“Don’t man. Please.” I felt bad enough. I didn’t need the prince or perfect behavior reminding me that his parents died because of an alcohol related accident.
“Okay then.” Hunter left it alone, but the tension hung in the air between us thick and ripe with disappointment.
3
Kristen
Whoever said cake didn’t cause orgasms obviously hadn’t tried the ones made by Taylor’s friend Carmen at her boutique shop called Cake and Battery. Cute name for the adorable shop on Main Street in town. The striped awning was pink and white with black trim and cartoonish pictures of a mixing bowl and a whisk wearing prison jumpsuits enticing you to enter. I heard a rumor Carmen’s buttercream icing was so good it would tempt a nun to kick out a stained glass window.
I had secretly been waiting for this day and had counted my calories up until the night before. I might have even cut back on the liquid calories of wine so I could gorge myself. The air smelled sweet, making my mouth water and eliciting criminal thoughts of my next fix. My hips felt thicker at the thought of ingesting fondant, and fresh strawberry filling between layers of spongy cake. I wasn’t sure what would quench my thirst—water or coffee—between the bites of heaven. My mind was literally blown by the salted caramel I watched oozing and sliding down Taylor’s fork.
It was unadulterated food porn.
“Remind me again how you two met?” I stuffed another bite of heaven in my mouth, letting my eyes roll to the back of my head. This cake pretty much tied between the need for sex and breathing air. I wondered how many sexy cupcake eating videos I might find on Tumblr and made a note to ask Demon later, if anyone knew their Tumblr sites, it would be him.
Taylor’s pretty friend laughed shyly and answered my question, cutting another slice of cake for my plate. “Freshman orientation matched us up. We were roommates in college for two years; I think I remember Taylor saying you were the single white female type.” She tapped her cake cutter on the plate and I nodded for her to give me another slice.
I gave Taylor a playful glare. “You say that like I’m a stalker,” I mumbled between bites. “Besides, if I knew you and my bestie would be making out I might have visited more.”
“You don’t like vanilla-flavored vodka,” Taylor teased.
“Is that what gets your pants off? I am so getting that for Vegas. Bottle or shots?” I asked looking for Carmen’s imput.
“I never kiss and tell.” Carmen wiped her hands on the towel and made notes in her notebook regarding our favorite selections of cake.
“That’s top secret, isn’t it? Does Hunter know? That’s too hot for Tumblr." I savored the red velvet cake with the sparkly white cream cheese frosting moaning as the fork slid between my lips.
“Kristen!” Both Carmen and Taylor giggled and I shrugged, enjoying the cake that would keep me in yoga class extra-long the following weekend.
“Well, you never visited when I was there, so we will never know.” Carmen clicked her pen making a note.
“That’s because you went home every single weekend.” Taylor nudged her baker-fabulous friend.
“True, but I think I’m over that now.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, getting dumped and sort of coming out to your family kind of puts you on everyone’s shit list these days.”
“Yes, but you got awesome hair out of it.” Admiring Carmen’s hair was hard to do when it was pulled back into a ponytail, which I guessed was efficient for working at the bakery. Nobody wanted to eat long strands of hair in their treats—even if it was clean and pretty.
“I did, didn’t I?” Carmen’s smile glowed.
Another lover of cake joined us, grinning as she rang the shop’s bell, interrupting us. “Hey, sorry I’m late. I got stuck doing highlights for a client Tommy usually takes.” Louisa Cox ran the hippest hair salon in town—in fact, she had done my red ombre, which could use some touch ups before the bachelorette party coming up and the wedding while I thought about it.
“Anyone we know?” I asked, feeling slightly miffed.
“Now KC, we don’t want you to get yourself arrested.” Louisa was a real pain in the ass reminding me. It was a misdemeanor that got dropped and a complete misunderstanding. Actually, it was Hunter’s fault and that was the story I was sticking with.
“Ugh, that means it was Brittany? You colored her hair? Traitor.” There was a certain satisfaction in getting into it with that witch who had shown up uninvite
d to Taylor’s house party a while back. I blamed Hunter for dating the troll at the time. She probably went back to bottom feeding the dating pool since he dumped her. One thing I knew was that she better leave our crew of friends alone because I couldn’t promise to not jump her skanky ass if I saw her again.
“Aw, come on. It’s business.” Louisa winked.
“I hope her tip money catches on fire in your pants. You can’t trust that voodoo witch.” I delighted in thinking of ways to make Brittany’s hair fall out.
Taylor slid her plate over to me and I took the last bite of Myer lemon cake and raspberry preserve. Carmen collected our plates and scurried back to the kitchen calling over her shoulder.