“No. I just get tingly feelings when I think about her.”
“Tingly feelings?” he rolled his eyes and stood up. “My son says that right before he has to poop. Just keep calling her. And could you please stop moping around every day? The employees are starting to think you’re dying. No one can focus on Autumn Wonder when they think their sexy CEO is dying.”
“Wait. Before you go…What happened to us, Barry? How did we get to this point?”
“What do you mean?”
“We were supposed to be the anti-Starbucks, not bigger than Starbucks. We were supposed to be friends to the local community bakeries, not enemies.”
He stretched his hand out. “Okay, write me the check right now. You owe me two million dollars and I’m cashing the check today.”
“What? Why?”
“When we first started this company, I told you that you were going to say this to me one day. I told you if we ever got bigger than Starbucks, you would regret it. And what did you say to me?”
I leaned back. He was right.
I remembered the exact day we had this conversation eight years ago. We were arguing about expanding the store past Boston, whether or not we wanted to bring more investors aboard to make it happen.
Barry made everyone else leave the room and looked me right in my eye. “I’m your best friend so I’m down with whatever you choose to do, Ethan. But for the record, if Autumn Wonder ever gets as big as Starbucks, if it ever gets bigger than Starbucks, it’s not going to be anything like the original store we had in mind. It’s not going to be community friendly anymore and I’m willing to bet you two million dollars you’re going to regret it at some point.”
I remembered laughing at him. “If we get bigger than Starbucks, we’ll both be billionaires! Why would I even care about being community friendly anymore?”
I snapped out of my recollection and realized his hand was still outstretched.
“You’re serious about me giving you a two million dollar check?”
“Did you seriously spend five million dollars of my money to build a beach?”
I sat in the board room for hours. I tried to think of ways to make things right with Selena’s mom and Sweet Seasons, how I could right some of the wrongs my company had committed against other bakeries across the country.
I went down to the records office, noticing that it was once again empty.
I didn’t wait to hear any signs of life. I walked back to the space behind the shelves and saw the same female employee from weeks ago eating another jelly donut and watching another TV show.
“Good afternoon,” I said and she immediately spun around.
“I swear I get my work done, Mr. Lockwood! You just always catch me at the wrong time! I only use my breaks to catch up on the drama!”
“Relax,” I laughed. “I’m sure you do. I’m going to be spending the next few days down here with you, okay? I’m working on a personal project and I really need your help.”
She blushed and dropped the donut to the floor.
“I need all the files on every expansion site we’ve ever done—all the ones where we ‘borrowed’ recipes from local businesses. I need all the shop owners’ names and numbers and we need to get in contact with all their former employees. Also, call the intern accounting team down here and tell them they’ll need to work side by side with us as well. We’ll need the information regarding each business’ profit and loss margin before and after we moved into town…Oh, and I’ll pay triple for any hours spent on this particular project.”
Chapter 27
Selena
Ryan Gosling ran onto my porch, startling me. He walked over to where I was, where I was painting over our last picture.
“You never signed the divorce papers, Melanie. I went down to the courthouse and they said you didn’t sign them. Are you trying to tell me something?” he asked.
I didn’t answer him. I kept painting.
“Melanie!” he stepped in front of my picture and took the brush from me. “I’m getting married in two hours and you haven’t signed our divorce papers… Since you haven’t signed the papers does that mean you—”
“Go away Jake!” I walked off the porch and ran into the rain, towards my Jeep.
I unlocked the door to my truck and felt his arm snake around my waist.
He spun me around and looked into my eyes. “Melanie, why didn’t you sign the divorce papers?”
“Because even though you lied to me and I want you to be miserable for as long as possible, I’m still in love with you,” I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him.
“Cut!” the director jumped out of his seat and ran over to me. “Selena, what the hell was that? You’re supposed to say ‘Because I’m still in love with you.’ That’s it. Where is that other stuff coming from?”
“I’m so sorry, Mr. Hines. I didn’t realize I was—”