Read Macarons at Midnight for Free Online Page A

disaster. Someone had clearly never seen his room in the residence halls back in uni. He could teach anyone the true definition of disaster. The walls were the same cheery yellow as the front room, but most of them were taken up by cavernous ovens, huge mixers, and towers of cooling racks. In the center of the room was a large island covered in marble and butcher block, and row after row of baking sheets dotted with black, bright pink, green, and turquoise rounds of raw batter.
    “When do all of these have to be ready?” Tristan finally asked.
    He rolled his eyes. “Tomorrow at five. I’m looking at an all-nighter to get them done, and then I have to start the regular stuff for the shop. I’m Henry, by the way. Sorry. I didn’t mean to bitch at a stranger.” He wiped his hands on his jeans and stuck one of them out at Tristan.
    “Tristan. It’s really lovely to meet you. See? Now I’m not a stranger anymore. Bitch away.” Tristan was treated to another dazzling smile. He figured by the time he left, he’d need resuscitation. Henry was the first person he’d met since he’d gotten here who wasn’t business related or someone who sold him something. He’d sure picked a hell of a person for that first meeting.
    “What are you making? They look fancy. And colorful.”
    Henry grinned. His smile was big and open. Charming. A small bit of dark hair fell in his face and got caught on his ridiculously long eyelashes before he batted it away. “Macarons. They’re for a very upscale birthday party, and I got very little notice.”
    “I’m guessing it wasn’t something you wanted to turn down?”
    “Not exactly an option.” Henry shrugged, pulling the thin fabric of his T-shirt over his shoulders. “It’s one of my sister’s friends, and she’s pretty intense, you know? Not the sort of woman you say no to. She walked right in here this morning with her list in hand and didn’t even ask if I had time. Just ordered.”
    “Scary?”
    Henry shuddered. “You have no idea—the woman, not my sister. Trixie hasn’t scared me since I was ten.”
    That got a full-on chuckle out of Tristan. He liked pretty Henry with the cognac eyes and mellow voice already. He deliberately tried not to think of the “pull on me while we’re shagging” hair. That was too damn much for his sanity.
    “My older brother used to scare me too,” he said before he said something else. “Now I just miss him. I guess I miss home.” Why am I talking about my brother? I’ve known this man for literally five minutes. Tristan shook himself out of it. He’d just met his first nice person. The last thing he wanted to do was be so depressing he’d scare the poor bloke away. The poor gorgeous bloke who had a dusting of flour on his nose and a smile that could easily melt glaciers, let alone Tristan’s knees.
    “Hey, no worries. I’m sure I’d miss my family too. How long have you been here?”
    “A couple months.”
    Henry bit his lip. “I get it. Sometimes the city just kind of sucks people in, you know? Nobody really looks at you, you’re just a cog in the machine or something?” Tristan nodded, and Henry chuckled softly. “Well, that got a bit heavy. I think I’ve inhaled too much almond flour. Either that, or I’ve been up since four this morning with only a two-hour nap and I’m getting a little loopy.”
    “It’s nearly midnight,” Tristan said, glancing at his watch. “Don’t you need to go home and sleep?”
    He couldn’t imagine functioning on that little sleep. He was an eight-hours-a-night kind of guy. More since he’d come here and he didn’t have much to fill his hours other than work. He thought Henry must be about to pass out on his feet.
    “Well, yeah. Of course. It doesn’t mean I get to.” Henry gave Tristan another one of his disarming grins. “I promised you a cookie. Maybe you can be my taster. Are you okay with anise?”
    Anise? Is that something dirty? It sounds dirty. Tristan figured he’d