The Sweet Spot (Sweet And Spicy) by Mary Eason

he lived for challenges.
     
     
    Chapter Seven
     
    “Hi.” Aiden’s voice came through the telephone line sounding anything but angry. Cara could almost picture him smiling. “How about we call a truce and have dinner tonight?”
    “You’re not still angry with me?” Oh, for crying out loud. She sounded like a little girl trying to please her parent’s, Cara thought pitifully.
    “I’m not angry with you, Cara. But we do need to talk. And I have a proposition to make to you.” The prospect of that sent knots in the pit of her stomach.
    “You do?” Geez, that little girl voice again.
    Aiden laughed. He apparently was finding all of her new humility amusing. “I do. Why don’t I pick you up at the apartment at seven and we’ll go someplace special.”
    She wanted to say yes. Shoot, she wanted to scream it, but she was remembering the last scene that had taken place at her apartment this morning and the thought of being there alone with Aiden was just too much of a temptation.
    “No…that is, why don’t you pick me up here. I’m working late. We can go some place trendy instead.” She hoped that Aiden didn’t pick up on that lie or the reasons behind her nervousness.
    She listened to the silence between them stretch on before he answered a little disappointed. She recognized that tone from the past. Which meant she’d disappointed Aiden a lot in the past. Another thing for her to feel sorry about.
    “Okay, seven at the shop. I’ll see you then.” Cara hung up the phone and glanced at her hands. They were actually shaking. What was wrong with her? Aiden was her friend.
    “Was that him?” Shelby peeked through to the kitchen door and smiled that familiar ‘I told you so’ smile of hers.
    Cara only shook her head, thankful that Shelby had three customers waiting otherwise there would be no end to the questions.
    Cara started the decorations for a wedding cake according to the bride’s specific albeit odd directions when it hit her that she’d just accepted a dinner invitation from the most dangerous man in Dallas.
    She glanced down at her jeans and tee shirt and closed her eyes. Not exactly going to turn any heads. That was perfect she reminded herself, because Aiden was just her friend. And she was a jeans kind of gal. Aiden wouldn’t be expecting anything else.
    “So, where are you two going?” Shelby asked when the last of her customers were gone. She stepped over to the cake, frowned and shuddered at the black icing and explicit decorations of a handcuffed groom and leather-wearing bride. “I still don’t get it.” Shelby threw up her hands and picked up where she’d left off on another birthday cake.
    “What makes you think that was Aiden? And who says we’re going out?” Cara asked her, her fingers shaking so much that the handcuffs actually went up the groom’s arms.
    “Please, you’re as nervous as a cat. Of course, that was Aiden. Where’s he taking you?”
    “I don’t know,” Cara said, giving up trying to hide the truth or her reaction to it from Shelby. “Someplace casual. He’s picking me up here.”
    “You can’t be serious? You can’t go out with the man of your dreams in jeans and a tee shirt.”
    Cara closed her eyes and counted to ten before tossing the screwed up groom in the trash. “Aiden is a friend and only a friend, Shelby, and I like jeans. I’m not dressing up for him.”
    “Oh yes you are. I have something that will do the trick.”
    The very thought of something Shelby might suggest made her shudder. “Uh, no thank you. I don’t want to give Aiden any ideas. I’ve seen you dress, remember?”
    Shelby didn’t take offense. She actually enjoyed dressing provocative. “Not to worry. It’s tame by my standards. Just a simple skirt and top. It will be perfect. Not too dressy.”
    Cara didn’t answer. She was busy trying to figure out how to refuse Shelby’s offer without hurting her friend, while wondering who brought a full wardrobe to work