Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Along the way, I waved at people I knew and made note to introduce Hugger to them. Though, this was a bigger smash than Annie normally put on, and I wondered how she remembered all the people she met in order to invite them to her pad.
After having a donut earlier, I went directly to a mini quiche to balance the levels in my stomach of sweet pastries with a savory one.
Hugger grabbed a plate and nabbed a small stack of little pancakes, skewered with a long pick through a blackberry. It was a cool idea to lay them out like that, turning pancakes into finger food, and I made note should I ever create a brunch buffet.
He poured some syrup on them, and holding the plate under it as he went, he was raising the stick to shove them in his mouth when a woman standing close cried, “Don’t!”
Too late, he’d bitten down.
Then he turned to me.
At the expression on his face, I immediately dashed to a stack of paper napkins and gave one to him.
He turned his head and spit out the pancakes.
The woman leaned in after he straightened and said, “We think Annie put salt in them instead of sugar. But everything else seems okay, erm…so far.”
I started giggling.
Because…
Annie.
“How do you know Annie?” she asked.
“I work with her,” I told her.
“Oh, that means you must be Diana.”
Hmm.
Annie spoke of me.
“Guilty,” I said. “And this is my boyfriend, Harlan.”
“Hi there,” she said to Hugger.
“Hey,” he replied.
“I’m Wendy. Me and my husband have known Annie for ages. We live down the street. She talks about you a lot. All good. She thinks you’re just great.”
If the threat of Hugger’s broken kneecaps (or other) wasn’t warming me enough, that did it.
“She says you’re the best employee she’s ever had,” Wendy continued.
And more warmth.
“Wow, that’s nice,” I replied.
She leaned in again and whispered, “My husband says she’d be out of business without you. She’s sweet as sugar and would do anything for someone she cares about,”—yes, like the threat of busted kneecaps (or other)—“but she isn’t the type to be a savvy businesswoman.”
Hugger grunted.
I tamped down laughter. “No, she’s a great boss, and I really like her, but she’s not that.”
“I…” The woman sniffed and her brow wrinkled. “Do you smell something—?”
A loud beeping filled the house.
“Fuck,” Hugger grunted a word this time, then he dumped his plate and the napkin, and he was on the move.
I followed him to a kitchen filled with smoke.
I noted where it was coming from, dashed to the oven, opened it, and more smoke billowed out, making me cough. I waved at it, and after some of the smoke dissipated, I saw some kind of casserole that was put directly under the top coils had caught on fire.
Hugger saw it too, I knew, because he yanked me back and went in himself.
“Hugger!” I cried.
He turned off the oven, grabbed some oven mitts, and ordered loudly to be heard over the fire alarm still going off. “Do something about the alarm, babe.”
I ran to a window, opened it, then raced to a dish towel and started waving it at the alarm as Hugger used the oven mitts to pull a casserole dish out of the oven. He dropped it with a clatter on the stovetop, then used those mitts to beat out the fire.
After flapping the dish towel about a dozen more times, the alarm stopped sounding.
Thank God.
What a racket.
The kitchen reeked of burnt food.
I suddenly sensed we had attention, so I turned to the doorway of the kitchen, which was jammed with people.
And just then, Annie pushed through to the front.
She was still cradling the bottle of Champagne we gave her.
She looked at me, Hugger, the casserole, Hugger, me, and back to the casserole.
“Oh, did I make bread pudding?” she asked no one and everyone.
That was when it happened.
One of those golden moments of life.
And I got to watch.
This being the fact that Hugger didn’t only bust out laughing…
He was taken over with it so bad, still holding a singed oven mitt in each hand, he leaned his ass against Annie’s kitchen counter, bent double, and his whole big body shook with amusement so strong, he had to brace his hands (and the mitts) against his knees so he could continue laughing and not topple over.
In that moment, watching Harlan “Hugger” McCain laugh that hard, I knew I’d love Annie forever.
But I’d love my guy for eternity.
Hugger returned from the bathroom after disposing of condom number two of the afternoon.
I lay naked as a jaybird on my stomach at a diagonal on my bed, and barely had it in me to jump when he lightly slapped my ass and asked, “I finally do you in?”
As I knew well, and lived that knowledge, you learned something new every day.