Unspoken (7 page)

I was really far behind on drinking so by the time the night ended everyone was pretty drunk except for designated drivers.

“Drive him home?” asked Connor while handing me the keys to Jackson’s car.

“Not home, he’s sleeping over,” I said and Conner nodded. He helped me to put Jackson in the car.

“I got Alexa,” he turned to look at her. She was sitting in the street laughing her ass off with Lauren “and my wife,” he sighed and I giggled.

“you are such a good brother and husband,” I said patting him on the back.

“Marion,” he said before I got on the car.

“Don’t sleep with him,” he said really serious “he’s not ready to leave her,” that was like a punch to my stomach. I know we were friends! But it was always difficult when Sally was acknowledged. Connor must have known all about her and that is why he was telling me all this. I trust him as much as I trust Alexa.

“Thank you,” I said and he nodded.

“I heard him,” said Jackson as soon as I got in the car.

“You did?” I tried to say as casual as I could. I hated that things had to be like this with Jackson.

“You need to listen to him,” Hated him too.

“I will,” I said looking straight ahead while driving.

“Smart girl,” he said and closed his eyes.

Seventeen

“You’ll be all right,” I heard Connor emphasized putting his hands on my shoulders as I heard the trunk on Jackson’s car closing. Summer was over, they were going back to college and I would be left alone.

“I know,” I nodded.

“He’s crazy about you. He’ll be back before you know it,” said Connor and I smiled. I trusted him but this was all so new and different.

“You should listen to him,” said Jackson and Connor took that as cue to leave us.

“I will,” I said giving him a bitter sweet smile,
Don’t leave.

“Smart Girl,” he said and I put my head on his shoulder while he wrapped his arms around. How have a summer had gone so fast?

“I will be back very soon,” he said smiling and I nodded. I didn’t want to say anything more because I might just broke down crying and that wasn’t part of our relationship.

“No sharing,” he said putting his forehead against mine.

“No sharing,” I whispered and then he kissed me, a hopeful kiss, a see you soon kiss. A kiss that let me believe that whatever he was saying or promising was true.

“Take care, Mar.”

“You too, Jackson,” he nodded.

“I want to taste amazing new recipes when I come back,” he said while getting in his car and waved before starting it. I gave one final wave and saw him leave.

One summer. That’s all it took for me to be ruined for other men. That’s all it took me to find the love of my life. I was 100% sure that it was the beginning of the rest of our lives. There couldn’t be anything other than love, and surprises and forever for us.

It was Saturday and Alexa had the day off, or more like she called me saying she had a massive hangover and wanted to know if it was ok to skip work. I said yes. She never had a day off at the bakery, except when either she or Mika were sick.

Greg was in charge of the kitchen and I was up front.

“When do you feel I should introduce the avocado pie?” I asked Jackson leaning my elbows on the counter. He, of course, was on his corner working on his laptop.

“I wouldn’t just put it out for the world to buy it,” he said still looking at the screen of his computer.

“Hey!” I threw him a cloth rag, “you said you liked it!” I said with a pout. He looked up and laughed.

“I did!” he shook his head and closed his computer, grabbed it and walked towards the counter. “I’m just saying people won’t buy it just like I didn’t want to taste it,” he shrugged.

“What should I do then?” I asked.

“Just put free samples and let people get used to the taste,” he grinned
I’m a genius
. I nodded.

“You certainly are,” I said. Then I heard my phone ringing. I took it out of a pocket on my black apron and saw who was calling. “It’s my mother,” Jackson widened his eyes and cowered back to his corner.

Jackson and my mother had never ever said a word to each other but my mother never liked him. She had always blamed him for me not going to college. If she really thought about it she would realize that it made no sense whatsoever. She used to see me around town with him, holding hands, being overfriendly in the street and she knew I spent too much time at his house. She was not stupid either, she knew when I realized that he was gone for real, she saw how my heart broke right in front of everyone and tried to help me through it by giving me a couple of college applications to fill out. I loved mom but she really had no idea.

“Hello,” I said.

“How did it go?” she asked and I had no idea what she was talking about.

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” I said getting a batch of coconut cookies and putting them on display.

“The date, Marion. With Leonard,” she said.

“Oh my God, mother. How in the name of everything that is holy did you know that I went on a date with Leonard?” I asked sitting down on a stool behind the counter. Then I saw Jackson get up from his corner and said he’d be right back. I nodded.

“Julia told me.” Sure I could picture both of them plotting together. I would put a lot of money on the fact that my mother might have started a wedding scrapbook and a board on Pinterest for me.

“Of course she did,” I nodded.

“So, how did it go?” she asked.

“It went great, mother,” I sighed and rolled my eyes. I hated that it had gone so well because I really wanted to piss her off but truth was, I liked Leonard a lot.

“Define great,” she said with a higher tone than usual. She was excited.

“Are you telling all this to Leonard’s mother?” I asked but I already knew she would.

“No.” Yes.

“It went great, mother. We talked, laughed, we got along perfectly. He was a perfect gentleman.”

“Did you invite him in when he dropped you at your place?” she interrupted me.

“Mom!” Really. What. The. Fuck.

“I just want to know if you didn’t appear too slutty, Marion,” I sighed deeply and audibly.

“No, mom, he didn’t even take me home. He drove me to a beach bonfire where I was meeting Alexa and Connor.” I didn’t mention Jackson because she didn’t know he was back.

“Marion! Oh! Marion!” she sounded sad all of a sudden, “he must’ve thought you are a hillbilly.” I could clearly picture my mom shaking her head with her eyes closed and her face on her hand.

“No, he didn’t, mother.” I closed my eyes to calm myself, “he said he wanted a second date.” I heard her breathing again.

“Ok, good.”

“Look, mom, I appreciate you want me to have a nice relationship with Leonard but I want to let you know that this is the first and last time that I talk about it with you.”

“But Marion…,” she interrupted me.

“Do you want me to tell you when I plan on having sex with him, or how good of a kisser he is?” I heard a sharp intake of air. “Sorry mom, a relationship should be something private between two people.”

“As you wish, Marion,” she said trying to sound offended. “There’s a formal next week. I’d like you to show up with Leonard if that is possible.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” I said. We finally said good bye and now I was all alone in the bakery. Saturdays were slow days. I took out my accounting books because I knew I had to do something with all the numbers I was behind on but I was so lost in all of it that I didn’t know what to do but stare at them.

“Lunch,” I heard Jackson’s voice and I looked up to see him with a bag with food from a deli and smiled,
Thank you.

“You’re welcome,” he said laying the food on a table. “What were you doing?” he asked as I grabbed a couple of bottles of water from the fridge and went over the table.

“Numbers? I suck at numbers and I am behind some of the books that I have to take to my accountant,” I said shrugging and sitting in front of him.

“Accounting is quite easy,” he said biting into what looked like a BMT.

“I hate it,” I shook my head and checked my sandwich. Salami, Cheese, no lettuce. The way I liked it. He remembered.

“Let’s eat and I can help you with it afterwards,” he smiled.

“Thank you for everything,” I said to Leonard as we walked from his car to my front door. We were on our second date and we’d gone for dinner again and a couple of drinks to a little bar that seemed plagued with classy dates. I was glad I’d worn a burgundy bandage dress that made me look passable.

“Thank you for the amazing night,” he said, taking my hand and not letting go the rest of the way. He had yet to kiss me and I didn’t know if he was waiting for me to take the first step or he was waiting until the last moment.

“It’s our second date,” he said as I looked for my keys in my purse.

“It is,” I said looking up and then he kissed me. It took me completely by surprise but I welcomed the kiss all the same. It was a very good and nice kiss. I didn’t even need to think too much, I just kissed him and enjoyed it. My heart wasn’t doing any summersaults or trying to jump out of my chest; my heart was glad I’d found a gentleman who knew how to kiss.

“I’d ask you in,” I said once we pulled apart “but …how do I put this… there’s guy in there.” I could see his eyes getting bigger. “A… friend of mine, he sleeps over from time to time because he gets lonely,” I shook my head. This didn’t sound good. I hated Jackson then and I hated him when he’d shown up earlier with a six pack of beer and a bunch of movies. At first I thought he was doing this to prevent any sex from happening but then I saw his reaction when I told him I had a date with Leonard and realized that he had no idea that I was going out.

“He has issues.” I kept on talking and babbling about Jackson, “and sometimes he crashes on my sofa,” I shrugged. I failed to mention that said sofa was in my bedroom.

“I get it,” said Leonard holding my hand and giving it a squeeze. “He’s lucky to have you as a friend,” Friend. Was he lucky? Were we?

“I’ll tell him you said that,” I said smiling and he nodded.

“I’ll call you to see if you want to hang out sometime this week,” he said.

“I’d love that,” I said. He came closer, put his hands on each side of my face and gave me one last kiss.

“See you then.” he said giving one last squeeze to my hand and walked away. I waved at him and once I saw his car drive away and went into the house.

I took my heels off and went up the stairs only to find Jackson sitting on my bed and watching T.V.

“I thought you’d be already asleep,” I said throwing my shoes next to my bed and laid next to him on my bed.

“I ate all your quiche,” he said taking his hand to his stomach, “now I can’t sleep,” I laughed.

“What are we watching?” I said and he told me the basics of the movie so I could catch up.

Little by little Jackson and I were honoring our pact of staying friends. We’d fallen into a routine where we knew what the other did during the day so we would plan our entire day around those moments when we would spend some time together. Alexa said that we were still creepy but I thought we were very mature. I couldn’t help feeling my heart jumping out of my mouth every time he touched my hand or felt like I would faint every time he did this horrible thing (not really) where he grabbed me by the waist from behind and put his chin on my shoulder. He did that every day and for him it was so natural and friendly like, to me it was HOT. But I was dealing with that, I even looked forward to that.

Next day I woke up got ready and left a note to Jackson letting him know I was at the bakery. We’ve been doing this thing for almost 3 months and still every time he slept over I left him a note. I didn’t like leaving him there, alone. I don’t know. It felt weird.

I was in the middle of making some pineapple hand pies when Alexa arrived. She sniffed over Greg’s shoulder and saw the most delicious cherry pie and then came to see what I was doing.

“Hand pies,” she said as she hung her purse and grabbed her apron. I just nodded, “It’s been a while,” she said and I nodded again. “How did it go with Vanilla-Lemon?” she asked and I turned to look at her.

“Great,” I smiled. She knew we didn’t have sex because I wasn’t making carrot soufflé. That’s what I had made the day after Jackson and I had sex for the first time and it stuck. It wasn’t something that I planned, it just happened. Every time I had sex I had made carrot soufflé. I guess my baking was pretty connected to my moods. “He is such a gentleman,” I said almost sighing.

“I’m glad. Did he kiss you yet?” she asked me as she tied her hair in a ponytail. I nodded. “Is he a good kisser?” I turned to look at her and smiled.

“He is, Alexa,” I grinned.

“Great, go for it then.” She smiled and went out to put out everything that was ready.

Later that day I was going through my books with Jackson, when Alexa gently held a piece of paper in front of us.

“What?” I asked looking confused.

“There’s no excuse this year.” I still didn’t get it so I took a look at it. “I have no experience with these things, Alexa,” I said giving the paper back to her but Jackson grabbed it.

“You’d be perfect for it,” he said and I shook my head. It was the National Cupcake contest. I have never ever been a cupcake specialist but I’ve talked about the contest with Alexa. We both thought that it would be perfect to win and get some exposure plus the prize was the sweetest (pun intended) thing of it all. Sponsorship for a cupcake shop anywhere we wanted. “Bake it off,” opening in Manhattan was a dream of mine and maybe it would be all about cupcakes in the beginning but I could expand it to bakery goodies as it grew.

“It’s a dream of hers,” said Alexa looking at Jackson. She knew Jackson would team up with her and would make me enter the competition. “Every single fucking year she has a stupid excuse to not go. The venue changes every year because there’s a draw. Three years ago it was in Manhattan but she had just bought the local and didn’t have money for the expenses but this year,” she grabbed the paper from Jackson and pointed with her finger at something in the paper that, clearly, she had printed out. “It’s here in the Hamptons.” She finished laying the paper back in front of me.

“I’m not ready.” I said getting up from the chair I was in.