A FEW WEEKS LATER

"See you next time, Mrs. Dillon! Take care." Nichole waves goodbye to one of her regulars as they exit her shop with a handful of sweets.

After she is done cleaning up, she goes over to the entrance and flips the sign hanging on the door from OPEN to CLOSED.

Of her medium-sized but extremely talented team, Nichole is usually the first one to arrive at the shop and the last one to leave. Being the boss, and with business still booming at a steady rate since the shop first opened, Nichole could easily leave the bakery in Danielle's hands - her top candidate for the assistant manager position that she's been thinking about opening - while she lingers back to deal with other behind-the-scenes business affairs.

Nichole doesn't have to work alongside her employees; she chooses to simply because it's what she wants to do. And as stubborn as she is, Nichole Richards is going to do what she wants despite what anyone thinks.

Baking is a part of her being. She loves it. Lives for it. And in a way, it can be used as a means to relieve stress. While some people smoke to help alleviate their stress, some workout, and some even try to drink their troubles away, for Nichole, she bakes. It's easy for her to turn her brain off and focus on nothing but trying to make the best strawberry cheesecake or blueberry muffin from scratch, just to be able to prove to herself that she can.

Nichole loves taking on new challenges, tackling new recipes. Every day is a brand new day for her to learn something new, so wasting time doing nothing is never an option.

That's why it hurt so much when she turned Ademar down earlier this morning after he called asking if she wanted to hang out. She could have said yes and left Danielle in charge. But she didn't say yes. Nichole had told Ademar no, said that she was too busy with work and had asked him for a rain check, which he happily accepted before hanging up.

Nichole has been freaking out and baking up a storm ever since because she's afraid that she might be pushing Ademar away, unintentionally.

The two have kept in touch after their one-night stand, but they've yet to properly hang out with each other again, mostly due to their busy schedules... and Nichole's giant fear of commitment.

"Excuse me, Miss! Before you close up shop, I'd like a dozen glazed donuts, please."

Nichole looks up after hearing the little bell ring at the door, signaling that someone has entered. She smiles when she sees her other best friend, Alicia, walking towards her sporting an even bigger grin. Nichole comes from around the register and greets Alicia with a hug.

"Not that I'm not happy to see you right now, but I have to ask what you're doing all the way out here at this time of the night... Isn't it past your bedtime?" Nichole teases after pulling back.

"It is, actually," Alicia laughs. "Anthony forgot to pick up his dry cleaning this afternoon, so I told him I'd scoop it up for him after I left work today. This last year of law school has been kicking his butt, so I try to help him out in whatever way I can these days."

"You're a great girl to have," Nichole says.

"Oh, that I know." Alicia beams at the compliment. "But anyway, I figured since I was on this side of town that I'd drop by to pay you a little visit since we haven't seen each other in ages."

"Ages? You're so dramatic." Nichole chuckles as they take a seat at a nearby table. "It's only been a few days, Alicia. You, me, and Bonnie literally just hung out with each other last weekend."

Funny how you can make time for your friends, but not Ademar... Nichole's subconscious taunts.

"Yeah, well, a few days feels like a few years in my world. So what have you been up to since our last chat? Got anything juicy to talk about? Oh, wait! How's that sexy Latin lover of yours?" Alicia wiggles her eyebrows, smiling big. "Are you two still a thing?"

"His name is Ademar and he's doing fine. We're both doing fine... sorta," Nichole pauses, averting Alicia's gaze. If anyone can read Nichole like an open book, it's the librarian. "Well, I... I guess we're okay? I don't really know. I mean, I like him a lot, but I haven't been too good at showing it."

"What do you mean by that?" Alicia asks, getting serious.

"He asked me if I wanted to hang out with him today and I ended up turning him down." Nichole pouts. "I lied and said that I couldn't hang out because I was busy with work, but I wasn't. I could have easily taken off to be with him. I knew my staff wouldn't have cared had I left. Looking back on it, I don't even know why I turned him down. I regret it now. But I'm sure he's gotten bored of me anyway..."

Alicia has always been good at reading people, and it's obvious to her about what's going on right now with Nichole. She gives her friend a sympathetic look and reaches out to hold her hand. Nichole glances up and meets Alicia's nonjudgmental gaze, immediately knowing she's been exposed.

Nichole braces herself for the friendly in-order-to-fix-your-crappy-situation-you-need-to-first-do-this speech, while a part of her wonders if she should just give in already and seek out help from an actual therapist instead of continually piling her mess onto her friend's shoulders.

"I know you're tired of hearing this from me and Bonnie, but you've got to let those dark parts of your past go, Nichole. You've been single for the last three years... on purpose. You're afraid to let anyone get too close and I know why, but at the same time, I also know that you deserve to find love and happiness again after what that fucktard Kade put you through. Honestly, you've got to pull an Usher and let your history with him burn... to hell."

Nichole huffs, growing frustrated. "It's not like I haven't been trying!"

"You say that, but have you really, though?" Alicia asks with a blank face.

Nichole shrugs, staying silent.

"Exactly. Now listen, I can tell Ademar means a lot to you because every time you talk about him your whole damn face lights up. It honestly makes me so fucking happy to see you finally happy again, but in order for you to keep that happiness going, you first need to let go of Kade. Completely. It's been years since you kicked that asshole out of your life and somehow, he's still preventing you from being your best self... romantically speaking."

Nichole doesn't even try to combat any of that because she knows Alicia is absolutely right about everything.

"I'm over, Kade. Honestly, I am. He can choke on a dick and die for all I care," Nichole says. "It's just the pain... the broken heart, that's what I'm stuck trying to fix. Yes, I haven't been emotionally vulnerable with another man since Kade, but when I'm with Ademar... it's like I can literally feel the holes in my heart closing up. And while that should be a good sign, it also scares me. It's fucking terrifying because what if I let him in all the way and he ends up leaving me worse off than what Kade did?"

"Stop. You can't think like that, Nic. If you do, you'll never find love again," says Alicia. "I'm not going to go out on a limb and say that Ademar is definitely the one, but I will say... you'll never know until you give him a chance. A real, righting chance."

"I want to do that, I really do, but I'm scared," Nichole whispers, pulling her hand back. She allows a few seconds of silence to pass between them before she sits up straight in her seat, ready to move on from this depressive topic. "Enough about my complicated heart. I'm actually glad you're here because I need to ask you a favor."

"Oh my God, no I can't give you any more free passes at the library. Getting a library card costs you literally nothing, so stop being difficult and just sign up for one already."

Nichole laughs, shaking her head. "That's not it. I've actually been thinking about giving the shop a new look, something like a mini-makeover, but I'll need some help."

"Okay, I'm listening..."

"This might sound stupid, but I was thinking that changing some shit around might help me on my moving-on-from-the-past problem considering fucktard is the one who picked out the color scheme and logo design," Nichole grumbles. "Every time I step foot in here, there's a small part of me that's reminded of him and I hate it."

Nichole regrets the day that she ever took one penny from Kade to help put into building her bakery. She later paid him back what all he gave her, just as she did with her parent's loan, but Nichole still can't help but feel like Kade will forever be tied to this place because of the small contribution he'd put forth.

"I haven't changed things around since it's been open, and I think it's time for a little renovation," Nichole says. "For starters, I need a new logo. You think Anthony can hook me up with someone that'll be able to help me out with that? I know he used to dabble in that field before switching majors."

Alicia nods. "Anthony has friends all across the board. I'm sure he knows someone who knows someone who knows a good graphics designer that won't charge you an arm and a tit for their services. I'll ask him about it when I get home."

"Thanks, sis. I appreciate it." Nichole smiles.

. . .

LATER THAT NIGHT

When Nichole finally enters her house, it's around ten o'clock at night.

She heads straight into her bedroom and strips out of her clothes before hopping into the shower. It's too late to put anything on her stomach, so she decides to skip dinner and call it a night.

After she later climbs into bed and plugs her dead cell phone into the charger near the nightstand, when it pops back on, Nichole is flooded with several unread messages.

BONNIE

ALICIA

ANTHONY

Nichole clicks on the link that Anthony had sent, and she's taken to the profile of Lee Taehyun—a handsome looking man with the dreamiest pair of brown eyes. She studies his profile, and appearance aside, Nichole is impressed by Taehyun's credentials. She knows it's late, but she decides to reach out and send him an email anyway. Better she do it now than put it off at the last minute and end up forgetting about it.

When she's finished, she places her phone on the nightstand and shuts off the lamp. Settling deeper into bed, she relaxes and eventually drifts off to sleep, hoping for a nightmareless night.