It was April. The flowers were blooming, the trees were
budding back to life, the sky was blue and filled with puffy white clouds,
birds were nesting, the sun began to thaw our the cool winter air. Spring was
in full force. Natalie had stopped by the restaurant to grab a bite and ask if
I could go with her and Jasmine to pick out a cake for her wedding. I of course
accepted this invitation, I mean…free cake…who wouldn’t? Larissa was also
invited, but she had planned to meet up with a girl. After my shift, I changed
my clothes in the bathroom to rid the smell of the restaurant and hopped in the
car with Natalie. She was driving her new car which fit her perfectly and her
bubbly personality, a Volkswagen beetle, a pale yellow to match her blonde
hair. I was in the passenger seat, while Jasmine was in the center of the back
seat.
“Who are you texting?” Jasmine asked
“Cameron.” I said
“Don’t you dare invite him!” Natalie shouted
“I’m not.” I laughed, “Just letting him know I’ll be home
late.”
“Aww. So gross.” Natalie joked
“Me! You…getting married. I would never.” I of course joked
I noticed Natalie looking back at Jasmine. They looked like
I had said something offensive or they had a secret among them.
“What? What did I say?” I asked
“Nothing.” Natalie smiled
“Wait…” I started
“Don’t you want to marry Cameron?” Jasmine asked
“I never really thought about it?” I admitted
“What? Joey, you guys have been together five years. You are
almost thirty!” Natalie laughed
“Fuck you. I’m only 23.” I corrected her insensitive joke
“No, in all seriousness. Would you marry him, if he asked?”
she pressured me to answer
“Yeah. Sure. I don’t see why not. I would like to wait a
little more though.” I said
“Why?” she asked
“We’ve hit some bumps over the past couple years. You know
that. I want to be sure I make him happy just as he makes me happy.”
“That’s very sweet…and very honest.” Jasmine patted my
shoulder
“Thank you, Jazzy. What about you and you’re new prince?
What’s his name again?” I asked
“Devin. He’s amazing, you guys. So sweet, attentive,
respectful…so funny.” She smiled
“Yeah, but have you guys…you know?” Natalie laughed
“Nat!” Jasmine screamed
“What? Don’t be shy.” Natalie continued
“I’ll just say…he’s got a big…dic…tionary.” She laughed
“Oh my God. You slut!” I shouted uncontrollably
“Hey!” Jasmine pinched my arm
“Ouch.”
“I’m not a slut…am I?” she asked
“Well if the condom fits.” I said
Natalie laughed hysterically. By the time we knew it, we
were at the bakery in Lincoln City. We exited the car and entered the building.
We were greeted by a sprite like woman with a short platinum blonde pixie cut.
She was extremely bubbly and sounded like she had a Canadian accent.
“Thank you so much for coming. You must be Natalie and the
future Mrs. Sanders.” She said shaking her hand
“Yes. Thank you for letting me bring my friends. This is
Joey Ramirez, Phillips best man and my brother’s boyfriend and this is Jasmine Morris,
my maid of honor.”
“Nice to meet you both.” She said smiling at both me and
Jasmine and shaking our hands
She showed us to a room in the back where we sat around a
table with binders full of cake designs and flavors and combinations, frosting
flavors, etc. She returned a few minutes later with a cart with small slices of
different cakes. The cakes were plain without any frosting or fondant. We
weren’t sure how this was going to work and just as Natalie was about to ask,
she pulled out a tray from the middle of the cart with small bowls of frosting.
Each bowl was a different flavor. She spread out the cakes and frosting and
began to explain that she presents her cakes this way to allow clients to taste
specific cake mixtures with different frostings to get a better experience of
what they are looking for. It was genius. She gave us each a fork and a small
plate. We wasted no time and began to take small pieces out of the cakes and
scooped frosting on it. After eating 12 types of cake mixtures with over 28
different flavored frostings, we had narrowed it down to three cakes. Natalie
picked out a classic red velvet cake with vanilla crème frosting, white cake
with raspberry filling and white chocolate frosting and finally a white
chocolate cake with French vanilla frosting. I didn’t care for the latter of
the three, but Natalie seemed to like it. After sitting around for fifteen
minutes and unable to decide, Natalie suggested that we come back another day
with a clear pallet to make a final decision. The bakery owner agreed and
suggested on the next visit, Natalie could provide a sketch or idea of what she
wanted the cake to look like.
We drove
back to town and Natalie dropped me off at the boardwalk near the restaurant. I
waved bye to the girls as I entered the restaurant. It was the dinner rush and
my parents were fully staffed. I walked to the back to see my dad behind the
grill flipping meats, stirring pots and reading off orders. My mom was at the
window of the kitchen handing out the orders to the servers. I noticed my mom
looked flushed. She was leaning against the counter. She stood up when my dad
placed a few plates on the window. She stepped forward to grab the two plates
and began to walk them over to place them in the pick-up station, when she suddenly
fell backwards, dropping the plates, shattering them. She didn’t move.
“MOM!”
To be continued…
©
2016 Copyright J.M. Casas Jr. of Royalty Novels / The True Love Saga. All
Rights Reserved.
All characters and likeness
are pure fiction. Any resemblance is pure coincidence. Models and Actors used
in marketing material for the True Love Saga were used as inspiration and to
provide readers with an image of what the characters may look like.
No comments:
Post a Comment