by Lee Hollis
Liddy and Sonny got the hint and stopped quarreling.
The happy couple valiantly attempted some small talk about the weather, and implored Hayley and Bruce to spill any good gossip they had heard at the Island Times, but mostly there was an uneasy awkwardness that permeated the rest of the meal.
When the jittery waitress arrived to clear the plates and asked if anyone was interested in seeing a dessert menu, Hayley and Bruce quickly interjected.
“None for me, thank you,” Hayley said.
“No, just the check, please,” Bruce almost begged as he handed the waitress his credit card without even waiting to see how much the bill was.
“You don’t have to pay for us,” Liddy said.
“No, I want to, this is my treat,” Bruce said, anxious for this whole evening to come to a merciful end.
“Thanks, Bruce,” Sonny said.
“Yes, thank you,” Liddy said.
They both knew not to casually suggest they all stop by Randy’s bar for a quick nightcap, because it was painfully obvious Hayley and Bruce just wanted to get out of there and go home.
“This was fun,” Hayley lied.
Another long, awkward silence.
As the waitress returned with the bill and Bruce’s card and he frantically added a tip and scribbled his signature, Hayley glanced over at Liddy, who was trying with all her might to maintain a calm and pleasant demeanor.
But Hayley had known Liddy for far too long not to know she was dying inside. She was obviously shaken by the news that Sonny had decided not to include any of his family in their wedding day. And although it was perfectly reasonable to accept that Sonny was estranged from his relatives and had every right not to invite them, Hayley had a strong suspicion that there was more to the story than he was willing to share.
She just hoped that whatever it was wouldn’t spoil Liddy’s promising future as Mrs. Sonny Lipton.
Chapter 5
“You’re a scheming, amoral traitor and you should be ashamed of yourself !” Lisa Crawford bellowed as Hayley, Liddy, and Celeste entered the Cake Walk bakery. The three of them nearly collided with one another in the doorway as they all suddenly stopped at the sound of vehement shouting.
Standing next to Lisa behind the counter was the object of her verbal abuse, Helen Fennow, a petite, wispy young woman with long brown hair and a perplexed look on her pretty, heart-shaped face. She was wearing a pink T-shirt with the Cake Walk logo and blue jeans. Helen had been Lisa’s loyal baking assistant for the last five years. However, as of this morning, that had all apparently changed.
“Lisa, I’ve been up front with you for months that I was thinking about striking out on my own . . .” Helen stammered.
“Is this a bad time?” Celeste asked.
Lisa ignored her. Her round, plain face was a deep, scarlet red and there were traces of white flour in her curly, short hair as she pushed her way up close to Helen’s face, pointing a pudgy finger at the tip of Helen’s cute button nose. “I never thought you were serious! Let’s face it, you’ve always been lazy, and I never saw a hint of actual motivation, so why on earth would I believe you? I trained you, nurtured you, taught you everything you know . . . This is such a betrayal!”
“I think there’s enough room in town for two successful bakeries, don’t you?” Helen asked hopefully.
“You think so? Well, I don’t, Helen. And I promise you, I will make it my personal mission to see that your sad little experiment of opening your own place will lose so much money you’ll be tied up in bankruptcy court for years!”
“We can come back another time when it’s more convenient,” Celeste whispered, starting to back out of the store.
But Hayley and Liddy didn’t move.
They were too riveted to the cake war showdown.
Lisa was so incensed and focused on poor Helen, she either didn’t hear them or was willfully ignoring them.
Helen was now shaking as Lisa angrily and threateningly invaded her personal space.
“Lisa, if you would just calm down, we can talk about this and maybe not ruin our friendship.”
“Friendship? That was off the table the second you decided to stab me in the back!”
“You know that’s not true . . .” Helen said quietly, backing away from Lisa’s bulky frame until she found herself up against an open window, ready to jump through it if the situation escalated any further.
Luckily they were on the ground floor.
But Lisa finally turned her back on Helen and marched around the counter to where a trayful of freshly baked cupcakes was waiting to be set out in the glass case for her customers to buy. “I’m done with you. Get out of my shop.”
“Lisa, please . . .” Helen pleaded.
“I said get out of here!” Lisa screamed, picking up one of the cupcakes and hurling it at Helen, who managed to duck in time. The cupcake landed on the window behind her with a splat.
Helen was so stunned she just stood frozen in place, unable to move.
Lisa snatched another cupcake and fired it at her, but her aim was widely off this time, and it hit the wall. Chunks of vanilla frosting flew in all different directions, a few bits winding up in Liddy’s hair before she could move out of the way.
“Go! I never want to see your sniveling, conniving face in here ever again, do you hear me?” Lisa snarled as she grabbed another cupcake and raised it above her head, threatening to attempt to nail her again.
Helen nodded, speechless, then scurried past Hayley, Liddy, and Celeste in a flood of tears and disappeared out the door.
Lisa set down the cupcake on the counter, took a deep breath, and exhaled. Then she lifted up the bottom half of her stained white apron and fanned her face, trying to calm herself down.
Hayley, Liddy, and Celeste still stood awkwardly in the doorway, none fully committed to coming all the way inside the shop yet.
When Lisa got herself nearly back down to a resting heart rate, she was finally able to become aware of her surroundings again, and that’s when she noticed she had some waiting customers.
“Aunt Celeste, what are you doing here?” Lisa asked with a half smile, as if Hayley and Liddy were not even present.
“Uh, didn’t we have an appointment today?” Celeste asked, suddenly worried she had confused the date and time.
“Maybe. I rarely write anything down. Don’t just stand there. Come in,” Lisa barked, annoyed they were all still crowded by the door, blocking potential customers from entering.
Celeste pushed Hayley and Liddy ahead of her and closed the door behind her as Lisa discarded her apron and walked back around the glass counter to greet them, feeling no need to even mention the loud screaming fit they had all just witnessed.
“So what can I do for you today?” Lisa asked.
Celeste stared at her blankly. “We’re here to talk about Liddy’s wedding cake. You agreed to design it.”
“The wedding cake,” Lisa said, a light bulb appearing to go off in her head. “Is that still happening?”
“Yes, it is!” Liddy snapped.
“Okay, congratulations,” Lisa remarked, nodding, a surprised look on her face. “Good for you, Liddy. I guess there’s hope for everyone.”
Liddy looked as if she was going to lunge at Lisa, but Hayley quickly grabbed Liddy by the hand and squeezed it tight, keeping her firmly in place.
“So what were you thinking?” Lisa asked, already bored.
“I sent you an email with my ideas. Didn’t you get it?” Liddy asked.
“Maybe it went to my junk folder. Who knows? I rarely read my email anyway,” Lisa said.
“I see,” Liddy said tightly, tossing her mother an irritated look that said, This is all your fault.
Hayley jumped in. “Liddy loves angel food cake, and she’s always wanted something classic, a traditional three-tier—”
“Yes, perhaps with a sweet buttercream frosting and maybe with a frilled, smooth finish to give it a polished look,” Celeste sa
id.
“And definitely sprinkles of vanilla bean or a textured piping!” Liddy added before gasping excitedly as another thought popped into her head. “What about a delicate adornment of sugar ruffles?”
Lisa took this all in, churning it over in her mind. There was an unbearable silence as they watched her nod and think, playing the role of creative genius, coming up with just the right idea before speaking.
“Pistachios,” Lisa whispered.
“What was that?” Celeste asked.
“I think she said ‘pistachios,’” Hayley offered.
“A Sicilian pistachio cake with lemon syrup and white chocolate ganache,” Lisa said, arms up, hands out, trying to get them to picture it in their minds.
“I’m allergic to nuts,” Liddy said.
“The wedding cake should be about the guests enjoying it, not the bride and groom,” Lisa said, shaking her head at Liddy as if she had just said the most stupid, ridiculous thing in the world.
“The wedding cake should absolutely be about the bride and groom! Especially since we’ll both be feeding each other a piece at the reception.”
“Do couples still do that? It’s so old-fashioned,” Lisa sneered.
“But that’s what I want, an old-fashioned wedding!” Liddy roared. “With an old-fashioned wedding cake!”
“Darling, what does it matter? Your dress will probably be so tight you won’t even be able to eat the cake!” Celeste said, trying to defuse the tension.
Liddy’s nostrils flared. “Is it too much to ask for a wedding cake with no pistachios? I’d really like to make it through my wedding day without going into anaphylactic shock!”
Lisa sighed. “Fine. No pistachios. I did do this fabulous peanut butter pumpkin wedding cake for a couple from Millinocket, which went over really big—”
“All nuts! I’m allergic to all nuts!” Liddy screamed.
“Liddy, for the love of God, calm down. I’m just spitballing ideas, that’s all,” Lisa said, almost enjoying how much she had upset her high-strung cousin. “Seriously, if you are this stressed out about the wedding, are you sure you’re ready for an entire marriage?”
Liddy seemed to be resisting the urge to attack, especially since Hayley was still gripping her hand with all her might.
“Yes, Lisa,” Liddy seethed. “I’m ready. I just need a cake that’s not going to kill me. Do you think you can help with that?”
“That’s what I’m here for.” Lisa shrugged as if she was simply an innocent party to Liddy’s wildly erratic mood swings.
They spent a better part of the next hour throwing around more thoughts, with Liddy continually circling back around to her initial idea of a three-tier angel food cake with buttercream frosting. But Lisa resisted, feeling it wasn’t creatively inspired enough to showcase her talent, oblivious to the fact that Liddy’s wedding day was actually about Liddy and not about Lisa’s talents as a baker.
Finally, Hayley ended the meeting by explaining that she had to get to the office and file a column. Lisa promised to make a few different samples for them and told them to come by the bakery again in a few days to try them.
Once they were out the front door and hustling down the sidewalk, Liddy tried one more time to appeal to her mother’s reasoning.
“She’s already causing trouble, Mother. I think we should cut our losses and find someone else to make the cake. You heard Helen Fennow. She’s opening her own shop, and she’s just as skillful a baker as that stupid, awful ogre Lisa!”
But Celeste stood firm. “Lisa is your cousin, she’s family, and we are not going to fire family. And stop calling her mean names.”
Liddy whined a bit more, but she knew in her heart it was a losing battle.
As long as her mother was springing for the wedding, including the cake, Liddy was never going to be in any sort of power position.
Celeste rocketed ahead of them, not wanting to discuss the matter any further.
“You can always just elope,” Hayley suggested softly.
“Sonny would love that,” Liddy said. “But I’ve dreamed of this day my entire life, and come hell or high water, it’s going to be perfect!”
Hayley didn’t need a crystal ball to know that with the way things were going, a perfect wedding was not going to be a safe prediction.
But what she didn’t know, or couldn’t know, was just how bad things were about to get.
Island Food & Cocktails
BY HAYLEY POWELL
Recently I attended my best friend Liddy’s wedding shower, where the champagne was flowing and the beautifully decorated tables were piled high with delicious sweet treats and finger sandwiches. Of course, I had to try one of everything, and in the case of the bride-to-be’s grandmother Dolly’s walnut-filled horns, more than one. Truth be told, when the shower was over and I noticed a few horns left on a plate, I surreptitiously wrapped them in a napkin and stuffed them in my purse to munch on later that evening. I didn’t think Liddy would mind since she was allergic to nuts, after all. Dolly also knew about her granddaughter’s nut allergy, but still made her horns for the shower because in her words, “A bride-to-be shouldn’t be scarfing down sweets before the wedding anyway!”
I hadn’t been home more than twenty minutes when I remembered the horns in my purse and decided it was time for a snack, along with one of my favorite indulgences—a chocolate white Russian. As I gorged on my stash, I replayed the lovely afternoon over again in my mind, remembering how Liddy’s mother Celeste had gone all out with the fancy food, opulent decorations, and flowers, which, unfortunately, was the exact opposite of how my own mother handled my one and only wedding over twenty years ago!
Back then, my ex-husband, Danny, and I were hopelessly in love, planning our future together, swept up in all the romance, our hopes and dreams. Yes, I know what you cynics are thinking, but we were just kids! Anyway, we decided we would get married by the end of the summer in my mother’s beautiful, lush backyard garden with its white trellis and sea of flowers, with all of our friends and family in attendance. And as a bonus, it would be a lot cheaper than a large church wedding and having to rent a reception hall. Romantic and practical! Mom would be so proud.
But sadly, she wasn’t. When Danny and I sat her down and presented her with our plan, expecting joyous tears and shouts of happiness, we got one word when we were finished.
“No.”
And then she got up and calmly walked right out of the room.
Danny and I were shell-shocked. This was not at all what we were expecting. Maybe she just needed time for all of it to sink in, so I sent my fiancé home, assuring him I was certain Mom would come around later that evening once she thought about it.
But she didn’t.
That was mid-June, and after a couple of weeks of begging, pleading, crying, desperately trying to convince her just how much in love we were, and how right this was for us, she still stubbornly refused to give us her blessing.
Or her backyard.
She threw all the usual arguments at us. We were too young. We needed to get our lives together first. We should wait at least a couple of years and then see.
I fought back, explaining how I knew with every fiber of my being that Danny was the one, and that I wanted to be with him forever, till death do us part.
Okay, I can hear you cynics laughing, so try to keep it down until I get through my story.
By August, Danny and I forged ahead with our wedding plans, which included booking a justice of the peace, accepting my BFF Mona’s kind offer to supply lobsters for the reception, recruiting my other BFF, Liddy, to be in charge of the cake, Danny reserving a couple of kegs of beer, and all the invited guests volunteering to bring covered dishes.
The only thing we still lacked was a location.
I secretly prayed my mother would have a last-minute change of heart.
But she didn’t.
She never even discussed the wedding, and when Danny would occasionally stop by the hous
e, desperately trying to charm her with compliments—like how she could be my sister—my mother would just shake her head and mutter under her breath, “Well, I see the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
That was my first clue that something else was going on here.
With only two days left before the big day, it looked like my own mother was actually going to blow off her only daughter’s wedding.
Danny’s uncle Otis and aunt Tori finally came to our rescue. They kindly offered to let us get married in their smaller, but well-kept, backyard in Tremont. We gratefully accepted. Tori could not hide her surprise that Danny was getting hitched. He had always been a bit of a Don Juan, just like his uncle Otis back in the day, before Otis grew a long, scraggly beard and adopted a rather unkempt appearance.
That’s when it hit me.
I raced home and found my mother’s high school yearbook on a shelf in the living room. I remembered reading something years ago, and asking my mother about it, but she brushed me off and said it was nothing.
I found the page I was looking for. Next to his picture, a boy had written, “I love you with all my heart, Sheila, and I know we will be together forever and ever. What we have is more special than what anyone else could ever have. Love always, O.”
The boy looked eerily familiar.
A fresh-faced, scrubbed-clean kid who years later would turn into a crotchety, long-bearded, dirt-smudged back-sider.
O.
Otis.
The mystery of my mother’s strange behavior was finally solved. Otis had eventually broken her heart, and she was simply trying to prevent the same fate befalling her daughter.
I left the book open and out on the coffee table and went to bed.
My mother never mentioned the yearbook the next morning, but I knew she had seen it, because over breakfast she casually said, “If you and Danny are going to have a wedding in my backyard, we had better start getting it ready.”
I jumped up to call Danny and deliver the good news, but first stopped, leaned down, and gave my mother a warm kiss on the cheek, whispering in her ear, “Thank you.”
