It's a what now? I thought to myself as I watched him walk away from inside the bakery. Oh right. I thought and locked the door. What did he mean be date? That's just something you say right? It's like a friendly expression. I slowly walked up the small flight of stairs to our apartment. For the life of me I could not figure out what he meant.
The next few days passed with a comfortable almost silence between us. Small talk really.
"Boys. We have a problem." My mother said walking through the bakery door. Sebastian and I shared a look of confusion. She sat down at one of the little tables, and we followed her.
"Have you noticed business is slow?" She asked, she seemed quite nervous. Sebastian looked at me not having worked there long enough to know the answer.
"I guess we haven't had very many customers." I said thoughtfully. I couldn't really remember, there was something so distracting about Sebastian.
"A new modern bakery just opened across the street." She said quickly. "This could be catastrophic for our business." She said grabbing our hands. "It's a competition."
     "Sweet." Sebastian smiles, and I rolled my eyes.
     "That's the spirit!" My mom said patting his back, I stared at her in disbelief. "It's Daisy's vs. The Taste, and we have to come out on top."
"Aren't you the least bit worried?" I asked my voice tinged with emotion.
"Modern things are a fad. We, we're classic." My mother said walking over to behind the counter.
"Dogs do not belong on the street." I heard a grouchy voice say as the door bell jingled. Helen walked in complaining as usual. We all shared a knowing look, and chose to ignore her statement.
     "Hi dear." My mother said greeting Helen quickly, and walking to go behind the counter. Helen waved her hand grabbing her apron and moving towards the register.
    "We're going to lunch, then I'll be back to help with the afternoon shift." I said quickly to my mom.
     "Where are you guys going?" My mom asked suspiciously curious.
     "Just to Tim Horton's." Sebastian piped up grabbing his coat.
     "Could you boys do me a huge favor?"
     "Sure, Mom." I said walking over to the counter. "Do you want us to run the money over to bank?"
    "Oh. Good idea you can do that too." She said handing me an envelope. "But I was thinking more along the lines of going to "The Taste" for lunch?" She said quietly.
      "You want us to spy on the other bakery?" Sebastian laughed.
      "They have lunch food." She said slightly grasping at straws. "Come on boys. Pierre, I carried you for nine months, you owe me. And Sebastian as your employer I'm sending you on a work assignment. So there." She said smiling.
     "Fine mom." I said grabbing my coat. Sebastian and I walked out into the cold snowy air. I shivered deeper into my pale blue scarf. The bank was just down the street so we walked there first, then we crossed and walked over to the geometric black building across from our pink brick bakery.
     "Here we are." Sebastian said opening the door for me. I scrunched my nose at him. 'The Taste' was the type of place where you ordered at the front and grabbed your own table. "You go save us a table, and I'll get us food." He said hoping in the small line.
"But how will you know what I want?" I said staying next to him.
"I'll know. Besides it's crowded and we might not get to sit." He said smiling, and lightly pushing me towards the table. I smiled despite myself as I walked over to a small two person table. Sebastian's words slid back into my head as I sat at our little table with the candle. It looked like a date, but that couldn't be what this was. Right?
I nervously pulled out my phone and scrolled through my contacts. Normally I would text Gabriel, but due to recent events, that was not an option. I scrolled through until I found Sebastian's friends. They would know him better than anyone else. After a few moments of deciding I chose to text Addy, because I thought I had gotten along best with her.

Pierre: Hi, this is Pierre from the Bakery.
Adeline: Hi! It's great to hear from you. What's up?
Pierre: Well...
Adeline: Well... What?
Pierre: I'm out to lunch with Sebastian, and when he suggested it he said "it's a date." You don't think this is, right?
Adeline: gee im not sure. Would it be so bad if it was?
Pierre: it would just be a little awkward...
Adeline: Did he insist on ordering for you?
Pierre: Yes! What's that about?
Adeline: oh nothing...
Pierre: Nothing?
Adeline: It's just...that's kinda his move

His move? What does that mean. I was about to ask her what she meant, when Sebastian sat down at the table. I quickly shoved my phone into my coat pocket.
"Chicken salad for you, 'cause you don't eat red meat." He said smiling at me.
"How'd you know that?" I asked.
"I have my ways." He said picking up his burger and taking a giant bite.
"You're gonna give yourself a stomach ache." I scolded playfully.
"Then I guess you'll have to take care of me." He said wiping his hands on his black napkin. We continued joking back and forth a few times.
"For desert I got you your favorite, a macaron." He said handing me a brown paper bag, and pulling out one of his own. I took out the the green macaron inspecting its craftsmanship.
"What are you doing?" He said biting into his cream puff. He made a face as the cream entered his mouth.
"I'm scoping out the competition."
"I never pegged you as competitive." He said sarcastically.
"I have a soft spot for macarons."
"I thought you only had a soft spot for me." He said leaning forward slightly. "Here. These's something wrong with this, but I can't tell what." He said handing me his cream puff. I looked back at him.
"But you took a bite out of it." I said quietly.
"Don't worry I'm clean. I promise."
I looked at him intently for a second, into his shiny eyes and dark wavy hair. Then I turned it around and bit into the other side.
"Ugh." I said spitting it into a napkin. "There's too much salt."
"At least we beat them in the cream puffs." He said popping the rest of the tiny cream puff into his mouth, still making a face as it went down.
"It's cracked." I said slowly.
"What?" He asked mouth still full.
"The macarons they're cracked." I took a small bite out of the side. "And they're chewy. Their meringue was over whipped, and they baked them for too long."
"I don't think anyone was worried they had you beat there." He said.
"Where's the check?"
"I paid at the counter." He said leaning back.
"But I lost the bet."
"Don't worry about it." He said smiling at my frazzled expression.
"But I am worried about it. I'll pay next time." I stated.
"We'll see."
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I looked to see a notification from Addy.

Adeline: come over tonight