Chapter 14—Aspen
“So these are my cupcakes?”Mia held a ‘Fugetaboutit’mini cake cupped into the palm of her hands at eye level, inspecting the chocolatey dessert filled with a perfectly whipped ricotta mixture, infused with orange liqueur, and topped with fluffy homemade chocolate whipped cream sprinkled with tiny chocolate chips.
“Are you going to hold the dang thing like baby Simba being presented in theLion Kingor are you going to eat it?”
“Listen,” Mia deliberately peeled the cupcake liner striped in green, white and red that Aspen selected to symbolize the Italian flag.“It’s not often a girl gets a cupcake named in her honor.Excuse me for wanting to savor the moment.”
Aspen waited for Mia’s feedback.
Not patiently mind you, as evidenced by the drumming of her fingertips across the counter where they stood.
Mia extracted the liner from the cupcake and drew the baked good to her mouth, taking a hearty bite.Then stopped.Chewed a little more.Then closed her eyes as she finished the bite.Without saying a word, she repeated the process.
“Mia!You’re killing me here.”
Ignoring Aspen’s plea for feedback, she sunk her teeth around another section of the sponge, sampling the cake, ricotta filling and decadent fluffy chocolate frosting in one bite.Mia’s own chocolate-colored eyes snapped open wide as saucers.
“Omuyawd, deez mar ahhhmum.”
“Did you just say they are awesome?”
Mia gulped to swallow the massive bite.
“Yes!I love cannoli’s, but this cupcake blows a boring cannoli out of the water.But...”Mia turned serious, “now every time I eat these, I’m going to think of poor Matt nearly racking himself when he saw me shimmying in my sleep shorts.”
“I may not have named these treatsVixen, but we both know what inspired this decadent recipe.”
“Well, regardless of the inspiration, these cupcakes are going to fly off the shelves.You need to load this to the website,pronto dente.”
“Great idea!”Aspen began plotting the description of the cupcake to accompany the picture she’d upload to her site.
“How are things going with my uncle, by the way?”
Aspen’s mind twirled around her marketing efforts for the new cupcake she almost let the details from their recent dinner and hot make-out session slip.Almost.She stayed firm in her desire to avoid placing Mia in the middle of whatever madness zipped between herself and Connor.
“There’s nothing between Connor and me, Mia,” Aspen lied, and silently cheered at her ability to sound so blasé.“He’s a great guy who’s very generous in sharing his time and talents to help around the shop.End of story.”
“Uh huh.We’ll see.I’m watching you.”
Unfortunately for Aspen, Mia and her social worker mind wasn’t buying her bullshit line based on her dull response.
Mia squinted her eyes trying to get a better read on the situation.
Not going to happen, toots.
“Are you going to stare at me all afternoon or you going to count the drawer?Our day is done.”
Shifting her emotions on a dime, Mia’s face lit up in pure joy.No wonder poor Matt couldn’t remember the day with this beautiful young woman shining her light.
“Aspen, I’m going out with some mates...kinda-sorta a girls’ night out.Come to dinner with us,” Mia buzzed with excitement.
