A Sweet Mess - Jayci Lee Page 0,16
menacing glare at Landon. “Why don’t we order you some food and let you recharge? Our employee rest area is quite comfortable.”
Landon returned to his desk and sat facing the windows, his logic and emotion duking it out with each other. His rational side wanted to walk away from the whole mess—Aubrey, her talent, and her bakery. His human side wanted to write a second review for Comfort Zone. She was so special, and taking her talent away from the world would be a crime.
“Fucking hell.” He raked both his hands through his hair as he crossed the hallway to reach his office. Several coworkers peeked at him but quickly ducked back to their work when he glowered at them.
He probably looked deranged. The whole situation was a fucking mess. Landon didn’t do messes. He planned, calculated, organized, and exercised iron control over his life. Impulsive dreamers like his dad were the ones who made messes—shitting everywhere they pleased and expecting others to clean up after them. Landon had cleaned up his father’s messes and swore to never be like him. So how had everything gone to hell? It was unacceptable.
His cell phone vibrated, and he ignored the infuriating buzzing until it stopped. When the buzzing resumed not a second later, Landon picked up his phone to throw it out a window, but he answered the call after a glimpse of the caller ID.
“Mio dio, Landon,” Aria said, not bothering with something as mundane as hello or how are you? “I just finished a walk-through of our location. They made me wear a hard hat. A putrid, yellow hard hat. Can you believe that?”
“Unbelievable.” Landon rubbed a hand down his face, and his expression relaxed into his resting bitch face. “How dare they protect you from a head injury at a construction site.”
“The construction is crazy, by the way.” His friend didn’t acknowledge his dry response with so much as a snort. “Dust and noise everywhere. I’m surprised I didn’t get impaled during my walk-through. But the point is—”
“Yes, Aria. It’ll be great if you can get to the point.”
“Shut up. If you don’t behave, I’m going to start all over.”
Landon sighed, both amused and exasperated. “Do you like it or not?”
“I love it. It is perfection.” Her Italian accent, which was nothing more than a melodic lilt in her voice, grew a shade thicker when she was emotional. “I can’t wait to start filming.”
“That’s fantastic,” he said with a genuine smile. Aria had a keen eye for television, which was one of the reasons she rose to the highest ranks of celebrity chefdom. If she approved of the location for her wine country special, then it meant her audience would love it. “I’m glad you like it.”
But his happiness for his friend reminded him of another talented chef who might never get a chance to shine. An image of Aubrey, sitting in a dark, empty bakery, flashed through his mind, and his stomach lurched. For God’s sake, Kim. She’s not destitute.
“What’s going on?” A new sharpness entered Aria’s voice. “Tell me before you break down and wail like a baby.”
In another lifetime, he and Aria had interned at a world-renowned kitchen in Madrid—a wonderland of gastronomical research and food science. Each of them, something of a prodigy in their respective culinary institutions, had tied for first in an international cooking competition. The coveted three-month summer internship was extended to both of them. They worked grueling hours, gluttonously absorbed everything their brains could contain, and became rivals and then friends without conscious effort.
Considering their long friendship and Aria’s uncanny ability to read people, there was no point pretending nothing was wrong.
“Have you read my last review? ‘The Pitfalls of Brilliance’?”
“The one about your near-death experience from a gummy worm?”
“Yes, that one. Well, it turns out they’d accidentally served a special-order cake to me. It was meant for a six-year-old girl’s birthday party.”
“Well, that’s a shame, but you stayed true to your personal experience. Serving the wrong cake shows they have issues with their service.”
“Thanks for supporting me, but I shouldn’t have passed judgment on the bakery after a single sampling. They made one mistake, and I basically shut them down for it.” Landon gave her the short version of his dilemma, leaving out the night with Aubrey. “She doesn’t deserve to lose her business over a common mistake her high school part-timer made.”
“That’s one hell of a mess.”
“You think?”
“I do,” Aria said sweetly. “So tell me the rest.”
“What?” Damn. She