Cupid's Cupcake Read Online Free PDF Page A

and his bag in the other, Brian made his way to the elevator.
    As the elevator doors opened into the foyer of his warehouse loft condo, Brian’s nose detected the fragrant smell of garlic and oregano. Confused, he mad e his way deeper into the condo and discovered Jessica Shelby moving around his kitchen.
    “Jessica? What are you doing here?” Considering he broke up with Jessica a week ago, her presence in his condo was not a welcome sight. He cursed himself for forgetting to get his keys back.
    “I heard from Bill that you were on deadline, and I know that means that you usually forget to eat. So I wanted to help,” she said. She cocked her head at the pan on the stove. “I grilled up a few chicken breasts and was just getting ready to sauté some asparagus.”
    Brian wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t want to throw her out. That was the unfortunate thing about dating people you work with. When the relationship ends, there was a period of time where boundaries needed to be re-established. Apparently he had some further work to do on that with Jessica.
    “I appreciate it, Jess, but I don’t want there to be any confusion here. I’m not going to change my mind about us.” Then he noticed that Jessica’s atten tion wasn’t on his face, but on the plate in his hand. She was looking at the cupcake.
    “So that’s the infamous cupcake, huh?” she said with a raised eyebrow. “I still can’t believe you took that story.”
    “Jess, please stop trying to change the subject.” Brian put his bag and the plate down on the counter and rubbed his face.
    “Brian, I’m a big girl. I understand what happens when a guy dumps me. But we were friends before all of that started, and I told you that I wanted to still keep that part of our relationship.”
    She sounded logical and mature. Neither of those words were ones that Brian would put in a top ten list of Jessica’s personality attributes. He still questioned why he let the relationship go on as long as it did. Past experience told him that he wasn’t going to be able to get rid of her until he ate, and his stomach was grumbling. He poured a glass of wine and slouched into a seat next to the island. Then he pulled out his laptop and powered it up.
    He decided the best course of action was deflection. The sooner they ate, the sooner she’d leave. Hopefully he could escape without the theatrics that accompanied their break-up conversation the week before. “I’m on deadline. I have to get moving on this story,” he said.
    Jessica smiled. “Sure. Whatever you need to do.”
    After tossing the asparagus in the pan, she flounced over to his stereo and turned on a classic jazz station, his favorite while he was writing. Brian closed his eyes for a moment and tried to focus on the story. Then his fingers moved on their own accord.
    She may not have realized it, but Belle was a natural storyteller. As he played back her descriptions of her weekends with her grandmother, and the details of the break-up that lead to her unique creation, he could see them all vividly in his mind. With images like that, the words flew down onto the page. Within moments, he forgot about Jessica and immersed himself in describing the evolution of Cupid’s Cupcake.
    As he wrote, other questions flitted through his thoughts that had nothing to do with the story. He wondered about the place where Belle grew up and what she had been like as a teenager. He wondered about her first kiss and her first boyfriend. How had those experiences affected her perception of love and romance? Was there something else that happened to her in her life that colored her desire to create something tied to closely to the most romantic day of the year?
    Then another thought blossomed in his mind. He hadn’t noticed a ring on her finger, and she never mentioned a boyfriend. Was she single?
    Brian’s fingers broke from the keyboard on that last question. Why did he care if she was single? The answer was simple and