Alliance

Team Effort

~Chapter Twenty Three~

The next two weeks were the same routine for Victoria and Alex, every morning she and her father would take Mrs. Elven to therapy and afterwards she'd head back to the shop. Work had doubled since and between Alex and Victoria they had hired Mrs. McLaren. She had turned out to be a great addition to the bakery. Mrs. McLaren had years of experience and knew how to make the perfect tasty cakes. She worked little hours but Victoria made certain to pay her well for her hard work.

Today it was only Alex and Vicky in the shop. While she went out washing all the dishes they had used Alex concentrated in finishing a large graduation cake. As the weeks went by he couldn't help but think that he loved their alone time in the bakery. He had been helping her full time in the shop and although he hadn't gotten a cent out of he felt he was paid in full with just being by her side. He liked seeing the smile on her face every time the message machine blinked for new orders. He anticipated seeing her bakery finally make it.

The one and only think Alex feared was his summer vacation coming to an end. He hadn't expected to befriend Vicky and much less fall for her. Now things seemed to be a lot clearer to him. An entire month had passed and their deal was reaching an end. Soon Alex would show his parents the change he had made. He could stop pretending to hate her and finally show them that Vicky had in deed changed him like his father had predicted.

At times he could not believe it himself. Most of the time he felt trapped in a dream where he feared he would wake up. He hadn't gone to a single party, back then it would have seemed like hell to him. But now that all seemed so distant to him seeing that the time spent with her blurred all thoughts of the outside world.

"So I was thinking, since I hired Mrs. McLaren, maybe you don't need to spend so much time in the bakery. I'm beginning to recall that you haven't had a day off. I feel terrible for keeping you prisoner here." She said.

He laughed, clearly amused by the way she thought. If this shop had felt like a prison to him he would have ran for it the first chance he got.

"I can assure you that I don't mind at all. I like spending time with you." He honestly replied.

"Are you sure, you are free to leave whenever you want. You have helped me far more than I expected." She said. It sounded funny, seeing that she would have never pictured Alex in a green apron, and hands full of frosting. She watched as his hands gracefully covered the banana flavored cake with chocolate icing. It was almost as if he had gone to college for this, he was so damn good at it. For a moment she let herself wonder just what other things he could do with those hands and then the thought vanished.

She stilled and felt her stomach knot with a thousand little sparks. Vicky tried to put her focus back on the dishes as she felt a blush reach her cheeks. She knew it had been inevitable, sooner or later she was going to fall for Alex. His looks had little to do with the way she felt, it was the great and down to earth personality he had allowed Vicky to see. At first he had seemed like an arrogant and heartless man. Shaking her head slightly she tried to pry her mind from it. So what if she had a small crush on Alex, it would soon go away. She figured once he returned to college he would go soon find a beautiful woman to spend his time with.

Just then the front door jingled and she hurried out the door to attend to the customer.

"Luanne? Hi, how have you been?" Victoria asked. She felt a small hint of jealously surface, the tingle unwanted feeling settled to on the pit of her stomach. She recalled then the number she had written on a napkin for Alex, was she here to try and slither into their relationship?