Let's Bake a Deal, page 6
“Stella, do you also work in the bakery?” Eva asked once they’d dished up the first course.
“No. I’m finishing my marketing degree,” Stella preened, “and I work at a beauty supply store.”
“Marketing, wow. So I should be dating you instead of Remo,” Eva joked, sending him a wink so he’d know that.
“I don’t know why you’re dating Remo,” Fabian said. “It’s not like I haven’t been over to your store at least twice a week since you opened it.”
This was one of those moments where Eva knew she had to tread lightly. “Fabian, Remo actually asked me out, and I think he’s more age-appropriate for me.”
Behind her hand, Eva asked Remo, “How old are you?”
“Twenty-six. You?”
“Twenty-eight.”
Enzo banged his fork down on the table. “It’s high comedy for you to come into my home and tell my boy about what’s appropriate and not. You have a store that’s nothing but filth!”
“It’s easy for you to think that if you’ve never been inside my store,” Eva replied with deliberate effort to sound calm. “The town council didn’t have any problem with my business, and I didn’t lie on any of the paperwork to trick them into anything.”
Remo nodded his approval and lightly bumped against her with a proud smile.
“I didn’t say you lied, but since you brought it up,” Enzo huffed, “maybe you have a reason to feel guilty.”
“Enzo!” Teresa chastised. “You will be polite to the guests in our home. I invited Eva here, and we will show her hospitality.”
Nonna turned her attention to Eva and patted her hand. “I’m sorry, dear. Tell my family what you want to do with your shop.”
She faltered. Not because she didn’t know, but because it was a struggle to filter her big dream down into simple words. Plus, she wasn’t sure how much she could say in front of Isabella and Sandro without earning Dante and Dafne’s ire.
“I’m creating a safe place and a community,” Eva said. “I want people of all sexualities and gender identities to feel welcome in my doors. I also believe a healthy and active sex life is for people of all ages. It doesn’t stop after you’ve had children.”
Remo smiled softly at her and then made an exaggerated pat on Eva’s back. Across from her, Dafne had an impressed expression and nodded at her. Eva breathed a little easier after seeing the other woman’s reaction.
“It doesn’t have to be a place of shame,” Eva added. “Any thoughts like that are the opposite of what I want to foster with my business.”
“Well,” Enzo huffed. “Your store has a stupid name!”
Eva had already admitted to herself that she could have picked a better name, but she didn’t have time to comment on Enzo’s opinion. Remo, Stephanie, and Stella shouted out, “It’s the love shack!” like in the ’80s song.
While the siblings were chanting, Teresa whispered in Eva’s ear to ask for a private sample from the store. “If you can get it. You told Fabian you had some samples.”
“I can get you that.” Eva would move Heaven and Earth to get Nonna Teresa her samples.
After the trio stopped their impromptu singing, Remo proudly declared, “Eva has a Master’s degree.”
“I have one, too,” Dante said. “They’re not that unusual.”
“Is yours an MBA?” Eva asked between delicious bites of cheesy ravioli.
Dante monologued about the stocks and bonds he traded. Eva guessed from the look on Remo’s face that there was some tension between the brothers. She didn’t know either of them well enough yet to guess the reason.
“That’s great, Dante,” Eva interrupted as he droned on. She redirected praise to her date. “Remo told me he finished his pastry degree and plans to use everything he learned for the betterment of the family business.”
Eva rubbed her hand over Remo’s shoulder. She added more finger pressure, and he relaxed with a loud sigh.
In a soft voice just for him, she said, “You carry too much tension in your shoulders. Do you want me to help you with that again?”
“He doesn’t like to be touched,” Enzo said.
“That’s not true, Dad,” Remo argued.
“What? You tell us that you’re asexual, that you don’t feel passion for a woman like you are a gay. We don’t have room in this family for a gay!”
Stephanie dropped her fork and held her fingers to her temple. “Dad, you can’t say that.”
“Why not? It’s true,” he insisted.
“I didn’t raise you to be close-minded like that, Enzo,” Nonna said with a hot glare at Enzo that Eva could feel.
“Asexuality is something all its own,” Remo said, practically grinding his molars to spit the words out. “I’ve been trying to tell you all about it for years, but you refuse to listen to me!”
“Asexuality is not a real thing,” Enzo said with a hand wave like they were all talking nonsense.
It must have been an old argument. Around the table, Stephanie looked pained while Dante looked bored. Belinda, who Eva had the least contact with, dropped her eyes to her plate but said nothing to defend her son or reprimand her husband.
“Maybe you can’t get it up,” Enzo added crudely.
Dante dropped his fork. “Dad, don’t be gross. I don’t want to think about Remo’s junk.”
Remo threw down his napkin and stood up from the table. “Asexuality is a thing for me. Even if you don’t get it, I know who I am.”
“No, it is a thing for a weak man, and that’s exactly what you are.”
“I don’t know why me being different from you is such a threat. I deserve better treatment than this, especially from my own father!”
Remo stomped upstairs, leaving Eva alone with the rest of the Belli family.
CHAPTER SIX
Remo was tempted to walk out the front door and leave without a backward glance. If he did that, he might start walking and forget to stop until he ended up crossing the border. Instead, he went to his room to take a moment to decompress. Even when they weren’t trying, his family knew how to stand on his last nerve, but his father’s rant in front of Eva was the last straw.
He was lying face down on the bed when he heard Eva’s voice in the landing. She called out to him, then knocked lightly on the door jamb.
“Remo, are you in there?”
“Come in.”
The skirt of Eva’s dress made swishing noises as she entered the room and closed the door. Then she sat beside him on the bed. He turned his head to face her, and she gently glided her hand over his back.
“Hi, Remo,” she said softly.
“I’m sorry you had to hear all that. I shouldn’t have left you alone with them, but I had to get away,” he said as he stared at the flowers on her dress.
“Apology accepted. Do I have your permission to give you a massage? I think it might help.”
“Your massage won’t make my family respect me,” he said with a tone so whiny he would have been annoyed to be on the receiving end of it. That made Eva a candidate for sainthood.
“No, but it might make you feel a little better for a while.”
He agreed to Eva’s massage. Unlike what his father had said, Remo didn’t mind touching or being touched. He’d love to kiss and cuddle the right person as long as there wasn’t the complete expectation of sex afterward. He hated that. Previous dates had assumed that was what he wanted or that he had some kind of erectile dysfunction when he didn’t.
Eva tugged at the tails of his dress shirt. Remo pulled it all the way off and rested it over the back of the desk chair in his room. Then he put his face in his pillow and let Eva’s hands roam over his back.
Bakers had to have strong hands, but the strength in Eva’s massage was really the surprise of the day. “You’ve got great hands. I could teach you how to make bread.”
“That could be a future date activity,” she said softly as she worked the kinks out of his shoulder. Remo grunted and let out a sigh of pleasure.
“You’re so good at that,” he said.
“I’m good at a lot of things. You’ll find that out as you get to know me.”
“Does that mean my family hasn’t scared you away?” Remo asked as Eva got on the bed beside him. He noted that she took off her shoes before she put her feet on the spread. “They weren’t very nice to you.”
“I’m keeping my eyes on the prize, Belli,” she said with a light tone. “I’ve got to get people in my building, and if your pastries make that happen, I’m here for however long it takes. You said six months. That seems so far away. Maybe we could renegotiate our contract for just three months if things go well.”
Remo rolled over on his back and rested shoulder to shoulder beside Eva. “I don’t know if that’s enough time for either of us to get what we want. People can be loyal and regular. They can also be fickle. So we’re dating for six months or until Nonna gives me the bakery. Whatever happens first.”
“It’s better than other options I’ve had,” Eva said.
He stared at his ceiling while he considered voicing something that had been on his mind since he’d decided he wanted to run Belli’s Bakery.
“What is it?” Eva whispered, her voice warm and assuring.
“What if we fail?” Remo asked. “Maybe Nonna won’t give me the bakery, and you might be forced into bankruptcy. What then?”
“I don’t know,” she said, turning her face into his shoulder. “I could try to get a librarian job or become a roadie for Adam when he’s gigging again. I don’t have a backup plan if my shop fails, and I realize now I don’t have any friends here, either. Except maybe you.”
Eva dabbed her eyes. “Well, that’s kind of sad, isn’t it? I sound like a loser with a losing business. What about you, Remo? If you don’t get control of Belli’s in six months, what will you do?”
Remo was a good baker with the formal references to go with it. After completing his externship as part of his degree requirements, he had contacts in the industry. He could go somewhere and start over. Just because he wanted to work in his hometown with his family didn’t mean he couldn’t move away. His year in Austin had been liberating for both his career and his growing identity as an asexual man in a community that accepted his queerness.
“I’ll leave,” he said softly. His stomach churned as he said it out loud, but he also realized it was completely true.
The toilet flushed in the bathroom on the other side of Remo’s bedroom wall. Remo glared at the door. There wasn’t any reason for one of the family to come upstairs and use that bathroom unless they were spying on him and Eva.
“Do you think someone overheard us?” she asked.
“Possibly.”
“I guess that means we should be extra affectionate in front of Nonna,” Eva said with a laugh that sounded nervous. “I don’t know what kind of affection you like, though.”
“The touch on my shoulder was nice. I like hugs and kisses sometimes. Kissing is really nice from someone who likes kissing you.” Not that he’d had much experience with that.
“I could kiss you,” Eva offered. “Just to test the waters. You’d have to tell me what kind of kiss you want. There are many places and reasons to do it.”
“I’m not ready yet,” Remo admitted shyly. “Couldn’t we start with a hug? That doesn’t usually involve an exchange of body fluids.”
“Okay,” Eva said. “Let’s hug it out.”
Remo went high, wrapping his arms around Eva’s shoulders. And she went low, wrapping her arms around his waist. They both ended on their sides, facing each other on the bed. She was soft in his arms, and he liked the feel of her there. She knew who he was, and Eva wasn’t demanding him to do something he didn’t want to do.
It was a relief. So much of the rest of his life felt like a performance. At least the woman he was fake dating had real kindness.
“So, about that kiss?” Eva said.
“No, thank you,” Remo said impishly.
“Just checking. Consent has not changed for this session. I’d salute you, but then I’d have to stop hugging you. I don’t want to do that yet.”
Eva proved it by snuggling deeper into him, and it was so comfortable Remo started to drift off like a proverbial Sunday nap. It must have worked wonders for her, too, because soon Eva was breathing deeply and regularly. He assumed it was because of her shop’s schedule of not opening until around 4:00 pm. Any other day of the week, Eva would probably still be sleeping.
They managed to share the nap together for about fifteen minutes, but then Nonna knocked on the door and let herself inside the room.
“Hey, Nonna,” Remo said softly with his arms wrapped around Eva.
Nonna Teresa clasped her hands and assessed the two younger people. “You should take your girl home, Remo. And you, Eva, you should come back next Sunday.”
“I was going to take Remo out on a date,” she said. “Sunday is the only day we both have off.”
“I approve of dates. What are you going to do?”
“Maybe we’ll go bed shopping,” Eva told her as she rubbed her neck. “Remo was the only comfortable thing about this bed.”
Nonna chuckled. “Is that so?”
“He really does need a new bed,” Eva said, taking Remo’s hand in hers. “There’s an orienteering event next weekend I want him to try with me.”
Right. He’d never gone orienteering before, but Eva had assured him if he could read a map, he would be okay.
“Do I need hiking boots?”
“Yes, my dear baker,” Eva said, patting him on the forearm. “Bring yourself, and I’ll take care of the rest. I have the recipe and all the ingredients. You’ll have a good time. It will loosen up your muscles, too, instead of carrying all that tension you hold from hunching over.”
“Thank you,” he said as he checked his shoulder for range of motion. Eva’s ability to give a massage, whether with hands or a wand, had restorative powers. He smiled at her and then focused on his grandmother standing in front of them.
“Nonna, can we talk about letting me take over the bakery? Dad does it out of duty, not because he loves it. None of the others want it, not even Fabian and Stephanie.”
The old woman’s face took on the enigma of a riddling sphinx, which was enough of a clue that he hadn’t swayed her opinion yet.
“You need to spend more time with Eva,” Nonna told him with a hand gesture to the other woman as if he’d somehow forgotten she was there. “When I know things are going well for you, we’ll talk again.”
“But...” He looked apologetically at Eva for what he was about to say. “What does that have to do with running a business?”
“Nothing. But it has everything to do with having a good life. You’ve already seen what living without joy can do to people.” She canted her head toward the first floor. “I don’t want that for you, my boy.”
Nonna Teresa put her gnarled hands at the side of Remo’s head and bent over to place a kiss on his temple.
She backed out of the room, and when she was gone Remo stood to stretch. He took his shirt from the back of the chair and pulled it over his head, tucking in the tails. Silently, he turned back to Eva, who watched him.
“What is it?”
“I like what I see,” she said, “but I feel guilty for even thinking about it.”
With mock indignation, he retorted, “I’m not just a piece of meat!”
“I like you, Remo.” Eva stood up beside him. “Now take me home so I can change.”
He assessed her in an exaggerated manner like he was a reality TV judge. “It’s a nice dress. If you take it off, maybe Adam will try it on.”
She looked down at the floral-print garment. “He might.”
Reaching for her hand like it was the most natural thing in the world, Remo laced his fingers with Eva’s. Together they walked down the stairs and said their goodbyes. It still took fifteen minutes to get out of the house.
EVA HAD PLACED HER order of baked goods with Remo on Monday for the kick-off of the Thursday night lecture series. They’d had a few conversations during the week, and Remo had told her he would come listen to Adam’s presentation and find out what her customers’ pastry preferences were. Eva suspected he was also curious about Adam as the discussion leader.
“You don’t have to come to all of them,” Eva told him after placing her order. “But I’m glad you’ll be there for the first one.”
“I can’t promise I’ll go to all of them, even if they are only every two weeks. I need my beauty sleep.”
“You could do a schedule change at your work. I have a feeling you know a guy,” she’d said.
“If it were that easy, I’d already manage the bakery by now.”
Conversations like that with Remo put her at ease, so much so she just wanted to share her thoughts and dreams with him. There’d been relationships in her past with men she’d dated for real that had never felt so natural and effortless. It didn’t hurt matters that he was easy on the eyes. Eva had told Remo that she didn’t want to objectify him, but within the privacy of her own mind, a lustful thought or two whispered from time to time.
The afternoon of the first lecture Eva organized special sales items to go along with Adam’s topic. While she was busy, Adam went to the bakery to pick up the completed order. The twinkle in his eye as he volunteered made Eva wonder if he was finding an excuse to see Stephanie.
Once it was closer to the time for the discussion to begin, Eva put out Remo’s spread of treats near the audience seating. If the baker hadn’t been donating his services, she wouldn’t have been able to afford such fancy artisan pastries. He had made a sampler platter with cannoli, small cakes, doughnuts, and flavor bars. It was a feast for the eyes with different shapes, colors, and something appetizing for everyone.
A quarter-hour before the start of the program, Remo, Stephanie, and Fabian all came through the doors. Putting on her best hostess face, Eva smiled brightly. “Welcome to The Love Shack. Find a seat over there to listen to our first lecture on Tantra.”
