When Stars Align

Chapter 2

"Beautiful" I murmur while I put the finishing touches on the pink cake. I've always loved baking. Not only do you get to have fun while baking, but you also get to have a delicious treat at the end. Unless you're baking for someone else, as I am right now, unfortunately. Luckily, I saved some scraps for myself that I begin snacking on as the front door opens.

"Nice of you to come back home to help me bake which was YOUR idea might I remind you" I say only half annoyed as I really do prefer to bake by myself.

"Sorry Hales, I got caught up talking to everyone about Jamie... I heard that-"

"Em," I cut her off, "as much as I'd love to gossip about famer boy, I'm going to go take a shower, eat my cake scraps and watch a movie in bed." I say quickly as I'm already moving towards my bedroom.

"Hmm, okay suit yourself!" She says while walking into the kitchen.

"That cake looks amazing by the way, farmer boy will be quite pleased" she says with a wink and a grin that I can't quite place.

 

I roll my eyes and head into my bedroom to get ready for my cozy evening in.

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Sitting at my vanity, I meticulously apply my lip gloss for the final step of my makeup routine, and I take out the heatless hair rollers that I put in the night before. I put on the pink and blue sundress I picked out for the day since it is finally Spring, and I look in the mirror once more to make sure I look presentable. I might not care to impress Jamie the farmer boy, but I'll be dammed if I ever let someone meet me for the first time without looking my best.

I walk into the kitchen and make myself and Emily a coffee. She worked late at the saloon last night, and I always make sure to have a coffee ready for her for when she wakes up. Pouring the creamer into her mug, I hear her bedroom door open and a shuffling sound making its way towards me.

"Late night?" I ask while handing her the full mug.

Her blue hair is a mess, and she rubs her eye with her free hand while yawning.

"Oh yes, Sam, Sebastian and Abigail stayed a half hour after closing time playing some drinking games. Gus said I could go home, but it was quite entertaining to watch so I stuck around" Emily sleepily continues to talk about her shift while cradling her coffee.

"Wow, sounds like you had an eventful night!" I chuckle and finish the last drop of my coffee.

"Yeah, you can certainly say that." Emily agrees.

"Okay, go shower and get ready so we can bring the cake to the famer and get that done and over with." I add an exaggerated cringed expression at the mention of the famer.

"Okay Hales." Emily says with a chuckle. She has been acting strange towards me whenever I mention the farmer ever since she talked to Jodi and Caroline yesterday and luckily for me, I don't care enough about the situation to look any further into it.

45 minutes later, Emily and I are walking out the front door with the cake packed into a white pastry box with a cute ribbon attached to keep it closed. Emily has a large smile on her face as she urges me to hurry up.

"Relax Em, you're lucky I'm even coming with you to bring this to him." I say with a sharp look in her direction.

Emily laughs and pats me on the shoulder, and she slows down her pace to match mine. We turn up towards the town's center where we see a few people gathered in a circle.

"Well, I guess everyone had the same idea to welcome Jamie into town." Emily lets out an annoyed sigh.

"We could just go back home and wait until later?" I say with hope that I can get out of the introduction.

Emily then grabs my arm and tugs me closer to the group of people surrounding who I can only assume is the new farmer – girl.

"Jamie... Jamie is a girl?" I say slowly as I keep my eyes trained on her.

She has long brown wavy hair and cute freckles on her cheeks. Her eyes are sparkling as she laughs with the new people that she's meeting, and she has a slightly crooked, perfectly white smile that is absolutely captivating. She's about my height, maybe an inch or two taller.

"That's what I TRIED to tell you yesterday, but you didn't want to hear it. Then, I realized how much more fun it would be for it to play out like this." Emily says with a laugh while nudging my shoulder with hers.

After taking in all the beautiful features of her face, my gaze works its way down her body. She is wearing a dirty pair of overalls with a black tee shirt underneath, a pair of dirty boots, and she's holding a straw hat in her hand. Of course, a good-looking woman moves into town, and she has to ruin it with not having an ounce of fashion sense. Just my luck.

"She's gay you know" Emily whispers in my ear as we approach Jamie.

At Emily's words, a blush creeps its way onto my face. I shake my head because no. Sure she has incredible facial features and what I'm sure is a great body under those horrendous clothes, but just because we are both gay doesn't mean anything. I still have ridiculously high standards.

"Hi, I'm Emily, it's so nice to meet you" Emily shakes hands with the farmer.

"I'm Jamie." She says with a smile that's even prettier up close. They both turn towards me, but for some reason, my throat runs dry.

"And this is my sister Haley. She baked you this cake as a little welcome gift" Emily hands Jamie the cake box and she subtly kicks my shoe for me to say something.

"I'm Haley... If it weren't for those horrendous clothes, you might actually be pretty. Actually, never mind." I squeeze my eyes shut and feel my cheeks heat as I turn and walk away, not even waiting to hear the farmers response.

What the hell was that? Why did I say that? It's like all the friendly words I know left my brain and I just said the rudest thing possible. I mean, I was telling the truth, she did look great besides the awful clothing, but Yoba, that was not a great first impression to make. On the bright side, with a bad first impression like that, at least I know that she will likely stay far away from me and I don't have to make a fool of myself like that again.