On Sleepless Roads, the Sleepless Go

“Thank you for coming at such short notice, Karen. You don’t know how much I appreciate this,” I praised my babysitter as I put my earrings on.

“Don’t worry about it Ms. Sanders,” I grabbed my purse and my shoes as I made my way towards the door.

“Alright, so…call me if anything happens. If you can’t get a hold of me, you have Max’s number. His bedtime is at 9. He already ate dinner, but if he’s hungry, there are snacks in the pantry. I shouldn’t be home later than 11:30. If I’m held up, I’ll call you-”

“I got this,” The teenage girl chuckled and shooed me towards the door. It was weird leaving my son at night. That was usually our bonding time, aside from the weekends, and I just wasn’t used to leaving him.

My black pumps clicked down the hallway as I made my way to the elevator and down to the parking garage. Brent told me that this was going to be a formal event, so I made an effort to dress up a bit. I was used to dressing up anyway, so I traded in my skirt for a dress and my ankle boots for pumps. The concept wasn’t very foreign to me.

When I got to Night Owl, people were hustling around, trying to get all of the cupcakes into the delivery truck, along with the cake. Marin’s heels clicked on the tiled floor as she walked over to me.

“God, I can already tell that I’m not going to have feet by the end of the night. I don’t know how you do it,” I gave a small laugh at that. It was unusual for a pastry chef to walk around -daily- in heels, but I didn’t really care. It was my shop and I wanted to look presentable. “I hate dressing up. I haven’t felt like this since my senior prom, but at least this dress is cute,”

“Bad memories?” She grunted back as a response.

“This is the last of it,” Ian, one of my delivery boys, said as he came back into the shop.

“Alright, you ready to go?”

“You mean, am I ready to go and pounce on that gorgeous piece of man-meat named Patrick Kane? Yes,” Ian and I both gave her weary looks and turned to leave the bakery. “Oh come on, guys! You can’t tell me that you wouldn’t,”

“I’ve never seen what he looks like, so yes I can,”

“You’re not even the slightest bit curious?” I shook my head. “I worry for you sometimes, just know that,” I gave her a slight shove.

“Get in the car,”

+

“Julie!” A voice called out as I entered the venue. The delivery boys were bringing in the cupcakes so Marin and I could start to set up. Brent came strolling up to us, a big smile gracing his handsome face. “You look absolutely gorgeous,” My cheeks reddened.

“Hi, Brent,” He held his arms out for a hug. I gave a discrete look to Marin, who looked star struck. I walked into his arms as to not be rude and gave him a light hug.

“Ya know, I was kind of doubting that this would all come together on such short notice, but you actually did it. I can’t wait to see the cake,” I gave him a light, joking slap on the arm. He laughed and feigned hurt. “How about I get you ladies some champagne?” He took off before either of us could say anything. I looked over to Marin and saw a glint in her eyes.

“You alright?” She was silent for a moment, then turned to me.

“I really think that if I were to die tomorrow, I’d be one happy girl. Or you know, die in the next two seconds due to my heart just exploding,” I raised my eyebrows and turned my attention to the rest of the venue. Enclave was one of the most elite clubs in Chicago and the fact that I was inside gave my heart a little patter. Brent came back a few minutes later with three flutes of champagne in his hands.

“Julie,” He handed Marin and I one each. “And I don’t believe I’ve got the pleasure of knowing your name,” He flirted shamelessly with the girl next to me. Her cheeks immediately reddened and she held out her hand.

“Marin,” She squeaked out. He kissed the top of it and I was sure that she was going to pass out.

“Thank you, Brent,” I immediately took a sip, savoring the wonderful taste. “Mm, I hate to cut this short, but Marin and I need to set up,” He let us go on our way and when we got to the table, the cupcakes were already brought in and waiting in their trays to be put on display. Marin and I immediately began the grueling task of carefully putting each individual cupcake on the table by flavor. Within five minutes of finishing, Brent was already at the table.

“Dear God,” His eyes widened. “My season diet just flew out of the window,” Marin giggled, causing me to look at her funny. “May I?” He looked over at me.

“Absolutely,” He grazed over the cupcakes and pointed to one of them.

“What is this one?”

“That is a Black-bottom Cheesecake Cupcake. It’s a brownie cake with cheesecake baked in. It’s topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting and covered with brownie chunks and vanilla cream cheese drizzle,” He immediately grabbed it and shoved half of it in his mouth. He mumbled something and took off, but neither Marin or I could understand him due to the mouth full of cupcake. I think it was something along the lines of ‘I’ll be right back.’. He came back what seemed like two seconds later and pulled me from behind the table.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I looked back at Marin, who just shrugged and continued serving cupcakes.

“Time for you to meet the birthday boy,” Oh, good. “Kaner! I have someone-” As we approached a group of people, the man in front of us -who had his back to us- turned around. His champagne sloshed out of his glass and all over my dress. I gasped and blinked. Not only was this embarrassing, but I had never met these people in my life. I looked up at the man, who seemed to be glaring at me. Those damn brown, glaring eyes.

“You know, I’m starting to think you’re doing this on purpose,” I stated blandly.

“Holy shit,” I heard someone pipe up from next to the man who spilled his champagne all over me.

“Can’t blame me this time,” I said. I looked to the left and noticed the blonde haired man from the other day that was with this peckerhead.

“You two know each other?” Brent asked, confused.

“No,” Our glares hardened towards each other tenfold. Brent leaned over to the blonde haired man and “whispered”.

“Somehow I don’t believe that,” The blonde man stepped forward, slightly increasing the distance between the asshole and myself.

“Small world?” He offered with a boyish grin on his face.

“Suffocatingly small,” He barked out a laugh, while I gave an awkward grin.

“Patrick,” He held out his hand. I grasped it in my own.

“Julie. You’re the birthday boy?” I asked, surprised. He nodded and his pale cheeks flushed pink.

“Bro, you have to see the display!”

“How about you take him over to see, Brent. I need to go wash this champagne off before I start smelling like a lush. Excuse me,” I bumped the brunette before making my way towards the ladies room.

+

I could hear music playing in the ladies room as I dabbed the champagne out of my expensive dress. Frustration was evident on my face because of the shitty situation that I found myself in. Tonight was supposed to go smoothly and I had already gotten myself embarrassed in front of a very important client. I inwardly growled and threw the damp paper towel in the garbage bin.

“I can’t believe him,” I grumbled as I walked out of the restroom. A large hand placed itself on my shoulder after I stepped merely ten feet away from the restroom. I jumped, clearly startled, and spun around. “What the Hell are you doing?” His warm hand stayed put on my bare shoulder and his familiar, stony expression didn’t falter. I honestly didn’t think that he had any other emotion besides anger. “Could you not?” I asked, referring to his hand. He quickly removed his hand before straightening up. “Do you do this to all the girls you like?” I asked, a shit eating grin on my face.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, obviously not amused by my presence. “You with Brent?” I laughed, amused by his accusation.

“I don’t know who you think you are, but you don’t have any right to question me,” I snapped.

“Actually, I have every right to question your motives. I organized this party and I’m not too fond of Puck Bunnies coming in here, acting like they own the place,”

“What the Hell is a Puck Bunny?” I didn’t know if this was a compliment or a low blow, but I kept my composure. He scoffed, but didn’t clear it up. “Actually,” I mocked him, my anger slowly rising, “I am the owner of Night Owl Bakery, you know, the bakery that you guys called a day in advance for two-hundred cupcakes and a three-tiered, thirty-pound cake? So really, you invited me to this fine establishment. I’m not sure what a “Puck Bunny” is, but I’m almost positive that I’m not one. In fact, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about hockey,” He looked visibly stunned by my outburst, but I wasn’t finished. “You know, I could’ve just sent my interns to come deliver and display the cakes because I never deliver; However, I thought it would be a nice thing to do, to come wish Patrick a happy twenty-first birthday, but after tonight,” I poked his shoulder, “I refuse to do anymore business with you. You can take your business elsewhere. You have to be the rudest client I have ever worked with, and believe me, I’ve seen them all. Excuse my pun, but you take the cake for being the most arrogant man I have ever had the displeasure of meeting. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a job I need to finish,” I huffed a deep breath and turned on my heels, briskly walking away, leaving the man, whose name I still didn’t know, stunned behind me. Brent was standing behind me, eyes wide. As I walked past him, he burst out laughing.

My heels clicked on the expensive looking floor as I made my way back to the table, all the while muttering undesirable words under my breath. I noticed Patrick’s curly hair as I approached the table. He surveyed the cupcakes and I then noticed that Marin wasn’t anywhere in sight. I needed to remind myself to have a word with her later.

“Something in particular that you’re looking for?” He jumped as I approached. He followed me with his eyes as I walked around behind the table. I offered him a smile, which he returned with a goofy grin.

“You work for Night Owl?”

“I own it,” I tried to be modest, but that sentence would sound cocky any way you put it. Realization took over his face as his grin widened.

“Oh God, how did I not realize it?” He shook his head and laughed. He looked back down at the table, then back at me. “Wow, these look amazing. I can’t thank you enough,”

“Keep Sasquatch over there away from me and we’ll call it even,” I nodded over to the seething brunette.

“Tazer?”

“Is that what you call it?” He laughed.

“Captain Serious, also goes by the name of Jonny. You don’t know who we are?”

“Cocky much?” He shrugged.

“It comes with the territory,” I nodded in understanding.

“Sorry to burst your bubble, birthday boy, but I didn’t know who you were before tonight,”

“Well, you can’t win them all,” He chuckled. “You know, he’s not really a bad guy,”

“You could’ve fooled me,”

+

“If everyone could gather around, we have one final surprise for Baby Peek-a-Boo. You are officially an adult now that you can drink with us and the team and I have come to a consensus that you no longer need a babysitter,” The group of people laughed. Patrick’s face turned bright red, but he went along with it. It was just friendly banter that he was used to. The lights dimmed and cheers could start to be heard, then the traditional ‘Happy Birthday’ song started. The cake was brought in by two delivery boys that I had at the shop. They both held one side of the heavy cake before it was set on the small rolling table next to Patrick. The smile on his face matched one that you would see on a little boy. I immediately thought of Sasha and a smile placed itself on my face. Patrick blew out the candles and applause rounded through the room. His blue eyes immediately locked with mine and his grin only grew. He politely pushed through the mass of people and made his way over to where I manned the table. He held his arms out, much like Brent did, and pulled me in for a hug.

“Thank you so much!” He squeezed the life out of me, “I never expected it to look like it did. It’s incredible! Thank you, thank you, thank you,” He rocked me back and forth, making me laugh.

“You’re welcome, Patrick,” I giggled out. He let me go and I took a step back. "Happy Birthday,"

“Hey, you think I can take…I don’t know, a dozen of these things home with me?” He pointed the cupcakes with a lopsided grin.