Sugar And Spice (Holidays: Valentine)

by Charlotte French

  “Teach me your ways, Jedi master,” he said.

  Again, Crissy showed Pete how to make three different types of mousse and layer them in tall glasses for the best looking effect. She handed him fresh raspberries and a can of whipped cream.

  “Don’t hold back now,” she said.

  He poured whipped cream in until it towered over the rim of the glass. Crissy handed him the raspberries and he placed them on top.

  “That’s all I’ve got for you,” she said. “The rest is in your court now.”

  Pete took in a deep breath. “Here goes nothing, I guess.”

  As Crissy helped Pete transfer the dirty dishes to the sink, she saw a flash of dark blue out of the corner of her eye. Quinn stood in the doorway of the kitchen, arms crossed, a slight smile on his face, still wearing his dark blue polo shirt and black cargo pants.

  “How long have you been standing there?” she demanded.

  He crossed the room and kissed her forehead. “A few minutes. Enough to know Pete has been taking advantage of my girlfriend’s talents.”

  “He needed help,” Crissy said. “I was happy to do it.”

  “She saved my butt, Q,” Pete said. “I owe her big time.”

  “You bet you do,” Quinn teased. “Are you two almost done? I’d like to show Crissy something.”

  Pete waved him off. “Go, go. We just finished up.”

  Quinn took Crissy’s hand and led her towards the kitchen door.

  “Good luck tonight, Pete,” she called over her shoulder. “And let me know how everything tastes.”

  Quinn held Crissy’s jacket out for her and she slipped it on. He pulled her outside into the biting cold wind and she huddled against his shoulder.

  “Where are you taking me?” she asked. “And if you say it’s a surprise, I might cause you physical harm again.”

  “You do pinch hard,” he replied. “Not sure if I want to risk that again or not but…. it’s a surprise.”

  Crissy groaned and playfully nipped at his shoulder. They headed south, past the fire station, and as they passed the coffee shop, Quinn shifted and covered Crissy’s eyes.

  “No peeking,” he said.

  “But…”

  “Nope.”

  She inched forward as Quinn kept his hands over her eyes, guiding her steps. He pulled his hands away and pointed to a little house with blue shutters and worn out window boxes attached to the two front windows.

  “Good news,” he said. “I will no longer be sleeping on my sister’s couch with four goblin children crawling all over me in the morning.”

  “This is yours?”

  He nodded. “The payment still has to be finalized and I don’t have the keys yet. But I’ll have a little place of my own now.”

  “Is the kitchen any good?”

  Quinn laughed and shook his head. “I should have known you would ask that. There’s a window around the back. You can look inside if you want to.”

  Crissy squeezed his hand and hurried around the back of the house. She peered in the window. The kitchen was small, perfect for one person to move around in, cozy for two people. The stove would need a good clean but at least Quinn wouldn’t be living with nothing but a microwave. Crissy returned to the street where Quinn waited, his hands tucked in his coat pockets and a smile on his face.

  “Did it pass inspection?” he asked, holding his arm out to her.

  She stepped under his arm and tucked herself in against his side, sliding her hand inside his coat, searching for warmth.

  “I did,” she replied. “Will you have a house warming party?”

  “As long as you break in the stove for me. I’d like my guests to be greeted by the welcoming feel good smell of apple turnovers.”

  Crissy tipped her head back to look up at him, one eye squinted shut as she thought about it. “I don’t know,” she said. “Might cost you.”

  “Definitely worth it,” he said, pulling her in tighter to kiss her warm again.

  ***

  The lunch rush on Friday had Crissy completely overwhelmed, lost in a cloud of flour as she whipped together fresh batches of croissants and French bread rolls and pastries as fast as they flew off the shelves. The phone rang and Crissy didn’t look up, didn’t hesitate as she carefully spooned lemon meringue into tart cups. The phone continued to ring and Crissy bit back a growl of frustration.

  “Amy can you get that?” she called.

  Amy didn’t reply. Crissy sighed and set her bowl aside to answer the phone.

  “You’re seeing someone?” Her mother’s voice was a shriek, high pitched and tight with indignation.

  Crissy gritted her teeth. She couldn’t deal with this right now. She had people to feed and she couldn’t fall behind.

  “Yes, Mom,” she said, forcing herself to be calm. “I am.”

  “Well you have to break up with him.”

  Crissy laughed despite herself. “That’s not going to happen.”

  “I already have a date for you for Andrea’s wedding. What am I going to tell him? That I lied?”

  Crissy stifled a groan. Thank god she could dodge that nightmare at least.

  “I’m sure you’ll think of something. I’m not dumping him, Mom.”

  “After all the trouble I went through to get you a date? I didn’t have to do that you know. You should be more grateful.”

  “Okay well, Mom, I have to go. I’m busy right now.”

  “You think I’m not? You act so self-righteous, like you’re so much better than me or your sister. And I won’t…”

  Crissy hung up. It happened so fast, she didn’t realize she had done it until she saw the phone hanging on the wall again, nestled in its cradle.

  “Holy shit.”

  Crissy turned to see Amy standing in the kitchen, an empty tray dangling from her fingertips, her eyes wide.

  “Did you just hang up on your mother?” she asked.

  Crissy looked at the phone. It screamed to life again but she didn’t answer it, didn’t even feel that usual guilty urge pestering her to be a good daughter and make up to her mother.

  “Yes,” Crissy said. “I did.”

  Amy’s face lit up and she cackled. “Oh, sugar, you are in so much trouble now.”

  Crissy glanced at her, concerned, until she saw the way Amy was practically vibrating with happiness. Crissy pressed a hand to her mouth and she let out a little laugh.

  “I hung up on my mother,” she said, almost giddy.

  “I am so freakin’ proud of you,” Amy said, pulling Crissy into a suffocatingly tight hug.

  “We probably shouldn’t answer the phone for the rest of the day,” Crissy muttered into Amy’s shoulder.

  Amy nodded. “I’d say that’s a pretty good idea.”

  Crissy returned to the meringues she had abandoned. The phone rang again and again, endlessly and angrily, for five minutes straight. Then it went silent. Crissy kept sneaking glances at it, waiting for it to ring again for the rest of the day. No doubt there would be a slew of furious text messages on her phone later. But she wasn’t going to read them. Ever.

  She should have hung up a long time ago.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Crissy’s cell phone was riddled with missed calls and text messages from her mother for three days straight. And Crissy deleted every single one without reading or listening to any of them. Every time she hit the delete button, a mixture of relief and dread tightened in her stomach. This wasn’t going to end well. She had the distinct, nasty feeling that it was only going to get worse before it got any better, too, which was not a comforting thought in the least.

  After the third day of her phone ringing endlessly, it went silent. Terribly, terribly silent. She groaned and threw herself into making tiramisu, letting the scents of espresso, cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar ease her mind.

  By the end of the week, with Quinn’s family dinner taking up more and more of her thoughts, Crissy hardly worried anymore about what her mother had in store
for her. It would come eventually, like a hurricane, shredding everything in her path. But Crissy had been through similar storms for as long as she could remember and they didn’t really scare her all that much anymore. They passed eventually and her mother would move onto a new complaint to rage about.

  At the end of the day on Friday, Crissy closed the shop early and slid a plate of fresh raspberry macaroons over to Amy. Her eyes lit up.

  “I smell bribery,” she said.

  “That’s exactly what it is,” Crissy replied. “Will you do my hair? Quinn will be here in an hour.”

  Amy picked up the plate and headed for Crissy room. “Like you even have to ask, sugar. Get your cute butt upstairs.”

  Crissy settled on her bed, tucking her legs up underneath her. Amy sat behind her, carefully smoothing out Crissy’s curls and pinning them into place.

  “Nervous?” Amy asked. “I seem to recall the last time I did your hair for a certain special outing, you were a bundle of jitters.”

  Crissy paused, searching. “That feels like a lifetime ago.”

  “Hard to believe it’s only been a few months.”

  “I’m a little nervous, I guess. Just because I’ll be meeting the rest of his family and I want to make a good impression but I’m not jittery like I was before.”

  Amy hummed. “That’s what happens when you’ve got those big hearts in your eyes all the time around Quinn. You seem much more…comfortable now.”

  Crissy laughed a little at that thought. “Considering our bumpy beginning. Sometimes I wonder how we even made it this far.”

  “Is that doubt I hear?”

  “No,” Crissy hurried to reply.

  “I hope not. Because if it is, better smack that ugly bastard down. Don’t start second guessing now. You’ve got a good thing going.”

  “I’m not second guessing. It just feels…like a dream. Like I’ll wake up at any moment and it’ll be over. You know?”

  Amy blew out a breath and nodded. “Yes.”

  Crissy raised her eyebrows and turned to look at her. “You do?”

  Amy widened her eyes. “You’re not the only one who wonders if their relationship will make it through or not. Manny and I are human after all.”

  Crissy hesitated then asked, very quietly, “Is there something going on that I don’t know about?”

  “Nope.”

  “Amy…”

  “I swear, there isn’t, sugar. All I’m saying is that I know what it’s like to wonder if the happy dream bubble will burst. That’s perfectly normal for everyone.”

  “But you don’t seem like the kind of person to ever even think that, let alone be worried about it.”

  Amy sighed dramatically and crawled around to face Crissy.

  “It’s the baby,” she said. “Manny is over the moon. I haven’t seen him happier…ever. He won’t stop smiling. He won’t stop helping around the apartment.” She held up a hand. “I am so not complaining about that by the way.”

  Crissy frowned. “Amy, that sounds like a good thing.”

  “It is, sugar, believe me. But having a baby changes so much. My parents were separated for three years after I was born. Your parents completely broke up after you came along.”

  Crissy grimaced and Amy matched her expression.

  “Sorry,” she said. “Didn’t mean to bring that up.”

  “It’s…okay. It happened. I was too young to have it affect me anyway. So you’re worried that having the baby will make Manu…not love you anymore?”

  Amy winced and fiddled with the pool of bobby pins on Crissy’s bed.

  “When you put it that way, it sounds way too simple and much worse than when it was in my head,” she said quietly.

  Crissy said nothing. She didn’t know what to say. Amy so rarely doubted herself or her relationship with Manu that it felt strange, hearing these words come out of her mouth.

  “You could say something, sugar,” Amy said in a fake tone of annoyance. “I know you’re dying to.”

  “But…how?” Crissy asked.

  Amy blinked, surprised. “What? What do you mean, how?”

  “Every time I look at you and Manu, all I can think is that the two of you are impossibly perfect. If there were ever two people absolutely made for each other, it would be the two of you. And that’s only supposed to exist in fairy tales and movies. But I see that in you and Manu.”

  Tears welled up in Amy’s eyes. “You never told me that before.”

  Crissy shrugged, picking at the blanket on her bed.

  “It kind of made me a little jealous I guess,” she said. “Even if the baby does change things between you and Manu, I think you’ll find a way to work it out. You’ve always been unstoppable, especially when it comes to people you care about. And Manu is so lost on you. I can’t imagine him even looking at another woman.”

  Amy flapped her hands and she turned her head up towards the ceiling.

  “Cristina Atwood,” she said in a stern tone. “Don’t you dare make me cry.”

  Crissy snorted. “You’re the one who wanted to suffer through raging pregnancy hormones. You looked about ready to cry over my macaroons earlier.”

  “That’s because they’re so beautiful. Now stop teasing me and let me finish your hair already.”

  Crissy obediently turned around but just as Amy started pinning her hair again, her phone buzzed on her bedside table. Amy glanced at it, uneasy.

  “Your mom is still calling?” she asked. “It’s been at least a week.”

  Crissy groaned and grabbed the phone, ready to stuff it into her drawer. “I’m thinking about changing my number. I can’t carry my phone with me everywhere when she’s calling like this. I’d never answer it. And then you would call with some big emergency and I’d ignore it and I’d feel awful…”

  “Changing your number might not be a bad idea actually,” Amy replied.

  The phone buzzed again and the screen lit up with Andrea’s name in bold letters.

  “Oh, that’s so much worse,” Amy said. “Don’t. You are going out tonight and you do not need her in your head.”

  “Part of me knows your right, but there’s another part of me that knows my sister is the most tenacious person on the planet. That’s why she’s so good at her job. She won’t call as much as Mom will.”

  “Good, then ignore her and she’ll go away.”

  “That’s…not Andrea’s way. If I don’t call her back within a day, she’ll show up here.”

  “Oh god,” Amy groaned. “Oh god, no. Not again.”

  “I know.”

  “Well, answer it tomorrow. After your dinner.”

  Crissy tapped her phone on her bed. “I’d rather fend her off now. Before she gets an early start and winds up sitting on my doorstep at some unholy hour of the morning.”

  Amy growled and jabbed a pin into Crissy’s hair. Crissy winced and shied away.

  “Okay,” Crissy said. “That’s enough for you. Finish your macaroons, Mother Bear.”

  Amy made a grab for the phone but Crissy held it at arm’s length.

  “Let me make the call,” Amy said, holding her hand out.

  Crissy laughed. “No way in hell. Sorry.”

  Amy pouted and wriggled into Crissy’s pillows, settling the plate of macaroons on her stomach.

  “Fine,” she said. “But I’m listening to every word and if she gets bitchy, I’m giving you to the count of five. If you haven’t hung up on her by then, I’m doing it myself.”

  “I can’t hang up on my family after every conversation, Amy,” Crissy said.

  “Yes you can. Until they start being nice to you for a change.”

  “You just want to see me hang up again. You got way too much excitement out of it last time.”

  Amy grinned. “I did. It was gorgeous. Do it again. Make me happy, sugar.”

  Crissy shook her head. “You’re impossible. And I’m taking this call downstairs.”

  Amy shrugged. “Take it wherever you wan
t. I’ll still find out.”

  “I’m sure you will.”

  Crissy left her apartment and returned to the comfort of her kitchen. She leaned back against the counter, the oven still warm from the cookies she had baked earlier. Slowly, she ran her thumb over her phone. This conversation wasn’t going to be pretty, she knew that. This was the retaliation she had been waiting for.

  Before she could give it another second of thought, Crissy called Andrea back.

  “Mother is very upset,” Andrea said.

  Crissy laughed a little. “Of course she is. I am too.”

  “You have no right to be upset. You hung up on her. You hurt her.”

  Crissy gritted her teeth. “I have every right to be upset. She wanted me to break up with my boyfriend and I wouldn’t do it and suddenly I’m the villain? I don’t think so.”

  “She found a date for you for my wedding,” Andrea shot back. “That was very selfless of her, you know.”

  “But I already had a date and she didn’t even ask. I’m not going to break up with someone I care about just because she wants me to go to your wedding with another guy.”

  “How do you know this guy wouldn’t be a better fit for you?” Andrea replied. “Mother knows what’s best for us and…”

  “No,” Crissy cut in. “She doesn’t. And if you’re going to call and tell me that I have to break up with Quinn, it’s not going to happen.”

  “I’m calling because you should apologize to Mother. You’re ignoring her. You’re not returning her calls. She is beside herself and I have to watch it all.”

  Crissy held the phone away from her, marveling that the conversation had gone spinning this far out of control already. She took a deep breath and brought the phone back to her ear again. Andrea was still going.

  “All she ever does is talk about how you won’t talk to her anymore. You’re shunning her because she tried to reach out and make sure you weren’t lonely anymore. She couldn’t understand why you insisted on being alone for so long and frankly, I couldn’t understand it either.”

  “It was my choice,” Crissy said. “I needed time.”

  “Oh, right, after your big dramatic break up.”

  The hang up button was screaming for her attention. Crissy’s thumb twitched towards it.