THE HEALING HEART

by Zelda Clemens

  Obviously not recognizing the tension behind the expression or the words, Evan smiled even bigger and raised his glass as if to toast his own upcoming nuptials. Patrick picked up his own glass and took a swig.

  "It's going to be great."

  *****

  "What is it that we are supposed to be doing here, again?" Kevin asked.

  Patrick turned off the engine of his car and leaned so he could look over Kevin through the passenger window at Eileen's house. He was now looking at the way she had approached them about getting their help with the wedding planning as a competition and didn't want to give her any more leverage by showing up to their first planning meeting late so now they were sitting in front of her house ten minutes before they were supposed to arrive.

  "I don't know," Patrick said, sitting back. "I've never even been to a wedding much less helped plan one."

  "You've really never been to a wedding?" Kevin asked, sounding surprised.

  Patrick thought back for a few minutes and then shrugged.

  "Actually, yeah, I have. I was six and it was for a distant cousin who I had never met and who I haven't seen since. It was also in her backyard followed by cake and punch in her living room, and I'm fairly certain her new husband then left with all of the guys to go to a bar. So I'm not sure that that would exactly be considered a prime example of a wedding."

  "Sounds about like my family's weddings except you didn't mention any gunfire or the fact that the lighting effects for the reception were provided by the police cars that showed up to break up all of the fights that inevitably broke out by the time the buffet closed down."

  "So do we bail? She probably doesn't even know that we got here yet. We could make a clean getaway."

  Patrick laughed and shook his head.

  "No. I think we have to do this. We owe it to Evan. Besides, as sexy as she is, this Eileen girl can certainly be annoying, and the last thing I want to do is give her any more fuel for acting like that. She seems like she could use somebody putting her in her place a little bit."

  "There are several places that I would like to put her," Kevin muttered.

  Patrick gave a slight grunt of agreement and nodded.

  "You and me both."

  It was getting close to when they were supposed to be at Eileen's house. So they climbed out of the car and started up the long sidewalk to the front door of the house. The house itself was much larger than Patrick anticipated and something about its pristine appearance surprised him. It sounded like a horrible cliché in his mind and he would never have voiced it to anyone else, but he didn't expect Evan to marry into a family that could afford this type of home.

  Patrick rang the doorbell and after a few seconds, Eileen opened the door. She was wearing a long blue dress that swept across bare feet and had her thick blond hair pulled into a messy bun. Even though the look was casual, she was even sexier than when he had met her in the bar. Eileen gestured for them to come inside and both men complied, trying to get through at the same time and then battling briefly to enter first when they realized that they wouldn’t be able to get through the door at the same time.

  "Is this your house?" Patrick asked, immediately regretting the words as they came out of his mouth.

  Eileen glanced over her shoulder at him and gave him a strange look.

  "Yes."

  "You live here alone?" Kevin asked.

  Patrick slid his eyes toward his best friend, silently willing him not to continue the embarrassing course of questioning that he had begun.

  "Yes," Eileen repeated. "It is my house, I own it, and I live here alone. Come on. Everything's in here."

  She crossed the foyer toward an open arched doorway that led into what looked like a pastel-decorated living room. Patrick and Kevin exchanged glances and then followed her. By the time they made it to the living room, Eileen was sitting on a large white leather sofa, her legs tucked under her as she sifted through papers that were spread across a glass coffee table in front of her.

  "This is what I've gotten planned out so far," she said as they walked into the room.

  She hadn't invited them to sit, but Patrick took an overstuffed chair that sat diagonal to the sofa while Kevin perched on the edge of a loveseat opposite across from Eileen. Patrick reached forward and picked up one of the pieces of paper on the table and read it.

  "The ceremony and reception are going to be at a hotel?" he asked.

  Eileen looked up at him.

  "Do you have any other suggestions?"

  "Not really, I just have never been to a wedding at a hotel before."

  Kevin looked at him but Patrick avoided making eye contact with him, knowing that his friend would be covering a laugh at the sincerity in Patrick's voice after learning of the one and only wedding Patrick had ever attended.

  "It doesn’t matter anyway, because with this thing only three weeks away we don't have time to book another venue. I've ordered flowers and am meeting with a caterer tomorrow about dinner."

  "What haven't you done?" Patrick asked.

  "Not much, to be honest. I still need to choose a cake."

  "I can do that," Patrick answered swiftly.

  "Not a lot needs to be done with it. White cake to feed around 50 people. Simple flowers."

  "Really?" Patrick asked. "You want something that boring for the wedding?"

  "It's not boring, it's classic."

  "It's boring. They aren't getting married under conventional circumstances, so why make their wedding cake boring and conventional? They should have something flavored at the very least."

  "Wedding cakes are white."

  "Not always, besides, is there some sort of law that says that all wedding cake have to be white in order for them to be right? I really doubt it."

  "I guess not," Eileen said, not sounding like she was fully conceding, but unable to say anything else.

  "Then let me come up with the flavor."

  "I don't know."

  "I tell you what. I'll go to the bakery and try some out and I'll bring you samples of a few to try and we'll decide."

  He knew that he was putting her in a strange position, and it was exactly the way he wanted it. Eileen wanted all of the power and control of the planning, but at the same time she wanted to force the guys to prove that they were actually going to help her with the wedding. If she refused to let them do anything, she wouldn't have the chance to gloat when they didn't do what they were supposed to do or when they dropped out halfway through the planning. He was making it even worse by offering to allow her to be a part of the decision, at once showing his willingness to be part of the process and taking away any opportunity she would have to say that it was all his fault if they picked a flavor that didn't go over well at the wedding and to say that she should have just done it all on her own.

  This meant that as much as she obviously didn't want to leave a decision that was as important as the wedding cake up to Patrick, he wasn't really giving her a choice. She finally nodded reluctantly and Patrick had to withhold a laugh. Toying with her was proving to be more fun than he would have anticipated.

  "Fine," Eileen said, grabbing a business card from the table. "This is the bakery. Call them tomorrow and set up a tasting."

  "Sounds good," Patrick said, slipping the card into his pocket.

  "Where are they going on their honeymoon?" Kevin asked.

  Eileen looked up at him with a slightly startled expression on his face and Patrick felt proud of his best friend for how smoothly he was able to throw her off of her perfectly organized path with just that one question.

  "I don't know," she replied. "I hadn't thought about that."

  "Well you probably should. After all, you did point out that the wedding is only three weeks away. You don't want them to get to their wedding day and realize that they have no special way of commemorating it together."

  "I guess not."

  "I tell you what," Kevin said, sliding a little closer to the edge so that he could l
ook at her more closely. "I'll take care of arranging the wedding night for them. And if I hit any snags and have questions about what Brandy might like, I’ll let you know and we can make sure that it’s perfect. How does that sound?"

  Eileen hesitated for a moment and then nodded in much the same way that she had after Patrick had offered to work with her to pick out the perfect cake.

  "Sure," she said. "That would be nice."

  She no longer sounded as sure of herself and Patrick found the vulnerability incredibly sexy. He licked his lips and slid a glance over at Kevin, who was looking at Eileen with the same hunger in his eyes.

  *****

  The next weekend Patrick sat in the small bakery that Eileen had selected, watching as a plump middle-aged woman wearing a pink and white striped apron scurried around him placing small silver trays on the table where he sat. Each of the trays held a collection of tiny cakes, the bite-sized treats decorated with delicate-looking sugar flowers in a variety of different colors.

  When she finally finished putting all of the trays in front of him, the woman sat down in the seat across from him with a sigh and a wide smile like she was delighted that she was even able to get all of the trays in place.

  "So," she said, sounding slightly out of breath, "I'm Mary."

  "Hi," he said, trying not to laugh at the strange, somewhat out of context introduction, "I'm Patrick."

  "So nice to meet you, Patrick. So what brings you in for a tasting today? Are you getting married?"

  Mary seemed absolutely thrilled at the prospect that Patrick was planning a wedding, and he almost felt bad shaking his head.

  "No," he said. "I'm helping a friend plan his wedding. He's getting deployed so it is kind of a last minute situation and I volunteered to take care of the cake."

  Mary laughed and pushed one of the silver trays closer to him.

  "I can understand that. This is one of the most fun parts of planning a wedding." Suddenly her face got serious and she gestured at the tiny cakes on the tray. "Now, each of these is a different flavor. I put basic buttercream on all of them so that you can get the truest flavor of the cake. On these trays we have different filling and icing options so that we can put together the best cake for your friend. Do you have any ideas of what he might like?"

  "His fiancée's sister says that we should just have a white cake."

  "That is traditional, of course."

  "But boring."

  Mary gave a chuckle and nodded.

  "But boring," she agreed. "Why don't you start trying them out and point out the ones that you like. I'll make a list and then we can narrow it down as we go through."

  Patrick picked up the first tiny cake and popped into his mouth whole. It was a delicate vanilla flavor, but not much else. He assumed this was the traditional white cake that Eileen suggested. He shook his head at Mary and picked up another. This one had a rich, dark chocolate flavor that contrasted with the soft sweetness of the buttercream. He nodded and Mary jotted a note down on a piece of paper.

  It took several minutes for Patrick to work his way all the way through all of the cake samples and by the time he finished he felt like he wasn't going to be able to eat for the rest of the day. Mary's paper had a list several lines long and she had started a second and third column to write down the fillings and icings that he liked the most. She gave a sigh when she looked at the list and then glanced up at him.

  "Well, now we have to start narrowing it down," she said.

  "Could you tell me which of the flavor combinations go best together?"

  They worked together for a few minutes longer coming up with the best combinations of the different flavors he had selected.

  "We've narrowed it down to five combinations," Mary said when they were finished. "You said on the phone that there will only be around 50 people at the wedding."

  "Yes, it's pretty small since it’s so last minute."

  "Well, that means at most we can do three tiers. You can do a different combination on each tier if you would like, but that means that you need to eliminate two of them."

  Patrick thought about the flavors for a few moments and then thought back to when he told Eileen that he would take over selecting the cake. A smile came to his lips.

  "Do you think that you could make up a few small cakes for me?" he asked.

  "Sure," Mary said. "What would you like?"

  "Could you make me the smallest cake you can of each of these flavor combinations?"

  "Absolutely. Is tomorrow alright for you?"

  "That would be great."

  As he walked out of the bakery Patrick called Eileen.

  "Hello?" she said, sounding like the unfamiliar number on her phone made her uncomfortable.

  "Hi," he said, slipping on his dark sunglasses and starting down the sidewalk of the small shopping center toward a tiny store tucked into the back corner. "What are you doing tomorrow afternoon?"

  *****

  Patrick arrived at Eileen's house the next day exactly on time. He carried a stack of small pink bakery boxes containing the miniature cakes that Mary had made up for him, each tied with a narrow white string and marked with the flavor combination on a scrolled sticker on one side.

  Eileen was already standing at the door when he got up the stairs, but she didn't look as thrilled that he was there as he would have like her to seem. She looked at the stack of bakery boxes and gave a sigh before stepping out of the way and holding the storm door open for him.

  "The kitchen is to the back," she said.

  Patrick walked to the back of the house and placed the stack of boxes on the long grey marble island before dismantling it so that he could open each of them individually. He purposely faced them so that Eileen couldn't see the name of the cake on the sticker or the cake itself when he opened the box.

  "What's in the bag?" she asked, gestured to a small canvas bag he had slung over one forearm.

  "An experiment," he said.

  "What kind of experiment?"

  "I know that you are determined that you want just a traditional cake for the wedding, but I think that you will really like some of the flavors that I picked out. I don't want you to be influenced by their names or what they look like; only by the way that they taste. So…"

  He trailed off and reached into the bag to pull out the black satin blindfold he had purchased the day before after leaving the bakery.

  "A blindfold?" Eileen asked.

  Patrick nodded.

  "This way you can't see anything. You won't get to judge the cakes based on anything other than their flavor, and that will be enhanced by the fact that you won't be able to see. Sit down."

  Eileen hesitated for a second, looking at one of the dark brown chairs tucked neatly under the table in the breakfast nook of the kitchen.

  "Alright," she finally said. "I'll go along with this, but only because I want to get the planning over with, and maybe this will speed it along."

  She sat down and Patrick handed her the blindfold. He watched as she covered her eyes with it and tied it in place behind her head. His belly clenched slightly at the sight of her like that, but he turned his attention back to the boxes of cakes. He took the first, the dark chocolate that he had had Mary combine with an espresso filling and chocolate ganache, and picked up a piece with his fingers.

  "Open your mouth," he instructed.

  Eileen complied and he placed his fingers close enough to her lips that she could feel the cake. She seemed slightly startled to feel his skin, but she allowed him to place the bite onto her tongue and carefully closed her mouth. She let out a soft groan and he felt the tension in his belly increase.

  "That's delicious," she said, licking a bit of the cake off of her bottom lip.

  "Mmmm-hmmmm," Patrick responded. He put the box back onto the counter and picked up the next one. "Now try this one."

  The second cake was vanilla with a strawberry and champagne filling and a champagne buttercream. He let his fingers linger a bit
longer on Eileen's lip as she took the bite, struggling to maintain his control. When he reached the third cake, a lighter chocolate cake with peanut butter filling and buttercream, she took his fingers into her mouth with the bite, letting her tongue sweep between them so that it grazed across his skin as she brought the cake into her mouth.

  Patrick took the final two boxes from the counter and brought them over to the table. He pulled a second chair out from under the table and placed the open boxes onto the cushion. Lowering himself to his knees in front of her, he broke off a piece of the lemon and raspberry cake in the fourth box and brought it to her lips. As she took the bite from his fingers, Patrick leaned forward, applying slight pressure with his chest and stomach on her legs. After a moment she parted them slightly.

  Patrick eased forward so that he was slightly closer to her. Eileen still held his fingers in her mouth as she allowed the cake to dissolve away from them onto her tongue. He drew them out slowly and reached for the last cake. It was a rich spice cake with a nut filling and a rich cream cheese frosting.

  Eileen moaned again as she took the final bite of cake. Patrick eased forward more, pressing against her until she parted her knees so that he could come all the way between them, touching the front of his body to hers. He brought his mouth to her ear.

  "You like this one?" he whispered.

  Eileen nodded and made an affirmative sound.

  "Me, too," Patrick said, letting his lips brush her ear. "It's my favorite. In fact," he whispered, "I'd like another taste of it right now."

  Patrick took his mouth from her ear and brought it to her lips, gliding the tip of his tongue along them to gather the hint of the cream cheese flavor that still lingered on them. She whimpered slightly into his mouth, and Patrick took that as an invitation. Leaning further forward, he cupped his hand around the back of her head and deepened the kiss, coaxing her lips apart with the tip of his tongue so that he could explore her mouth.

  Eileen gave into the kiss, opening her mouth and accepting his tongue inside as she reached forward and flattened her hands on his chest. Patrick placed his other hand around the back of her hips and pulled her forward a bit more, causing her legs to part further and her pelvis to crush against his stomach. He could feel the warmth of her body coming through her thin pants and he groaned, wanting to peel the pants away and discover that warmth with his mouth, his fingers, and the surging erection he could feel pressing against the front of his pants.