had she always misinterpreted it to be something bad? “I’m an idiot.”
That wasn’t exactly the speech she’d rehearsed on the way over, but it summed it all up nicely.
One corner of Derek’s mouth twitched up and the remainder of her nerves washed away with that little hint of emotion.
“You’re not an idiot.” He moved closer until he was in her space and Elise had to fight for air. Somehow his presence seemed to eat up the oxygen in the atmosphere. That wasn’t scientifically possible, was it?
“I’m sorry,” she said. Embarrassingly enough, tears welled up in her eyes and she started talking faster to get it all out before she lost it. “I’m so sorry. I got confused after seeing Ben but there was nothing to be confused about. Because I like you. I really, really like you and I didn’t mean to make you—”
Her babbling was cut short by Derek’s kiss—so swift and urgent it knocked t
he air out of her lungs and left her lightheaded. He framed her face in his palms as his mouth claimed hers, telling her without words how glad he was to see her.
When he came up for air, she grinned up at him. “So you forgive me?”
“There’s nothing to forgive,” he said quietly. “Besides, you’re here now. With me.”
And there was no place she’d rather be. Giddy joy made standing still impossible. Fireworks filled the sky as she threw her arms around his neck squeezed him tight. “Happy New Year, Derek,” she whispered.
After another long, lingering kiss, he pulled back long enough to reply. “Happy New Year, Elise.” His eyes were filled with warmth and passion so intense she couldn’t believe that she’d ever thought of this man as cold or reserved. Clearly whoever thought that didn’t know him well—and they’d certainly never been lucky enough to be kissed by him.
Epilogue
Derek’s pre-lunch meeting ran long and as soon as the conference call ended, he raced out of his office to track down his girlfriend.
He knew exactly where to find her.
The giggles could be heard from down the hall and he followed the sound to the wing that housed the creative team and toward the back to Ben’s cubicle. There she was, as he’d known she would be. At his insistence she and Ben had re-forged their friendship over the past few months and now she always made time to see him when she came to pick up Derek for their daily walk with Jack.
Elise’s face lit up when she spotted him. That look slayed him every time. She was sitting on Ben’s desk, her feet swinging like a schoolgirl as she and Ben attempted to teach Jack a new trick that appeared to involve a stapler.
“Derek, check it out,” Ben said. “Your dog can totally staple stuff.”
“Wonderful,” he drawled. “I’m sure that will come in handy often.”
Elise laughed as she hopped off the desk. Calling her goodbyes to Ben over her shoulder, she grabbed his hand and led him and Jack toward the exit. “Hurry, Derek. It’s our last lunchtime walk with Jack, let’s make the most of it.”
Elise’s new job started the next day and while he was happy that she’d landed a job she was excited about, he would miss these daily walks.
Once outside, Elise stopped and made a show of inhaling deeply. “I love spring, don’t you?”
He murmured his agreement but all of his attention was on Elise. His girlfriend. How the hell had he gotten so lucky?
When they were halfway to Jack’s favorite park, Elise turned to him. “So you know I hung out with Katerina and Kyle last night, right?”
“Yeah, Kyle mentioned that. How is the happy couple?”
Elise rolled her eyes as she smiled. “Nauseatingly in love. Do you think we were ever that sappy?”
He laughed. “You make it sound like we’re an old married couple. We’ve only been together a month longer than them.”
“That’s true. And Tabitha and Jacob have been dating even longer than us and they’re still ridiculously moony. But I’d like to think we skipped the sappy stage.”
He kept his expression serious. “I hate to break it to you, El, but I think we’re still in the sappy stage.”
She ignored that. “Anyway, I may have given Kyle a bit of grief over the fact that it was lies that brought them together—”
“That was nice of you,” he teased.
“And then Kyle got all weird and smug.” She shot him a look out of the corner of her eye. “He said that before I got all judgy, I should talk to you about dogs.”
Derek was going to kill his best friend. “Dogs, huh?”
Elise raised one brow in question and he just knew she was never going to let this go. Not until he told her everything.
He relented with a sigh. “I got you a dog.”
Elise’s eyes grew comically wide. “You got me a dog,” she repeated slowly. “Well, that’s…thoughtful. I mean, my landlord isn’t keen on pets but maybe they would make an exception.”
Derek stared at her but she hurried on.
“It’ll be great, we can walk the two dogs together and—”
Derek shook his head. “El, that’s not what I meant.” He dropped his head and groaned, before looking up to give her a self-deprecating smile. “What I meant is, I got Jack for you.”
“Um, you want to give me Jack?”
Derek took one look at her blank expression and muttered a string of curses. Then he took her hands in his. “I didn’t own a dog when I asked you to be my dog walker.” He shrugged. “I panicked at the thought of never seeing you again.”
“So you…” Her eyes widened. “You bought a dog.”
“I bought Jack, yes. For you.”
Elise stared at him in silence for several heartbeats before she burst out laughing. “Oh wow, you really like me.”
He pulled her in close, ignoring the pedestrians who had to walk around them in the middle of the sidewalk. “I would have thought that was obvious when I told you that I love you.”
She beamed up at him at the reminder. “Yeah, but I mean you really liked me, even back then. You know, before you knew how incredibly awesome I was.”
“I had a hunch.”
She hopped up on her tiptoes to reward him with a kiss.
When she pulled back, he asked, “So you’re not mad?”
“Are you kidding? That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me.” After they walked in silence for a little while, Elise sighed softly. “Now I’m kind of sad that you didn’t get me a dog of my own though. I mean, Jack is the best but I only have visitation rights and I think I’m ready to upgrade to full-time dog mommy.”
Derek’s mouth went dry with nervous anticipation. This was it, he couldn’t have asked for a better opening. “Yeah, about that….”
Elise looked up at him and he nearly lost his nerve.
“If you were to move in with me, you could be around Jack all the time.”
They’d reached the park’s entrance and she stopped on the edge of the grass. “You want me to move in?”
He nodded. Her tone was hard to read—a fact that was frightening since Elise was never hard to read.
“If you think it’s too soon—”
Elise cut him off with a high-pitched squeal before she leapt on him, taking them both down to the ground.
They were both sprawled on the grass laughing when Jack joined in on the action and jumped on top of them.
Elise’s voice was muffled against his neck.
“Is that a yes?” he asked as Jack licked at his cheek.
She pushed herself back so she was smiling down at him. “That’s a yes.”
Thank you for reading Sweet Treats! If you enjoyed it, reviews are always greatly appreciated.
If you missed the first Love Bites novella, Sweet Tricks (Tabitha’s story), you can find it here: http://amzn.to/2iRhg92
Keep an eye out for the next Love Bites novella, Sweet Hearts (Katerina & Kyle’s story), releasing March 2017.
To stay up to date on Maggie Dallen’s latest releases (and for giveaways, sneak peeks, and sale alerts,) sign up for her monthly newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/bFEVsL
Keep reading for a sample of Maggie Dallen’s latest full-length Romantic Comedy, Cinderella Blackmail
Cinderella Blackmail
A Romantic Comedy
Chapter One
Jacob woke to the sound of metal clanging. Before he could even open his eyes, the misery set in. His head throbbed and his stomach churned, and even though his eyelids were squeezed shut, the light behind them seemed to stab his brain like an ice pick.
“Rise and shine, princess,” a low voice boomed, echoing through his skull and making him wince as the throbbing intensified.
But physical misery was nothing compared to the cold, hard pit of despair that had him moaning out loud as his brain slowly kicked into gear and the reality of his situation became clear.
He was in jail.
“Up and at ‘em, sunshine,” th
e voice called. The tone was mocking, the volume mercilessly loud. And close.
Jacob finally managed to open his eyes and found himself staring up at an overweight cop with a haircut that hadn’t been seen since the eighties.
He tried to say something, peeling his sandpaper tongue from the top of his mouth and cringing at the horrible taste of death and decay. He wanted to ask questions—where am I, maybe, or what day is it? Either would have been a good start in sorting through the jumbled collections of drunken, scattered memories from the night before. But all he managed to croak out was, “Water.”
The throwback cop smirked down at him. “What do I look like, room service?” He turned and headed toward the hallway. “Come on, hotshot, we don’t got all day.”
Jacob managed to ease himself up into a sitting position, unleashing a whole new set of aches and pains. He thrust his hands through his hair, attempting to wake up fully, but the move only managed to make his left cheekbone scream with pain. With tentative fingers, he touched the sore spot and found it swollen.
Wonderful. He had a shiner.
“Good news, kid,” the cop said from where he was waiting in the hallway. “They aren’t pressing charges.”
Jacob nodded. He should be pleased, he supposed, but at that moment it was difficult to conjure up any positive thoughts. He just wanted to be home, in his own bed, buried under the comforters with a giant bottle of aspirin by his side.
The cop continued speaking at a volume that was better suited to the hard of hearing rather than the hungover. “That means,” he said slowly, as if speaking to a child. “That you are free to go, your highness.”
Jacob gave a short nod. Free to go. That was good. He shoved himself up and out of the hard cot, trying not to look at the dirty metal toilet to his left, afraid his body might succumb to the urge to vomit at the sight of it.
He followed the cop out of the cell, into the hallway and up to the door leading to the public area. Stopping mid-step, he froze as a horrible thought occurred to him, temporarily overshadowing his physical misery. “Are there any reporters out there?”
Sweet Treats: A Love Bites Novella Page 7