Drop, Cover, and Hold On (The Improbable Meet-Cute, #4)

by Jasmine Guillory

She’d love to have one of those again. But no, no, she wasn’t going to do it.

Real

Okay, well, maybe she would just look inside as she walked by. Just to see what they had today. Would that be so wrong? Yes, it would!

LOL yes... But will she go inside... Yes

How could anyone bake such delicious pastries and have that mean of a look on his face all the time?

The chalkboard sign outside the bakery said that the special croissant of the day was country ham and brie. Oh God, her favorite.

Yuck

She went back to the bakery and tried to pay for the third one after she’d realized what had happened, but he’d just barked “Never mind!” at her and turned away. He’d made mistakes like that a bunch more times, but she never bothered to tell him anymore, even though she sort of worried that his bakery must be losing a ton of money if he was messing up that much.

Gir r u dumb... He's flirting lol

She didn’t like him, remember? Because he hated her, and was always rude to her, and had growled at her the last time she was there!

Oh brother girl ur blind

Maybe those extra pastries were because he was trying to fatten her up so he could eat her, like a fairy-tale villain. She wasn’t going back to his bakery!

Girl huh.

Why did you just stand there? Drop, cover, and hold on!

Title ref

He smiled at her, long and slow. “It looks like you just saved my life, then. Thanks, Daisy. And no, I don’t know the first thing about what to do in an earthquake. I’m from New York.”

“And how do you know my name?” He smiled again. Why was he smiling so much?

“You come in all the time,” he said. “I’ve seen your name on your credit card three times a week since we opened. Unless you stole the credit card of Daisy Murray a few months ago?”

“Harris. Harris Cook. Nice to finally meet you, Daisy.”

She would blame it on stupid Harris Cook, New Yorker, not earthquake-proofing his bakery, except that she could tell by how long and deep the shaking had been that it was a big one. That’s what she said.

Lol okay the office

He smiled at her again. Why did he keep doing that? “I’m even more glad you were here in the bakery with me.”

Emergencies are no good on an empty stomach; let me get you some pastries.”

“But if I was, is it working?” She wasn’t imagining it. “No,” she said, and tried to keep the frown on her face.

“Because you hate me, that’s why!” she said. “You know it and I know it.

Oh who is u

It wasn’t until she’d finished the hand pie and reached for the ham and brie croissant that he finally said something. “You think I hate you?”

“I remember. I didn’t give you that pastry by mistake.

Duh

“I wasn’t giving everyone free stuff. I was giving you free stuff. Because I fell for you that first moment I heard you laugh that day.”

I guess I gave you a dirty look when I did. I didn’t mean to—my face just does that sometimes.”

“Good point,” he said. “I guess I also need to work on my face. Since you clearly got the wrong message from the hundreds of dollars of free pastries I’ve given you in the past few months.”

“I like your face. I like it a lot, actually. Especially now that I know that when you look furious it’s just like a normal person smiling.”

I could tell the smiles weren’t fake, nothing about you seemed fake, but I also didn’t know what your smiles meant.”

“I know; it’s a real problem for me. You see, I have resting smile face.” He raised his eyebrows. “Resting . . . smile face?” She nodded. “Yeah. You’ve heard of resting bitch face, right? I would assume so—your picture is right next to the definition in the dictionary.

“I hope you have a good idea, because right now I’m sitting here, alone in my bakery with the woman of my dreams on Valentine’s Day, with a box full of pastries that I saved for her in the hope that she would come in today and they’d be waiting—”

And you seriously cannot think that it was just a coincidence that I made blackberry hand pies today, right after you mentioned that blackberry is your favorite.

She's so silly

“I boxed up those pastries early today since I knew we’d be swamped and that we’d probably sell out early. You usually come in Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, so I thought I’d see you today. At least, I hoped so.”

“I notice everything about you, especially which pastries you like the best. So I put all of those in this box for you. But you didn’t come in when you usually do, and I thought you weren’t coming in at all.

Anyway, I guess that was my plan, to give you some of your favorite pastries on Valentine’s Day and hope that—” She kissed him.

Finally bc quit the yappin

She started to pull away, but he wrapped his arms around her, pulled her close, and kissed her, hard.

She bent down to kiss him again, but right as her lips touched his, her phone buzzed in her pocket. No, ignore that, Daisy; this is much more important.

Girl ur phone is finally working after the earthquake

Daisy burst into tears. Harris immediately pulled her close to him. “It’s okay, they’re all okay,” she said. “I was so worried. I tried not to be, but they’re all okay.”

Girl...........

She desperately wanted to text her friends, Guess what I’ve been doing with that hot baker while we’ve been trapped in the bakery??? But it was too risky to do that with Harris literally right next to her, so she just texted them back that she was fine and replied to a few other people who had checked in with her.

My apartment is just a few blocks away, once we manage to get out of here.”

“But also, my apartment is right upstairs, if that suits you better?” She slid her hand into his. “Lead the way.”

Ohh period u ain't wrong queen

“Did you . . . um, were you . . . were we . . . going to do something in this bed?”

Bruh

that she always caught feelings. She had to give herself time to decide if someone was worth her feelings before she slept with them. She didn’t know why she already knew that Harris was. But she did. “I hoped we would. That is, unless you—”

“If I remember correctly—and I know I do—I was being driven wild by your breasts.”

Cringe scale factor 5

“Oh, you want me to keep kissing you there? I get it.”

Bro. Just yappin fr