Page 112 of Between Love and Loathing

Breakfast for my cupcake.

Don’t say I left before the sun came up unless you also

admit that you were going to kick me out anyway.

One week, cupcake. That’s it.

Trying to cover the rash on my cheeks and the joint pain through the workweek would probably have been impossible, so I didn’t really bother. Although I went to work as much as possible, my staff was there to pick up the slack when needed, which was most of the day considering how busy opening week was.

Every day, I settled more and more into my routine. Every day, my flare-up symptoms subsided a bit.

I knew lupus showcased itself differently and that I wouldn’t always be able to control my flare-ups. That sometimes they would appear even during the most relaxing day. Yet, I found contentment in controlling the parts of my life I could, that I’d been strong enough to do that. I could and had created a healthier life here without my mother and sister.

Even if I knew my ultimate heartbreak was near. Dominic wouldn’t always be around. He’d have other projects, more responsibilities outside of this resort.

I would be able to prosper here without him because I loved baking for people who appreciated the hint of spices I added into their specialty drinks and their chocolates. I enjoyed the children coming in from the waterpark begging for poppy cupcakes. And my heart melted when an older couple who bought the cupcakes for each other and told me they danced in the California poppies one night fifty years ago.

Good food created memories and reminded people of the ones they’d had in the past. I knew that. Yet, the memories of Dominic were all around me and I was still trying to forget.

So, on Friday, when Valentino came in to pout about how I’d not come to his restaurant yet, I told him I’d make my way there that night after I closed because I wanted to show him I was proud of all of us.

I wasn’t really thinking about how it would look. I didn’t think he would, as the head chef, sit down and dine with me.

I wasn’t thinking until I saw my ultimate heartbreak, green eyes blazing with fury, in the doorway of the restaurant.

DOMINIC

One week.

I thought I could last a week. And at one point, she texted me that she was coming to get the cats, but I told her no. I got my whole damn week.

So, that solidified that I needed to hold out.

But I’d seen that woman endure an abusive mother and sister, a move, and many flare-ups caused by the stress she’d been under. I’d watched from afar as she powered through a crazy opening week with the bakery and somehow managed to push through the pain I knew she was feeling.

If I didn’t walk by her bakery to catch a glimpse of her stretching and flexing her hands every now and then, I watched the security cameras.

I wasn’t above it.

I called my sisters and brothers to handle Anastasia and Mrs. Milton because I knew they still owned some family shares of our spas, and I wanted them out on their asses in the meantime. I also made sure that our PR team handled releasing any sort of media about Clara.

The resort didn’t matter anymore.

“What do you mean the casino deal isn’t a go?” I growled into the phone when Dex called me.

“I don’t want Keelani anywhere near it. So, if you guys brought her in for a gig there, I’m pulling out.”

“You’re pulling out of a multibillion-dollar deal because you’re mad Keelani broke your heart when you were a fucking teenager? Man the hell up, Dex. She’s been a family friend for years.”

“Fuck you. You just told me to handle the press with Clara and that you didn’t care if the casino deal fell through either.”

“Clara is different. They can have the whole resort for all I care when it comes to her. I’m going to fucking marry her.”

“So now your precious baby doesn’t matter?” He sounded like he was in disbelief. Then he sighed.

“What about your precious casino deal?”

Dex’s security and tech industry was unmatched. It was why he’d been given the casino deal in the first place. With that partnership, we’d have his HEAT security systems in place at all the casinos in the country.