Sweet Pleasures ✔︎

[14] 𝑨𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 "𝑫𝒂𝒕𝒆"

Status : Unedited

❦︎

After their pastry assessment, the Knight Security special ops force returned over the next few days to purchase Declairs during their off-duty hours. Their appreciation for the pastry seemed to spread the word among their friends and family, as several people came in specifically to ask for it, often buying muffins and croissants as well.

Jupiter was both surprised and pleased by the small but increasing profits at the end of the day, and she emailed the total sales to Josh to keep him apprised. But if she had thought the hot consummation of their relationship - not to mention his texting her during a boars meeting - would have turned him into a fluffy, low-density marshmallow, she was proven sorely wrong. When it came to the business of the bakery, CEO King was as demanding a taskmaster as ever.

For the rest of the week, he came to the bakery every day. In between making his own calls and responding to emails, he sat with her in the office and instructed her on how to use a new accounting program, where she needed to cut expenses, and how to calculate business ratios. He advised her on tax preparation, her leasing contract, health insurance, and employee management.

Jupiter absorbed so much information that she might soon be qualified to run Microsoft with all she was learning. She completed the somewhat painful task of choosing which products to take off sale and which to keep, negotiated with suppliers, and changed the pricing list. Josh contracted a financial services company on her behalf, and the manager agreed to give Jupiter a small business loan, which she could use for remodeling the interior.

Gavin Knight and his security guys also returned to install the security system at both the Rainbow Palace and Jupiter's apartment. She always had plenty of Declairs waiting for them, and by the time they were finished with the installation, she was pretty sure not even Houdini himself would be able to break in.

Gavin spent an incordinate amount of time explaining the system, assuring her she was connected to a twenty-four-hour manned control center, inputting passwords and security codes, and using terms like biometric access and encrypted communication paths.

Despite the fact that Jupiter thought it was all a bit of overkill, there was no question she felt more at ease both at the bakery and at home. And knowing she would pay Josh back for the cost, she plunged even more determinedly into shoring up the bakery's business plan.

The following Saturday, after Jupiter dresses in a Freya-approved, drinks-and-dancing outfit consisting of a blue stretchy top ("makes your books look spectacular") and a short, pleated skirt ("flirty and cute"), she and Josh drove to the Snowflake Club, which was housed in a somewhat run-down building on the other side of town.

A sense of misgivings rushed through Jupiter as they went into the jam-packed room that was vibrating with ear-splitting music and noise. She didn't remember it being quite this crowded and loud. But now that they were here, finally on a real live date, she couldn't falter.

"Isn't this great?" she yelled, squeezing into a chair between the wall and a table which Josh had miraculously discovered was unoccupied. "It's one of the hippest joints on the alternative music scene!"

Josh responded, but Jupiter only knew that because she saw his mouth move. Since she couldn't hear what he said, she smiled and nodded.

He folded his body into the chair beside her. His gaze moved over the crowd, which was packed wall-to-wall with sweaty, T-shirt-clad college students bopping and jumping in time to the beat of the Riders playing on stage.

Freya had been right about the Snowflake Club skewing too young for Josh. In his tailored white shirt and gray wool trousers, he looked like a professor or chaperone rather than a guy out to have a good time.