I Blame Wattpad for My High Expectations of Men

Chapter 9 - Holy shit, look at that defined six pack!

~Flashback Continued~

"Lola, would you mind keeping the keys with you overnight when you lock up this evening? I understand you have an early morning shift tomorrow, but Deborah and I won't be here until ten. We have a meeting with our investors," Lisa explains to me as she rummages her purse for her car keys.

"Yeah, of course."

"Thank you so much," she says just as she retrieves her keys. "Have a goodnight and we'll see you tomorrow."

"See you then," I smile back.

        Lisa leaves the bakery and seeing that I have no awaiting customers that currently need my attention, I check my phone for any notifications. That's when I see a missed call from Luca. Taking a sip of my water, I dial my brother, who answers after the second ring.

"Hey, loser."

"You've been talking to yourself again, bro? I thought you broke that habit ages ago," I tease back, and he chuckles.

"How have you been, sis? I've been meaning to check up on you."

"Same old, same old. School. Work," I tell him before mumbling, "challenge."

"I'm sorry, did you just say 'challenge?'" He asks to make sure and when I don't respond, he asks, "shit, how bad is it this time?"

        See, Kelsey Frayer is and always will be my best friend who I never keep anything from. But if there's anyone else who I can put on a pedestal right beside her, it'd be the lovely woman who brought me into this world and the brother who I looked up to since day one when my sperm donor failed to even witness my birth. That being said, I've always told Mom as much as I could, but I saved the more rated R content for Luca to suffer with.

"Nothing that I shouldn't be able to complete, but you know the rules...mouths stay shut until the challenge is over. Between the two of us, though, let's just say this one's a bit more complicated than the previous ones have been."

"More complicated than the stink bombs?"

"Yup."

"Surprising Mrs. Perkins with the pet tarantula in her sandwich at lunch?"

"For sure."

"Okay," Luca pauses in disbelief for a second, "but it can't possibly top releasing the poisonous frogs in Mr. Huffman's chemistry class. I mean, come on, Levi and Liam had to steal their mom's employee keys just to sneak those bad boys out of the zoo for you."

"Believe it or not, Luca," I retort, "I'd hide and feed those bad boys another extra week before releasing them all over again, if it meant that I didn't have to go through with this one."

"Interesting...in that case, anything I can help you with?"

"Actually, now that you mention it," I tell him as it dawns on me, "there may be one thing. You've been down to LA every now and then, right? How well do you know the crowd over there?"

"It's mainly Hayden Williams's crowd. You know, the guy from your middle school? Actually, I believe he goes to UCSB, too."

"Yeah, we ran into each other the other day."

"Cool. So anyway, back to your question...is there anyone specific that you were wondering about?"

"Since you've hung out with Hayden while over there, ever heard of an Ace Rivers?"

"Not only that, but I've met him personally."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Hayden introduced us a few trips back, pretty chill dude to be honest. Sure, there's been rumors about him having a rough past, but I mean who hasn't? Just look at us, for example," he lightly retorts, earning a light chuckle from me. He's not wrong there. "From what I was able to witness myself, though, he seems like a decent guy. Why do you ask?"