Seventh Encounter

Every time Lucas flirted with him, Flynn was never sure if he was being serious or if he was one of those people that like to tease excessively. He didn’t know which option would be more upsetting.

“I see. It will be a nice touch for the patisserie’s customers,” he answered after a moment of consideration.

Sarah knew him so well and could read his thoughts, it was hard enough trying to keep her from noticing he was gay. Lucas was a whole new challenge. If he let on that he was affected by the flirting, it would be tantamount to confessing that he was gay.

“I’ll take note of that,” she replied. “Are you planning to be present when the place opens?”

It seemed like the matter had been dropped and Flynn sighed in relief. He hadn’t liked where it was going.

“I don’t plan to be here on opening day. We need to utilise our maximum opening capacity and take a lot of photos. I have no desire to take up space or be in the background of any photos,” he replied quickly.

He was very camera shy for things like this. Flynn never wanted to be recognised as the CEO of his company by the public because he didn’t feel like he deserved the recognition. He could end up being the person to run the company into ruin in the future.

“I’ve got the idea,” she replied. “I will be there at all times of course. Lucas will have to pose in a lot of photos. I do hope he is photogenic.”

“He probably is,” Flynn replied before his better sense could kick in.

“...You have paid attention to him,” Sarah commented. “He’s a good enough chocolatier and patissier for it not to matter in any case. I was just thinking of more shallow people.”

The conversation turned onto a debate of attractiveness vs. sales. Flynn had always found it an interesting topic and was happy to talk about it until Sarah suggested something he didn’t like.

“You’re cute enough to put on packaging, I think we could sell more units with you on the advertising.”

That was his idea of a nightmare. Flynn always avoided looking at his reflection as much as possible. His face wasn’t something that was lovable.

“Sarah!” he griped. “No one would buy anything then.”

“On the contrary, I would buy anything with your face on,” a familiar voice said.

Flynn looked up to see Lucas coming across the room. His conversation had been on speakerphone so it was natural that Lucas had overheard it. He should have just stopped working and put his phone to his ear. Now because he hadn’t, he was about to be part of an awkward conversation.

“Lucas, I thought you would like that idea,” Sarah replied with a laugh. “It wouldn’t happen in reality. My cousin is really too shy for that.”

“That’s true,” Lucas answered. “Is the CEO too busy to taste my chocolates?”

Flynn had noticed the tray Lucas was holding and was happy to hear that he was being offered a distraction and more food.

“Flynn, you’d better save some for me,” Sarah demanded instantly. “I’ll talk to you later. Bye.”

She rang off and it was just the two of them again. Lucas placed the tray down on the table and handed him a plate of chocolates.

“They’re still quite hot, I wanted to get your opinion on the combinations of flavours rather than appearance. I noticed the amount of display cases I’m supposed to be filling so we need to agree on the menu as quickly as possible,” he explained.

That was correct. It was important to get the menu arranged quickly before the patisserie opened. His plans had been thrown into disarray by hiring Lucas for two roles. There was a lot to do in a short amount of time.

“That’s right. I had been planning to have standard chocolates and cakes with different specials every week and seasonal limited products,” Flynn answered.

Lucas pulled out the chair next to him and sat down. He was now close enough for Flynn to smell the shampoo in his hair. It smelled pleasantly musky.

“This one here is dark chocolate with a ganache inside,” he said and pointed to the first one on the plate. “This one is milk chocolate and coffee.”

Flynn tried both of them and found he liked both of them. As a rule he didn’t like coffee flavoured foods due to the overwhelming bitter taste, but due to the milk chocolate it didn’t have the usual aftertaste.

“I think both of them are good. What are the other ones?”

“This one is white chocolate and lemon liquor and the other is marbled white and dark chocolate,” Lucas explained. “That’s all I’ve managed to try so far.”

“You’ve done a lot already,” Flynn said quickly.

The other chocolates were delicious as he had come to expect from Lucas.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“I like all of them,” Flynn replied. “What are your suggestions for the chocolate menu besides these ones?”

Lucas looked around at all of the empty display cabinets with a thoughtful expression.

“I was debating on doing variations of the same chocolates just with milk chocolate and different dark chocolates. I’ve found that some people do like very dark chocolate whilst some just like the hint of it and find milk chocolate too sickly. If we are trying to cater for different markets, there’s that sort of thing to consider as well.”

Flynn approved of that idea. He did like dark chocolate to a degree, but didn’t like how bitter the high cocoa percentage products were. Lucas was bringing him into a new world of chocolate and he liked that.

“I give my approval to that idea,” he said. “I think we should focus on chocolate tomorrow and sort out the patisserie side when we visit tomorrow.”

Lucas grinned at him. There was something suspicious about that smile.

“So we are spending lots of time together tomorrow as well? I like that idea.”

The chocolatier was already halfway across the room by the time Flynn had processed what he’d said. 

He still wasn’t sure if Lucas was actually flirting with him or teasing him to get a reaction.

Neither options were going to work on him though.

He was going to be single forever so he could keep his secret.

The Chadwick family line would just have to be continued on through Sarah and her brother Dylan. Their mother Betty who had been his father’s sister, had insisted on keeping the Chadwick name when she married and had changed her name to be a double barrel surname.

His aunt was very imposing and strict so his uncle had no choice but to agree to it. Flynn was still terrified of her to a degree.

Lucas came back a while later with another selection of chocolates. This set looked a little more hastily made than the others had.

“These are all fruit flavoured ones,” Lucas informed him. “I think they taste a little less sophisticated than the other ones.”

Flynn put the first one in his mouth and pulled a face. He had tasted this strange combination before and he managed to link it with one of Sarah’s holiday presents.

Unlike him, Sarah actually took her holiday allowance and travelled around the world. She always brought back lots of sweets for him so he could try a variety and not miss out. He always appreciated the gesture.

“I think there’s a commercial chocolate product like this in Japan,” he said. “Mango chocolate isn’t really as commonplace here.”

“You’ll like the next one a lot more then,” Lucas replied.

The next chocolate he picked up was white with pink flecks. He put it in his mouth to find it was strawberry and white chocolate. 

“That’s better,” he said. “I think there will have to be limits on what we have on display. We don’t want lots going out of date.”

They went through the rest of the chocolates and Flynn set to work drawing up a roster of chocolates for the displays. He had a master list of the best selling Chadwick’s Creations chocolates and made sure similar products were included.

“I’m happy with these choices,” Lucas commented when they were done. “I am content with having to make them regularly.”

Flynn tucked the sheet of paper into his notebook and closed his laptop.

“We did make some good progress today. We can talk more about the cake tomorrow. I’m glad we’ve completed one of the many tasks left to do.”

Lucas took his apron off and stretched his arms.

“Let’s go out for a late lunch together,” he suggested. “You haven’t eaten anything apart from chocolates and those crepes, you need to eat properly.”

That sounded dangerously like a date request. Flynn squinted at him. Lucas did at least look sincere.

“I’ll be okay,” he said. “You should eat something though. You’ve just been watching me eat chocolate.”

The chocolatier glanced at him.

“You should come with me, I suspect you are just going back to the office to work and won’t eat properly.”

It seemed that Lucas could read him well even though they hadn’t known each other for very long. Returning to the office just to work had been his intent.

He had never minded skipping meals and preferred to work straight through rather than stopping for anything more than a chocolate break. 

“I’ll get something in the coffee shop across the road from the office,” he said dismissively and put his coat back on. “Are you ready to leave?”

“Excellent, I’ll come with you. It can be a date,” Lucas answered immediately.