Page 60 of The One You Want

Chapter 15

Grant:How’s the first day on the job sofar?

Jenny:So. Bad. OMG. Bad, bad, bad,bad.

Grant:That’s a lot ofbad.

Jenny:It’s an appropriate amount of bad for thisdisaster.

Grant:Are youokay?

Jenny:Defineokay.

Grant:Not in danger of life orlimb?

Jenny:I’m not in danger. Well, there’s the danger of getting arrested, Isuppose…

Grant:Ok, I’m callingyou.

Almost as soon asthe last text appeared on the screen, the phone began to ring in my hand. “Hey.”

“Are you okay?” Grant asked in lieu of a hello. “Are you seriously going to get arrested? Whathappened?”

He sounded stressed so I hurried to assure him. “I’m not going to get arrested. Fran is too sweet to press charges. Even though I did just hear her drop an f-bomb, which I’ve never heard come out of her mouth. Totallytraumatizing.”

“Jenny, what’s goingon?”

I closed my eyes as the shame swelled in me. “I may have, um, accidentally spilled something in thefudge.”

Grant was quiet for a moment and when he did speak, I got the distinct impression he was trying not to laugh. “What did youspill?”

“Bleach,” I whispered, and Grantgasped.

“Seriously? You spilled bleach in the fudge? Were you trying to poison thecustomers?”

I let out a frustrated sigh. Fran, owner of Fran’s Fine Fudge, one of the oldest and most revered fudge shops on the island, had asked me the same thing. It had been freaky, seeing the way her cheeks had turned that nearly fuchsiacolor.

I had known Fran my entire life—she was older than my grandmother and her family had been running this shop for generations before her. She was one of the sweetest ladies you could ever meet, as evidenced by her willingness to let me come in and shadow her for a day to see if my calling might have something to do with makingfudge.

It very clearly didnot.

“It was an accident,” I insisted. “I was cleaning the counter and I, um, you know, just kind of leaned over the mixingvat—”

“Hang on.” Grant sounded like he wanted to laugh again. “Why did you lean over the mixingvat?”

“Have you ever seen the vats of chocolate she has in this place?” I demanded. “They’re like,pornographic.”

He let out a loud snort oflaughter.

“I’m not joking! It’s a giant vat of melted chocolate, Grant. It’s all smooth and shiny andmelty. It’s like something out of Willy Wonka, I swear to God. I spent the entire morning wanting to take a bath init.”

“Please tell me you didn’t try to climb into the vat ofchocolate.”

“Of course I didn’t,” I snapped. “I just kind of got, you know, mesmerized by it. And I leaned over a bit to get a closer look and…yeah. Spilled the bottle ofbleach.”

On the other end of the line, I could hear the telltale wheezes of someone trying to laugh silently. “Grant!”

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “What happened after you spilled thebleach?”