Goals. I have goals. Goals my mother cannot seem to understand. “Friends or not, you don’t need to hear about my problems, Dean.”
“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to know.”
My brows lift. “But you’re an investor in my franchise.”
“Silent investor,” Dean corrects.
“Still an investor. It would be unprofessional to talk about this.”
“Come on, Norah,” Dean groans and runs a hand through his hair. “You were on my party bus last year and watched me chug an IPA beer and give Kate a Magic Mike lap dance. I’d say our professional boundaries are irrelevant at this point.”
“Who gets a party bus when you turn thirty, by the way?” I reply with a laugh. Seriously, I turned thirty and let myself binge Netflix for the day like a winner. When Max dragged me onto that bus to get to know Dean, I was beginning to have serious doubts about who I was thinking about going into business with.
Dean shoots me a dirty smile. “Boys who never want to grow up.”
I exhale heavily. “And this is the person who can help me with my momma drama?”
He licks his lips and tips his head to the side. “Most people solve their problems by simply voicing them out loud. So maybe just view me as a sounding board.”
“You want me to voice what’s going on?”
“Yeah…why not?”
“Because I’m in a dirty alley with a man who too often voices all of his thoughts…most of which are dirty.”
“You make a good point,” Dean replies with a wink. “But I promise, I’m not thinking anything sexual right now. You’re a nun in my eyes…so just say it. You’ll feel better.”
My head is shaking back and forth, but before I can stop myself, I exhale the heaviness in my chest and start talking. “My mother wants me to bring Nate to their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary party in a couple of days, and I’d rather eat the curdled cream out of the bottom of that carton I just tossed than give her the satisfaction of dating the man she’s wanted me to be with since I was a teenager.”
With a slow nod, Dean gestures for me to continue.
“Honestly, she makes me crazy. All she cares about is my love life and becoming a grandmother. She’s never taken an interest in my bakery or my career aspirations. She’s never remotely cared what I’m passionate about. All she cares about are her expectations for me. Expectations I am clearly not living up to.”
“So, is this Nate guy really that bad?”
I cringe and shake out my shoulders. “It doesn’t matter. I haven’t seen him in years. The truth is, I don’t want to take him as a date because I don’t want to date anybody. I don’t care about my love life or getting married or having babies. I want to birth bakeries, Dean. Lots and lots of bakeries with lots and lots of croinuts. And I want my franchise to blow up so much that I can live in Paris for a while and come up with a brand-new recipe while sampling other people’s baked goods and get a really fat ass that my mother would hate.”
Dean’s deep laughter breaks through my ranting. “I think you’d look fantastic with a fat ass.”
“So do I,” I reply excitedly, just picturing myself walking the streets of France with a fresh croissant in my pie hole. “I just need her to get off my back until the Denver location is open. I can’t handle the stress of that and her. It’s too much. There’s going to be bloodshed.”
Dean nods thoughtfully as he ponders my predicament. “Don’t hate me, but why not just take this Nate guy to the anniversary party? Surely, he’s not going to think you’ll want to marry him afterward. Take him to that one event and then ghost him. Your mother wouldn’t have to know.”
I shake my head. “Oh, she’d know. Nate’s parents are my parents’ best friends. They’ll talk. Then my mother will secretly invite him over for dinner without telling me and then invite me over with an obnoxious surprise and a patronizing smile. I’ll be miserable because my mother will make passive-aggressive comments about why I never called him after the party, and then I will lose my temper, flip the table, and accidentally catch the house on fire.”
“I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you might be a bit of a pessimist,” Dean deadpans.
I narrow my eyes at him. “You give my mother an inch, and she’ll take 5K. I can’t take Nate to their party. It’s asking for drama, and I have enough of that with the Denver bakery right now.”
Dean shoots me a knowing look because he knows firsthand how the construction has been a mess over there. As a silent investor, he’s updated regularly on the progress, and it’s been setback after setback even though we’re opening in a month. We purchased an old building to stay on brand with the charm of my flagship bakery here in Boulder, and the renovations ended up more in-depth than initially estimated. If my contractor doesn’t get his shit together, I’m going to be serving cold croinuts at my grand opening because I’ll have to bake them here in Boulder. Talk about a horrible start to my career as a franchiser.
I pin Dean with a serious look. “My focus needs to be entirely on my business right now.”
“I can respect that.” Dean nods in agreement. “In fact, your ambition is pretty damn sexy.”
I roll my eyes. “Don’t start flirting again, Moser. I’m a nun, remember?”
Dean holds his hands up. “Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean it. Actually, I empathize with everything you’re saying. You and I have very similar views on business, and I, too, have zero desire to ever settle down.”
My brows lift curiously. “What’s your damage?”
Dean shakes his head dismissively. “No damage. It’s just not for me. Kate and Lynsey are on those paths full steam ahead right now, and I am doing everything I can to hop off their train. And apparently, I’m doing too good of a job because they’re pissed I’m not dating more serious girls. Girls they can have an actual conversation with. But let me tell you, Norah, they don’t have to be bright to be good at…” Dean gestures to his groin, and I cringe with disgust.
“God, you’re a pig.” I turn away, wondering what the hell is wrong with me for confiding in a terminal bachelor. I glance at him over my shoulder. “You look so put together and professional, and then you open your mouth and ruin everything.”
Dean’s smile grows. “Some people find it charming.”
“You were so normal when I first met you.” I shake my head.
“That’s because there are two sides to me. Business Dean and Dark Passenger Dean. Now that we’re friends, I let my true self come out.”
“Lucky me,” I grumble and drop down onto the bench by the door. I hunch over and run my hands through my hair. “What am I going to do, Dean? Seriously. My mother won’t let this Nate thing go. She’s going to involve my dad, and my dad is going to make me feel guilty like he always does.”
Dean takes the seat next to me. “Maybe you could take a different date to their party.”
I jerk my head to look over at him. “How does that help me? I just told you I don’t want to date anyone. I have too much going on.”