“I’d love to.”
I needed to tell her that I was the CEO of Autumn Wonder. Tonight. I needed to admit it and tell her it was just business, nothing personal—that I had no idea she was connected to that bakery when we first met, that my business plan was already in place months earlier, and that I wanted to continue dating, or whatever the hell we were doing.
I picked up a bottle of red wine from the local market and a pan of hot spaghetti from Noodles Italian Kitchen.
I prepped several speeches in my head as I walked through the hotel lobby. I told myself that before I stepped inside her room I would tell her the truth.
Lay it all out on the floor. Let the chips fall where they may.
I knocked on her suite and within seconds she opened the door wearing a tight T-shirt that exposed her stomach and tiny teal shorts that showed off her legs.
I’ll tell her tomorrow…
“Good evening,” she blushed.
“Good evening Selena.”
We stood looking at one another for what felt like forever. It took me controlling every muscle in my body to not pick her up and carry her into the suite’s bedroom for the rest of the night.
“I’m sorry,” she finally stepped back and let me inside. “Come on in.”
There were signs everywhere: “Down with Autumn Wonder,” “Why have Autumn Wonder when you can have all the Sweet Seasons?” “Keep Sweet Seasons Alive and Baking!”
Oh god…
“You made all these yourself?” I picked up a ‘Fuck Autumn Wonder’ sign that was etched in pink glitter.
“Yeah! Aren’t they pretty? I’ve been working on them all day! Excuse me for a second, I’ll be right back.”
I looked over the set of signs by the window and wondered why one of them featured a picture of a bomb blowing up the expansion store.
I picked up a copy of the Fayetteville Observer and cringed as I read the highlighted article:
New Mega Coffee Shop Threatens Neighborhood Staple
Fayetteville’s last family-owned sweet shop, Sweet Seasons, is already feeling the heat from three month old mega shop Autumn Wonder. Already an anomaly, Sweet Seasons has managed to survive against the likes of Starbucks due its addictive bakery offerings and locally-influenced coffee blends. However, now that Autumn Wonder has moved in with the same exact offerings at a much cheaper price, you can bet that times will be a lot harder for the little shop that’s a mere two miles away from its newest competitor.
Sweet Seasons originally opened in 1985 as a simple coffee shop, but once the owner, affectionately known to the community as “Kathleen Kelly,” brought one of her homemade pies to work for a Christmas celebration, an employee suggested that she incorporate it onto the menu. Months later, there were twenty signature pies on the menu, and years later—twenty seven years later to be exact, that same employee, Lance Michaels still offers his suggestions for Sweet Seasons.
“I hate Autumn Wonder and Starbucks!” he says. “They’re the reason why coffee isn’t sacred anymore! All they do is muscle the little guys out and their coffee tastes like shit!” [sic]
I couldn’t bear to finish reading the rest of it. I slid the paper underneath a stack of signs and sighed. I heard Selena come back into the room and turned around to see that she’d changed into a set of pink long-sleeved flannel pajamas.
What the…
“I think I preferred your first outfit.”
Her face turned bright red. “Umm…I know you said you’re not really into films, but did you ever have a favorite movie?”
“The Godfather. Once you’ve seen that, you don’t need to see any other ones.”
“Boo! I’m so not watching that! Ever!”
So she doesn’t believe in compromise…
I laughed. “I’m a sports and games type of guy.”
“I have games. What type?”
“Any type really. Blackjack, Poker, or even the kid ones like Connect Four, Uno—”
“I have Uno,” she reached into a closet and pulled out a box of cards. “Well, I just bought Two Weeks’ Notice on DVD too, but I guess you can pick what we do tonight…”
“What type of movie is Two Weeks’ Notice?”
“A romantic comedy.”
“Okay,” I refused to watch that crap. “Uno.”
“Why? You don’t like romantic comedies?”
No, I don’t like terrible movies…
“I just think all romantic comedies are the same, so there’s no need to watch. You can tell what’s going to happen just by looking at the cover.”
She rolled her eyes. She walked over to her TV and picked up a DVD.
“What happens in this one?” she held Maid in Manhattan in front of my face and pouted.
She’s adorable…
“Hmmm…I guess the girl is a maid in a hotel and the guy has a powerful job, right? They meet somehow but he doesn’t know she’s a maid, and they fall in love…He probably finds out she’s a maid at some point, she gets upset, and they break up. Then he probably spends a few weeks thinking about where she is and they get back together. Oh, and there’s probably a kiss in the rain somewhere. There’s always a kiss in the rain.”
“Ugh! Fine. You can deal the Uno cards after we eat.”
I’d forgotten about the spaghetti and wine already. The plastic bags were still dangling off my wrist.