Cupid's Cupcake (6 page)

As he stepped through the door, he put his arm around her waist and pulled her close to him. Then his head came down
, and he kissed her softly. Belle sighed as she leaned against him.

“I plan to do tha
t a lot, by the way,” he said.

“It
is
Valentine’s Day,” she said with a smile.

Belle
closed the door behind him. Now it felt like everything in her life had fallen into place. It was only fitting that Brian Draper would be her Valentine.

###

A Heart to Rescue
,
available on Amazon now!

His eyes were blue. That kind of stormy blue that could blaze a trail right into your soul and there would be nothing you could do about it. Mel realized that she had been caught staring as that sentiment crossed her mind. She immediately dropped her eyes from his and made her arm continue its swirling motion wiping off the tabletop of the booth in front of her.

It was a Monday afternoon, the wor
st possible shift to work at the Rumbling Rock Bar and Grill. Mel hated Mondays. The hours stretched into an endless ocean, and she frequently felt as if she was bobbing along in a boat with no engine. But she was the newest waitress on staff, and until she built up her tenure, she was stuck with the shifts that nobody else wanted. When she arrived for her shift thirty minutes ago though, the man sitting at the bar had drawn her attention. The normally abysmal shift suddenly felt much more palatable with that kind of scenery.

Mel cut a glance back across the room, but the man's gaze had returned to the highball glass in front of him. Occasionally he would pick it up, swirl it around a few times, and then return it to the bar without pulling it to his lips.
Even if he wasn’t devastatingly gorgeous, he was the only patron at the bar, so it was hard
not
to look at him. His long legs planted firmly on the floor in front of the stool told her that he was taller than average, and his trim waist paired with a set of broad shoulders told her that he regularly saw the inside of the gym. His hair was so black that it shone even under the meager light of the hanging bar lights above his head. There was a five o'clock shadow across his cheeks, but that was the only part of his appearance that looked the slightest bit casual. The dark blue pin-stripe suit he wore ensured that he looked utterly out of place at the Rumbling Rock, but the man didn't seem to care.

She wondered what
could have possibly drawn the man to her dive bar on the edge of Spring City. There was nothing pretentious or glamorous about the bar. It was far from the trendy bars and restaurants downtown that catered to the people who cared about such things. Mel knew about that better than most. One day, not all that long ago, she had been one of those people. That had been before her life fell apart. That had been the life that she left behind without a second glance over six months ago.

Perhaps that was what fascinated her about this man. He was a real-life, slightly painful reminder of what she had given up, and seeing him there dredged up memories of things that were better left in the past. She was alternately intrigued and annoyed with him. Of course, he sat there, nursing his drink, completely oblivious to the rush of emotions
his presence evoked inside of her.

Now that she knew what color his eyes were
though, she thought that she could forget that he was there. Mel’s responsibility was the tables in the dining area while the bartender, Max, kept an eye anyone who sat at the bar. It was just the two of them on Monday afternoons, and Mel was pretty certain that Max would have preferred to be anywhere else than stuck with her inside the dingy bar. The feeling was mutual.

The creak of the heavy, wooden front door brought the welcome distraction she had been waiting for: customers. She was
frustrated to see that they weren't just any customers though; Barry and Bud Parker were regulars and the sight of them made her stomach clench uncomfortably. Barry and Bud were twins but couldn't have looked more different in appearance. Barry was tall and thin, his plain boyish face belying the fact that he must be at least forty years old. Bud was short and carried a wide girth around his belt line. His face was tight and seemed dressed in a permanent scowl.

What they had in common was that they were
rude, egotistical, and lousy tippers.

Mel said a silent prayer hoping t
hey'd make their way to the bar and then Max could deal with them, but the two men sidled right past it. The brothers were talking animatedly about some “jackass” at a job site, but that didn't stop Bud from giving her a lewd wink as he shoved his stout body into one side of a booth on the far side of the dining room.

Her feet dragged as she approached the table. Barry stopped talking as his eyes lit on her face. "Well, hello there Mel! A
ren't you a sight for sore eyes?” Barry never had a better pick-up line than stupid clichés. Mel thought that he was generally harmless outside of his lame verbal attempts to attract her attention, but she wasn’t willing to bet on that assumption.

"Barry, Bud," she said in a crisp greeting as she pulled out her order pad. "Usual?" She wanted to get away from them as quickly as possible.

"We're celebrating today, Mel. Bring us a pitcher to start," Bud said.

Mel groaned inside. If the brothers were starting to drink already, that meant they'd be there all afternoon. When Bud got drunk, his hands started to wander, and Mel didn't think that she'd be able to stop herself from decking him if he "accidentally" grabbed her ass one more time. She gave serious consideration to telling Max that she felt sick and needed to go home.

"Comin' right up," she said instead as she turned on her heel.

The conversation resumed behind her. She took her time making her way to the bar,
straightening salt and pepper shakers and napkin bins on several on the tables. All too soon she reached the waitress station at the end of the bar next to the door that led into the kitchen. She intended to busy herself with as many small, invisible tasks as possible for the next few hours that kept her out of reach of Bud Parker.

"A pitcher of Light," she said to Max, who leaned nonchalantly against the bar
reading a car magazine. The biggest difference that she could see between her and Max was that Max would do everything he could not to do a lick of work during his shift. She preferred to be busy. It helped keep her thoughts from wandering into unwanted places.

Max grunted in re
ply and moved to the beer tap. As Mel started to enter the order into the POS system, she saw that the blue-eyed man, who sat at the opposite end of the bar, now appeared to be studying her. Mel tried to pretend she didn't notice. She was used to men checking her out, but then her mind blanked on the entry code for a pitcher of beer. She stood there, feeling the weight of the man's stare, before deciding to give into a bit of spontaneity. She turned and met his eyes full-on. Although her life had been turned upside down, she was still the same person, and old Mel wouldn't shrink under an attractive man's gaze. The old Mel would have eaten him for dinner.

She had to give him credit. Caught staring, he didn't even flinch the way that she had done
when he caught her earlier. If anything, she sensed a kind of curiosity there. Mel decided to try an experiment. She raised her hand, pulled her lips into a seductive grin, and fluttered her fingers at him. The man's eyebrows shot up and he frowned before dropping his eyes. Mel was left feeling embarrassed and slightly mortified.

"Here," Max's looming form blocked her line of sight to the man at the end of the bar as he set a pitcher of fo
amy beer in front of her. "You tell those two that if they get loud, I'm kicking them out."

"Sure, sure," Mel said, rolling her eyes. "You always say that.
Thing is, you never actually do it."

"This time I mean it," Max said.

Mel took the pitcher and sighed as she put in on a tray with two beer mugs. Max talked a big game, but he wasn't a fighter regardless of his hulking form. Plus that kind of thing would require him to do something above and beyond his normal duties, and Max put in nothing but the minimal effort.

Mel took her time wal
king back to the booth, and set the tray down on the edge. She quickly slid the pitcher and glasses off of it. She knew that Bud was staring at her cleavage. The required uniform at the Rumbling Rock was a tight, nearly transparent low cut t-shirt. She straightened and took a step back. That extra few inches ensured she was out of Bud's reach, which made her glad as she saw the gleam of lust in his eyes. He hadn't taken them off of her chest. He slowly licked his lips, and Mel felt like a wave of disgust.

"Anything else?"
she said.

"Just keep 'em comin'," Bud said. "Like I said, we're celebrating. You should grab a glass and join us, Mel.
My treat."

I'd rather roast in Hell
, she thought. "I'm working, Bud."

Bud looked around the empty room. "Looks
to me like you have some free time to fit us in."

Mel
ignored his comment and walked away. She had no desire to be drawn into further discussion with either Parker brother. That was when she saw that the blue-eyed man at the bar watching her again. Mel stormed into the back room to get a broom, unwilling to embarrass herself any further. The floor that she swept twenty minutes ago no doubt needed to be swept again.

Get the rest of Mel's story by clicking
HERE
.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read Belle’s story! If you enjoyed
Cupid’s Cupcake
, please consider leaving an Amazon review and sharing your thoughts. I'd also love to hear what you liked (and what you didn't!) if you'd like to drop me a line at [email protected]. As always, thank you for your support.

Ivy Sinclair cut her romance teeth on classics like
Gone With the Wind
,
Casablanca
,
An Affair to Remember
, and
Sabrina
. She is a firm believer in a happily ever after ending, and that there is no emotion quite like laughter through tears. But sometimes the sweetness of love needs to be tempered with some naughty steaminess, and that’s what readers can expect to find in Ivy’s stories.  Ivy is a life-long Midwesterner who enjoys cozying up to the fire with her husband and a glass of wine during the long winter nights.

Connect with Ivy on Facebook by clicking
HERE
.