Read The Bookshop on the Corner (A Gingerbread Cafe story) for Free Online

we thought you might like to join us? CeeCee’ll be there, and a few others.”
    I inhaled sharply. “Do you even have to ask me? If there’s food involved I’ll drop that book boyfriend like he’s hot!” So I was fickle with my literary loves. Lil’s food was good enough to tempt the devil himself.
    Lil giggled and said, “So it’s a definite?”
    I tilted my head. “Yes, of course.”
    They both sputtered into their hands.
    “What? What’s so funny?”
    “It’s just Ridge is comin’ up from New York, see. So we figured you could sit next to each other—”
    “Why is he coming back here?” I interrupted. It was Monday, and I’d figured Ridge was interviewing people for his article today, and then we’d never see the likes of him again.
    “We just happened to mention our pretty little book-lover was going to attend the dinner party,” Lil said matter-of-factly.
    I lobbed a cushion at her. “Oh, you’re as subtle as chili in the eye, you pair of matchmakers. I thought I was going to come here for some sisterly understanding, but all you want to do is set me up with some swanky, swishy reporter, who’s perfected the come-hither look…”
    “Someone’s been bitten by the love bug,” CeeCee said, drawing the words out like a child in a sing-song.
    “Cee,” I said, “you sound like you’re five!”
    “What the heck’s going on in here? I can hear your laughter all the way down to my shop!” Missy stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips, grinning.
    “Oh, you know,” I said, looking up at her perfectly made-up face, “these two girls are bored or something so they’re trying to play Cupid.”
    Missy sat down on the couch next to CeeCee and said, “Again? Cee, didn’t you learn anything last time?” She winked at me and fluffed her auburn curls.
    CeeCee folded her arms. “What you mean last time? The last time that I remember was when that fine-looking thing, Damon, strolled into town and I had the second sight about him and Lil here. Was I wrong? No, I most certainly wasn’t! They about to get married!”
    “I’ll give you that one. Damon and Lil are a match made in heaven,” Missy said. “But the
last
person you tried to fix up before them was poor Sarah, when you set her up with Crazy Old Lou’s second cousin’s half-brother. Or was it the first cousin’s half-brother?”
    I shrank down into the couch and groaned. “It was Old Lou’s neighbor’s cousin’s half-
sister
if I remember correctly!”
    We cackled like a coven of witches remembering that fateful hook-up.
    CeeCee tried to compose herself and said between chest heaves, “Well, what kinda name is Billy for a girl?”
    Missy pulled a cushion into her lap. “It’s Billie, with an ie. S’pose it could have happened to anybody!”
    CeeCee clucked her tongue. “It was a small misunderstandin’, that’s all, but Sarah still had a good night, right?”
    I giggled at the memory. Billie with an ie and I had stared at our spaghetti, mutely, while I pondered how I’d been set up with a girl when I was heterosexual. We were both too polite to say anything, so we ate a silent dinner, watched a silent movie and then went our separate ways — silently. And that was the last time I’d agreed to step outside my comfort zone in relation to dating.
    “Anyways,” CeeCee said, “let’s put the past behind us and focus on Ridge for a second.”
    Missy’s eyes lit up and she scooted forward on her seat. “Yes! Tell me about this hunky man who’s got you girls giggling into your aprons. Did I not say a change might blow in on the wind?” She looked pointedly at me. Distracted, I noticed Missy’s cheeks were rosier than normal, even with the amount of rouge she always wore. And she had a quiet kind of sparkle about her. She was always the bubbly, animated one of the group, but she seemed more contained today, different somehow. I made a mental note to ask her later what was going on.
    CeeCee and Lil went on to explain