by Eva Luxe
Amelia absorbs all this with a wry smile. “That’s…actually a pretty decent plan.”
“I mean, I sure think so. Now, I showed you mine, you show me yours.”
“Fair. I have to warn you though, it’s a lot less interesting than yours. After my fiancé
and I broke up, I forgot to cancel the tour appointment, and my best friend Rosa said I should go anyway. Her argument involved a lot of free stuff too. So, I went, and there you were, and now here we are.”
Here we are, indeed.
And I’m beginning to realize I don’t want either of us to be anywhere else.
Well, fuck.
I’m completely and totally fucked, all right.
Chapter 23 – Amelia
“You did what?”
It’s Monday morning at the office, and once again my bagel time has been interrupted - this time by my very indignant best friend. “Three days of unanswered texts and Facebook messages, and now I find out it’s because you had a one night stand, pretended to be engaged to the guy, and then banged his brains out again on his couch?!”
“Please don’t be mad at me.” I cringe a little. Rosa’s not wrong to be upset, anyway - I really had disappeared off the map for the whole weekend and -
“Mad? Sweetheart, don’t be ridiculous! I’m thrilled!”
“Thrilled?”
“Obviously! I mean, I wanted you to go have fun for a change, but you went above and beyond my wish. I’m impressed. Way to go, Amelia.”
I feel myself starting to blush. “I don’t know what happened…I just needed to blow off some steam or something, I guess.”
“Well, you certainly blew off something - or should I say ‘someone’.” Rosa cackles. “So, what’re you working with here? Did he send you a dick pic yet? C’mon, give!”
“Rosa!” I’m bright red now; I can feel it in my cheeks. “No, I do not have a dick pic.”
“Wait a minute. Do you even have his number? Did you bang and bounce?!” Rosa’s pacing my office like she’s auditioning for the role of prosecution lawyer in a Law and Order: SVU episode.
“Listen, Rosa. I’m glad you’re excited, but I promise, it’s no big deal. I got his number before I left. Just in case.” I don’t tell her that the last part of that’s less than true. When I’d asked for it, he’d given it to me without any sort of “use only in case of emergency” clause. And I’d used it more than once since then.
“Amelia. This is great. You’ve been stuck in neutral since the breakup, and you deserve to have some fun! Now, tell me all about it.” Rosa perches on the edge of my desk, looking at me intently. I sigh, pretending to find this retelling tedious, even though I’m thrilled to talk about anything having to do with Brent. I feel like a giggling schoolgirl.
“Okay, so I took the subway to the tour….”
As I finish my story, the intercom in my office buzzes. “Ms. Hope, there’s a floor meeting in five.”
“Thanks, Cindy.” I mock glare at Rosa. “See? It’s taken all week for her to get back into the habit of actually speaking to me after what you said.”
Rosa downs the rest of her coffee, unperturbed. “All that means is that it worked. Too bad you’ve already got a pal for extracurricular activities.”
“Considering how it went the last time I mixed work and pleasure, I’m gonna go ahead and say that’s not too bad after all.”
I still can’t believe I was dumb enough to date a co-worker. I hate knowing I might have to see Jason—not to mention that floozy, Violet—at work. I feel completely over him now— my crazy escapades with Brent have sure helped in that department—but it doesn’t mean I want to be anywhere near him.
“True enough.” Rosa snags the last piece of my sesame seed bagel and chews loudly. “Better hope this meeting isn’t a surprise drug test, huh?”
“That’s a myth!” I protest.
“Oh yeah,” she agrees. “They don’t drug test lawyers or there wouldn’t be any left.”
I laugh, and then add, “I meant it’s a myth that sesame seeds result in a positive drug screen.”
“Really? I guess that explains why I got fired from the Dairy Queen in college even though I swore I’d just been eating packs of sesame seeds.”
“No, I remember that story. You said you got fired because you tried to eat an entire tub of rocky road instead of helping customers.”
“I was hungry!”
“You were high!”
When we get to the floor meeting, Rosa’s “fears” prove unfounded - no suited men carrying little cups are in the room. There are, however, lots of other lawyers present. Including Jason and Violet. Great. Just my luck. Their smug smiles make my morning bagel roil in my stomach. I sit at the opposite end of the conference table with Rosa, and try to pretend they don’t exist.
When one of the partners, Gerard Styles, sits down at the head of the table, I start to understand the expressions Jason and Violet wear.
“Good morning, everyone. I’ll keep this short and sweet, since I know we all have heavy caseloads to deal with. Unfortunately, the news I have won’t ease that burden - but you’re all the best of the best, so I know you can handle it. One of our Junior Partners has elected to take their talents elsewhere in the City.”
Rosa leans over and whispers to me. “Bullshit. He’s talking about Frank Stein, and the guy left because everyone on his team, and their mothers, accused him of harassment.”
I raise my eyebrows at her and she hisses, “I’m not shitting you. A couple of the mothers said he made them feel uncomfortable whenever they came to things like the swearing in ceremony or awards events, to support their sons.”
It’s all I can do to suppress my laughter.
“So, there is a vacancy to fill,” Styles continues. “Over the next few weeks, we will be reviewing cases and considering applicants for the position. It’s open to any practicing lawyer in the firm, but I do strongly recommend that you carefully consider your own talents and abilities before submitting an application for the position. It benefits no one for you to apply to a position you don’t really want or cannot handle. That’s all.”
In his typical no nonsense way, Styles gets up from his chair and leaves without muss or fuss. He’s never been one for many words or coddling anyway, so it’s no surprise. Still, the whole ordeal is rather strange and I’m glad that the meeting’s over.
As everyone disperses into the lobby, Rosa walks with me. “So, you gonna go for it?”
“For what?”
“The junior partner position, dummy! You could totally nail it.”
“I doubt it.” Suddenly, Violet’s at my shoulder. “From what I hear, you can’t nail anything that isn’t missionary.”
“Excuse me?!” Rosa rounds on Violet, and the other woman’s smirk wavers.
“I wasn’t talking to you, Ms. Martinez.” she manages, staring over Rosa’s shoulder at me. “Although I’m not surprised you’ve managed to shove your nose into more business that’s not your own.”
“I’m sorry,” Rosa takes another step towards Violet. “Are you still cranky about losing out on the Liefeld case to me? Because I can guarantee you the clients enjoyed my company much more than they would’ve enjoyed staring at your shitty nose job.”
Violet gasps, and her hand comes to her face as she stalks off down the hallway.
“Don’t let that bitch get to you, babe,” Rosa tells me. “She’s just being awful, as per her usual. I don’t know why it even surprises us anymore.”
I nod, and we head back to our offices - but Violet’s words are still bouncing around in my head for a long time after that.
Chapter 24 – Amelia
That night, I’m home, curled up in bed, when my phone buzzes. My heart jumps a bit when I see the name on the lock screen: Brent.
Brent: Feel like tasting some wedding cakes tomorrow?
Brent: I know it sounds weird - but I don’t have anyone else to go with. And besides, there’s cake! Nobody likes to eat
cake alone.
I stare at my phone screen until it goes dark. This whole one night stand thing is turning into a whole lot more, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. Up until a few days ago, I’d only ever slept with one guy, and plus, I’d had no intention of ever seeing Brent again (or even learning his name). And now, here I am, three days later, having slept with Brent twice and thinking about tasting wedding cakes with him! The whole point of finding some random guy to fool around with had been to get some distance from the whole wedding craziness - a cleansing of my system.
“This is literally the opposite of what you meant to do.” I declare to the empty room. “But the last time you meant to do something, you ended up almost marrying the guy who was banging your case partner. Among other people. So your decision-making capabilities are in question no matter what.”
All of this is true. So, there’s only one thing left to do. I grab my phone and make a FaceTime call.
When Rosa picks up, she’s wearing a charcoal mask and has her eyebrows raised at me. “Wassup, kiddo?”
“First of all, great Halloween mask. Second, I need some advice.”
“You should do it,” she says, before I have time to say anything else.
“I haven’t even asked a question.”
“Amelia. Are we or are we not best friends?”
“We are.”
She wiggles her eyebrows at me, a gesture I can barely see thanks to everything caked on top of them.
“Then you should realize I already know a lot of things.”
“You do?”
“I do. I realize that he wants to see you again, and who wouldn’t, because you’re fucking fantastic. And I realize that you’re overthinking things like you always do, and you should stop doing that. You should stop letting your head get in the way, and go with your heart.”
Said heart is currently nearly beating out of my chest. I want to see Brent really, really badly. Rosa’s right. I should go for it.
“Thanks,” I say, not wanting to lay on too thickly how grateful I am for her help. I don’t want her to get a big head. Plus, she probably already knows that, since she apparently knows everything.
“No problem. Now hurry up and go see him. I need to take this gunk off.”
Chapter 25 – Amelia
“2121 Diamond Street. 2100, 2110 - Ah!”
There it is. Bliss Bakery. The outside looks like a wedding cake itself, splashed in bright white and pink colors, with tall cake displays and pastel signs in the windows.
“Hey, you made it!” I turn, and there’s Brent, smiling and wearing the same tan jacket he’d had on the night I met him. And the only other time I’d seen him after that. I guess he really likes that jacket. He’s also wearing tight black jeans that do nothing to hide the bulge below his belt buckle - not that I’m sorry about that at all.
“Wow. You look incredible.” Brent smiles at me, and I feel myself involuntarily biting my lower lip.
I can’t pretend it doesn’t feel good that he noticed. I’m wearing my favorite red shift dress, one that hugs my curves in all the right places. The one I haven’t taken out of the closet since that dinner with Jason and his friends last year - No. We’re not thinking about that right now. I smile at Brent, and we head inside.
“Welcome to Bliss!” the call comes from behind the counter, out of the mouth of a young woman who looks as sweet and soft as the cupcakes on her counters. “I’m Bri, and I’ll be right with you, okay?”
As she finishes frosting a row of eclairs on the tray in front of her, Brent and I look around the bakery. The inside is far less crisp and clean than the outside, with rows of cakes, cookbooks, and baking supplies everywhere. But somehow, I like it better that way. It feels sweet, warm, and lived-in.
“You must be the Foresters!” Bri’s grin is infectious. Brent returns it, and so do I. “Or, rather, the Foresters to be.”
“That’s us!” Brent takes my hand, gently enough that I could pull away anytime if I wanted to. To my own surprise, I don’t. In fact, I grip his hand tighter.
“Well, it’s so nice to finally meet you two. I have some cake samples set out in our tasting room out back just for you. This way!”
The tasting room turns out to be a small, oak-paneled room arranged like the dining room of a fancy house. I try not to think about the fact that it’s almost as big as my living room. “Here you go!” Bri gestures us inside. “I’ll leave you two to it - just let me know if you need anything or if you have any questions at all, okay? There’s tea in the pot, milk in the cooler, and wine on the shelf.”
With that, she does indeed ‘leave us to it,’ closing the door behind her. Brent grins lopsidedly at me. “Well then. Guess it’s up to us to forge ahead. Are we starting with light or dark frosted?”
Chapter 26 – Brent
I hadn’t really expected Amelia to show up. Honestly, I could barely believe that I’d even invited her along. What the hell was I doing, mixing someone I’d just met up in this whole “faux wedding” thing I had going? I don’t know, and I don’t really care - because what I do know is that I like having her around. It’s like having a “friend with benefits” that’s all benefits!
“Oh man, you have got to taste this marble cake, Amelia.” I gulp from my glass of milk and point at the cake in question. “It’s like a black and white joyride.”
“A black and white joyride, huh?” Amelia regards me over a bite of chocolate cake that looks almost as good as she does. “This one has raspberry filling. Beat that.”
“Who wants fruit in their cake?” I shoot back, rolling my eyes.
“What? Are you joking? That’s like saying you don’t like jelly donuts!” Amelia laughs, then stops. “Wait. Oh my god, you hate jelly donuts.”
“They squirt everywhere!”
“Since when does a man have a problem with squirting?” she sticks her tongue out at me and laughs again.
I laugh along with her, feeling myself relax. She actually wants to be here.
“So, this wedding stuff…nonrefundable, huh?” Amelia gazes at me across the table, and the cake sours just a bit in my mouth.
“Yup.” I nod. “Figuring that out was almost as fun as having to message all my relatives on Facebook to let them know the wedding was off. At least all of them couldn’t insist on still coming, though.”
“See, it’s not all bad.” Amelia tugs the straps of her dress, readjusting just a bit. “I didn’t mean to pry. It’s just…funny, you know? We’re both in the same situation, just opposite sides of it.”
“How do you figure that?”
“All the wedding stuff I planned - it’s not mine anymore, let’s leave it at that - and you’re stuck with all these things that your ex-fiancée probably picked, yeah?”
“Pretty much. That’s very intuitive of you.”
She grins. “I’m a lawyer. Being intuitive is my day job.”
“I’ve wondered why I even hang onto it like this,” I admit, because at this point Amelia has the effect of being some sort of truth serum on me, for some reason. “I certainly have plenty of money to just forget about it and walk away from these contractual entanglements. It’s what I should do.”
“But what someone should do is often easier said than done,” she says.
A knock on the door, and Bri’s head pokes in. “Sorry to disturb you, but I just wanted to drop off these images of some cake designs you’d asked about through email, Kelly.”
Amelia frowns, confusion on her face - and then the lines smooth out as she takes the folder from Bri with a smile. “Of course! Thank you so much.”
Bri smiles right back. “Let me know if you need anything else, okay? I’ll just be out front.” The door closes behind her, and Amelia turns to me, folder still in hand.
“So, Kelly, huh?”
I nod, halfway between bemusement and worry.
“Okay then. Let’s see what Kelly thought about cake. You didn’t break up because she liked jelly donuts instead
of cake, did you?”
For just a second, I hear Kelly’s actual voice in my head. “I’m sorry. Actually, you know what? I’m not sorry. That’s not good enough for me. This isn’t the life I had planned or wanted. Thought I was marrying a tech investor, not a fucking illustrator.”
She’d had a point. I’d done a complete turnaround. I just hadn’t been expecting her to not want to do it with me. To support me in what made me happy. I know she wasn’t the one for me – and I’m so glad to have found Amelia, who doesn’t seem to care what I do for a living. She genuinely seems to like me for whoever I am or truly want to be. And I’m beginning to realize it’s mutual. Yikes.
“Brent?” Amelia’s staring at me, and I realize I’ve been silent for a good thirty seconds now.
I blink, hard. “Shit. Sorry. Just got lost on my train of thought there.”
Amelia moves to open the folder - but a little to my own surprise, I stop her. “Wait. Let’s not.”
“Not what?”
“Worry about what she picked. I know that part of this is about getting back at our exes - and it is, don’t get me wrong – I’m sure they’d be super jealous if they were here to see us enjoying the things they thought we wouldn’t get to - but I’d rather we did that by having fun on our own, than make everything all about them the whole time, you know?”
Amelia pauses. “Okay. Sure.” She tosses the folder onto a chair, and turns back to me. “I get it. The last thing I want to do here is talk about my ex, either.”
I nod, but I’m afraid I ruined the whole thing. I think Amelia can tell, because she speaks up again. “Hey. I’m having a really good time.”
“I’m glad. Me too.”
“Good. Oh, hold still. You’ve got a little something on your—” she runs her finger across my cheek - a finger that, unbeknownst to me until just now - is covered in chocolate frosting.
