Cakewalk: A Calhoon Small Town Romantic Comedy

by Ivy Summers

  I would have wanted to live anywhere else than a place that’d remind me of him, but my PR firm wasn’t exactly taking off to the moon. I had a dozen clients, but they were all remote, and all I was doing was managing their social media profiles and mailing lists. That kind of work didn’t exactly pay the big bucks, so I could really only afford the apartment at a family rate.

  With it being the last day of the month, I figured Griffin would be out by now. He had kept communications to a minimum, just to wire me the rent and nothing more. Part of me hoped he’d still be at the apartment when I walked up the metal stairs, but another part of me yearned for the finality of seeing the place empty.

  It was noon on a Saturday, and the town had its usual weekend visitors, which wasn’t saying much. All the excitement of the scandal seemed forgotten now that the powers that be “won”—if you could call chasing Griffin out of town winning. It was all back to status quo.

  Even Courtney was talking to me again, having forgotten how pissed she was at me after giving birth to my new niece. And at dinner last week, my parents acted like all was back to normal, asking me about work and definitely not about my love life. It seemed everybody assumed I was going to be a single spinster forever after my last escapade. And at this point, I probably would be, because nobody could hold a torch to Griffin.

  So I walked up the staircase and knocked on the apartment door, just to be sure, before taking out my key. I unlocked it, then cracked it open, expecting it to be as empty as it was before Griffin came to town.

  Instead, I saw it was fully furnished and lived-in, even more so than before.

  “What?” I said to myself, before calling out, “Griffin?”

  Not a soul stirred, and I didn’t see him from my vantage point at the front door. The apartment was wide open, so he’d have to be hiding in the bathroom for me not to see him.

  I closed the door and stepped back, feeling like I was intruding, then whipped my phone out and started typing hastily, “I thought you’d be out by the end of the month. Where are you?”

  His response was simple: “Calhoon Saloon.”

  “Oh my god.” I typed back. “I’ll be right there.”

  I turned and pounded down the stairs, then through the alley to avoid any locals. I had still essentially been in hiding this entire time, and I wasn’t in the mood to field any questions today.

  Especially now that I knew Griffin was still very much a resident, and didn’t seem to have any plans to move out any time soon. When was he going to tell me?

  Not to mention I needed a place to live!

  I plowed through the front door of the seedy local bar, and my eyes honed in on Griffin hovering over the pinball machine in the back, a beer in one hand, his other hand on the button for the only working paddle. His hair was disheveled, and his clothes were casual, just jeans and a tank top. His muscles and tattoos were on full display, making him look like a hot ex-con—which he was—and all the attraction and need came flooding back to me.

  Mentally shoving that aside, I approached him, stopping beside the pinball machine. “What are you still doing in town, Griffin?”

  He glanced up at me for just a moment before returning his attention to the machine. “Oh, nice to see you again, Jade.”

  “I thought you planned on leaving by now?”

  Griffin pointed with his beer at the pinball machine’s score, then enunciated with some difficulty, “Cl-ear-ly, I am defending my title as the Calhoon pinball champion.”

  “On a machine that only has one working paddle?”

  “I’m used to such…” He took a moment to search his drunken mind for the word. “Hindrances.”

  “But why are you still in town?”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you wanted me out of here so quickly.”

  I knew it probably came across that way. But the only reason I wanted him gone was to make things easier on me. Having him still in town made it so much harder to do what I knew was practical: to forget all about him and move on with my life.

  “Re-gard-less,” he enunciated. “The lease is for a full year. So too bad, bucko.”

  “Griffin! I was counting on being able to move in there. I can’t afford anywhere else.”

  Griffin stepped back from the pinball machine and let the ball drain, finally turning his full attention to me. “All right, all right. You can be my roommate if you want. You don’t have to beg, sheesh.”

  “Let’s go back to the apartment. It doesn’t look good to be drunk by freaking noon.”

  “I’ll never look good, so who cares?” Despite that, Griffin relented and let me hook my arm around his elbow and drag him back home.

  At the door, he fumbled with his keys for so long that I grabbed them and unlocked it myself. As he stepped in, he mumbled, “You’re not getting another one-night stand out of me just because I’m drunk, you know.”

  “Wasn’t planning on it.”

  “So you’re over me already?”

  I tossed his keys on a plate by the door. “We only knew each other for a short time before we broke up. Be realistic.”

  Griffin sighed wistfully. “And here I thought we had gotten along so well that it had made up for lost time.”

  He wasn’t wrong. I felt like I knew him a hell of a lot better than I ever knew Thomas, and once upon a time I had thought I’d marry that asshole. But if Griffin was going to move out of town eventually, then what difference did it make?

  My head jerked as I heard a rustling in the far corner. Out of a pile of clothes erupted a one-eyed raccoon. “Patches?” I gasped, then turned a disbelieving glance at Griffin. “You didn’t get rid of him?”

  Griffin gave me a surly smile, then swayed over to the sofa. Patches skittered up his pants to snuggle into his lap after he sat down. “Nope. Turns out my little buddy is domesticated.”

  I approached the sofa, but stayed a few yards away. As cute as Patches was, he was a wild animal. At this point, I was pretty sure Griffin had lost his damn mind. “How do you know he’s domesticated?”

  “He can do tricks. Like, here, watch.” Griffin faced Patches and waved at him, and Patches enthusiastically waved back with his little raccoon hand. “See? I’m pretty sure he must’ve had an owner who died a few years back, and that’s why he’d been running wild about town. I tried to release him into the state forest, but he clung onto my leg and chittered up at me until I couldn’t take it anymore. So he’s now my little buddy, and that’s that.”

  “A millionaire CEO, letting a raccoon live in his house. Who would’ve thought?”

  “We were both lonely.”

  I let those words hang in the air for a moment. I had been lonely too, I knew that much.

  Griffin then snorted out of nowhere and had to clasp his hand over his mouth to suppress a laugh.

  My eyes narrowed. “What?”

  “Remember that one time? On the sofa?”

  “Sweet Jesus.” I turned away, distinctly trying not to remember.

  “And then it turned out your ex had been watching us. We sure put on a good show for him, didn’t we?”

  I really, really didn’t want to remember that. “So, this is what you’ve been doing this whole time? Just moping around and remembering the good old days?”

  With a drunken haughtiness, Griffin said, “Not at all. I’ve been a very busy bee, I’ll have you know. In fact, I’ve uncovered a conspiracy.”

  “Oh?”

  He gave me a big nod. “Well, maybe it’s not a conspiracy, but it’s definitely not common knowledge. The gist of it is that the town’s about to go bankrupt.”

  “Wait, that can happen?”

  “It can more than happen. So there’s this ‘council’ that bought out the paper mill’s properties and essentially owns this town, right?”

  “Yeah, they own Main Street and a bunch of other properties.”

  “Well, they own a lot more than that, including the newspaper and utilities. I mean, it’s no wonder I’ve bee
n dealing with so many roadblocks. They don’t want me here, potentially shaking things up. They want to sit pretty, make no effort to improve this town, and just collect their rent while everyone struggles.”

  I hadn’t really considered that the council could be to blame for the town’s stagnation. “How’s it the council’s fault, though? They may own a lot of the town, but it’s the people we elect who decide the direction of Calhoon.”

  “Well, since the council owns the newspaper, they can print stories that slant their needs. Whether it’s policies or elected officials, nothing goes forward in this town without their approval.”

  I stared off, letting that all sink in. It hurt to hear how corrupt my hometown had been this entire time.

  Griffin swirled a finger in the air. “But here’s the thing: They’re on a one-way path to bankruptcy, so they’re either going to sell to me now while there’s still some value left in this town, or they’re going to sell to me once Calhoon is completely destitute. And by that point, my terms aren’t going to be pretty.” Griffin then looked down at Patches and squished the raccoon’s cheeks. “Isn’t that right, Patches? You and I will reign over this trash heap of a town.”

  Well, now he was sounding like the conniving, rich fat cat everyone thought he was. I sat on the far side of the couch. “Why didn’t you tell me this was your plan? That you were staying?”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t really call it a plan. More of an extended tantrum that snowballed. As the days and weeks went on, I felt less and less inclined to gracefully bow out, until it evolved into this big ol’ plan to buy out the town.”

  “But you knew that you weren’t going to leave. And yet you didn’t tell me?”

  Griffin’s hands dropped from Patches, and he slumped back against the sofa. “I was planning on telling you, but I wasn’t sure you would ever want to associate with me again. And I really didn’t think I could handle the rejection a second time.”

  It was a relief to hear he was as torn up about our separation as I was. I had been convinced it was another case where the feelings weren’t mutual. My voice no longer carried such an accusative tone as I surmised, “So, is this entire plan just something you’re doing out of spite?”

  Griffin waved me off. “No. This is a good business opportunity, a prime commercial location right off the highway, and I’m not going to let anybody push me out of it just because I’m a hot-blooded man who happens to love—” He paused and swayed as he corrected himself, “—Happens to like some girl.”

  My eyes teared up at his accidental confession, and I wondered if it was just the booze talking. He needed to sleep this off. Then we could properly talk about everything. “Okay, Griffin. It’s all right. And I’m sure that scandal has died down a bit, anyway. I mean, I haven’t shown myself in public until today, but I can’t imagine everybody’s still going on about it.”

  “They’re still going on about it,” Griffin confirmed with a stern nod. “I’m asked about our relationship all the time at the bar. It’s kind of ridiculous how involved everybody is with your sex life. Mrs. Salisbury, in particular, is always plying me with drinks to try to get the details out of me.”

  “Oh my God. Mrs. Salisbury of the knitting circle? Please tell me you haven’t told her anything.”

  “Not a thing.” Griffin smiled and booped my nose. “It’s gonna take more than that to make me betray you.”

  “Well, that’s sweet.” I saw that his eyes were getting droopy, and he was resting the full weight of his arms on the poor raccoon’s back. “Why don’t you sleep this off for a few hours?” I suggested, getting up and grabbing a knitted blanket out of a basket.

  “Not… a bad idea.” He released Patches, who scurried off to an automatic dog feeder that had just released some food.

  I unfolded the blanket and draped it over Griffin’s body as he kicked back fully, throwing an arm over his eyes. I closed all the blinds, then returned and pulled his shoes off, tucking the blanket under his feet.

  “You’re very nice to me,” he mumbled, before slipping into a deep sleep.

  I knelt down beside him, watching him sleep peacefully, my mind going back to the accidental confession. And here I had been trying my best to convince myself that it really had only been a fling, and that I really could get over him.

  This situation was different from my ex and I knew it. Griffin really was somebody I didn’t want to lose, and not out of some sort of desperation. I saw something in him that nobody else recognized, and it was precious to me, something I didn’t want to let go. And the more everybody judged him, the harder I wanted to hold on.

  Maniacal taking-over-Calhoon tirades aside, if the town really was this close to bankruptcy, then we needed this shake-up. All of our livelihoods were at stake.

  But even more than that, so was my sanity. Because I wasn’t sure I could stand another day without him.

  Chapter 19

  Griffin

  I woke up with my head pounding. Not such a rare occurrence these days, but I also woke up to a blanket wrapped cozily around me, plus the savory smell of something cooking.

  I sat up, wondering what the hell Patches was getting up to this time. I had raccoon-proofed the entire apartment, yet still he always found trouble. Had he turned the damn stove on again?

  I craned my neck over my shoulder to see Jade bustling in the kitchen.

  Shit. Then it all came back to me. The bar, the pinball machine. Her dragging me back to the apartment. Me ranting and rambling… about what? Certainly not my plans to bring Calhoon into submission. And definitely not about the fact that Jade meant so much to me that she could bring me to my knees.

  No, even drunk, I had the presence of mind to not talk about that subject. Mrs. Salisbury herself had tested my mettle on that, and I had never spilled a single bean to her.

  “You’re awake,” Jade announced, her voice light and happy. “I’m cooking dinner. Sweet Italian sausage and pasta. I figured you’d have an epic hangover and could use something good and filling to eat.”

  I squinted, still trying to remember what happened before I passed out. “Did I let you in here?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did I tell you about Patches?”

  “Patches made himself known.”

  “Did we make some kind of agreement to be roommates?”

  Jade pointed a wooden stirring spoon at me. “You joked about it, though I’m pretty screwed right now in terms of accommodations. But I guess it’s not your fault that I was counting on you leaving by now.”

  “Did I tell you anything about my plans to take over Calhoon?”

  “Yes, something about you waiting out Calhoon’s bankruptcy, then snatching it all up for yourself.”

  I stood up slowly, the headache making me move with care. “Well, I mean, that’s not really how I want it to go down. I do want the town’s approval before I go forward with it. Hostile takeovers aren’t a good way to conduct business.”

  “That sounds like a fair enough proposition. If you can bring it all to light, I’m sure they’ll be reasonable.”

  “Exactly. We’ve been trying to play nice, but now it’s time we put everybody’s feet to the fire.”

  “‘We,’ Griffin?”

  I sat on a stool at the kitchen counter and considered how to respond. She clearly wasn’t ready to jump into all of this again so quickly. “You’re still doing the whole PR thing, right? I checked your website. You’ve gotten good reviews.”

  Jade arched a brow at me, and I realized maybe that seemed stalkerish. Or maybe she just didn’t expect me to have kept caring about her.

  “Yes,” she said, putting a lid on a pot that was boiling pasta. “I’m still trying to get my firm going. But don’t take any of this—” she gestured between herself and me, “—for granted. I’m not jumping back into bed with you that quickly, romantically or professionally. If I do, I want it to be for certain this time.”

  I nodded and sat down. That was fair enough, consider
ing her entire life as she knew it probably fell apart the last time she went to bat for me. I leaned forward on the counter and asked, “How have things been between you and your family? I know Courtney was pissed when I last saw her in the parking lot.”

  Jade stood on the opposite side of the counter and leaned on her elbows, a small smile on her face. “My newborn niece helped sort out Courtney’s priorities.”

  “Oh, she had the baby?”

  “Yeah, about a week after the town hall meeting. She let me visit her and little Avery in the hospital the day after she was born. So yeah, I’m an aunt now.”

  “Congrats.”

  “Thanks.” Jade then shrugged. “The worst I’ve gotten from Courtney since is this permanently raised eyebrow. She never really got to give me a full what-for for ‘sleeping with the enemy,’ and now it’s a bit too late to harp on it.”

  “Such a shame. Do you think she’d be secretly happy to have a second opportunity?”

  Jade smirked and squinted at me. “No, I don’t. Especially with you going on about how you’re going to buy this town next. She just might close the cake shop out of protest.”

  Jade turned back to stir the sausage in the pan, and I winced as I asked, “Did I happen to say anything else while I was drunk?”

  “You mean like some deep, dark confession?”

  “I did, didn’t I?”

  Jade sighed and took the pot and pan off the burners. “You said something that I won’t take seriously unless you say it again with a full presence of mind. And we’ll leave it at that.”

  I lowered my head into my hands. Of course I said something. And I had to spoil it by saying it while I was drunk. I could just say it now—tell her that I loved her, and how no other woman had entrenched herself into my psyche the way Jade did—but we hadn’t talked in over a month, and she had more pressing matters to deal with. For one, it sounded like she didn’t have a place to stay.