Cupcake Explosion

by Bethany Lopez

  I stood up, popped the last bite in my mouth, then rounded her desk to pull her into a hug.

  “Don’t go radio silent for that long again,” I ordered. “I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you too,” Amy May said, squeezing me harder. “How’s everything going with the wedding?”

  “On track, other than the fact that the groom is gone.”

  She pulled back and asked, “What?”

  “It’s nothing, Cade’s just away on club business. He said he’d be off the grid for a while, but promised to be back in time for the wedding.”

  “Oh, okay, then he will be.”

  Amy May loved Cade. Sometimes I thought maybe more than me, like, if we ever broke up, she’d probably take his side. If he told her he could walk on water, she’d believe it.

  “You still good to go dress shopping this weekend?” I asked.

  “I can’t wait. I’m so excited to find something pretty to wear, and to find the perfect dress for you.”

  “And, the cake . . . all good there?”

  She narrowed her eyes.

  “Are you fishin’ for clues?”

  “Nope,” I said, holding up my hands in surrender. Even though that’s exactly what I’d been doing. I couldn’t help it, I wanted to know. “I trust you.”

  “Good,” Amy May said, then looked away and bit her lip. “Would I be a total chicken shit if I asked you to go with me to Cynthia’s to apologize . . . since you know her and all?”

  “Nah, I’d be happy to go with you. Now?”

  “May as well, while I’ve got the courage . . . and you to hold my hand.”

  Amy May told Jordan she’d be back, then we walked down the street to Cynthia’s Coffee and Books. When we walked inside, the smell of coffee filled the air, and I heard the telltale tinkling of Cynthia’s bracelets as she approached us.

  “Good morning, Lila,” Cynthia said with a smile.

  “Hey, Cynthia, I don’t think you’ve been formally introduced. This is Amy May, my best friend and the fabulous owner of Amy May’s Bakery.”

  “It’s lovely to finally meet you, Amy May,” Cynthia said, reaching out to grasp Amy May’s hand in both of hers. “I just love your bakery and have heard wonderful things from Lila about you.”

  “You’re very kind,” Amy May replied, her cheeks getting red. “I really want to apologize for making a scene in your shop the other day. It was completely unprofessional, and not the way I want to treat a fellow business owner.”

  “Think nothing of it,” Cynthia said kindly. “It’s in the past. In fact, there’s another reason why I’ve wanted to meet you, other than mutual friends. I have a business proposition for you.”

  “You do?” Amy May asked, surprised.

  “Yes, why don’t you come with me. We can have a seat, I’ll have coffee brought over, and we can discuss.”

  “Oh, I ah, have to get going; you good, Amy May?” I asked, not wanting to leave her, although I knew she’d be fine with Cynthia and whatever proposition she’d thought up.

  “Yeah, I’ll see you later.”

  “Great. Bye, Cynthia.”

  “Don’t forget your coffee, Lila,” Cynthia said with a smile, then led Amy May away.

  I watched them for a minute, pleased at the turn of events and hopeful that this meant we could all be friends and an epic night out was in my future, then I went to fuel up so I could get on with my day.

  I’D RECEIVED AN email from overseas last night. There’s a young man deployed with the military, and he’s afraid his wife is stepping out on him while he’s away.

  This, of course, set my blood to boiling. Not only did I hate cheaters, and love nailing their asses to the wall, but it takes a special kind of asshole to cheat on their husband while he’s deployed and serving our country.

  I drove out of town and into The Heights. Phillips, the soldier who’d contacted me, and his wife lived in Florida, but she was here staying with family while he was away.

  I parked a couple houses down and waited. This part of the job could be tedious, and often required patience, and a few outings before I ever got any evidence, but it was a necessary evil.

  This was what I used to do for Moose, when he was the PI and I was just his investigative photographer, which I now know was a fancy word for assistant. Or, grunt. As in, I did all of the grunt work, while he sat back in the office and did mostly paperwork and took calls.

  As I waited, my eyes trained on Mrs. Phillips’ parents’ house, I wondered if maybe it was time for me to hire an investigative photographer.

  I was making enough money, and I wouldn’t mind freeing up some of my time and letting someone else handle the grunt work for a change.

  I took out my phone and opened the Notes, and started making a pro con list.

  After about thirty minutes, I had fifty pros and three cons, so I figured I was on the right track. I looked up to see the garage door opening and a silver Hyundai pulling out. The driver looked to be a female around twenty-five or so, and fit the description of the spouse, so I pulled out and followed a few car lengths behind.

  We drove into Greenswood and parked at the open lot downtown.

  Mrs. Phillips was wearing a pretty floral maxi dress, with her dark hair pulled back and long dangly earrings. I kept my phone in my hand, pretending to be preoccupied, while keeping her in my peripheral.

  I was surprised when she stopped and turned to go into the library. I waved at Clare, the lady at the desk, when I walked inside. When I worked for Moose, I’d often used the library as my pseudo office and had spent many a day with Clare shaking her head and telling me to keep it down.

  For old times’ sake, I shouted, “Hey, Clare!” and grinned when she held her finger to her lips and replied, “Shhhh.”

  I shuffled through the aisles, keeping an eye on my perp as I moved.

  When she walked to the counter with a couple books, checked out, and turned to leave, I was left feeling a bit disappointed.

  I’d been hoping for something scandalous to happen between the stacks, but, alas, it appeared we were only here to check out books.

  Still, that didn’t mean she wasn’t cheating, so I waved at Clare again and headed out in pursuit of Mrs. Phillips.

  I followed her to the Greenswood Boutique, Target, and the grocery store, before she finished her errands and turned her Hyundai back to The Heights. I decided to take a break from following the oh-so-boring Mrs. Phillips, and try again Friday night.

  The twins were staying with Eric and his fiancée, Mary, this weekend, so I’d have more freedom to get the dirt on the wayward spouse.

  As I started home, I grabbed my phone and dialed Carmen.

  “Go for Carmen,” she answered, and I knew she was busy at work and hadn’t bothered to check to see who was calling.

  “Hey, it’s Lila.”

  “Hi,” she replied, her tone switching from businesslike to warm. “How’s it going? You know, I’ve been meaning to call you after that stuff at the coffee shop with Amy May. I hope she’s not too upset. I tried calling her, but she didn’t answer, so I sent her a few texts. Bea hasn’t heard from her either, and I have to say, that makes me nervous. I don’t like it when people are mad at me.”

  I waited for her to take a breath, then seized my opportunity to speak and said loudly, “Want to come to dinner tonight?”

  “What? Oh, yeah . . . at your place?”

  “Yuppers.”

  “Sounds fun. I’ll come over after work. Need me to bring anything?”

  “Just your cutie patootie.”

  Carmen snickered and said, “Okay, I’ll see you later.”

  “Later.”

  I plotted out how to approach Carmen as I drove, my thoughts flitting to Cade and what he was doing, before I made myself stop thinking about it. He was a grown man, who got things done and lived like a badass. He was going to be fine.

  As I walked into my house, the dogs came running to great me, and I may have given
Rufus an extra-long hug, because I knew he was missing Cade, too.

  “Were you guys good?” I asked the dogs as I let Rufus go and gave CB a pet. “No accidents, didn’t tear shit up?”

  I walked through the downstairs to make sure they hadn’t left me any surprises, we closed off the stairs with a baby gate when we were gone, then let the dogs out back to do their business.

  I gave them each a treat for being good when I let them back in, then went to scour the cupboards to see what I had to offer Carmen for dinner.

  “Shit, I need to go grocery shopping,” I muttered, then grabbed the phone and grabbed a coupon off the fridge for pizza delivery.

  “HEY, GUYS,” CARMEN said as she walked into the kitchen.

  “Hi, Carmen,” Lena replied.

  “Hey,” Elin chimed.

  Carmen looked great as usual, her long, caramel-colored hair falling down her back. She was dressed casually, in jeans and a blouse, with a long colorful kimono completing the outfit.

  Rufus and CB pushed their heads into her hands in greeting, and Carmen laughed happily as she gave them each attention.

  Suffice it to say, Carmen was a big hit in our house.

  We’d only known each other for almost a year, much less time than I’d known Amy May and Bea, but her cheerful disposition, easygoing attitude, and sweet manner made her a welcome addition to our lives.

  “I hope pizza’s okay,” I said, feeling guilty that I invited her over, then didn’t give her a home-cooked meal.

  “Pizza’s always okay,” she said with a grin, crossing to give me a quick hug before pulling back and asking, “How can I help?”

  “Uh, there’s not much . . .” I began.

  “Can I set the table?” Carmen asked quickly, her words spilling over each other. “I love to set the table, but don’t really need to at home, since it’s just me. I usually just eat out of the carton, or bag, rather than make a fuss. I’ll do the dishes.”

  I looked to the kids, who were looking at Carmen like she was cracked, but since Lena was on dish duty this week, she was quick to say, “Sure, I’ll show you where everything is.”

  “Yay,” Carmen cheered, then followed Lena to the linen closet.

  I looked at Carmen, her comment about eating alone every night causing a pain in my heart. It had been so long since I’d been a single woman with no kids, that I often took for granted, and even complained about the fact, that I was rarely alone. Sure, it was nice to get some alone time, to do what I wanted without having to worry about pleasing everyone else, but I wouldn’t want to be by myself all the time.

  This was why I needed to convince her to give Bran another shot. He probably spent his evenings eating alone at the kitchen counter, too. Of course, he was probably eating salad, or baked chicken and steamed veggies, but still . . . it would be better if they were sharing their meals with each other.

  I chuckled as Carmen laid out placemats and napkins, then set up the place settings. When she grabbed the vase of flowers off the entry table and placed them in the middle, I thought, Okay, I need to invite Carmen over more often.

  “What do you want to drink, Lila? Wine? How about you guys?” she asked the kids.

  “I’ll get the wine,” I offered. “You want?”

  “Yes, please.”

  “I’ll have milk.”

  “Me, too.”

  Carmen poured milk into glasses for the kids and I uncorked the wine for us.

  When we were all seated around the table, our slices of pizza on my square white plates, Carmen grinned at me and said, “This is nice.”

  “It is,” I agreed, then we all dug in.

  We asked the kids about school and talked a bit about the wedding, but it wasn’t until the kids were off doing homework, the table was cleared, and the dishes were done, that Carmen and I took our wine to out back to sit at my patio furniture while the dogs ran around.

  “So, I have a couple things to run by you,” I began, laughing as CB nipped at Rufus’s legs as he tried to get away from her.

  “Shoot.”

  “Okay, well, first, I’ve been thinking about hiring someone on . . . to do some of what I did when I worked for Moose, but to also help with paperwork and stuff. I don’t want to totally step back from doing investigative work, but it would be nice not to do it all myself.”

  “Done,” Carmen said, sitting up and looking at me, her face full of excitement. “Look no further, I’m your girl.”

  “Really?” I asked with a laugh. “What about your job?”

  “Most of the work I do for the Gazette, I can do from home. I usually just go into the office because I like being around everyone. The patch I gave over to the new guy, and the blog I do in my free time for fun. If I don’t have time to do post, it’s no problem, or I can schedule ahead,” she said, clasping her hands together pleading. “You know I love working with you, and I think we work well together. I’m happy to do anything you need . . . organize, write reports, take pictures of people being bad, whatever.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that,” I admitted. “I think you’d be perfect for the job. You have experience investigating, doing research, and the few times you’ve gone with me on a case, we haven’t gotten in too much trouble.”

  “Yay!” Carmen exclaimed. “I’m so excited. When do I start?”

  “It doesn’t have to be right away, you can take whatever time you need to get things settled at work. You let me know when you’re ready and we’ll figure it out.”

  Carmen did a little dance in her seat, then picked up her wine and settled back.

  “What’s the other thing?” she asked.

  “Huh?”

  “You said you had a couple things to run by me. The job is one thing, what’s the other?”

  “Oh, uh,” I took a sip of wine and hoped she didn’t think I was overstepping when I said, “I want you to give Bran another shot.”

  “What?” she asked, sitting back up and putting her glass on the table. “But, I told you, Lila, our date was awful. Like, awkward with a side of boring, and a dash of why are we doing this.”

  “I know, but after talking to you, and now having spoken with Bran, I really think the problem is that you’re both putting each other on this pedestal, that is so high and lofty that no one could ever live up to it. You were both nervous, and crazily think that the other person is too good for you, when in reality, you guys are both amazing, kind, funny, hot as hell, people.”

  “I don’t know . . .”

  “Look, what if you guys just talked, over coffee or something, and were totally honest about the reasons you’re nervous. I could even come along, to act as a buffer, and, if things go bad, we can all go our separate ways. And by that, I mean I’ll still be friends with both of you, but I won’t try and fix you up with each other anymore . . . deal?”

  Carmen thought for a moment, then sighed and said, “Fine, it’s a deal. But you have to be there.”

  She frowned, and I knew it was because she’d really liked him and had been extremely disappointed when their date hadn’t worked out. But, that was also why I knew if I could just get them together and get past the awkward stage, things would be great.

  They liked each other. They belonged together. And I wasn’t going to be happy until they both realized it.

  “HAVE FUN WITH your dad,” I called cheerfully to the twins.

  Elin turned and waved, but Lena just kept walking without so much as a goodbye.

  Sigh.

  Not sure what the night would bring, I decided to dress like I was going out for a nice dinner, but not go overboard, like I was going clubbing.

  Once I was ready, I blew kisses to the dogs and headed out to Mrs. Phillips’ parents’ place. Once there, I pulled into a different spot a couple houses down and kept my gaze on the house.

  While I was waiting, I started a couple games of Words with Friends with Bea and Shannon. They always beat me, but I was determined to win one of these days.

 
; I was trying to figure out how to incorporate my Z, Q, and V into a word, when the silver Hyundai pulled out of the garage.

  “Go time,” I muttered to myself, then eased behind her and followed her into Greenswood to Jake’s Bar and Grill. We parked, and I gave her a few seconds to get inside, before I turned off my van and went in after her.

  Jake’s was pretty busy, it was Friday night, and Greenswood didn’t have a large social scene. You either went to Jake’s, the Stagger In, or, my favorite place, the Tapas bar in The Heights.

  Not wanting to look suspicious, I headed to the bar and took an empty stool, which had a pretty good view of the dining area. I surveyed the scene until I saw the familiar dark head seated in a two-top by the wall.

  She was once again in a maxi dress, this time in navy blue, and was seated across from an attractive gentleman.

  “What can I get ya?” the bartender asked.

  I hadn’t had dinner yet, but the sight of my perp with a man who she was probably cheating on her husband with took away my appetite.

  “I’ll have your house red and that chocolate lava cake you got,” I said.

  Okay, so my appetite wasn’t totally gone. I had room for cake.

  I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I didn’t need to. I’d follow them if, and when, they left, and get what I needed later. I did, however, pick up my phone and act like I was taking a selfie, when I was really taking a picture of their table. You could only see the back of her head and profile, but it was enough to tell it was her, but you could see his face perfectly.

  I thanked the bartender when he placed my wine and the lava cake in front of me. As I put the fork into the soft cake and the fudge spilled out, I flashed back to the first time I’d had lava cake here. I had just met Cade, we’d only had one date, and I’d had a couple chance encounters with a member of a Mexican drug cartel, although I didn’t realize it at the time.

  The memory brought a smile to my lips, and a pang to my chest.

  I missed Cade, and I hated that I couldn’t even call or text him.

  Feeling melancholy, I dove into the lava cake and tossed back the wine, finishing both in record time.