What If I Lived a Lie? [You Me at Six]

Chapter Four: Let's Call it Even.

It had been a month since You Me at Six had been in Sweet Creations, and exactly one week since the bakery had last opened its doors—the business was not doing well. Josh took off his sunglasses and stood in front of the bakery’s front window, cupping his eyes to keep out the pesky sunlight as he did his best to peer inside. It was spotless, but empty. Sucking his teeth, the singer backed away from the window, his eye catching something he hadn’t noticed before: the numbers of both girls printed underneath their names on their sign. Josh tried Hunter’s number first, figuring she’d be less hostile, but got no answer. Inhaling a sharp breath, he then dialed Olivia, surprised she’d picked up on the second ring.

“Olivia Ellington speaking.”

“Wow, that was formal.”

“Josh,” she stated, after a moment, “Wait, how in the hell did you get my number?”

“You do have it printed, on your sign, at your bakery, which I am currently standing in front of.”

“Why?”

“I’m here with a friend, we’re heading out to LA to record a track for the new album and I told him about how good your bakery is… He wanted to stop by.”

She took a long pause and the line was so quiet on the other side, he could hear her breathing. Her voice was gentle when she spoke, “Why would you do that?”

“I just know how hard it is to start a business, especially in food, and a lot of success in food businesses is reliant upon word-of-mouth, right?”

“Y-yeah…” Josh found himself strangely able to picture her, and imagined her biting down on her lower lip; for some reason, the image didn’t go away even after she continued, “Hunter’s asleep, so… I’ll come down and open up. Can you give me twenty minutes?”

“Do you really live that far away?”

“No, I live about ten minutes away, but I need a little time to look decent.”

He started to ask why but stopped himself and simply smiled, “Alright, see you then.”

“Who was that?” Josh turned to see his friend striding up to him, a curious look on his face.

“Oh, that was—”

“Oh, damn, the bakery’s closed? What a shame, you seemed so sure of this place.”

“Oh, oh, no, one of the owners is coming, she’s gonna open it up for us.”

“Is that who you were talking to?”

“Yeah.”

“Hmm,” he commented at first, “You two must be close.”

An almost fond smile appeared on Josh’s lips at that, “No, not at all.”

Thirteen minutes later, a small red car drove up in front of the bakery and parked expertly next to Josh’s; out of it strode none other than the promised Olivia Ellington. Her dark brown and red hair was pulled up into a bun on the top of her head, eyes rimmed with makeup that brought out the milk chocolate shade of them. She had on the same leather jacket he’d last seen her in, this time over top a slightly cropped, though still obviously oversized white tank top, black skinny jeans ripped up and down the legs and thighs, as well as a pair of heeled ankle boots which made her a little closer to his height. He wasn’t sure why he was being so attentive to her outfit, and probably shouldn’t have been.

His friend was nudging his side and saying something to him, but he wasn’t listening. It was like he was meeting and seeing her for the first time all over again, without all the biting remarks, of course.