Tender Hearts

Chapter 5

The next day, I went to the grocery store just as I had planned. Since we had the cake tasting in a couple of days, I had to make sure I had plenty of ingredients to make the order. That was on top of getting our normal stock back up to the usual quantities, and adding my own grocery shopping to the list, I had a lot to buy.

I was tempted to call my mom and see if she wanted to come with me, but I knew if I did that, Lily would throw an absolute fit and refuse to be alone with Brad. Despite Mom being there for moral support more than anything else, I knew Lily was going to be cranky when she got home, so I made a mental note to grab bags of chips for her. I felt like a complete enabler, so I grabbed banana chips too to see if maybe she would attempt a healthier option. However, I knew the likelihood of that was very small.

My sister had the metabolism of a sixteen-year old boy. She was much skinnier than I was, but no one would ever guess that she was skinny by how she ate. She ate donuts and muffins for breakfast, lots of carbs for lunch that consisted of big sandwiches or pizza, and when got home, she would eat lots and lots of chips. The only time she would ever eat healthy was when someone else would cook it for her, which meant me. I insisted on her eating something of substance, so I tried to feed her lots of vegetables and lean proteins for dinner.

The first few weeks of me deciding to take initiative for her poor eating habits, she realized what I was doing and complained about the food I was making. She would insist that it would be easier to order take-out and that vegetables didn’t taste good. However, when I began to scare her with the idea of diabetes, she shut up and ate what I made.

Me, I’ve always had to work for my figure. Growing up working in the bakery, I definitely went through a chubby phase. Then, in high school, I realized that I didn’t want to be fat and have poor eating habits. I knew that if I wanted to be a baker for the rest of my life, I needed to find a healthy balance. So, I started counting my calories, tried to eat vegetables at every meal and limited myself to only a couple treats a week. Not only that, but I convinced my mom to let me run track. I wasn’t the fastest by any means, but the running and consistent training helped dump the weight. Even now, I tried to get a couple runs in a week or hit the school gym once or twice in an attempt to have some muscle tone. But no matter how hard I tried, my sister was always skinnier than I was and there was nothing I could do about it. Genetics were a cruel part of life.

I turned the corner to walk down the aisle with the many chip options and literally ran into a cart that was coming from the opposite direction.

“Oh, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean too…” I lost my voice.

The person in front of me came into focus and I realized I was standing in front of Nick, the handsome man I had met the previous night.

“Rosie, right?” He chuckled and leaned onto his cart, smiling ear to ear.

“Right, and you’re Nick?” I played dumb, but I don’t think he bought it.

“Yeah, fancy bumping into you here. Looks like you have quite the haul.”

He eyed my cart; it was practically overflowing from all the items.

“I’m doing some shopping for the bakery, and a little personal shopping,” I explained and could feel my cheeks flush.

“Well, that’s good. I was worried you were going to put spinach and tomatoes into my cake,” he teased and half-smiled.

I laughed and shook my head. “Nope, definitely not. But the raspberries and strawberries are definitely going in there.”

“That’s good. Hey, now that I see you here, I was actually wondering if I could add another cake request for the tasting?” he asked sheepishly, which I thought was just plain adorable.

“Sure, what would you like to add?” I pulled out my phone to make a note.

“I love mint chocolate. It’s one of my favorite combinations, and I would just love to try it…and see if Alisha would like it. She says that mint is ‘too playful’ for a wedding, but I think it would be a fun flavor to add.”

“I love chocolate and mint! Those girl-scout thin mint cookies are my favorite! I could eat a whole box, no problem,” I said, quite bubbly.

He started, laughing at my excitement. “Me too! My sister was a girl scout and would bring them home for me.” He grinned at the memory. “We would get in so much trouble once my mom found us surrounded by boxes of cookies. She would end up having to buy the extra boxes we ate. In my opinion, they were worth every penny.”

“Oh, no doubt. My mom makes a chocolate-mint cupcake that reminds me of the flavor of a thin mint. It’s to die for. I’ll have to find that recipe and use it for your cake testing. I think you’ll love it!” I beamed.

He nodded in approval, “Alright, sounds great! Now, I’m really looking forward to this cake testing.”

“Good. Everyone deserves to have their own touch on their wedding cake.” I smiled and he smiled back, which sent my heart beating wildly.

We got stuck staring at each other, smiling like goof-balls in the middle of the aisle. We probably looked like idiots.

Someone walked by and Nick was the first to snap out of it. He cleared his throat and placed his hand on the back of his neck. “Well, thank you so much for adding that… I know you already had quite the list.”

“It’s no problem. Like I said, everyone deserves their own special cake especially on their wedding day.” I started feeling stupid for how completely cheesy that sounded.

“I really appreciate it. I guess I’ll see you on Thursday then.” He beamed and shifted his cart around me.

“See you soon!” I waved.

When he was no longer in sight, I smacked myself on the forehead and put my head on my cart. Man, I sounded so cheesy; I was cheesier than the mozzarella sitting in my cart. He probably thought I was a complete i***t, with a ravenous appetite, given the full cart.

I shook my head. “Who cares? He’s taken,” I told myself and wrapped up my grocery shopping. Despite leaving with a cartful of food, I never felt so empty after watching him walk away. What was wrong with me?

The last couple of days went way too fast. Mom had me in the bakery getting the cakes and fillings ready for her to assemble Thursday morning. Because of the cake testing, and all the prep work I had to do, I didn’t get to study as much as I wanted to, and barely passed my test. But with my mom being busy with her other job, she needed me to help out.

One time, Lily tried baking multiple cakes at once and ended up burning all the cakes. She’d gotten much better since then, but my mom still worried about her messing us especially with a huge potential custom order, and a wedding cake at that. Weddings always meant a big payday.

allWednesday night, Mom stopped in to check my progress and tried all the fillings to make sure everything was perfect.

“Mmm, honey, you get better with that strawberry jam every time,” she complimented me. “Someone must have taught you really well.” She smiled and tried the raspberry jam.

“Three guesses who.” I laughed and watched her swoon playfully over the raspberry jam.

“This is making me want a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich. I haven’t had dinner yet. Do we have bread somewhere around here?” She looked around the room.

“I don’t think we do.” I trailed walked into the pantry to see if I could find any. “Sorry, Mom. That’s not a bad idea though. We should keep some bread around here.”

“Yeah maybe put that on the list for when you go to the store next time. We have peanut butter and jam already here… might as well have bread for when someone is hungry. It’s better than munching on cookies all night the way Brad did last night.” She shook her head and threw her spoon into the sink.

I giggled at the thought of Lily working with Brad. “How did that go?”

“Well, he messed up five different orders, dropped three cupcakes and then proceeded to eat them off the floor in front of a customer. And, then, he accidentally tripped with a cupcake in his hand and it landed in Lily’s hair.” She chortled at the memory and went to look at the cakes.

This was sweet music to my ears and I laughed in fact, I laughed so hard, I grabbed the counter for support. “Please tell me you got that on the security camera, because I need to see that, ” I cackled. (I wasn’t really a mean person, but that sounded like sweet justice to me.)

“Well, your sister didn’t think it was very funny. She insisted that she had to go home to shower and left me to close with Brad, which took twice as long as usual, mind you,” Mom complained and started putting the cakes and fillings back in the fridge.

“That explains why she was home before me. I asked her how work was, but she didn’t say much. She probably didn’t want me to find out. Granted, I guess I can’t blame Lily, because I would have given her such a hard time,” I admitted and started helping her carry things to the fridge.

“Remember to be easy on your sister. She just went through that hard break-up with Jake. Her heart is a little more tender right now than usual,” my mom chided and I rolled my eyes when she couldn’t see me.

“Mom, it"s been like a month. She seems fine and hasn’t had any meltdowns the last week. Plus, I think she’s going to a party this weekend with Kylee and Susie.”

“Maybe she’s just putting on a tough face? We don’t know what’s going through that girl’s mind. I worry about her. I know I wanted her to move on and forget Jake, but a party seems a little fast. Maybe you should go with them,” she suggested and I gaped.

“No way. You know I don’t party. I hate parties!” I sauntered to the front to see if any of the treats needed to be restocked.

She followed behind and leaned up against the counter. “I know you do, and I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t go to those college parties if someone paid me, but I need to have an extra set of eyes on her. Just until I know for sure she’s over this once and for all.”

“Mom, she’s twenty; she doesn’t need a babysitter anymore,” I argued and turned to find a concerned look on her face.

She looked more tired than usual, which didn’t make any sense. She had purple bags under her eyes, and her hair was a little messier than usual, like she hadn’t washed her hair in several days.

“I know, but it doesn’t mean she doesn’t need to be looked after. Please consider going,” she pleaded with tired, green eyes.

“Fine, I’ll consider it, but that doesn’t mean yes,” I advised and walked to the back room to grab more cupcakes.

“Honey, why don’t you go home?” Mom suggested.

“What?” I was confused by her question.

“I know you’ve been working a lot and I’ve asked a lot of you, so why don’t I close tonight and you go home and relax?” She took the cupcakes from my hands.

“Are you sure, Mom? I don’t mind helping.” Now I felt bad for complaining about helping Lily and being frustrated about not having had enough study time for my test.

“Yes, and after the cake tasting tomorrow, I’m giving you the rest of the weekend off,” she told me and returned to the front of the bakery.

“Why? I don’t mind working, Mom. I like to help you.”

“I know you do, sweetie, but I can tell you"re tired. I’ve had you doing stuff everyday this week for the bakery and I still need you here tomorrow. That’s a lot. Plus, I’m sure you have some studying to catch up on. Especially if you decide to go to that party with your sister this weekend,” she stated with a coy smile.

“You’re persistent, Mother, I’ll give you that. But, you’re right. I do have some studying to get caught up on, whether I go to that party or not,” I made sure to clarify as I took off my apron.

Mother“Just think about it, love. I’d really appreciate it,” she reiterated and pulled me in for a hug. “Thank you for everything you do, Rosie.”

“You’re welcome, Mom. Love you. And thanks for closing. I really appreciate it. Troy’s coming tomorrow for the cake testing, right?” I wanted to make sure I had a little moral support, because Troy knew what had occurred a couple days before.

“Yes, he said he could come in. In fact, when I told him he was going to help out with the cake testing and that you were going to be there, he seemed very eager. Do you know why?” She raised an eyebrow, as if she knew she was on to something.

“I don’t know. Maybe he likes seeing people taste cakes? I don’t know.” I shrugged and headed out the door. “Bye. See you tomorrow.”

“Love you. Goodnight!” she called after me.

I was out the door before she could ask any questions I might, or might not, have wanted to answer.