Seven weeks later...The Polka Dotted Bakery
THERE’S ONE THING about fairy tales...
They don’t always have a happily-ever-after.
Not even a happy-for-now.
Pepper glanced out the decorated storefront window and didn’t see any paparazzi. She took an easy breath. It was the first time in weeks. Seven whole weeks plus one day of being hounded for photos and comments.
And she was tired. Tired of it all.
But at last, there was peace.
In the end, she’d done nothing wrong. Nothing, except for letting her defenses down with a man that she’d thought—Well, it didn’t matter what she thought because she’d been wrong about him, about the evening together, about them. And now, the paparazzi wanted a comment.
She’d been counting off the days since their night of passion turned into a morning of regrets. It had been fifty days since she’d found herself in the arms of Simon Ross. Forty-nine evenings since she’d spent the most glorious night with him. And seven long weeks since her life had felt like her own.
And a lifetime since she’d last seen him.
Not that she missed Simon...at all. Not a bit.
The very next morning after her fairy tale had begun, her life had spun into some sort of soap opera. One photographer had spotted her leaving Simon’s building in the wee hours of the morning. How he’d known she’d come from Simon’s place, out of all the condos in the high-rise, was beyond her. Perhaps it was the doorman, or maybe it’d been a nosy neighbor anxious for a quick payoff, or possibly someone had spotted them kissing after Simon’s big announcement.
Then Simon had phoned. The first words out of his mouth had been an apology.
Her heart sank down to the tips of her cotton-candy-pink painted toes. It was obvious he regretted their night together, and everything that she’d thought was happening between them had been nothing more than a figment of her imagination. But then he’d sent her a link to a website with a picture of them kissing after the party, and it became clear what he was apologizing for.
Billionaire Bachelor Interviewing New Love Interest!
The headline was outrageous. How had their brief relationship been leaked to the press?
It was then that she knew she had to end things before he did. She told him that they’d just gotten caught up in the moment and it should end right here and now. He hadn’t said a word. He obviously agreed. That was it. No discussion. No nothing. The night before, they’d made love, and the next morning, it was over.
Until that moment, she’d never appreciated her freedom to move about the city basically anonymously. For the most part, no one knew her and didn’t pay attention to what she did. From that day forward, it was like everything she did had to be analyzed for the world to read and to figure out what, if anything, it had to do with Simon.
A single photographer had quickly turned into a gaggle of them. Keeping them out of the bakery had become a full-time job for her staff. With her apartment above the bakery, there was no getting away from them.
One morning, she’d glanced out her apartment window to find a photographer hanging from the tree. Seriously. He’d just been hanging there like he was part monkey, with a camera in hand. She’d closed her mini blinds and then drawn her curtains. She’d never felt more invaded in her entire life.
But then they’d started dissecting her life, from her mother’s death to her life with her grandmother. She’d felt naked and exposed for the whole world to see. She didn’t know how Simon lived in the spotlight. And then they’d sought out people who had known her in school. Every insecurity she’d ever had in her youth came rolling back.
Little did the paparazzi know that it’d been nothing more than a brief fling with Simon. She thought of telling the photographers that they were wasting their time, but her wounded pride and the prick to her heart kept the words locked deep inside her.
From One Night to Wedding Bells!
Honestly, who came up with these outrageous and totally false headlines?
Her friends commiserated with her. And told her to look on the bright side—business at the bakery had never been better. They were right. She was doing a booming business.
And then the next headline came quite unexpectedly.
Billionaire Bachelor Moves On...
One minute the paparazzi had them picking out wedding venues, with a photo of two people who were quite obviously not them, and the next they had him moving on. Although this time the photo was most certainly Simon. He’d been spotted the following week with his arm around a leggy blonde as they attended a Broadway show opening. As Pepper stared at the photo, she resisted admitting to the sharp piercing pain.
So much for their special evening meaning anything to him. Her back teeth clenched together. Lucky for him, he hadn’t been back for his weekly order. He might have ended up wearing his coffee.
And the part of her that missed his bright smile and his flirty ways that made her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world? Well, she shushed it right up. He wasn’t worth missing. Simon Ross lived up to his reputation as the uncatchable bachelor.
It didn’t help that she hadn’t felt great for the past few days. She had a slight headache and she blamed that for her queasy stomach. It wasn’t enough to stop her though. Whatever it was, it would pass.
It was no wonder she didn’t feel good, aside from the mess with Simon. She had competition. A new bakery had just moved in on the next block. And her business took an immediate hit. Customers strayed to the new place, eager to see what they had to offer.
To that extent, she supposed her friends were right and the coverage about her and Simon wasn’t all bad. People had visited the bakery to meet her, but she made sure to stay busy in the back. Still, while they were there, they bought her products. They bought a lot of products. If things had ended better with Simon, she might be inclined to thank him. But as it was, she didn’t think she’d ever speak to him again.
The new bakery was pulling out all the stops with big ads, radio spots and every other promotion they could think of. The bakery was part of a national chain that could afford to undercut their prices to drive the competition out of business. Then once the competitors were out of business, they’d jack up their prices. The nerve of some people.
But Pepper refused to let them drive her out of business—not without a big fight. She’d sunk everything she had into making this bakery a success. It was a dream of hers—a dream that she refused to let die, even if it meant doing things that she wouldn’t otherwise have done, like working round the clock if she had to. The chain couldn’t keep up their deep discounts forever. At least, she hoped not.
In the meantime, she was taking every Christmas party she could cram onto her calendar. It was exhausting, but her grandmother had always told her that nothing worth having came easily. This bakery definitely wasn’t going to be easy.
