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I fed them their much-desired food and then I ate my own breakfast quickly before getting ready to bake. Once I did start baking, I hummed a little song to myself, glad that meeting Mike had provided me with some self-pleasure last night.
I was still upset that he hadn’t stuck around long enough to ask me out, but I was trying to look on the bright side of things because I was an optimistic kind of gal.
I was mixing ingredients, some particularly epic European Metal blasting through my earbuds, when my phone started buzzing in my pocket.
“Sugar Baby Bakery,” I said.
“Hi, I need a cake,” said the woman on the other end.
“Well good, because that’s what we do, here,” I said.
“One with a smiley face on it. I also need it delivered.”
“Sure, I can do that,” I said.
It seemed a bit funny, in both senses of the word, but it was far from the weirdest request I had ever gotten. I once did a fake dildo cake for a bachelorette party and a detonation plunger for the retirement party of a demolition expert. A smiley face really didn’t seem that weird after I gave it further thought.
“Do you want me to write something on it?” I asked her. “Maybe happy birthday or get well soon or thinking of you?”
Those were the standard phrases I could imagine pairing with a smiley face cake.
“Umm, nope. Just a smiley face will do,” she said, not sounding very sure of herself.
“Any particular cake flavors or icing flavors?” I pressed.
I liked the orders to be specific, so that the customer would be happy. I would hate to get creative and make something they weren’t expecting, just because I had interpreted their vague request one way when they had meant it as something altogether different.
I had had one other order in the past that seemed similar to this one, although it had turned out not to be. One time someone asked me for emojis on a cake, so I put a smiley face and a frowny face and a face with heart eyes, etc.
It turned out they wanted a cake to with their kid’s Emojis movie themed birthday party, and my generic smiles and frowns didn’t meet the cut. I had refunded them their money even though I felt they should have been more specific. But it was certainly a lesson learned – now I always tried to be as particular as possible when I asked questions of my customers about what exactly they wanted on their cakes.
“No, as long as it has a smiley face on it, that’s fine,” she said.
“Is it for any particular occasion?” I asked, thinking that if it was supposed to be movie-themed or otherwise tie in with some kind of birthday party of some sort, now would be the best time for her to tell me.
“Um, do I have to tell you that?” she asked.
I gulped, never having had anyone bulk at that request before.
“I mean, will you not make it if I don’t tell you what it’s for?” she pushed further, when I didn’t answer right away.
Oh, crap. Maybe she thought I was one of those bakers who wouldn’t bake cakes for people with different beliefs or relationships than I approved of. Which, I certainly wasn’t, as I was a very accepting person.
“Ma’am, I’m sorry if I implied that,” I told her. “You don’t have to tell me what it’s for. I will make a smiley face for any kind of life event or occasion or belief or feeling you might be experiencing.”
I really didn’t want to go in the papers or on the On the Go app as someone who was prejudiced. I hoped she hadn’t taken my question that way.
“It’s fine,” she said. “I appreciate it. It’s just that, maybe, you know, there’s no special reason or event. Maybe I just want a cake with a smiley face on it?”
“Okay, then,” I told her. “That sounds like a perfectly good reason in and of itself to me. One smiley face cake of any color and flavor and for no or any occasion coming right up. Let me just get your address.”
I had to admit – I was interested to know where someone who would only order a smiley face on a cake might live. And that was one piece of information she had to give to me without any kind of suspicion or debate.
Chapter Three
Mike
I should have been more concerned than I was. I had never been so fixated on a woman, at least not since the she-devil, but I couldn’t get my mind off of Sally. I needed to see her again.
It was a bit of a dirty play but ordering the cake from her bakery was the best way to accomplish that goal. It wasn’t difficult to get Ava to make the call. My sweet sister still owed me for bailing her out when her company folded.
