Sugar Lust

Chapter Twenty-Three

It took a few more weeks of restless dreams before Emmeline got up the courage to ask Joel out. She had been holding out, hoping that he would take the initiative, but so far, he hadn't, and the more she saw him, the more she wanted to spend further time with him. She just hoped he felt even a little of what she was feeling every time his face floated through her mind. It would be incredibly embarrassing if she was the only one who felt the spark between them.

There was something about him that she couldn't stop thinking about. His voice, his smile -the one that made her feel like the most important person in the world.

She decided that the next time he came in, she would ask him out on a date or resolve to forget about him entirely. She was done torturing herself with the possibility of "what if?"

When he finally did come in, she immediately regretted her decision and tried to run and hide. Kathy was having none of it, telling her to go and ask that man out or she would do it for her. Emmeline knew she was defeated.

Joel rang the little bell on the counter four times before she timidly showed her face.

"Hey, Joel." She tried to look natural, which meant she looked anything but.

"Where were you hiding?" He shoved his hand into his pocket and gave her a heart-melting grin.

"Oh, nothing, I, um, sorry. Coffee?" Emmeline stared at her shoes, avoiding eye contact, and she tried to figure if there was any courage in her jelly-like spine.

"Yes, please?" he said, sounding a little confused.

"Yes coffee, no tart."

"Are you calling me a tart again?" He laughed weirdly. "What's wrong?"

"Listen," she started. This is not going as planned! "We do this all the time, we talk, we talk about coffee; how about we just go ahead and do it?"

His eyes widened.

"I mean, not it, it—oh crap! I meant..." She buried her head in her hands.

"Yes..." He was clearly enjoying her discomfort.

"A date!" she finally managed to blurt.

"You want to go on a date with me?" he asked. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I mean, I think so?" Emmeline was dying inside; she was so embarrassed. If only she could have a do-over.

"So, you think you want to go out with me?" He was flat-out laughing.

"Put me out of my misery, please," Emmeline begged, her cheeks

"How about this?" he said, that cocky smile plastered permanently on his face.

"What?"

"Miss Emmeline, queen of the chocolate chip cookies, will you please go out a date with me?"

"Yes!"

By this time, she was starting to laugh as well. Thank goodness someone knew what they were doing. She wanted to crawl into a hole, but at least she got a date. It wasn't pretty, but a date was a date.

She gave him her number and crossed her fingers. Later that day he called, and they ended up talking for an hour, much less awkwardly on Emmeline's part. It helped that she wasn't quite as nervous.

They decided to meet that Friday. Emmeline made sure that he knew that she had a kid, and that she would have to wait until Millie was asleep before she could go out. She didn't want to explain to Millie where she was going and what she was doing. It was really important that if she did start dating again, Millie wouldn't be exposed to any dud dates. Ideally, Millie would never know Emmeline was going out until she felt like this was a serious thing. She had seen too many kids getting attached to their parent's new love interest and then having to be separated from them. It wasn't fair and that just wasn't going to happen. Emmeline might want a life beyond that of Mom, but Millie didn't have to know about it. Besides, one date—it could be a disaster.