“Yeah,” Tabby agreed. “Wow.”
Tabitha planted hands on her slim hips and grinned. “I think this calls for a celebration, don’t you?”
“Can you believe it, Tabby? We’re true blue business owners.”
“Look out world.” Tabby nodded, a smile as radiant as a burst of sunlight, tightened her face. “Feels good, yeah? After all these years, all the tears, all the sacrifices. And our moms thought we’d be good for nothings.” She snorted, reached into the cupcake display case, and grabbed two desserts.
Alice groaned as another dull throb shot up her left calf muscle. She kicked off the four-inch heels Tabby had sworn were appropriate cupcakery attire, and massaged the stiff kink from her thigh-high clad leg.
She’d felt slightly ridiculous in the frilly blue dress that barely covered her butt cheeks, but as Tabby had said time and again: sex sells, even in cupcakeries. Apparently, it was true. Easily half the customers today had been men.
She’d not eaten anything all day, too anxious to get food down. But now it was seven, the day was done, and her stomach suddenly reminded her how neglected it’d been.
Tabby sat across from her. “Mad Hatter’s Surprise, or Hooka’s Delight? Hmm? Hmm?” Tabby wiggled the plates under Alice’s nose. The creations were mini works of art.
The Mad Hatter was a vanilla bean-based cupcake. At its center was a caramel covered slice of jalapeno-- the Hatter’s surprise-- but it was the tequila cream cheese frosting that made Alice have a mouthgasm every time. She gestured for the Mad Hatter.
Tabby handed it to her, and then picking hers up said, “to a wildly successful day, and to many, many more.”
“Hear. Hear.” Alice nodded agreement; they tapped cupcakes together and then bit into them with simultaneous groans.
“O.M.G. Alice.” Tabby’s eyes were twin saucers of joy. “I’m beyond happy that you decided to waste your life and become a professional baker.”
Alice snorted. Her mother’s words. Mom had had different thoughts in mind for her fourth and youngest daughter. Each Hu child had become something wildly successful. Her oldest sister, Verona, was Honolulu’s most renowned cardiologist. Alma-- second oldest-- the vet. Tanya-- White House correspondent.
Then there was Alice. Head in the clouds Alice. Nose always in the books Alice. Well, one book in particular. Alice in Wonderland.
As a little girl she’d thought it was cool to have a book named after her. Of course, she hadn’t known it wasn’t really, but by the time she’d figured it out, she’d already fallen in love with the dark and quirky prose of the book.
Always imagining it was she-- Japanese goddess Alice Hu-- who’d fallen into Wonderland, met the white rabbit, become both big and small, met and... since the Tim Burton adaptation had come out... kissed the Mad Hatter. Yes, he was certifiable, but after seeing Johnny Depp play the part, crazy had never looked so yummy.
She licked the frosting swirl and moaned as her taste buds erupted with sharp hints of tequila and notes of lime.
“I love this.” Tabby chuckled and blew out a puff ring of smoke. A nifty trick Alice had learned at culinary school. Pop rocks flash frozen in dry ice. “We’re gonna be rich. Oh hey, did you hear?”
After ten years of being best friends, Alice had grown used to Tabby speaking in stream of consciousness. She peeled the paper off her cake. “What?”
She nibbled, content to be lazy and eat slowly. The kitchen could be on fire and she doubted she’d get her tired butt off the chair. Her feet ached and her toes tingled. She wasn’t sure that was totally normal, but at the moment, she couldn’t even muster up a grain of ‘care.’ She was blissed out.
“K 1 News Now called this morning, wants to do an interview with you tomorrow.”
When the words finally registered through the fog in Alice’s throbbing head, her pulse fluttered and she sat up straighter in her chair. “No way! And I’m only hearing this now?”
Tabby shrugged as she popped the last bite of her cupcake in her mouth. “What? We were busy. Not like I had pet mice to do my bidding. Some of us,” she pointed at her chest and raised a brow, “were actually working.”
“Cinderella had mice, not Wonderland.”
“Pssh, who cares? I get them all confused anyway.”
“Sacrilege. Off with her head!” Alice shrilled in her best Red Queen impersonation.
Tabby rolled her eyes. “And that’s why you never get laid anymore. You. Are. Weird.” She patted Alice’s hand. “Honey, you do know they don’t actually exist, right?”
Alice chuckled. Tabby always gave her grief about her love of-- okay... obsession with-- all things Wonderland. “What? You mean to tell me the face painted man who crawls in my window and makes wild monkey love to me every night isn’t actually real?” She tapped her finger to her chin. “That could be a problem.”