Six Days: Book One in the SIX Series (15 page)

           
As we pulled in to my apartment complex, Griffin was
still on the phone, looking annoyed and apologetic. He mouthed ‘sorry’ to me,
and I could tell by the expression on his face that he meant it. His father’s
tone on the other end sounded even angrier than when the call began.

           
I pulled an old envelope and a pen out of my purse and
scribbled a note on the back of it.

           
‘Thanks for making me jump off a cliff today. Call me
later?’ the note read. I held it up for Griffin to see it. He smiled and
nodded. I squeezed his hand and climbed out of the car, smiling all the way
into my apartment.

           
I took a long bath that afternoon, surprised at how tense
and sore my body started to feel. Probably from all my muscles tightening as I
jumped off a mountain today. A smile crossed my face as I again relived the
experience in my head.

           
By the time evening rolled around I made a sandwich for
dinner. I checked my phone for the hundredth time that afternoon to see if
Griffin had called. I was a little disappointed to see a blank screen. I
cleaned up my apartment and did a little bit of laundry. I finally threw on a
movie to take my mind off my silent phone, and I fell asleep somewhere during
the last half of it. As I eventually made the walk from my couch to my bedroom,
I looked up at the clock.
Ten-thirty p.m.
I checked my
phone again, frustrated that I hadn’t missed any calls.
       

           
Who just jumps off a mountain with someone, holds their
hand for an hour, and then doesn’t call?
I half smirked as I realized that
sentence had probably never been uttered before, in life. Was I looking too
much into this? I mean, if we were
just
friends, he wouldn’t have to
call, right?
But all the hand holding?
That meant
something, didn’t it? Damn, who am I, a 1950s movie? That had to be the last
decade anyone lost any sleep over the idea of hand holding. I was a mess. I
moped into my bedroom and fell asleep, slightly annoyed, but too exhausted to
think of anything to do about it.

           
The next morning I awoke to my phone ringing at seven
twenty-five. I knocked my alarm clock off the table, thinking that’s where the
noise was coming from. In my sleepy haze, I struggled to answer the phone on
the fourth ring.

           
“Addie? I’m so sorry to wake you. I thought you might be
up already, or maybe even at the bakery,” Griffin’s voice said on the other
end. I quickly sat up, realizing I was likely going to be late meeting Mallory
this morning at the shop. That was very out of character for me.

           
“Griffin!” I said, failing at trying to sound nonchalant.
“Is everything okay?”

           
“I’m so sorry I didn’t call last night. I was at the
office with my dad. There are some issues right now. Things are a mess. All of
a sudden it was one in the morning, time just got away from me. I figured you
were sleeping,” he said, his voice sounding tired. “I’m really sorry, Addie, I
meant to call. I wanted to see you. I actually drove by on my way home, just to
see if there were any lights on, but your place was dark.”

           
“Yeah, I went to bed early. Don’t worry about it,” I
replied, trying not to let him know how anxious I was to hear from him.

           
“Well open up your door when you have a sec,” he said. I
crawled out of bed and walked towards the door. “You’re spending most of the
day at the bakery, right? I remember Mallory said you guys had a big day
today,” Griffin said softly.

           
“Yeah, I think I’m supposed to be there in about four
minutes. I guess I forgot to set my alarm last night. We have a party to bake
for and then we have an open house tomorrow afternoon, so I will probably have
to be there until five or six,” I replied, hoping I would still get to see him
later that evening.

           
“Sounds perfect.
I’m really
looking forward to seeing you tonight, Addie. Remember to check your door,” he
said again, then hung up.

           
I immediately flung open my door. Sitting on the ground
was a note tied with a bow around the stems of some beautiful pink Gerber
daisies.

           
Day 6: Star showers. Meet me at my place at 9 p.m.

           
As usual, I was
beaming after reading the note. My mind liked the words ‘shower’ and ‘Griffin’
in the same sentence. This note at least sounded
more tame
than the other activities we had been doing. I put the flowers in some water
and quickly threw on some capris and a loose white shirt, thankful that I had
at least washed my hair the night before. I headed over to the bakery.

           
As I suspected, Mallory was already inside by the time I
had arrived and she was turning on all the equipment.

           
“Sorry I’m a few minutes late, Mal,” I said, shutting the
door behind me.

           
“Wow, Addie, you look well rested. That seems unlike you
this week,” Mallory said in a teasing tone. “Unless it was one hell of a late
night adventure and you’re still beaming from the high of it.”

           
“Actually I fell asleep around nine o‘clock. So I feel
wonderful, thank you for noticing,” I teased back. There was a long pause and I
could tell Mallory wasn’t sure I was telling the truth.

           
“I swear, Mal, I didn’t do anything last night. Griffin
had to work so I just watched a movie and fell asleep,” I said, pulling out
some bags of sugar and reaching for one of the mixers.

           
“Well I have to say, Wednesday night, while Griffin was
singing,” Mallory said, eyeing me, “you looked quite smitten, Adelaide.”

           
I blushed. “I just, well, I don’t know what this thing
with Griffin is, honestly,” I said, shaking my head. I told Mallory about our
hang gliding experience and the ride home. “I just feel like I never know if
I’m reading into this too much, you know? I mean, you guys are obviously all
really close. I see how playful and endearing he is with you and Megan, so I
usually think that he’s just that kind of guy, you know? Like just a good,
honest, genuine, friendly guy. But then we have these moments, every time he
touches me really, and I just feel this surge of electricity. I guess I just
can’t decipher if maybe there’s more going on. I don’t know, do I sound crazy?”

           
Mallory laughed. “No, Addie, not crazy. But geez, I think
you’re even more smitten than I thought.”

           
Mallory and I spent the rest of the morning mixing batter
and baking cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and a few other different pastries. Steve
and Megan stopped in around noon on their lunch breaks. They brought in some
Chinese take-out, which was a welcome break from all of the baking we had
accomplished in the last few hours. We talked a bit about Griffin, how great
his music was, and I recounted some of our hang gliding experience. I tried as
best I could to keep the conversation light. I was happy they didn’t ask too
many questions about it. Steve had actually gone hang gliding once with
Griffin, about a year ago. He recounted the same feelings about it and remarked
it was one of the most amazing experiences he’d ever had. As he spoke, it made
me realize that perhaps that was just a normal ‘friend’ activity after all,
considering I apparently wasn’t the first person Griffin had taken there. Not
that it mattered, I guess.

We
talked more about Steve and Megan’s marathon training and tossed around the
idea of a mid-summer road trip, if everyone could get off work for a couple
days. The thought of a little getaway with Griffin really excited me, even if
everyone else would be there.

           
By the time they left Mallory and I went straight back to
work, mixing up frosting and decorating the desserts. Mallory and I talked more
about opening up the shop full time, which she actually planned to do in the
next few weeks. By the time six o’clock rolled around, we had completed
everything we needed to do that day.

           
“Want to grab a quick bite to eat before your date
tonight?” Mallory asked, smiling at me.

           
“It’s not a date, Mal. I’m pretty sure an official date
would be something he is not contractually obligated to do, right? I mean,
technically he owes me seven days of adventure whether he wants to or not. Just
so I can get my name out of the box, right? Let’s get dinner,” I said smirking,
grabbing my bag as Mallory shut off the lights.

           
“I see your point. But come on Addie, if this is ‘work’
for him, he sure doesn’t act like it. I’ve seen the way he looks at you too, I
get it,” Mallory responded.

           
“Stop feeding into my craziness, Mal. I’ve got to stop
thinking about it or I’ll get nervous to see him.
 
You want to go to that café around the
corner? We can walk,” I said, changing the subject.

           
“Sounds perfect.
That should be
nice and fast, that way I’ll have some time to dress you up for your date
tonight,” Mallory responded, pinching my arm. I shook my head at her in denial.

           
After we ate some sandwiches, Mallory followed me back to
my apartment. As promised, she offered me plenty of fashion advice.
 

           
“Addie, this one is perfect,” Mallory said, holding up a
sheer light blue top. “You can wear this with those tight black capris and some
strappy sandals. Here, try this camisole underneath it. This is perfect, the
capris are more casual than a dress, but the top is sexy enough to scream
‘undress me,’ which seems good.”

           
“Mallory!”
I said, interrupting
her. “Don’t put those thoughts in my head! I already get flustered enough
around him as it is. You’re making this worse!”

           
Mallory laughed, throwing the blue shirt at me. “Wear it,
Addie,
I know what I’m talking about. The last time I
wore that shirt I met this guy at O’Malley’s pub, Chad Swanson, and he
definitely undressed me later that night,” Mallory said, trailing off. I threw
a shoe at her to get her to stop talking and we both laughed.

           
A few minutes before nine o’clock, I was finally ready to
go. I had to give Mallory credit for always making me look better than I ever
did on my own. The light blue shirt was a little sheer for my taste, but I
suppose there could be worse things. I was happy to note there wasn’t a cloud
in the sky, so with no chance of rain, I should at least be safe in such thin
fabric.

I
drove over to Griffin’s place, a little surprised he wasn’t picking me up this
time. It seemed a little late too, considering our adventures usually lasted at
least a few hours. I smiled at the possibility of a later-than-usual night,
then
reprimanded myself for even letting my mind go there.

           
As I pulled up in front of Griffin’s garage, his front
door opened. Griffin stepped out wearing dark jeans and tan sandals. He also
had on one of his usual white button down shirts with his sleeves partially
rolled up.

           
“Wow, impeccable timing.
How did
you know I just pulled up?” I asked, getting out of my car.

           
“Honestly, I’ve been staring out the window waiting for
you,” he said, shrugging. “Oh no, that sounds creepy when actually said out
loud, doesn’t it? Is that terrible?” he continued, slightly blushing. “I just
meant I was anxious for you to come, so I was kind of watching for you,”
Griffin paused. “Damn, I still sound like a stalker a little bit, don’t I?”

           
I shrugged my shoulders in exaggeration and Griffin
walked towards me. He placed his arm gently on my waist and gave my cheek a
quick kiss.

“I’m
really sorry about not calling you last night, Addie. I feel really terrible
about it, that’s not like me,” Griffin said apologetically.

“That’s
okay. Your father didn’t sound too happy, so I figured you had something
important to do. I’ll give you a pass on this one,” I said coyly, looking into
his eyes. They seemed even bluer than usual tonight.

“Are
you ready?” he asked slyly. His eyes lit up as he spoke, staring into me.

           
“Are we staying on Earth tonight? No jumping out of the
sky or anything else moderately psychotic this evening?”

           
“Nope.
It’s late, so I thought
we’d keep it simple. Did you hear about the meteor shower tonight?” Griffin
asked, grabbing my hand and leading me to a park across the street from his
loft.

           
I shook my head no.

           
“Well it’s supposed to peak around midnight tonight, but
the meteorologist said there should be some activity earlier than that. So I
thought we could just relax tonight, take it easy. Unwind a bit.”

           
“That sounds perfect,” I replied, squeezing his hand as
he led me up a small grassy hill.

           
“I know, not a crazy adventure I guess. But I always
loved meteor showers as a kid. We’d sleep outside on the lawn and just stare up
into the sky for hours, making wishes on every single one of them,” Griffin
said nostalgically.

           
“What did you wish for?” I asked.

           
“Oh, that was easy. I always knew what I wanted back
then. I wished for the same thing on every star,” he replied.

           
“So what was it?”

           
“Simple. That I would grow up to be stronger than Hulk
Hogan,” he replied, laughing. I laughed too.

           
“Of all things in the universe,
that
was your
wish?” I said mockingly.

           
“Hey, he was a very impressive man when I was six years
old,” Griffin responded. He led me to a large spread out blanket. There was a
picnic basket sitting on top of the blanket, along with a wine caddy and two
wine glasses.

           
“When did you do this?” I asked inquisitively, impressed
that he was always so well prepared for everything.

           
“Almost thirty minutes ago,” he replied. “I’m surprised
it’s all still here, honestly. I was kind of worried a homeless man would have
picked all this up by now,” Griffin smirked, motioning me to go sit down on the
blanket.

           
I slipped off my strappy sandals and sat on one side of
the blanket, Griffin stretching out on the other side.

           
He uncorked the bottle of wine and poured some of it into
the two stem-less glasses sitting out. He then reached over and hit a button on
his iPod and David Grey’s voice sang out of the speakers. I had really come to
know and like Griffin’s choice in music. It was emotional, but very soothing.
We both
laid
back a little bit, still propped up on
our elbows.