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The treats were Halloween themed, of course. No actual food, as in things with actual nutrients, but nothing that would kill you either. I tried to reign myself back when it came to eating the wonderful sweetness but I just couldn’t help myself. I had always been something of a stress eater. It started when I was a kid, always keeping a pocket full of gummy bears. It played merry hell with my allowance but I needed them or thought I did. It only got worse when I got into college. As bad for me as they were, I figured it was still better than smoking which I no doubt would have been doing, or worse, if I hadn’t already started with the sweet, squishy little treats. The worst I had to deal with was a few cavities and gaining some weight. Still a far cry from lung cancer. At least that was what I told my mother at the time whenever she brought it up. She couldn’t really argue with that.
“Hey,” Gia said, popping up out of nowhere.
“Hey,” I said, my mouth full of eye-ball designed gumballs.
“How are things going?” Gia asked.
I figured she was talking about with Mike. I wondered if she really didn’t know about what was going on there of if she did and was letting me tell her in my own time. I wasn’t quite sure what to say. To say that it was complicated was actually an understatement.
I actually had no idea what was going on except that it was over. I was ghosting him but didn’t want to admit, not least because of several tirades I had done about how it was a jerk move and how I would never do it. You can’t be called a hypocrite if no one knows about it.
I was rescued from embarrassment, for the moment anyway, by the arrival of Maya and the cake I had built for the party. She had stuck a knife into the ‘head’ portion so the ‘blood’, actually a liquid raspberry center, was running out over the ‘face.’
When she arrived, all eyes went onto Maya and the cake. There were actually a couple of audible gasp from the assembled number.
Maya put the cake on the table slowly pulling the knife out, with wonderfully gross results. Not done yet, Maya then took the knife and cut off the head at the top of the neck and then in half to the disgusted delight of the party-goers.
I caught myself hoping that someone was filming it at least on their phone. I had the somewhat crazy idea of using such footage as a promotion for the bakery. That specific case of the head cake might be a bit limited but was a good example of what could be done with layers of cake and icing. It could also include the photos of the cemetery cake. I suddenly wished I had thought to take a photo of the butterfly cake at the time.
Reducing the cake to individual slices, Maya handed them out among the guests along with small hard plastic forks. I held my breath awaiting the final verdict on my work. Looking cool was one thing and was good enough for a sculpture but the catch to my chosen creative medium was that it also had to taste good.
“Disgusting and delicious,” Amanda said, her mouth full of cake.
“Agreed,” Catharine said.
“What do you think?” I asked Gia.
“Awesome,” Gia said.
“Hey, can you do a cake for Friendsgiving?” Catharine asked.
“Sure, what were you thinking in terms of design?” I asked.
“A turkey,” she said.
“To go along with the meat turkey?” I asked.
“No, instead of,” Catharine said, “most of my friends are vegan.”
“Ah,” I said, actually seeing the logic of her thought process.
If I had been offered a turkey shaped cake for thanksgiving dinner, I would have jumped at it. Particularly before the age of twelve when I would have been more likely to jump on it.
“That’s a really good idea,” Gia said, saying what I was thinking.
“Thanks,” Catharine said.
“Be sure to get lots of pictures,” Gia whispered to me, winking.
“Duly noted,” I said.
Chapter Thirteen
Mike
My fingers flew across the keyboard keys like a concert pianist. Old reflexes reasserting themselves with a vengeance.
I was always the fastest typist in school and hadn’t flagged at all with age. Helped in no small part by the fact that I used a computer to make my millions after a brief teenaged flirtation with hacking. I never got while crossing over into the dark side but it was close, even though I never did any real damage by design.
I was trying to test myself and my skills not fuck people over. I was ambitious, not a complete asshole, no matter how many people claim that the previous statement is a distinction without a difference. A close encounter with the local police that made be go out the window of an internet cafe, no way I would be dumb enough to use my ow IP address in the days before solid VPNs openly lying about my name when signing in at the front desk made me decide to turn over a new leaf pretty fast.
