“I know you think that’s a product of your job, and I’m sure it partly is, but I’m here to tell you it’s also a product of your age. My twenties were exciting in New York, too, but then I reached that age where I got horrified when someone invited me to something that didn’t even start until nine p.m.”

Did that make her sound uncool? Oh well, if it did, this man should know right off the bat that she wasn’t going to any midnight soirees with him.

“Okay, fine, you’ve got me there,” he said. “Tonight I managed to get my staff to let me get home at five and have dinner alone here in my own house, and I’m thrilled about it.”

Oh, so that’s why he’d answered the phone when she called. Well, at least she knew his staff wasn’t hanging around in the background.

“I understand that so clearly,” she said. “When I finally moved into my house here in L.A., that first night I got to have dinner in my own kitchen again, instead of on a hotel bed or in a hotel bar … it was ‘shower after a ten-hour plane ride’ good.”

He burst out laughing.

“Okay, now you’re speaking my language,” he said. “I know very well exactly how wonderful that shower is. But don’t you miss Krystal and her perfect martinis?”

Oh God. They’d been on the phone this long already and she hadn’t thanked him for the cake yet!

“I do, but speaking of Krystal, thank you for the cake. It’s delicious.”

“It was my pleasure,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure you knew that we do actually have good old-fashioned layer cakes in Los Angeles, even though most dessert menus don’t. That bakery is one of my favorites, and they have so many great cakes, I had a hard time deciding which one to send you.”

She’d been so distracted by the note she hadn’t even bothered to look to see where it had come from. She looked at the box and scribbled down the name of the bakery.

“What were you deciding between?” she asked.

And how had he found the time to do this? Hadn’t he had events all day?

“Well,” he said. “It was mostly between the chocolate one that I sent you, and a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, though carrot cake was a real dark horse. But in the end, I decided to go with the first one you’d mentioned at the bar—I figured that was the one you were craving the most.”

She couldn’t believe he’d remembered the cakes she’d listed at the bar, and in what order.