Tender Hearts

Chapter 7-2

“I don’t think I’ll be sharing that chocolate-mint cake,” Nick admitted.

“That’s fine. I don’t think anyone else is going to want it,” Alisha said tartly, which stopped any further conversation about the chocolate-mint cake. “Karen,” Alisha held out her hand, “thank you again, I’ll be in touch.” She spun around and walked out the door without her fiancé.

“I’m sorry about that, you guys. I didn’t mean to put anyone in an uncomfortable situation,” Nick apologized, looking guilty.

“Oh, Nick, you didn’t,” My mom assured him and put her hand lightly on his arm. “One of those cake flavors should have been something you wanted to try. It’s your wedding too, but that’s none of my business. That’s between you and Alisha.”

you“Yeah…” He turned around, looking at the exit. “That’s going to be my next hurdle. I really appreciate you guys making these cakes, they were all delicious. It’s going to be hard to just choose one.”

“You’re welcome.” My mom walked around and gave him a hug. She was a hugger, which used to bug me, but it was her love language and her way of making people comfortable. It definitely wasn’t mine. “You let me know what you two decide, okay? Remember: it’s for a happy day and not a day that’s meant to be too stressful.”

My mom had always offered advice and suggestions, even when they weren’t necessarily asked for. Luckily, she usually came off as thoughtful and kind, so she didn’t usually get in trouble for offering opinions.

“Thank you, Karen.” He hugged her back and picked up the cake boxes. “We will definitely let you know what we decide.”

“Have a good day, Nick.” She waved.

“You too, Karen. Bye, Rosie.” He smiled at me and then nodded in Troy’s direction as a way of saying goodbye.

“See you later.” I watched him leave the bakery.

“Well, that was awkward,” Troy stated and I nodded in agreement.

Nick and Alisha were clearly at odds, and didn’t seem to care how they were coming off to complete strangers. It made me wonder how they acted toward each other when they were alone. I couldn’t imagine the two of them being that happy… certainly not happy enough to get married and spend a lifetime together.

“Those are two people who want completely different things. In marriages, you have to compromise and, when one person is unwilling to, it makes it hard.” Sighing, my mother continued, “Having different opinions is a good thing. You still want to be your own person, but being too different can make things harder than it should be. It makes you wonder whether it will last… and if you love that person enough to be willing to do anything to stick through to the end. I see so many couples come in here asking for wedding cakes, so I get to interact and observe quite a bit. Some are obviously more in love than others. It’s hard to see the ones that aren’t as in love, because deep down, you know the likelihood of it working is not great.”

tooShe finished her speech and walked to the back of the bakery to clean up. She was clearly not referring to other couples and their potential marriages, but had been thinking about her own past. It was hard to see her still upset from her past decisions and even now dealing with them internally.

I looked at Troy who was giving me a funny look. “What?” I asked suspiciously.

“Your mom made a move faster than you did,” he laughed.

“I was never going to make a move,” I replied. “He’s about to get married and loves Alisha.”

“Did you see the way he was looking at you?” Troy exclaimed.

“Yeah, I saw that wink,” Mom said upon returning to clean up the table where they had been sitting.

“Mom,” I groaned, but she held up a hand.

“It doesn’t matter. He’s getting married, so let’s stop talking about it. He was probably just being friendly anyway,” she decided.

After my mom finished cleaning everything up, she left Troy and me to close up for the night; this left time for me and Troy to talk alone.

“Well, that was an interesting evening don’t you think?” Troy asked, wiping down the counters.

“Yep, definitely one for the books,” I agreed.

“I swear, I felt a chill down my spine when Alisha walked in,” he admitted and started emptying the case from the leftover cupcakes.

I snorted. “She doesn’t have the happiest presence, does she?”

“I don’t know how Nick puts up with it. She was being completely rude and demoralizing to him in front of complete strangers. Can you imagine how mean she is to him when they aren’t around people?”

aren’t “But he has to know what he’s getting himself into. He did propose to her, after all.”

“Maybe he didn’t realize it? Plus, he thinks he’s in love with this girl. If he was so in love with her, why does he have wandering eyes?” Troy asked.

“Don’t you think that’s a little worrisome? Even if somehow, magically, it worked out with us… what if he had wandering eyes while we were together… toward someone else?” I countered and started mopping the floors.

“Or maybe he has wandering eyes because he’s beginning to realize he’s with a crazy, angry woman? We have no idea. I just hope he realizes it soon, because no one wants to be married to that. She didn’t even want him to have a cake he liked, just to try.”

“Maybe there’s more to her than her being a control freak? Maybe he’s seen the good in her and loves her for it?”

“Rosie.” Troy took a deep breath. “Maybe he’s starting to be a little realistic and realizes that when he gets married, he marries the good, the bad and the ugly?”

I opened my mouth to argue, but what was the use? He had made a good point and I didn’t have a leg to stand on. There was definitely the “good, bad and ugly” floating around in that relationship and they were going to have to figure it out. I held my hands up in surrender,

Troy did a fist pump in the air.

I chuckled, rolling my eyes, and started wiping down all the surfaces, making sure the bakery was prepped for the morning shift.

That was easily the most awkward cake testing I had ever witnessed, and I had done most of them with Mom. If there was that much tension between the two of them concerning the wedding, did they really know what they were doing? Or were love blinders playing a major role? Was it terrible that I was getting my hopes up… just a little bit?

CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPE

CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPE3 cups white sugar

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups cocoa powder

1 tbsp. baking soda

1 ½ tsps. baking powder

1 ½ tsps. salt

4 room temperature eggs

1 ½ cups room temperature buttermilk (can be substituted with 1 ½ cups milk and 1 tbsp. of lemon juice or vinegar but let it sit 10 minutes before using)

1 ½ cups hot water

½ cup oil

2 tsps. vanilla extract

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING1 cup softened butter

4 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar

4 tbsps. cocoa

1 tsp. vanilla

2 tbsps. heavy cream

3-4 tbsps. milk