Catalina and Diego never got over each other after high school, but years later they meet by chance, and multi-millionaire Diego sweeps her off of her feet.
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Diego and Catali...
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I pull over in a convenience store parking lot and reach for my phone. My best friend, Jessica Clarke, immediately picks up and her voice fills my car via the Bluetooth speaker.
"Hey, girl. I'm up to my elbows in flour. Want to come over and sample this new cronut recipe I'm trying out?"
I groan. Jessica's been into baking ever since she and Leo got engaged. Leo owns a cafe on the island, and Jess is trying to learn how to bake. She's pretty dismal at it, and bless Leo's heart for being so patient. Her last attempt at mini-muffins turned out more like small piles of dry crumbs, and desiccated chocolate chips held together by paper wrappers. Jessica is throwing herself into this newfound domesticity. Nesting, she calls it. Painful, is more like it.
She's tried to push her creations on me several times since I've been home, each time worse than the last.
"Jess. No. No cronuts. Why the fuck didn't you tell me that Diego was back on the island?" I practically yell.
"What?" she squeals. "Hold on." I hear her call out to her fiancé. "Leo, can you take over? I need to talk to Cat. Yes, it's important. More important than the cronut. The dough looks a little watery and smells yeasty, did you notice?"
I wince and make a face in the darkness.
There's a muffled noise. "Okay, I'm here. What? Diego? I didn't know he was back. How did you find out? Where did you see him? Did you talk to him?"
I tell her about delivering the pizzas and Jess giggles.
"Shut up. It's not funny."
"It is funny. Fifty pizzas. God. And he does what? Plays video games for a living? It's like every guy's dream job. Good for him for figuring out how to make money that way."
"Um, Jess? I need you on my side here. I had wanted to prove to Diego that I was over him."
"Well, are you?"
I sigh and pull out of the parking space. My family's pizza shop is only a couple of blocks away. Not far from Leo's bakery, in fact.
"I don't know. I thought I'd finally gotten over the humiliation of the photos. But he's the one who wanted to break up."
"But Cat, he was right. You were going to New York for school. He was staying behind."
"He could've come with me."
"Could've gone with you to do what? He didn't have a job, wasn't accepted in school anywhere except community college in Fort Myers. And I'm sure his childhood memories of New York weren't great. He was pre-emptively breaking up because he thought you'd leave him."
I sigh. "I guess. He hugged me."
"That's a good sign."
"Is it?"
"Did you hug him back?" I can tell she's smiling by the way she sounds. Jess can't hide when she's happy.
"Yeah. But seeing him brought back all those old feelings of shame about the photos."
