Is It Warm in Here?

Chapter 6Is It Warm in Here?

Heron~I knocked on the door, willing my heart to slow down before I expired from a goddamn heart attack. When Eliza had agreed to let me be on her show, I’d almost fist pumped the fucking air. It’d felt like scoring a goal, and I was officially a pussy. Whatever it was about the refreshing creature, I was done for. I was man enough to be able to admit that.When the door swung open, Eliza stood on the other side, smiling up at me, and I wanted to forget the reason that I was here and just haul her off to her bedroom. However, I had promised her that I wasn’t a creep, so that was off the table for now.“Hello,” she greeted as she stepped back to let me into her apartment. “If you don’t mind, I won’t be turning off the camera until you’re out of my house.” I stopped mid-step to look down at her. “This way, if you do end up being some deranged killer here for my internal organs, then one of my four viewers can call the police.”“Are you going to let them know that?” I asked, doing everything that I could not to laugh at the beautiful woman.Eliza nodded. “Of course.”“Well, I guess a girl can never be too careful,” I chuckled, realizing that I was nowhere near offended, though I really ought to be.Neither agreeing nor disagreeing, Eliza shut her front door, then led me towards the kitchen. “Since this might be my last attempt at baking, I decided we should try cupcakes again, but they’ll be a cupcake cake.”I slid her a look. “What in the hell is a cupcake cake?”“It’s when you make cupcakes, but then arrange them to look like one big cake,” she explained.“Why would someone do that?”“It’s less messy than cutting a cake into slices,” she went on. “When it’s time to eat, everyone just grabs a cupcake.” She shrugged. “Yeah, it ruins the design, but cake decorating was never meant to last.”I was so in love with this quirky chick.Walking into the kitchen, which took all about three seconds since her apartment was small, I asked, “So, what’s the design we’re making tonight?”Eliza grinned up at me, and my heart actually stopped. “A rugby football.”“A rugby football?” I echoed.She nodded. “I thought it’d be a good way to honor my first guest on the show.”The caveman in me wanted to forbid her from inviting anyone else on the show. I didn’t want Eliza smiling up at other men like she was doing now. I didn’t want her making other men feel special. I also didn’t want other men in her apartment with her late at night. Fuck, who was I kidding? I didn’t want any other motherfuckers here when the sun was out. Eliza’s awful baked goods should belong to me only, and what the fuck was it about women that drove us fucking crazy? No sane man should want to eat anything that she had whipped up on her show so far.Finally finding my voice, I said, “Well, I’m honored.”“I hoped that you’d be,” she said. “Granted, you might not be feeling gracious once the final product is finished, but for now, we’ll stay positive.”“Baby, it’s the thought that counts, right?”She started gnawing on her lower lip. “Do you know that’s like the third time that you’ve called me baby?”I stilled. “Uhm…is that a problem?”Eliza eyed me as we both stood near her kitchen bar. “Is that your thing? Like when guys call women darling or sweetheart? I think doll is another endearment that’s common.”I shook my head. “No,” I answered carefully. “I don’t usually call women by anything other than their names.”“Okay,” she replied quietly. “Though that makes no sense.”“It’s just slipping out with you, Eliza,” I said, trying not to sound like a complete douchebag. “However, I can try to rein it in if it bothers you.”She bit her bottom lip again. “It doesn’t bother me,” she replied. “I just think…you know, if you call me that on camera, my viewers might get the wrong idea.”Good.“I’ll do my best,” I lied, because I had no problem with people misconstruing our relationship. “It never occurred to me that you might have a boyfriend that’ll object.”Eliza snorted. “Please,” she drawled out. “If I had a boyfriend, I’d hope that he wasn’t the type to allow me to have strange men coming to my apartment at night. I mean, I wouldn’t want him inviting strange women to his place at night, either.”“So, no boyfriend,” I said, making sure.“Nope, no boyfriend,” she confirmed.“Perfect,” I grinned. “Though I’m not afraid to throw punches, it’s nice not to have that concern.”“What about you?” she asked. “Do you have a girlfriend that’s going to leave negative reviews on my channel because you’re a cheating asshole?”I choked out a laugh. “Uh…no,” I clarified. “No girlfriend.”“Good,” she replied, sounding a little relieved, though that was probably just my wishful thinking.“Okay, so where are the ingredients?” I asked, needing to focus on the reason that I was here.Together, Eliza and I got out all the ingredients to make some cupcakes, and she had even managed to get cupcake wrappers with little footballs on them. Yeah, they were regular American rawhide footballs, but I wasn’t going to ignore her effort. If they made rugby football cupcake wrappers, I’d be surprised.Once we had everything ready, I helped Eliza set up the camera, though it weighed nothing and she could do it herself. I just wasn’t the type of guy to stand around while a woman did whatever it was that needed to be done. Yeah, Eliza was very capable, but that hardly mattered.Looking up at me, she said, “Are you ready?”“For you to tell people to have 911 on standby in case I’m a crazed murderer?” Eliza nodded as she grinned up at me. “Absolutely, baby.”*****Eliza~I stared down at the cupcake cake, and though the artistic factor needed a bit of work, it looked like it could be a football. However, more importantly, thanks to Heron, the cupcakes were actually edible this time around. Apparently, Heron knew the difference between sugar and salt, and he also knew how to bake cupcakes. If it wasn’t enough that he saved lives for a living and also entertained the masses on a professional level, but the man knew how to pre-heat an oven. He was like a real-life unicorn come to spotlight all my failures.Awesome.There was also the fact that I had over twenty viewers tonight, but Heron had quickly pointed out that they were probably his teammates and fellow firefighters since he’d told them all that he was coming on my show tonight. Still, beggars couldn’t be choosers, and I really was grateful that this man had taken time out of his day to help a complete stranger.“Well, I mean…they’re edible, so that’s a good thing,” I muttered, the camera still rolling.“I have a question, baby,” Heron said as he stood next to me, his attempts at not calling me baby failing terribly. Luckily, I didn’t mind.“Yeah? What’s that?”“How are we supposed to get the cupcake cake into a box without messing up the design?” he asked, reminding me why I should probably just get a second job at Wendy’s or somewhere. Better yet, living in an apartment for the rest of my life wasn’t the end of the world. “Baby?”“Maybe we can scoop it up with a pizza spatula thingy, then slide it into the box,” I suggested.“Do you have a pizza spatula thingy?” he asked.“No,” I answered. “I never thought I’d need one.”“Maybe this is the part where you turn on the chat feature, and then maybe some of your viewers might have an idea,” he said, trying his best to make me seem smarter than I really was.“Oh, they’ll have ideas, I’m sure,” I snorted.My entire body stilled when I felt Heron reach out, wrap his arm around my waist, then lean down to place a kiss on the top of my head.What.The.Hell?“Life is a learning curve, Eliza,” he said, his hand running up and down my hip. “People know that and understand that.”Even though I was very aware that my camera was still on and that we were still live, my lady bits wanted nothing more than to jump this man’s bones. Not only was he hot as fucking hell, but he was sweet, kind, and I couldn’t remember the last time that a man had his hand on my hips. I could actually feel myself getting warm, and I knew for a fact that the oven was off.“Uhm, you do know that you’re giving our viewers the wrong idea, right?” I asked, needing to focus. Whatever Heron Treyton was doing, I needed him to spell it out for me. I wasn’t good with subtle hints, especially when delivered by the opposite sex.“And what wrong idea would that be?” he asked, a bit of mirth in his voice.I looked up at him. “That we’re dating,” I answered, not afraid of awkwardness. “I mean, you’ve been calling me baby all evening, and your hand on my hip is kind of…suggesting things.”Heron smirked. “But not the kiss on your head?”“A kiss on the head or forehead could equal sister or grandmother or something like that,” I pointed out. “Baby and a hand on my hip do not suggest sister or grandmother or something like that.”“Depends on what part of the US you live in,” he quipped, making my eyes widen.“I can’t believe you just said that,” I choked out, trying not to laugh.“It’s called a joke, baby,” he said, removing his hand from my person. “If someone gets offended, I’ll take total blame.”I scowled. “I don’t think that’s how it works.”Heron pulled out his phone. “We’ll save the world another day,” he said. “Right now, I’m going to search ideas for transferring the cupcakes in one piece.”I placed a hand on my hip. “So, you’re just going to avoid the dating elephant that I brought into the room?”His green eyes peered down at me. “I’m not avoiding it,” he claimed. “Let them think that we’re dating. Since I plan to keep calling you baby, and since I plan on inviting you to my next rugby match, I’d say that it’s a pretty safe assumption to believe that we’re dating.”“Is that how you ask all women out on a date?” I asked. “I’m genuinely curious.”“Nope,” he answered, popping the ‘p’. “That’s how I ask you.”“Is that why you offered to come on my show? To ask me out on a date?”“I got it,” he said, ignoring my question. “It says to make sure we get a box that’s not already put together. We can slide the front flap underneath the cupcakes, then push them forward before building the box completely.”“What if I’m busy?” I posed. “What if I have important things to do during your next match?”“Then you can go to the one after that,” he answered easily. “So, do you have any baker boxes?”I sighed. “No. I never thought I’d actually make something that people could eat without endangering their lives.”Heron’s lips thinned in an effort not to laugh at me. “Okay, well…how about we store them in the fridge, and then I can come by tomorrow and pick them up?”My brows furrowed in confusion. “Pick them up for what?”“My teammates, of course.”“Yeah, no,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not going to be the reason that an entire professional rugby team has to forfeit a game because they’d been poisoned.”“Eliza?”“Yes?”“I made the cupcakes, baby,” he reminded me. “You’re not going to be accused of poisoning anyone. I promise.”I started gnawing on my lower lip. “It still doesn’t sound like a good idea. Besides, I thought you guys had to eat healthy. I doubt that scarfing down a bunch of cupcakes is considered healthy for any professional sports team.”“You are such a fucking delight,” he chuckled. “You know that?”“Not sure if delight is an accurate assessment of my personality,” I muttered, hating how much I was beginning to like this man.“Let’s clean up, baby,” he said, letting me ignore his compliment yet again.