The Matchbaker (A Romantic Comedy) Read online

  I don’t know why I’m excited about this, but I am. Poor guy is about to lose his father, not to mention I just ruined Holly’s relationship with Colin. Not really fair of me to be getting butterflies over another guy. I thought Colin gave me butterflies, but this…this is different. Especially now, since all Colin’s given me lately are the heebie jeebies.

  “Oh, well, welcome back to the neighborhood then.” I’m trying to tone down the giddy feeling I have inside, but it’s not working that well. I shake my head. “But, of course, I’m sorry to hear about your father.”

  Joe gives me a half smile. “Thanks.”

  I need to go, but we’re at that uncomfortable moment when no one wants to be rude by running out as soon as the topic of terminal illness comes up. Plus, I kind of want to stare at him a little while longer.

  “Hey, if you need anything, just let me know.” I gesture out the window toward the bakery. “That’s me across the street.”

  “Candy’s Confections? Are you Candy?”

  I shrug and smile. “Guilty.”

  “Wow,” he says, shaking his head.

  “What?”

  “It’s just…well, we went to high school together. I mean, sort of. I was a couple years ahead of you, but…”

  He breaks off when he realizes I’m staring blankly at him. I wish I could say I remembered him—that would make things much less awkward—but I don’t.

  “Well, it’s nice to officially meet you, Candy,” he finally finishes.

  “You too…Joe.” And then before things can get any more awkward, I head out of the restaurant and back to the bakery. Somehow I know that Joe is watching me the whole time.

  ~*~

  I don’t often get to take a lunch break, but today I have no choice. I wish I could say it was to take a long, much-needed nap, but instead it’s to scour—once again—over the book of spells to see if I can find the anti-spell to my spell.

  I grab my apple and protein bar and head to the small park in the center of the town square. It’s still a little early for lunch, so it’s quiet—the only sounds coming from the rush of water as it cascades from the urn-shaped fountain, and the occasional car driving by.

  With my protein bar in one hand, I use the other hand to crack open the book. I pick up where I left off before my shower in the wee hours of the morning. The book is filled with not just spells, but recipes, too. Cake recipes. Some of the very same ones Mom taught me for the bakery, with the main ingredients always being Focused Emotions and the Magic Spoon.

  I flip past a few more pages until I land on the Fall for Me recipe. My heart races. This might be it—this might be the key to the spell’s undoing. There has to be a counter-spell, there just has to be.

  My phone buzzes next to me. Lucy. We haven’t talked in ages, I have to take it.

  “Luce?”

  “Oh my God, Candy!” she squeals down the line. “You finally answered!”

  “I know. I’m sorry,” I say apologetically. “Things have been kind of crazy around here…to say the least. How are you? How are you feeling?”

  “Oh, fine! Second trimester has been great so far.”

  “And Ohio?”

  “Well, it’s not New York, but it’s nice.” Much to my amazement, she actually sounds genuinely happy when she says this. “The baby will have her own room, and we have a backyard and everything. It’s really nice, Candy.”

  “I can’t wait to see it, Lucy.”

  “Enough about me, though…what about you? How’s the whole magical powers thing going?”

  I give an ironic laugh as I lean back against the bench. “Oh, God, Luce. I think I may have made the biggest mistake of my life.”

  There’s a gasp on the other end of the line, and I can tell Lucy is desperate for a juicy story. It’s the least I can do for her—poor thing is being forced to live in rustication in the Midwest.

  “I may have used my powers for…selfish reasons,” I begin. “If I had had the book of spells in the first place, I would have known it was a bad idea, but I didn’t. Mom decided to keep that hidden from me. And now everything is messed up…so messed up, Lucy. You have no idea.”

  “Thankfully, I have all day,” she says excitedly. “Start at the beginning.”

  I tell her all about Colin and Holly and my stupid cupcake, and all the crazy goings-on ever since. I omit the part about Joe, though. That’s a story for another time.

  “So he’s stalking you now?” she laughs. “This is amazing. I can’t believe you have the ability to make someone fall in love with you. Mind blowing.”

  “Yeah, mind blowing,” I repeat in a deadpan tone.

  “Listen, Candy. This can’t last forever. I’m sure there’s an anti-spell or something. You’re the smartest person I know—you’ll figure it out.”

  I smile. “I miss you, Luce.”

  “Not as much as I miss you.”

  We hang up after a near-tearful goodbye and I turn back to the book, ready to figure out the counter spell.

  “You won’t find what you’re looking for in there.”

  I whirl around on the bench to find Joe standing directly behind me. What is it with the men in this town always sneaking up on me?

  Wait a sec…

  I blink up at him, skeptical. “What are you talking about?”

  “That book.” He points to the tome in my lap. “It’s not going to help you.”

  Instinctively, I snap the book shut and put it behind my back as he walks around the bench and takes a seat next to me. “What do you know about this book?”

  He laughs and scratches his nose as the autumn breeze picks up his wavy locks. “More than you might think. But your counter spell isn’t in there.”

  “Then where is it?” I’m intrigued and annoyed at the same time. Why won’t he come out and tell me what the heck he’s talking about?

  A wide grin breaks out on his face. “Right there.” He points and I follow the direction of his finger until my gaze lands on A Latte Joe’s.

  I turn back to him, my jaw unhinged. He must be joking. “You’re putting me on,” I say.

  “You want to get Lover Boy to back off? You’re going to have to get him to drink a piping hot cup of joe.”

  “Is your whole life rife with play-on words?”

  “Mostly.”

  I narrow my eyes. “Does this mean…”

  “I’m magical?” Without answering the question, he closes his eyes.

  “What are you—?”

  He holds up a hand to silence me. I clamp my mouth shut and wait. Things suddenly get quieter. The water in the fountain has stopped flowing. I look from Joe to the fountain and back.

  “Did you do that?” I ask, my heart thumping in my ears.

  Immediately the water begins to flow again, and Joe turns a rueful smile my way.

  “So your magic isn’t limited to coffee?”

  He laughs and relaxes back against the bench. “No, and neither is yours. They’re just the mediums our families chose to work through. You know, to contain the magic and all that. They didn’t want to create generations of witches who would use their powers willy nilly.”

  “Then how do you know your magic goes further?”

  Joe looks at the fountain and shrugs. “I’ve always known, I guess.”

  “Well, that’s nice for you,” I say, somewhat bitterly. “But I’m a newbie who has used her powers willy nilly.”

  “I heard.”

  I give him a look. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s rude to eavesdrop?”

  “Sorry,” he says with a bashful smile. “I couldn’t help it. You’re not the quietest person on the phone, you know?”

  “You could have gone back to your shop.”

  “I could have, but I was way too intrigued to leave.” He looks at me, and I can’t help but feel he’s using some kind of magic on me right now. What is this pull I have toward him? This sudden longing to be near him? I don’t believe in love at first sight, so the only ex
planation is magic, isn’t it? “You’re not the first one to try to make a guy fall in love with you, you know?”

  Oh, great. “Of course,” I say, cursing my luck. “You’re gay. Now it makes sense.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “The great hair, the clothes, the chiseled cheekbones…straight men don’t have those kinds of cheekbones. I should have known. God, second time in a week.”

  “Okay, let’s back the truck up a sec, can we?” Joe sits on the edge of the bench and twists his whole body toward me. “I’m not gay.”

  I raise my eyebrows, feeling the slightest bit embarrassed, while feeling somewhat hopeful at the same time. “You’re not?”

  “No!” he exclaims. “I just have good genes.”

  I look down at his legs. “They are nice…Diesel?”

  He laughs, but I’m not getting the joke. “I meant genes. As in DNA.”

  My cheeks burn. “Oh. Right.”

  “So, listen…” Joe leans forward and puts his elbows on his knees. “I have to get back, and I’m guessing you do too, but there’s a lot more to talk about, I think. You free for dinner?”

  I think about my Lean Cuisine waiting for me in the freezer and back episodes of How I Met Your Mother sitting on my DVR. I don’t want to seem desperate, but that paints a pretty bleak picture of my evening ahead.

  “Yes, I’d love to have dinner with you.”

  ~*~

  In all my panic over having dinner with Joe, I completely forgot about the coffee and the counter-spell—I forgot about everything really. So when I arrive back at the bakery to find Holly sobbing over the sugar molds, I’m a little in shock. Even more shocking are the tiny folded up notes that Colin has left all over my baking station. Apparently, I ruined his ability to be subtle too.

  The notes say things like I love you and Please love me back and I’ll see you tonight.

  That one threw me for a loop. We had no plans tonight, and I had no plans to make plans with Colin. Damn it, why hadn’t I gotten that coffee from Joe? I could have ended this whole thing today, but now I’m stuck here with orders piling up and a distraught sister who’s going to melt all the sugar molds with her tears.

  Maybe I could send Colin on his own. Yes! I’ll send him across the street and call Joe to warn him.

  As if pulled by magic, Colin appears in the doorway to the kitchen. Holly looks up briefly then bursts into quiet sobs all over again. I roll my eyes. I will never, ever practice magic on my own behalf again.

  “Hey, Colin,” I say, moving toward him to push him out the door into the store. “Listen, why don’t you take a break? I see you’ve been rather busy this morning.”

  “I just wanted you to know how much I love you.”

  “Would you lower your voice, please?” I hiss. “And stop putting notes on my baking station.”

  “Okay, where would you prefer I put them?”

  I drop my face into my hands. Good God. “Nowhere. I want you to stop with the notes, okay. And I want you to leave. Now. Go across the street and get a cup of coffee, okay?”

  “But I don’t want coffee.”

  Of course he doesn’t.

  “A cup of tea, then?”

  He shakes his head.

  “Hot chocolate!” Surely Joe can do something with a hot chocolate.

  Colin scrunches up his nose. “Not cold enough outside yet.”

  “Oh, God, I’m screwed,” I moan. “Fine, then. Just go for a walk or something, okay? I need you out of here.”

  “I don’t understand why you’re pushing me away.” He folds his arms over his chest like a pouty child.

  “You will eventually.” I push him toward the door, but he’s digging his heels in. “This is too hard on Holly. You need to go, okay?”

  “Wait.” He turns around and stares at me.

  I squirm a bit. “What are you doing?”

  “Taking a mental picture of you.”

  I fight the urge to gag. “Great! Click! Okay, bye!”

  With one last shove out the door, Colin tumbles into the street and I escape to the kitchen again. I have work to do and a date to plan for. At least, I think it’s a date.

  I push through the kitchen doors, expecting to find Holly crying at her station again, but she’s moved. To my station. And she’s holding the collection of post-it notes in her hands.

  She looks up at me with tears in her eyes and a malevolent look on her face. Oh, God.

  “Holly, it’s not what you think,” I say.

  “You?” she whispers. “You?”

  I hold up my hands, as if to surrender. “Please, Hol. Just hear me out. It was an accident.”

  “What was an accident?” she asks, emphasizing the what, so the h is audible and a little spit comes out on the t.

  My stomach is churning. I’ve never regretted anything so much in my entire life. I move tentatively closer to my sister, coming to a stop just out of arm’s reach. I don’t trust her not to do bodily harm to me at this point.

  “I may have…” I swallow over the lump in my throat and start again. “I may have cast a spell on Colin.”

  “You what!?”

  I close my eyes at the shrillness of her voice. She learned early on that it bothered my ears and she’s used it to her advantage ever since.

  “But I can fix it,” I say, all my words coming out in a rush. “I know how, I just have to get Colin to go along with it.”

  Holly is fuming. I’m half expecting smoke to start coming out of her ears. “Why?”

  My throat constricts. That was the one question I was praying she wouldn’t ask me. I could lie—tell her it was an accident and he got the wrong cupcake. But I’ve never been much good at lying. Plus, Holly knows me better than anyone. She’ll see right through me. And if it doesn’t come out now, it could come out later, and that would be even worse. So…

  “I-I was jealous,” I admit, biting my lip to keep from crying. I hate sounding so pathetic and petty. “I’ve had a crush on Colin for as long as I can remember. I thought he was into me too…until it became abundantly clear it was you he was into.” I rub my forehead with my thumb and forefinger, trying to avoid eye contact with Holly. “But everything backfired. It’s all a mess, and it’s all my fault. I’m so sorry, Hol.”

  “You’re a bitch, you know that?” Holly says with so much rancor it makes my heart hurt. But it’s true.

  “I know,” I say. “I’m a horrible person, and I don’t need you to tell me that. But I’m going to make it right, Hol. I swear I am.”

  Holly throws down the post-it notes and then crosses the room to the apron hooks. She unties her apron and hangs it up before grabbing her purse.

  “Where are you going?” I ask, even though I’m pretty sure she’s walking out on me.

  She puts a hand on her hip and gestures wildly with the other. “I can hardly even look at you right now, let alone work beside you all day.”

  “B-b-but—”

  “Save it, Candy,” she says, bitterness lacing her tone. “You got yourself—and me— into this mess. Once you get us out I’ll think about returning to work. Until then…just leave me the hell alone.”

  My sister walks out of the bakery. I’m feeling like the worst person on the face of the earth. I don’t know why I thought I could keep it from her. I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea in the first place. Why did I tamp down that niggling voice in the back of my head that told me I was being a back-stabbing bitch? Be careful how you use your powers. That’s the voice I should have been listening to. Not the one who promised a handsome stranger. Even if I have to live the rest of my life being insane with jealousy over my sister’s boyfriend, I would much prefer it to how I feel now.

  Seventeen

  Well, this sucks. I’ve tried on every last date-appropriate thing in my closet and absolutely nothing fits. Nothing. All the buttons gap, if they reach across my boobs at all. None of the zippers on my designer dresses go all the way to the top. And when I put on my w
rap dress—the really cute one from Free People—I looked like a pig in a blanket.

  I plop to the unmade pullout couch and put my face in my hands. I’ve never felt so defeated in my life. Where did I go wrong? Oh, right. Probably when I traded my Jimmy Choos for Nikes and started spending my evenings in the company of cupcakes rather than tiny portions of gourmet delicacies.

  Or maybe it was when I let my jealousy overcome me and I cast a spell on my sister’s boyfriend.

  My phone buzzes next to me. Text message from Joe. How did he get my number, anyway?

  I flick my finger across the text message icon and read: Dress for comfort.

  Wow. He’s good. Either he’s incredibly intuitive or he used magic to guess my thoughts.

  With a grateful smile, I text back: Got it. Thanks. See you soon.

  “All righty, boys,” I say, pulling out my favorite set of Juicy sweats, “you get a night out on the town!”

  With my sweats and tennis shoes on, I throw my hair into a coordinating ponytail and freshen up my lip gloss, then trudge up the stairs. The TV is on. I hadn’t realized Holly was here.

  “Hol?” I shout as I pass through the kitchen. “What are you—?”

  Crap.

  “Colin, how did you get in here?”

  Colin turns around, a vacant smile spread across his lips. “There you are!” he says. “Look!” He holds up a copy of Steel Magnolias on DVD. “I got your favorite!”

  “Uh, okay.” I have no idea what to say or do. How does he even know that Steel Magnolias is one of my favorite movies? “How did you get in here?”

  He gestures to the front door. “You left it open for me.”

  “Did I?” I can’t help it. The annoyance is starting to creep into my tone. It’s my fault, but seriously, this has to stop.

  “So what should we order for dinner? I was thinking Chinese, but I’m fine with pizza, too.”

  Oh, my God! “Colin, I’m gonna have to take a rain check.” I move across the room, snatch the DVD from his hands and usher him toward the door. He’s digging his heels into the shag carpet, so this is no easy task.

  “But I had the whole evening planned!” he shouts.

  “Yeah, well, it’s customary to let the other party in on the plans you’re making for them.”