Tender Hearts

Chapter 4

“Well, she was a treat, wasn’t she?” Troy asked, but I remained silent and continued writing the order. “Are you okay?” he asked as he strolled to stand alongside me.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” I shrugged.

He put an arm around me and I leaned my head into him. “I’m sorry,” he whispered into my hair.

“It’s fine. It’s no big deal. I just thought he was cute. Whatever. We should get ready to start closing though.”

The rest of the night was slow. It made closing really easy, and we were able to leave a little early, which I was grateful for. On my way home, I called my mom to let her know about the cake testing and she was over the moon. She loved making wedding cakes and being able to be a part of someone else’s special day. However, when she asked me to help with the tasting, I started to protest.

“Mom, can’t you have Lily help you? I did the last cake testing.”

“After working with Ben, she’s not going to want to do a cake testing. Plus, if the bride sounds as snotty as you described her, she’s not going to touch that with a ten-foot pole. Besides, I thought you liked doing weddings?” she questioned.

“?”“I just thought I might let Lily have the chance, that’s all. Plus, I’ve been working a lot and wanted to have a night off.” I tried making up a good enough excuse for her to let me off the hook, but I knew she wasn’t going to let me.

“Lily just told me that she has a couple tests on Friday and that she needed Thursday to study. I’m sorry, honey, I’m going to need your help. You can have the rest of the weekend off if you like,” she offered, sounding a little guilty.

“She never wanted to force us to work and treat us like actual employees. She knew that most of the time, we worked to help her out, even though she still paid us. But I needed to get over myself and this little crush, and help Mom. I knew she wouldn’t have asked if she didn’t really need it.

“Okay, Mom, I can do that. I’ll help you. But only if you get Troy to help that night too! He was a blast to work with today,” I countered and she laughed.

“Alright, I’ll make sure to let him know I’m having him work Thursday. Thanks for closing tonight, honey. I had so much fun painting at tonight’s class! We will have to do it one of these weeks, when Lily can close. Have a good night. Love you!”

““Love you too.” I ended the call. “She’s going to be the death of me,” I whispered to myself and continued driving home.

When I walked in, I found Lily and her friends, Susie and Kylee, sitting on the couch, watching a movie.

“Oh, hey sis, how are you doing?” Lily asked.

“Good. I booked a cake testing today for a potential wedding cake in June.” I pulled a cup out of the cupboard and filled it with water.

“I bet Mom was excited about it. She loves making wedding cakes.” She put a chip in her mouth.

“Yeah, she definitely was. The bride seems like a piece of work though. I’m not excited about it,” I admitted and took a sip of water. “What are you ladies up to? I thought you had some studying to do?”

“I did, but my brain started feeling like it was turning to mush, so I had to take a break,” Lily explained, eating another chip.

“She really only studied for like an hour, and then gave up,” Susie declared.

“That sounds familiar,” I laughed. “How do you expect to pass any of your classes if you don’t study?”

“It’s called flying by the seat of you pants,” Kylee chuckled and took the chip bag from Lily.

“Yup, she’s going to try and study as little as possible and get by doing hardly any studying,” Susie said and took a handful of chips.

“Whatever!” Lily cried, “I study enough. If I study too much, I just get confused. I have to take breaks!”

“Studying for one hour and then spending the rest of the evening laying around is not a break.” Kylee chuckled and handed the chip bag back to Lily. “It’s a good thing I study before I hang out with you; otherwise I would never graduate college.”

“Are you saying I’m a bad influence?”

“Oh, no,” Susie cut in. “We wouldn’t say that. You"re just so much fun to be around, we would rather hang with you than study.”

“Yeah, we knew you would distract us anyways, so we try to plan our study time earlier, before we see you. I mean, seriously, can you blame us? You"re cute, bubbly and hilarious.” Kylee offered a silly smile.

“You guys are so full of it,” Lily sniffed and the three of us started laughing.

“Come on, sis, we know you don’t like to study or do homework. It’s not a bad thing; no one actually enjoys it. Can you blame Kylee and Susie for doing it before they come over?” I tried to console my overworked sister, who I thought was being way too dramatic.

“I guess not. I would just rather hang out with friends and have fun than study boring old lectures,” admitted Lily and started cooling down.

“That’s what I thought. Now, on a serious note, are you sure you"re ready for your test tomorrow? Don’t you think you should study a little more?” I asked cautiously, knowing she was emotional.

“Ugh, fine.” Lily picked up the remote and turned off the movie. “I’ll study some more.”

“And, on that note, I think we should leave.” Susie stood and Kylee rose, hovering behind her.

“Agreed. I don’t want to study any more than I have to.” Kylee yawned and followed Susie out the door.

“Your guys are so helpful,” said Lily sarcastically.

“That’s why you love us,” Susie sang and waved.

“And why you’ll never get rid of us,” Kylee chimed in.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Lily waved them off. “Goodnight, jerks.”

“Goodnight!” they replied and shut the door behind them.

I chuckled. “I always forget how much I like those two.”

“Yeah, they’re real fun to have around,” she muttered acerbically.

“Oh, come on, Lil. You know you need to study and you should have gotten it done earlier. Otherwise, you should have just worked tonight. Troy was a blast. He definitely made the night go by fast. Now, you have to study late and work with Brad tomorrow. Lucky you.” I smiled and kicked off my shoes.

“You know, sometimes you’re not very nice,” Lily stated flatly and opened her laptop.

“I never said I was,” I replied and walked into my room.

I took off my clothes that smelled like frosting and cookies, put on old gym shorts and a baggy shirt, and laid down on my bed. I thought about Nick and how kind he seemed. His smile was so easy and effortless, it brightened up the whole room. He was the most handsome man I had ever met. Then, once his bride walked in, I couldn’t help but wonder why in the world he would want to marry a “brat” like her. I mean, I had heard opposites attract… but not to that extreme. I couldn’t imagine working with a bride like that and, quite frankly I had no desire to do so.

I was going to need all the strength I could muster to try and get through their cake testing… and prayed she wouldn’t like our cakes.