guysguysguys, within a week we've jumped from #216 to #146 in ChickLit! Thank you all so much!! We're doing so great! Lets keep going to get to top 100!

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It was Friday afternoon when Genevieve made her way down to Ink, lugging two heavy, perspiring boxes; three o'clock proved to be the hottest part of the day, and she hadn't counted on how warm it would get so quickly. She was soon regretting making the short trek to the shop on foot, although deep down she knew she wouldn't regret it for long.

It had been two days since Genevieve had seen Matt that afternoon, and once she had allowed herself to take a chance, she felt herself open up to a swarm of new emotions. The most predominant was the feeling of missing Matt. She had never noticed this before, but now she was allowing herself think of him as more than a friend, she felt her stomach tingling at every thought of him. After hours of thinking, she decided she had liked it.

She reached the door, and slowly turned around to use her back to propel the door open. Shuffling the boxes so they sat atop one another and blocking her vision, she slowly turned around and felt herself back into something solid. "Ooooff," she groaned, feeing the corner of the desk jab sharply into her side.

"Genevieve?" she heard a muffled voice coming from the other sides of the boxes. The boxes were suddenly lifted out of her hands, removed to reveal Matt's confused face. "What on earth are you doing?"

"Thank you!" She puffed, feeling her arms turn to jelly at the release of the tension. She tried to shake them out, "I didn't realize how hot and heavy that would be. I bet I smell terrible."

He let out a surprised chuckle, obviously not knowing what to say before he bent down to her neck, pretended to smell, and planted a gently kiss at its base. "Nope. No smell."

As had been the case lately whenever that man came within a foot of her, Genevieve felt herself blush - she couldn't help it. As much as she felt she kind of liked the affection, it still made her extremely uncomfortable to be the recipient of it.

He smiled at her, and leaned down a few inches from her face, his loose hair framing his welcoming smile. "I'm going to kiss you, ok?" he murmured.

She flicked her eyes down for a moment, and felt the blood pool to her cheeks again. She had decided that she wasn't going to shy away from signs of his affection, so she brushed her fringe out of eyes. "Ok", she whispered softly.

He grinned, and leaned over the boxes he was holding with ease, and lightly pressed his lips to hers, lingering for a moment. When he pulled back, he smiled again. "Hi."

She returned his smile, "Hi."

They stared at each other for a moment, saying no words but faces lined with affection, when Mark walked in. "Aww jeez. Don't start this mushy crap on me."

The blush returned to her face instantaneously, but Matt just threw the pencil resting behind his ear at him with a laugh. He led Genevieve back to the table, and dropped the boxes onto the edge, "Gen, what on earth do you have in these things?"

"Well," she grinned, pushing one box to him and one to Mark, who had followed them to the bench. "The past two days I've spent baking pies for the orphanage. They're having an open day at the local park, where the kids get to play, bands come, stalls get set up - a whole day festival. They asked if I could have a little stall to do some fundraising, so I've made about 500 of these little things. Mind you, I've been making and freezing pastry for months." She took a breath, wiping her forehead of perspiration.

As the boys opened their boxes, she leaned over Matt's shoulder and peered in, "There's a few meat ones, a couple of vegetarian ones, and a few different fruit kinds. I'm sorry they look a little funky, but they're the ones I didn't want to sell. And uhhh," she looked between the two, who were staring at her with a newfound appreciation, "You guys don't have the best eating habits in the world."

Mark stuffed a whole one into his mouth. "I will gladly agree with anything you say if you bring us more of these things."

Genevieve grinned at him, as Matt put an arm around her neck and brought her in close, kissing the top of her head. "Just so you know, I like my pies with peaches, woman," he joked.

She wrapped her arms around his waist, "Maybe next time, if you watch who you're call woman."

Mark looked between the two, and feigned thought for a moment. "Genevieve, how do you feel about polygamy," he asked, causing Matt to choke on his pie and Genevieve to burst out into a laugh. "Because I was really digging those pies."

Matt lightly hit him across the back of the head, as she took a seat at the table, laughing. "Actually Gen, it's good you're here, because we have something to ask you."

She stopped laughing. "I'm not marrying either of you right now."

He rolled his eyes, but couldn't stop a chuckle. "I'm serious. We need a favor. We were wondering if you would consider coming to work here with us."

This caused her to double take. "Why? Where's Karen?" She stammered, instantly concerned.

Mark leaned onto the table, casually taking a caramel apple pie from Matt's box. "She's only part time as it is, and not really looking to take on more hours. We're looking at trying to expand; how yet, we're not sure. We could just use someone around a bit more so we can focus on building clientele, working on some training and figuring out what we want to do."

She looked between the both of them, trying to figure out if this was a joke or not - neither of them made a motion to assure her otherwise. "I'm not sure if that's the best idea," she murmured hesitantly.

Matt looked at her uneasily, concern washing over his usually calm face. "Why not?" he questioned, appearing slightly unsettled. "Aren't you looking for a job?"

"Well I am," she started uncomfortably. "But I don't know if that's professional."

The boys looked at each other, and slowly smiles spread over both their faces, and that turned into hearty laugh; they were contagious. "We're not exactly the most uptight boss-men around here," chuckled Mark.

Matt grinned at her, "I'm not asking you to come here and do nothing all day but hang out with me." He paused, looking at her raised eyebrow. "Not that I wouldn't enjoy it!" he added hurriedly.

Mark rolled his eyes. "What my lover boy over here is trying to say is that we've discussed it, and we think you have a great work ethic and a passion about doing work well. You made some good points when you were in a few weeks ago about how much potential we have, and it's something we really want to build on. We think having you around will definitely be able to help us in the right direction." Mark said earnestly.

Matt shot a pointed gaze at his friend sitting beside him, "And apparently some of us really like having you around."

Mark shrugged, "Hey, if your girlfriend wants to bring me baked goods, I'm not going to argue. I'm not a stupid man."

Matt scoffed under his breath, but Genevieve tensed slightly at the mention of the word girlfriend. Is that what she was? She hadn't thought about it, but she definitely knew that it was way too soon to think that. Just because she liked him didn't mean...

Genevieve was yanked out of the though train carrying her away when she felt a soft hand intertwine her fingers under the table and rest on her lap. Aside from the fact she knew it wasn't Mark, there was something about the way she felt when Matt touched her, a fluttering feeling inside some cliché book would call it, that made her know it was him. She smiled up at him, and rested her chin on his shoulder, looking up at him. "It won't be weird to work with you?"

"Mmmm I think I'll manage," he said, giving her a one-sided smile that usually only appeared when he was joking around.

"Won't Karen be annoyed?" she asked, suddenly concerned.

"Oh, she'll hate it. Luckily she doesn't really have a say," piped in Mark.

She looked between the two men in front of her. Not long ago these two were strangers, and all of a sudden they were welcoming her into their home like family. For the first time in forever she felt part of a community. She smiled at them warmly. "I can't say it's a permanent thing, but I'd love to help you."

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Sorry it's been a few days since I've posted. It's been a tough week.

And I apologise if this wasn't the follow up chapter to Part 11's romantic ending. It's been a rough week and getting this part out was hard. It's probably not so exciting to y'all, but I think it's important to see the relationships of the story from different angles.

Please let me know what you think, and don't forget to vote and comment.

G xx