Sweet Treats in More Ways than One

[RHYS SPRINTER]

Rhys couldn't help it. When Adeen hit the ground , barely able to breathe, he burst into laughter right with her. There was something so completely freeing to just laugh like a madman for no other reason than he felt free enough to do so. It was increddible. He crawled lazily over to where the pink haired woman was stretched out on the floor, tears leaking out of her eyes as she stared at the ceiling.

"I re-repeat, where have you been all my life?"

He stared down at her leaning on his arms, just taking in her entire beautiful face. Those brown eyes sparkled with a glint of happiness he hadn't seen in anyone in a long time. "Could ask you the same thing." As creepy as it could be seen, Rhys still couldn't tear his eyes away. A stupid smile was still perched on his lips, and he knew, somewhere in the back of his mind, that they were treading dangerous waters here. But most of him couldn't care. he could sit there and watch the light play across her face for the rest of his life.

Their brownies ahd other plans.

"Crap." Rhys glared at the offending oven, before hauling himself to his feet. "Come on, up you get," he gestured for Adeen to take his hand, considering if it was as painfully obvious to her as it was to him that tonight was just a bit too perfect to be true. Preferring not to think about that, lest he summon a dark cloud of awkward withhis thoughts, he mock glared at his companion.

"See? Muffin batter still isn't done! Now you got to miss out on the actual muffin making lesson, cuz you gots to get the brownies out of the oven."

As he helped her up, Rhys tried, valiantly, to keep his eyes in all the appropriate areas, and when that failed, stuck to staring at the floor. Damn the chocolate in the air.

[safetypinalert3]

Adeen watched him laugh, which only caused her own giggles to bubble forth once more. She grinned at him when he crawled in, joining her in her embarrassing, laughter induced collapse. Though, when he responded, and his eyes locked onto her face. Her smile dropped, once more, into a small shimmer of a smile. She propped herself op, curiously—until the oven beeped.

Crap times double. She grabbed his hand, hoisting herself to her feet also. “I’m up! I’m up! I’m sorry, bossman! I’m sorry!” She squeaked, skittering to the oven with her arms over her head. Adeen glanced over her shoulder with a chuckle, and then grabbed a pair of pan-holders, and tugged open the open. “Oh god, they smell good.” She murmured, carrying the pan over to him after carefully closing the oven.

“I’m a horrible student, see why I fail all my classes?” She stared at him pointedly, setting the pan to the side. Close enough, but not close enough for one of them to accidentally burn themselves. “Okay, Mr. Sprinter, what next?” She tapped her cheeks to put her serious face on, resting her hands on her hips and leaning over to watch curiously. Well duh. She was here to learn how to bake…not roll around on the ground with him. The fact that she had almost, almost attempted to kiss Rhys was enough to make her want to die.

What the hell was she even thinking? He was famous, rich, popular. And she was a foster homed, dropout, living off of her inheritance from her apparently well-off dead mother. A street urchin, and the business man. He probably flirted with every pretty girl, and she was a little more extravagant. He’d do it, just to say he did, right? That thought was quickly sobering, especially when the number drifted into her head. How many girls had come into the shop after it closed?

Part of her wanted to slip the apron off, and just walk out the door without a word. But at the same time, Adeen was a little too nice to just leave. So, she’d stay. Finish the brownies, or muffins, or whatever the hell she was doing here, then head for the hills. She looked at him with a smile, “See, we got this!” Though the smile seemed a little distracted, and she felt sick to her stomach.

[RHYS SPRINTER]

He felt rather than heard her move closer to him, even though she was talking. It was almost like her essence was embedded in his skin, becasue he didn't even have to think about where she was.

“See, we got this!”

He looked over at her as he piled things into the huge mixing bowl they'd thoroughly neglected, and smiled. But something was off. Her eyes looked,...different. and he couldn't tell why, because he'd never seen that look before, but he knew, he KNEW he wanted that look gone.

"Everything alright?" He turned to pick up the wide metal whisk he liekd to work with, partially because he didn't want to put her more on guard than she already was with his sort of intense eyes, and partially because he didn't like to look at her with those eyes trying so hard to lie to him. Mostly because a mnute ago those eyes had been screaming 'KISS ME!' and he'd come very close to obeying, damn the consequences.

So why hadn't he?

He wanted to ignore her jibes at her horrible cooking, but got the feeling that wouldn't help the kind of tense atmosphere any. Not that he wanted to help the tense atmosphere, especially if it would get Adeen to open up and tell him waht wa the matter, but still.

Rhys ruthlessly forced all thoughts that reminded him that he hadn't yet known the woman for four hours out of his mind. He already knew he's kind of stepped in a time warp aimed at the heart, thanks.

"Next, we mix the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, chocolate powder, sugar, milk and eggs together. I like to do it with a wire whisk because...well, I don't really have a reason." He got right to mixing, after he'd asked her to cut up the brownie pan into small pieces. He had the batter smooth a in a short few minutes, now that he had a bit of frustration to work off. Now he just needed the brownie bits to add in, and muffin pans. He'd completely forgotten those.

"Crap. " he put his whisk down, sucking a bit of sweet batter from his thumb before digging through the cupboard nearest him. "Where are the muffin pans?"

[safetypinalert3]

“Yep! Everything is fine!” She chirped, shaking her head at him, “Is everything alright witchoo?” She teased, using a fake Brooklyn accent. Things had definitely changed—it went from light to easy, to almost painfully awkward. She had completely embarrassed herself, and she knew that he knew it also. Maybe he was just being polite, and she was the one crazy in the head. A matter of hours, and she wanted this guy, a complete stranger—to kiss her. And he didn’t seem the same way. Which was perfectly normal, after all. Didn’t mean that she wasn’t a tad bruised; she was a woman after all.

“Perfect reason.” She grinned again, though it seemed almost forced. She had wished that he’d teach her other things, so she didn’t have to go for a long time. But now, she was finding herself wanting the muffins to just be finished. She suddenly wanted that strange comfort of Carpet nestled in against her cheek. She wanted to be surrounded by the safe comfort of her rugs, her constant companion, and her vices. And rot away for several days, in complete humiliation.

Adeen focused on cutting the brownies into perfect little pieces, pushing all of her thoughts from her mind—lest she add a finger to the mix as well. She set the cut pieces aside, and glanced around for the muffin pans. She had no idea where they might be, but she attempted to make herself useful and look around as well. “Think maybe they’ve been recently washed?” She asked, pointing at the sink, where various utensils had been washed and stacked. She was suddenly feeling inferior, like she shouldn’t touch anything without his guidance, versus her normally walking over and rummaging for them along with him.

[RHYS SPRINTER]

Of course, he hadn't really expected her to answer him, since he had really been talking to himself, but the fact that she did, and what she said was so completely opposite from how she had acted for the entire time he knew her.

Whatever flimsy threads of restraint Rhys had been holding onto quickly vanished into thin air. He stopped where he was, on his hands and knees about to crawl over to the next nearest lower cupboard, and stared at her for a full second. His sense of self-preservation, which was actually quite strong, as the booming business he grew from nothing could attest, was screaming for him to ignore it and pretend nothing was out of the ordinary. But Rhys rarely listened to anything when he was pissed off. And he might not be murderously angry or anything, but women that tried to play with his emotions were enough to send him a little crazy.

He stood, walked over to the sink, and washed his hands, then slowly walked over till there was barely an inch of space between them. He slipped his hands up to cup her face, his fingers disappearing into her hair, and stared at those damn brown eyes that were going to kill him, sooner or later.

"Ten minutes ago it felt like someone had shot helium into my blood ans I was walking on air and nothing could touch me because there was this incredible woman willing to take the time to laugh with me, for a reason I can't yet begin to understand. And then, for some reason, that all changed. I don't like it when people I care about become unhappy, Adeen, and I like it even less when they lie to me about it. Yeah, I've only known you for about three hours, but they've been the most amazing three hours of my life. If something's bothering you, please, just tell me?"

Of course, he came off as a creeper and would probably swiftly receive a knee to the groin while Adeen made her escpae, but for some reason, the thought of loosing her made his soul shudder, like it was the most unnatural thing this side of heaven.

[safetypinalert3]

Adeen continues to smile, though it didn’t seem to reach at home in her eyes. Her smile faded slightly—Rhys had gone completely quiet, and that made her a little bit nervous. She was a quiet girl—but somehow, when the space had been filled up with laughter and voice, then was suddenly void of it—it scared her.

Adeen backed up when Rhys walked towards her. It frightened her again, and she seemed to be a deer caught in the headlights when his hands held to her face. Her breath all but stopped, tension in her neck and shoulders. Her scalp tingled from just the touch—though it wasn’t the romantic realization that she would have liked. In fact…he seemed angry at her. Scolding her for lying that she was alright.

Her pink mouth opened and closed, in absolute shock. What could she say? She couldn’t very well tell him exactly what she had been thinking. That she thought she’d just be another romp around the bakery sort of friend, or undesirable. That was…a little forward for typically quiet Adeen. Instead, she leaned up, her hands grasping the side of her neck carefully, pressing her lips into his. The magenetic pull of his eyes, and how close he stood, unbearable, breaking the pink haired woman. She quickly drew back, when she realized what she did.

“I’m sorry,” Her eyes looked frightened, but not of anything he said. Round, and doe-like, “I-I can’t, Rhys. Thank you.” She gestured to the brownies, and the abandoned muffin batter, “Thank you, so much. But I can’t.” She took a step backwards, looking at him. Every muscle in her body told her to freeze, don’t run. And had Rhys not been watching her, she’d have levitated right over the counter for a quicker getaway. Instead, she rubbed the back of her neck to prevent Rhys from grabbing her arm, and turned on her heel. Quickly leaving the back room.

There was a frantic sound from the front door, then a click when she remembered it was unlocked. Before quickly climbing into her car, pausing to light up a cigarette, before pulling away from the bakery, cursing every name she could ever think of.