Six Days: Book One in the SIX Series (4 page)

Sometime
around midnight, Mallory grabbed me by the arm. “Hey, are you ready to head
out? We’ve got that party delivery tomorrow afternoon, so I kind of wanted to
get to the shop early tomorrow to get started, if that’s okay.”

           
“Only if I can drive your car back, you seem a little
giggly tonight,” I replied. Mallory cocked her head back and laughed.

           
“I’m sorry Addie, are you sure you don’t mind? That wine
was so good. I just didn’t realize it was getting so late,” her voice trailed
off as she let go of my arm to say a few good-byes.
 

           
Steve wrapped me in a bear hug and kissed the top of my
head, leading me to believe he had quite a bit to drink. “I’m glad you came
tonight, Addie.”
 
His shirt was soft
against my face, but his body felt strong pressed up against mine.

           
“You’re going to have fun camping in a few weeks, I
promise,” Johnny added, pulling me in for a hug as soon as Steve let go. Megan
hugged me the longest, drunkenly rambling about how she was so excited we could
all be best friends and something about how she also liked my cupcakes almost
as much as Mallory’s. I really had no clue what she was saying, but she seemed
genuine as she spoke, so I nodded and smiled.

           
I politely said my ‘good-byes’ and ‘nice to meet
yous
’ to the other guests as we made our way towards the
door. As we were leaving, Griffin appeared out of the hallway and grabbed Mallory
in a tight hug. “Leaving already?” he asked with his perfect grin. I could see
his muscles flex under his form fitting shirt and I felt a chill run through my
body.

           
“Yeah, we’ve got an early morning at the shop,” Mallory
replied, releasing him.

           
“Maybe I’ll stop by tomorrow then? To see how it’s
going?” Griffin said with a small shrug. He looked at me with his piercing
eyes. “It was really nice to meet you, Adelaide,” he said, swiftly kissing my
right cheek. “It’s been an adventure already,” he added, taking a step back.
          

Mallory
led us out to her car, handing over her keys to me. I smiled, happy to have
been coerced into coming to the party. On the drive home Mallory was rambling
excitedly about something, though I hardly paid attention. My mind drifted to
thoughts of Griffin, wondering if I would in fact see him tomorrow. The thought
of it made me smile, though I cursed myself at the same time. I knew these
types of thoughts were the wrong ones to have for a girl who just ran away from
the last handsome man who looked at her that way.

           
The next morning I arrived at the shop at seven o’clock
as I had promised, and Mallory was already there pulling out mixers and
thumbing through orders. I could tell Mallory felt sluggish, but we both had a
very productive morning making cupcakes, cookies, cake pops, and a giant sheet
cake for a birthday party delivery later that afternoon.

           
“So this camping trip,” I began as we started mixing
frosting, “what is that all about?”

           
“Oh, we’ve done it every year since we were nineteen,
kind of an annual tradition I guess you could say,” Mallory replied, smiling.
“We do this
thing,
I’m trying to think how to explain
it.” She paused, deep in thought. “Back when we were younger, you know, that
age when you’re technically an adult, but yet your parents are still kind of
telling you what to do,” she stated, looking at me for understanding, so I
nodded. I still had yet to really explain all the years of foster homes I had
gone through to Mallory. “So,” she continued, “we kind of just decided that
summer that we would do this 'thing.' It came up during a round of truth or
dare, actually. We all knew each other too well, so the ‘truths’ weren’t really
an option since there wasn’t much else to know about each other. So we all
ended up “daring” each other to
do
something, like, with our lives.
Something motivating.
Something maybe good for us, but not
necessarily what our parents were nagging us about, you
know
?”

           
“Like what kinds of things? What were some of the dares? What
was yours?” I asked, trying to understand what she was saying.

           
“Well, I always wanted to travel, right? I was obsessed
with France in high school. So, Meg dared me to go. The next semester I studied
abroad in Paris and it absolutely changed me,” Mallory said, shaking her head.
“So we just all made it into an annual tradition. Every year we draw names out
of a box and you have to dare that person to do something. Maybe it’s something
you know they’ve been contemplating but they haven’t done anything about, that
type of thing. It’s usually something kind of inspiring, just to push us all
into being better people, or whatever.” Mallory went back to mixing up the
frosting.

           
“So what were some of the other dares then?” I asked. It
seemed like an interesting concept, though unusual.

           
“Well, Meg was frustrated with college so one summer one
of the guys dared her to try her hand at cosmetology school, since she always
loved that kind of thing,” Mallory smiled, thinking of the memory. “She only
made it two months I think. She actually burned off a chunk of someone’s hair
with an iron that was too hot,” Mallory said, laughing, which made me laugh
too. “So it’s not to say that all these dares worked out by any means. But
still, I know Meg was at least glad that she gave it a shot, you know?”

           
Throughout the rest of the morning we talked about some
of the other dares that had come up over the years. Johnny joined the Peace
Corps one year, which his parents really freaked out over. Griffin moved to Los
Angeles for a short stint to get away from his father, which also failed.
Mallory, last year, was dared to finally open her own official bakery. Her
friends knew she loved baking so much, so she was finally dared to try and make
some actual money doing it. Mallory explained that you had to complete the dare
in order to pull your name out of the box. You essentially had a year to do
whatever was dared of you, since it had to be completed by the following year’s
camping trip. Knowing that your friends thought the dare would be in your best
interest made them easier to jump into. The dares made the group feel even more
connected over time, even when they didn’t work out as expected, so they
continued to do it year after year.

           
As the afternoon came and went my mind wandered to
thoughts of Griffin, wondering why he hadn’t stopped by the shop as he had
suggested. I guessed maybe he got caught up in work, but then it dawned on me
that I didn’t even know what he did for a living.

           
As I drove with Mallory to drop off the party delivery, I
asked the question. “So, I know Meg works at that marketing firm, and Johnny
said something about cooking for a restaurant. What about Steve and Griffin?
What do they do?” I inquired nonchalantly.

           
“Oh, Steve does construction. Well, I shouldn’t say that,
it’s more like wood working I guess you’d call it. He builds custom shelves in
people’s homes, that kind of thing. He does amazing work. He actually helped me
with some of the counters and shelves in the bakery when I had it renovated.
And Griffin works for his dad, which is kind of a sore subject. His family owns
some of the buildings downtown, but I don’t really know
what
he actually
does, is that weird? Did you ever watch all the reruns on all the time of that
show
Friends?
” Mallory asked.

           
I nodded.

           
“It’s like Chandler, you know, everyone always has that
friend where you don’t really know exactly what they do all day. We just know
he doesn’t like it and he seems angry about it, especially as of late, so no
one really asks too many questions.” Mallory pulled the car into the driveway
of a log house set on Lake Tahoe. The house was gigantic. “The one time he was
dared to leave, to get away from it all, he actually did. We couldn’t believe
it. But that went terribly wrong, so he came back and we all just kind of
accepted that the career path with his dad had been set.”

           
Mallory and I carried in all of the bakery boxes, thanked
the homeowners for their business, and drove back to the shop.

           
“So how is it that all of you are still single? I mean, all
three of them, Johnny, Steve, Griffin, they’re all good looking guys. Did any
of you ever…” my voice trailed off as I couldn’t think of how to exactly phrase
what I was getting at.

           
“Oh no,
ew
,”
Mallory blurted out. “I mean not
ew
,
but I don’t know, that would just be weird by now, for me at least. I have
known these guys forever. And honestly we’re all such good friends, I just
don’t think we’d ever want to ruin that, you know? Although Meg and Steve,”
Mallory said, shaking her head, “they did have a thing once. They’re both a
little vague about the details, and it was years ago. I just know it didn’t
last long and somehow they were able to walk away from it with no hard
feelings, which I just don’t get. Then there’s Johnny, he actually dated Kate
for
awhile
.”

           
“Who’s Kate?” I asked, wondering how I was supposed to
know who that was.

           
“Oh sorry, Kate was my old roommate. She used to help me
with the shop. The one who moved to New York on a whim and left me stranded.”

           
“Oh, that’s right, Johnny had mentioned her the other
night when he brought up the camping trip,” I said nodding, trying to piece
everything together.

           
“Anyway, Johnny and Kate’s relationship was always kind
of up and down, for years actually. So honestly, that kind of just made it
weird for the group a lot of the time, like we all had to take sides every time
they were off again. I think we all learned a lot from that experience. We
basically came to realize that we appreciated each other more as reliable
friends, rather than trying to make it something more and it not working out.
They eventually worked through it, kind of, but I don’t know. Something always
felt off after that, you know?”

           
“Yeah, I get it. I can see how that could make things
weird, given how close all of you are,” I replied.

           
“I really try not to have hard feelings towards Kate for
just leaving me high and dry and all that, considering she was the one to push
me into this in the first place. After my grandparents passed away and left me
this old building they owned,” Mallory motioned to the bakery as we pulled back
in the lot, “she always encouraged me to make the bottom into a little pastry
shop.
 
It wasn’t until the camping trip
last year that she actually dared me to do it. At least as a place to bake
stuff, versus crowding up our apartment with it I guess. So, I eventually had
the bottom of the building renovated so I could handle a little more work.
More birthday parties and such, nothing too crazy.
As you
know, it’s still just a hobby despite my very official looking sign, but I do
feel proud about it. The guys were amazing. They did a lot of the work inside,
as if they actually believed that someday I would have a
full
fledged
business.”
 

           
Mallory and I got out of the car. I looked through the
windows of her shop, still enamored at just how cute and stylish the place was,
considering how few people she actually had coming in. It almost seemed like a
waste to take all of her business
to
her customers when they should be
coming in to actually see and appreciate the place.

           
“You do have a real business, Mallory. You do amazing
work. More people will come eventually, it just takes time to build up a
following,” I replied sincerely.

           
“Eh, I don’t know. I just can’t give up my other job yet.
Not without knowing this could really work, you know?” Mallory shrugged her
shoulders. “I’ve always enjoyed baking, but it just seems surreal to me that I
could do it full-time and get by like that.
Sounds too good
to be true.
Besides, I’m still holding out for a handsome rich husband anyway,
so maybe none of this will even matter,” Mallory said giggling. We walked back
into the shop laughing.

           
That evening, we cleaned up the bakery and sanitized all
of the equipment. Although I was busy and distracted most of the day, it still
nagged at me that Griffin hadn’t shown up. I hoped he would at least stop by
the open house the following evening. Mallory was trying them out on different
days of the week, just to see which types of people came on which particular
days. She thought that maybe, eventually, she could work her way up to being
open all day one or two days a week.
 

           
That night Mallory and I went out for a couple of drinks
with Johnny and Steve. They were fun to be around, and although I found Steve
to be particularly handsome and funny, my mind still wandered to thoughts about
Griffin. Maybe he was out on a date tonight? He seemed to be in a heated
conversation on the phone the night of the party, maybe a relationship issue of
sorts? Mallory had made it sound as if all the guys were single, but I guess
she wasn’t really specific. Maybe he was at least dating someone casually? I
was never good at figuring out how that all worked, the ‘rules’ of it all.

           
Mallory and I left the bar at eleven o’clock and I
actually went back with her to her place, thinking it would be easier to get an
early start in the morning to prepare for our open house the following day.

           
Mallory was very easy to get along with. She was open
about her past relationships, talked a lot about her travels, and spoke endearingly
about her family. She always had stories to tell, and I loved that about her.
When it was my turn for conversation, I glazed over my childhood, thankful that
we didn’t delve too deep into that. I felt comfortable talking to Mallory, I
really did. But after hearing her stories about all the experiences she had,
how wonderful her family was, I just didn’t think she would quite understand
what a different life I had. I didn’t think she would judge me for any of it by
any means, but I also didn’t want her pity. I liked to keep it light, almost
pretending to even myself that I had a normal life as well. After talking for a
couple hours, I finally drifted off to sleep on Mallory’s soft corduroy couch.

           
The open house the next day went surprisingly well, and
it felt good to hear the praises of our hard work. Mallory booked three
birthday parties, a couple of graduation ceremonies, and even a funeral. That
freaked her out a little bit, but it was still business. By the time the event
was over Mallory squeezed my arm excitedly, gushing about all of the extra work
we picked up. As she was going through the list of all the events we had coming
up, the front door opened.

           
“Ladies, how’d it go today?” Griffin asked, walking in
with Johnny. Griffin wore a light blue striped shirt with grey pants, his thick
dark hair perfectly in place.
 
He looked
even more handsome than I remembered from the other night.

           
I quickly brushed my hair back out of my eyes, trying to
look a little more put together. I was happy at least to have borrowed some of
Mallory’s clothes that morning. I had picked out a cotton pink dress with a
belt around it and it seemed relatively flattering.