A familiar looking boy I recognize as the bartender from down at the Black Bear answers. He’s sporting jeans and a T-shirt that reads Sprinkles Cupcakes, Best Damn Cupcakes in Town, and I can’t help but smile.
“You must be Cassidy.” He offers a friendly nod. “Rox”—he shouts back toward the kitchen—“your girl is here.”
He leads me inside, and I’m blown away by the wall-to-wall restaurant quality equipment outfitting the oversized kitchen.
“Hey!” a redhead with her hair tossed up into a messy bun comes over, both her apron and her hands are covered with powdered remnants of something delicious I’m sure. “I’m in the middle of decorating a sheet cake if you want to come watch.” I follow her back to the kitchen where there’s a giant slab of marble on the center island.
“This is some place!”
“It’s someplace all right. It’s my boyfriend’s apartment, or at least it was initially. I sort of moved in because he has a working stove—something Prescott Hall severely lacked. That was before we were dating.”
“So, he just let you move in like that?”
“Actually”—a playful smile tugs at her lips as she peers over at him a safe distance away watching two men go at it in some kind of a cage fight on TV—“Cole is my best friend’s brother.” She waves me off a moment. “I know, it sounds so cliché. Trust me, I was the first to notice.” Roxy has a bit of an edge to her, and I like her already. “But it worked out just fine. Sure there was a little hiccup here and there, but Baya is our biggest supporter. My brother, Ryder, sort of wanted to kill him.” She smiles into the memory as if it were a good one. “But that’s to be expected. He’s rabidly protective when it comes to me. Now that I’ve bored you to tears, the least I can do is ask how WB is treating your love life.”
She fills a piping bag with baby blue icing and twists the top of the parchment tight.
I try to play it coy as if my love life is non-existent, but it’s no use. I can feel the confession clawing to the surface. “You’re not going to believe this, but I’m sort of seeing my best friend’s brother, too. Only she doesn’t know it—neither of them does.” I try to swallow down the rest of the story, but it bubbles right up to the top and out it comes. Every dirty detail.
Roxy looks downright gobsmacked once I relay the whole twisted tale.
“Boy, they really need better security down at the Black Bear if those kinds of shenanigans are going on in the restrooms.”
We share a quiet laugh.
Her eyes enlarge as she takes me in. “So, are you really going to tell him tonight after her birthday party?”
“You bet. I’m ready to slay this two-headed dragon and begin a real relationship with the man I love.”
“Only you haven’t told him you love him yet.” She wrinkles her nose. “Dude, you are about to dive into the deep end. Are you sure your friendship with this chick is strong enough to sustain this?”
“I sure hope so. I’ve got my neck on the line and everything to lose. And I can’t stand the thought of losing either one of them.”
She hands me the little blue bag of icing as if it were a consolation prize. “Go ahead and take this one. I have faith in you.”
“What do you want it to say?”
She pulls a tiny index card over for me to see before reading out loud, “Happy birthday Piper.”
I take in a breath and hold it. “That’s her. This is her cake! Huh. Today’s her birthday, and, here I am, about to make or break it in oh so many ways.” I take extra care in spelling out the words, but no matter how hard I try to steady my hand, the letters come out twisted and misshapen.
Roxy and I stare down at the mess I made for a moment.
“Just crap, I can’t seem to do anything right. I sure hope this isn’t an omen of what’s about to take place tonight.”
Roxy takes the blade of a giant knife and slices that car wreck right off. She touches up the frosting and spells it out in perfect penmanship, confident and sure.
But Roxy won’t be there this weekend to clean up any disaster that might ensue. No one will be there to give me a do-over when I need it most.
Roxy is nice enough to do the interview before sending me off with a cupcake and a hug.
“You’re going to do just fine,” she spits it out like a command. “Trust me, when you follow your heart, you can’t go wrong. I know it sounds cheesy, but if this guy is just as in love with you as you are with him, then you’ve got this in the bag, sister.”
“In the bag,” I repeat like a tired mantra. We say goodbye, and I whimper into my cupcake as I wait for the elevator.
I hope I didn’t just inadvertently bag everything that Cade and I have.
Roxy is right. If he feels just as strongly for me, then it won’t matter that I was sneaking around behind both his back and his sister’s. I think after the dust settles he’ll agree with me—it was the best thing. I’m hoping Piper will, too.
Lord knows that girl wields a mean pitchfork, and she isn’t afraid to use it.
But I do love that little devil.
I take a bite out of the frosted red velvet confection before me.
Just hope life turns out as sweet as this cupcake.