Next To Me

by Amabel Daniels

  Dancing? Again?

  Karen spoke to us without facing us as she marched toward a low-roofed building. A small maintenance shed, it seemed. “You’ll need to make circuits around the crowds but try not to get stuck in the kids’ area. You’ll never get a chance to get out.”

  Once again, dread filled my gut. I wanted to reach for Mav’s hand. Either for a transdermal transfer of his apparent courage or because I didn’t want to get lost. Karen wasn’t a slow-poke going through the crowds.

  Inside the little shed, she nodded at another woman wearing the same screen-printed volunteer-labeled t-shirt. “Mara, we’ve got a couple here for the last two costumes.”

  “Oh, good.” The freckle-faced redhead pushed glasses up her nose and smiled wide at Mav. “Well, I know who’s going to be the hot dog. How tall are you, anyway?” She tilted her head, maybe trying for a coy look.

  Not too tall I couldn’t climb him. I set my hands on my hips, frankly quite tired of this jealousy bullcrap. When would it ease up?

  “I’ll leave you with her, then.” Karen tossed a wave over her shoulder as she left the shed.

  “Hot dog?” Mav asked.

  “We’ve got costumes to identify sponsors. Friendly faces and mascots to walk around the standing area during the concert.”

  Oh, cool. A concert. Wonder who else will be—

  “And you can be the cupcake.”

  I whipped back to face her. “Huh?”

  “He’s tall enough to pull off the hot dog.” Mara handed over a bundle of tan and brown to Mav, who looked at it with a scrunched-up frown. “So that leaves you with the cupcake.” She turned to pick up an even bigger blob of light-pink and white.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

  She grinned, somehow thinking my sarcasm was just a joke. “At least it’s not a Twinkie.” Her laughs turned meaner. “Or a Ho Ho.”

  “Seriously?” Mav dropped his hand holding his costume to his thigh.

  Screw this. I didn’t need to become a goddamn cupcake. All I had to do was find Felicia out there in the crowd. “Is a woman named Felicia Arlon volunteering somewhere close to us? I just need to speak to her.”

  “Oh, yeah. She’s up near the stage.”

  I turned from Mara, heading for the exit.

  She rushed after me, “Uh, where are you going?”

  You be the goddamn cupcake. “I just need to speak with her for a moment.”

  “You can’t go on stage like that.”

  I huffed. “Like a normal person?”

  “No.” She sneered at me. “If you think you’re special enough to go on or near the stage, everyone will want to sneak up there.”

  I glanced at my watch. Seventeen minutes.

  Mother fuc—

  “Okay then,” I got out from clenched teeth. I stomped back to the costume and snatched it off the table.

  “Would you like a hand getting suited up?” she asked Mav.

  God. Maybe I could slap her once I was incognito in the costume. Cupcakes couldn’t be charged with assault, could they?

  “No,” I growled. “He does not. But I would like some privacy to change.”

  She rolled her eyes at me and backed out of the room.

  Mav took off his shirt and I turned my back on him.

  A goddamn cupcake. The universe was sure getting a kick out of this one. I laid the fabric out on the fold-out table and tried to figure how to get into it. It was so wide there was no way I’d keep it on and resemble a round dessert without a frame to hold it up. Oh. I picked up a small handheld machine. A pump for air. It was inflatable. How precious.

  I stripped down to my tank top and shorts and wiggled into the bodysuit part first. This was no ordinary plastic bubble of a cupcake that someone’s grandma stitched up for the occasion. The bodysuit actually had a pouch over my lower stomach, like the air pump was my baby joey, and the exterior was decorated with beads, shiny trim, and sparkly fabric. We’re talking a boutique-fashioned getup.

  “Of all the stupidest things I’ve done in my life…” I muttered as I dragged the cake bottom up my hips.

  “It doesn’t top this.”

  I twisted at the hips to see Mav. Only, he was gone. A seven-foot-tall hot dog stood behind me, his tan-sleeved arms propping his fists at half of the dog. There wasn’t a faint hum like what my pump had emitted when I’d flipped it on to see how it worked. He must be stuffed in there with foam or whatnot.

  “Wow.”

  He shook his head. Maybe. The cartoonish smiley face basically slid side to side. “Yeah. Wow.”

  I wanted to laugh but the clock behind his head showed eleven minutes to go. Dammit.

  “Well, help me finish mine.”

  Between the two of us, and not a little bit of grunting, I was soon encased in cupcake. The pump hummed and almost cooled me down inside the costume. I couldn’t keep my shorts on underneath the tight fit of the bodysuit, so there I was, in my panties and a tank top, stuffed inside a cupcake.

  “I’d say you’re supposed to be vanilla. Maybe strawberry shortcake,” he said.

  I lunged at him, trying to punch his arm, but my cake body acted as a buffer. You know those inflatable sumo wrestler games? This was the dessert version.

  “Come on. Come on,” he said and backed away. The asshole still chuckled.

  It was hard to hear him, but I caught his laughs. Kind of hard to hear much of anything in here, actually. So I yelled when I wanted him to know, “I’ll go to the stage for Felicia.”

  He nodded, the entire hot dog doing a bow.

  I had to tuck in the costume as I squeezed out through the door and into the crowds. People laughed and pointed at me, wanting selfies with me, but I plowed on to the stage. Bruno Mars was up there, another song playing.

  God, if Violet knew I was this close to one of her favorite idols… As a frigging cupcake. Maybe I could still get an autograph after the ring was gone.

  I scanned the people near the stage, singling out the individuals with the screen-printed t-shirt. There. I spotted her bright-orange sunglasses sitting on top of her head. Like a bumbling bowling ball on a path for pins to knock over, I ran to her.

  “Oh, hey,” she said, laughing as I loomed closer to her. “Cute.”

  “Felicia!” She couldn’t hear me, smiling at me and then looking at the people she was handing out what looked like raffle tickets to.

  “Goddammit.” I pulled the necklace off and removed her ring. Then I reached up for the semi-transparent face of the cupcake, too high for my head to properly line up to, and pulled the material down.

  “Uh, do you need help?” She leaned over to yell at me.

  The cupcake must have looked like a wrinkled, winking old man face, the costume’s face inverted in as I forced the top down. “Felicia. It’s me.” I pressed my face to the screen.

  She stepped closer. “Huh?” Another step closer. “Wait. Aren’t you Richard’s assistant?”

  The woman didn’t even know my name and she’d seen me nearly every day for months. How…pathetic.

  “Yes! He needs me to give this to you.” I reached for a small seam in the cupcake’s mouth and ripped it open with my fingers. Then I poked my arm through, like a snake-tongue.

  “Richard… What?” She reared back at my proffered hand and she took the ring from my fingers. “Oh, cool. Slytherin. I’m a Ravenclaw myself.”

  “What?” No. I snatched my ring back. For God’s sake. I took my necklace off and got her ring. Then I poked my arm out again and handed it to her.

  “Oh.” Her eyes widened. “Oh. From Richard.” She turned the rock around and nodded. “I get it.”

  Oh, yes. You got it. You have the ring.

  “Okay.” She slipped it on and gave me a thumbs-up.

  That was it?

  It was…sad.

  Regardless, I shot my arms in the air inside the cupcake like I’d scored. Felicia had the ring. I turned around, looking for Mav the gigantic hot dog to share a ce
lebratory food hug.

  He was on the opposite end of the stage, between two guards and a crowd of people. A woman, likely drunk by her staggering steps and wasted-like laughing expression, lunged for him and licked the hot dog costume toward his stomach.

  “Oh. Wow.” I blinked away the sweat that threatened to fall in my eye. This pump was more for blowing up this monstrosity than keeping me cool enough to not pass out.

  “Hey, Jerry, let’s see if we can get a taste of this one!” A drunken man called as he walked in a zigzag toward me, his intoxicated buddy falling over in his step. They cracked up and stumbled, spilling their drinks as they approached.

  “Oh, hell no.”

  I wasn’t sure how to return to normal life after giving Felicia the ring, but I was damn well not in the mood to stay in this cupcake for a second longer.

  Bye, Felicia.

  Sixteen

  Mav

  I expelled a long breath as I waited in the terminal’s seating area for my flight back to Orlando. Richard sighed as well from the other end of the phone.

  “So she has the ring.”

  “At exactly four minutes ’til seven, I saw with my own two eyes that Felicia Arlon took your engagement ring from Carly.”

  Dressed as a decadent dessert.

  “Thank God.”

  It seemed my testimony would be enough to satisfy him. “Is that all?”

  “Yes. Now if anyone asks, she’s been in possession and showing intent to marry me before tomorrow morning. So that’s it. If she loses it, that’s on her. Thanks.”

  I snorted. Any time.

  “Carly’s not with you? I figured she’d report in.”

  The last I saw of her, she was trying to get free from a horde of kids. The inflatable costume was serving as a safety precaution from them actually mobbing her. I hadn’t been able to really get to her because I’d encountered my own headache of drunks wanting to lick me and women trying to “stroke” me.

  “Oh. Hang on.” He left the call for a second and returned. “She just texted me that she was flying back to Orlando with Felicia, but I thought she would have called.”

  Ah. So she’d already left. Like the idiot I was, I’d waited for her in that shed we’d gotten dressed in. Even if she was pissed at me, and despite me saying I was “done with her,” I wasn’t evil enough to leave the place without her. Only she hadn’t shown up after an hour since the program ended. Mara made herself clear when she’d said I had to either go home with her or find somewhere else to hang out because they were clearing out the place pronto.

  I hadn’t been able to call or text her until I found a place to charge my phone, which I was doing here at the airport. Seemed hers was working but she didn’t want to contact me.

  Nice.

  I rubbed at my face and sighed as long as I could. It didn’t help to erase my frustration. Nothing would rub out the deep-stinging pain. I didn’t have to worry about her wellbeing now, since she’d so clearly come to the conclusion she was anti-Mav again. But I couldn’t help it. Between the Big Apple and the Colorado mountains, she’d wedged under my skin damned deep.

  And she voted it was nothing more than reacting to unusual excitement.

  It burned. The fact she’d made her plans to return home without me stung even more.

  I couldn’t even get a goodbye? However, there would be no farewell. Just a see you later. Because we’d be reporting in to Young, Inc.’s offices come morning.

  Hours. I had hours to get her out of my system and try to ignore the aching craving she’d instigated in me.

  By tomorrow morning, I’d have to be back to keeping a distance from her. Back to seeing her smiling and being an efficient, good little employee for Richard at the offices. To catching her in the lobby at our building where I’d dream of having something more with her. A dream I’d fallen in love and could never visit again.

  How could I? If she was determined to automatically think everything would be my fault in even the most bizarre of circumstances…

  I snorted as my flight was called.

  I wasn’t a fan of self-torture. It had taken balls to pursue her on that sidewalk, asking her to simply confess her fear of wanting me. And what had she done? Castrated me. I never made the same mistake twice. The night we spent making love in the shitty motel near the forest wasn’t a mistake. But I’d be a fool of a million kinds to try again.

  Seventeen

  Carly

  “It’s actually very cute,” Felicia offered from across the plane from me. Finally, after a whole weekend of flying, I was on Richard’s private plane. Not that I thought I was somebody special as his personal assistant who needed to be pandered to. But it was nice. No other flyers. No…Mav. He should be here.

  When I’d texted Richard that I was flying back with Felicia, he’d said Mav was flying commercial.

  He just couldn’t wait to get away from me. I’d really burned that bridge down. I still refused to believe I was that much of a bitch to him. It fueled a persistent fire of shame on my conscience.

  I laughed once. Get away from me? As if he could. I’d see him tomorrow.

  “Cute?” I asked the younger woman.

  We hadn’t had time to stop for clothes for me, and after sweating through my last shirt in the costume, I was down to the flapper dress and the cupcake. Pink and white lay in a heap on the seat next to me. I scowled at it.

  “Yeah. It’s retro.”

  I inhaled deeply and tuned her out. From the corner of my eye, I saw her plug in her earbuds. We took off and once we were well en-route to Florida, I got my phone out and ensured it was still charging.

  It had died earlier, but now I could check in on what I’d missed. Most importantly, seven calls from Lexi in a row.

  Oh my God! She had the baby!

  I called back, so pissed I wasn’t there for her.

  “Hey!” I said after she picked up.

  “Well, finally…” she drawled.

  I frowned. She sounded too sarcastic. Normal. Not I-just-pooped-out-a-kid exhausted.

  “Where the hell— Oh, my God, Jack. If you’re going to hover, then get over it. The estrogen is making me swear. The kid will be fine!” She huffed and then said to me, “Where the heck have you been?”

  On a trip to heaven and hell. I swallowed. And then I told her all of it. From getting the ring from the disposal, to New York, Nettie and the drag queens, the—shudder—spiders and mud and camping, all the way to Felicia sliding that ring on her finger.

  “Damn—dang, you’ve been busy.”

  I nodded and closed my eyes.

  “Is he any good? He looks like he’d be good.” She growled. “Jack! It doesn’t mean— Jesus Christ. Let me have some girl talk.”

  I laughed lightly. “All the perfect kinds of good.”

  “Hmmm.” She giggled a bit. “So the Count and Lady Rebecca, huh?”

  I grinned. “Yeah.”

  “I’ll make sure to read it for inspiration when I’m ever in the mood to have sex again. If Jack’s going to get all crazy possessive and hover like this every time we have a kid…” She fake-chuckled. “I might do some one-handed reading instead.”

  I rolled my eyes. As if she’d ever give up making love with Jack. They were sickeningly cute together and so damn in love. I couldn’t wait to see them as parents.

  The thought crushed me though, too, because it hit me so hard that I’d given up on… Well. Love. Mav and I might have the hate-love down to pat. Whatever we had, I’d dismissed it.

  “Oh. Whoa.”

  I frowned at the sudden change in her tone.

  “What?”

  “What the fucking hell just happened?” Jack’s yell sounded in the background.

  “Did you just pee your pants?” he yelled, as Lexi repeated, “Oh. Whoa.”

  “Lex?” I held the phone closer.

  “So this is what it’s like when your water breaks.”

  “Alexis!” Jack in the background again. “We have
to go now! Come on!”

  “For fuck’s sake.” Lexi huffed. “It’s not like the baby’s just going to fall out right away now-ow. Ow… Braxton Hicks, my ass!”

  “Okay.” I blinked and gripped my hair. “Okay. You really should go, Lexi. I’ll be there as soon as we land. Just breathe and stay cool.”

  I hung up to Jack and Lexi scrabbling about getting to the hospital. Then I sat back and relaxed into the soft seat.

  “That’s like, legit, the stupidest reason to not be with him.”

  I gaped at the back of the seat in front of me before turning my head.

  Felicia cocked a brow at me and studied me from across the plane.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You’re rejecting him because…” She rolled her hands like she was swimming for the right word.

  I finished it for her. “Because my attraction to him is a distraction I don’t need in my life.” And after a little time, I could forget about how good it felt to be with him. I’d be okay back in my own little comfortable bubble of life. I wasn’t living a crappy life before, right? I didn’t need him. I winced at my weak excuse. Screw needs, I wanted him.

  She scoffed. “What, like it’s a crime to be in love? Being in love is an obstacle to life?” Her elbow slid back on her armrest as she scooted upright, like she was gearing up for her shrink session with me. “Being in love is proof that you’re living it to the fullest.”

  “Says the girl who’s taking a ring from a cupcake to marry a man who can’t ask her himself.”

  With a regal eye roll, she said, “That’s not the same thing. We’re just doing that for some merger BS. And his trust fund stuff.” Wave of her hand. “It’s not like we’re in love.”

  “How can you be so callous about it?” I crossed my arms. “Like it’s a business transaction.”

  “How can you be so blind about it?” She slanted over the aisle more. “Like it’s a hobby you can start and stop.”