What's Life Without the Sprinkles? Read Online Free Page B

to remind Claudia she was a woman going on a hot date. Instead she felt twelve years old, listening to the muffled shuffle of her horrible flats.
    Claudia pulled the heavy oak door of her upstairs apartment open and stared at Edward. The regular script would begin in a moment.
    He didn’t disappoint.
    Step One . “Hello, Claudia. My, you look lovely this evening.”
    Step Two . Edward checked his watch and tapped a finger to the glass face. “Well, we should be going if we want to make the play.” This was the only part that ever changed, the location of their date. Even his voice never altered from the singsong cadence. For all she cared he could be selling the hottest thing in vacuum cleaners.
    And Step Three . A perfunctory kiss on the cheek delivered far enough away from her lips so as not to be the least bit tantalizing. Then they were out the door.
    With her hand resting lightly on Edward’s elbow, Claudia was escorted down the wooden steps of the outside staircase and led to the dull brown four-door sedan. She had nothing against sedans, she drove one herself, but this car was so blah. The interior was also brown, and Claudia felt as if she were being swallowed by a huge puddle of suffocating mud. Suffocating was a good word when applied to Edward, but she’d successfully ignored giving in to that thought for three months. She wasn’t going to succumb now. Especially since it was all Zoe’s fault that she was finding flaws in Edward. Flaws she hadn’t had a problem with before. Damn Zoe’s cake speech and the way Nate had taken her off guard with his body to die for when she’d just wanted to anonymously fantasize.
    Edward started the car with a methodical movement of his hand, and they were off. She tried to break the rhythm of the night by talking right away instead of waiting for him to make the first conversational move as he liked, just to see if she could shake things up a bit. He wasn’t a bad person or a mean man, but damn it, she wanted fireworks and spontaneity. Cake instead of three-day-old cookies.
    She wished she’d never heard of cake. It was plaguing her now.
    She tried to settle into the familiar rhythm of their once-weekly date and found herself just a half beat off.
    Thirty minutes later, over lobster bisque and wine, Claudia concluded Zoe was right, though she’d never tell her and inflate her ego. Although she was reasonably sure Edward did not in fact wear a toupee, she was thinking he might have had hair plugs put in. How had she not realized that in the three months they had been dating? If she were honest with herself, Claudia would admit she probably had noticed but just shut it up tight with every other misgiving she’d ever experienced over dating the man. She had reasons for wanting this relationship to continue along the comfortable rut they’d worn in the road. Edward was stable and dependable.
    And boring, a little voice whispered.
    The smile on her face faltered. Claudia put it right back on and bumped up the wattage. Edward was looking at her expectantly, and she was horrible for having these unkind thoughts about him.
    So what if he had hair plugs, or didn’t live a highly passionate and volatile life? That was precisely why she’d gone out with him the first time and the second time. After that it just felt like a routine. One she didn’t have the energy to break.
    Plus, he had impeccable table manners, which were hard to come by these days.
    “So,” Edward said, with a huge smile that made Claudia a little bit nervous. “How was your day?”
    She was absurdly pleased he asked, because she had great—better than great, awesome—news. This was why she didn’t pay attention to the hair plugs—if there were any. “Well, I made a really good sale today and lined up three other jobs. I’m really excited about...”
    “Good, good,” he interrupted. “I’m glad to hear you’re making some money at your little business.” He laughed, and it sounded like a