Free Unspoken by Liliana Camarena Page B

him.
    “Well, maybe, she could go to various fairs with her cupcakes, gain a bit of experience and be ready for the big one,” he shrugged.
    “That sounds amazing, Marion.” Said Alexa turning to look at me.
    “I have to think about it,” I said cleaning the top of the counter with a cloth even though it was spotless.
    “Is this National contest something like Cupcake Wars?” asked Jackson and this time I raised my eyebrow.
    “They reminded me of you.” He said shrugging. I blushed as red as a tomato, beet and strawberry all together. I nodded and went to the kitchen. Why the fuck did he have to say things like that? Why? Why? Why? I banged my head once on the fridge and went into a baking frenzy. I had never been so productive as now that Jackson was back.
    Alexa and Jackson didn’t talk about the contest subject anymore but later that day I found in the counter of the bakery a purple tulip with the poster for the contest wrapped around it. I took the tulip and cried, I must admit, and went into the kitchen to bake some Nutella Sandwich cookies.
     
    It had been one week since Jackson left when I found them. A bouquet of purple tulips in the kitchen of Ronan’s bakery.
    “Those are for you.” Said Ronan when I showed up to work that morning. I went closer and picked up the card. No sharing. That’s all it said. I felt my heart doing summersaults and I wanted to run to the street and scream that he remembered me. We hadn’t exchange numbers and we’d agreed we wouldn’t have any kind of cell communication or social media crap because it would only make everything so difficult and it would be the source of a lot of misunderstandings.
    Purple tulips became a thing for us. Every once in while I would receive a bouquet of those with the line, No sharing . I came to figure that he sent those when he was missing me the most or wanted to make sure that I knew he cared. I was happy with those little details that told me that I was on his mind. They told me that he was a sure thing in my life and he could be sure that I was a sure thing in his life. Those purple tulips made me fall harder for him.
    The next couple of weeks I realized that Leonard’s job made him travel a lot. He didn’t go very often to the bakery and his phone calls were always made from some place outside the Tri State area or the U.S.A. altogether. Last time we spoke he was in London. I was preparing the day’s menu and he was about to have lunch. Still we managed to go out on a couple of coffee dates and one movie.
    “Alexa and Jackson want me to enter a cupcake contest,” I said one of those outings as casual as I could. Leonard cocked his head and smiled. I was getting to know that look, he was looking me with the, I know something that you already know look . “What?” I smiled.
    “You are doing it,” he said drinking his dirty Martini. I’ve come to realize that he was very sophisticated in his likes.
    “I don’t want to,” I shrugged taking a sip of my chocolate Martini. It was delicious.
    “Yes, you do,” he said reaching for my hand. I looked up to him and said, convince me, with a smile but he didn’t get it. We didn’t have a secret language.
    “Cupcakes are not my thing,” I shook my head.
    “Have you made them?” I nodded “Are you any good?” I nodded and blushed. “Then go ahead and do it.”
    “I’ve always wanted to enter that particular contest,” I admitted.
    “What’s the prize?”
    “A cupcake shop anywhere I want,” I said biting my lip.
    “Do it, Marion!” he squeezed my hand “You’ll nail it.”
     
    It took me a couple of days to make my decision. It had taken me a little over two weeks to get to a conclusion but between the research I did online, the tulips (yes there were more) and the talk with Leonard I reached a decision.
    “I’m doing it,” I said one Sunday afternoon at the bakery while Alexa read a stupid fashion magazine and Jackson looked at his computer. They both looked up