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If everyone in the world could begin their morning with oral sex,I typed to my friend Emma,there’d never be another war.Everyone would be too happy.
Since it was later in the U.K., she replied right away.
Emma: OH MY GOD.Tell me EVERYTHING.No detail is too small.
Emma: Don’t even think of sifting through the small details deciding what you’re going to exclude.I want all of them.
Emma: Is this about who I think it’s about??
I laughed and replied.
Me: Yeah.It’s about Rick.I’ll talk to you properly later, gotta open the bakery.
Aunt Laurie walked toward me as I turned onto Otter Street, a smile on her face and her arm in a sling.
“Morning!”I called.
“Morning.”She frowned as we got close enough to speak.“Feels awful strange, being here so late.Still, I enjoyed the lie in.I’m gettin’ too old for this.I’m seventy next year.”
I pressed my hand to my heart.“Stop.The people I love are not allowed to get old, ever.I forbid it.”
Aunt Laurie chuckled as she took the keys from me and opened the door.“It’s been an adventure helping Jess and Connor run this baby, I admit it.But I can’t see me lasting more’n another year without slowing down.You know?I was leaving it until after this big holiday to tell them, I didn’t want to ruin their time away.”
She had a heart the size of the state of Kentucky.“You have to do what’s right for you.”
She nodded, moving to the big fridge.“Did you defrost some of what Jess left in the freezer?”
“Yes, twenty muffins, twenty cookies, and,” I lifted the bag I’d carried with me, “rhubarb chiffon cupcakes.Another one of my recipes.”
She bent her head so she could smell the bag.“Oh, my.People are gonna miss your baking, Maddie.You should know that.”
My heart warmed as I started to unpack the cupcakes.“I’m so touched, honestly.Sometimes...”I rummaged in a drawer until I found a slate cake stand and assembled it to hold the cupcakes.
“Sometimes what, honey?”Aunt Laurie asked from behind me.She’d started to set out the defrosted muffins and cookies on the two big trays that sat in the window.
I fussed with the cupcakes.“Sometimes I wonder if London was the best place to start my baking business.It’s so big, there are already a hundred bakeries...It tooksolong to get my name out there.I’m still just another baker.”
My aunthmmmedto let me know I had her attention, even as she continued to prep for opening.
“But here, I sell out of everything I make.It’s a simple pleasure, but it makes me happy, getting to see people eat what I create immediately.Normally I deliver the cake to the recipient andtheytake it to the party or whatever, and I never see the result.Before coming here, I’d never been able to sell my own stuff.”
“I see.”I knew Aunt Laurie was thinking something and not saying it.I didn’t need sight of her face, I could tell just from the tone of her voice.
Before I could ask what she was mulling over, the wholesale delivery of rolls and pastries arrived, and then the moment was lost.
I left the bakery at noon, when the college girls arrived for their shifts.I was thankful for the reprieve, considering I still had to ice and assemble the wedding cake on the stand the bride had ordered specially.
Rick had been texting me on and off all day.The most recent message was a picture of a bedframe he and Eddie had made, the headboard carved to resemble a mountain range.Two layers of wood, one dark, one light, flirted with each other to give depth and interest.
Me: It’s gorgeous!
Rick: Pick you up at 11 for the wedding tomorrow?
Me: Once again, I live literally next door.
Rick: I have to pick you up.It’s practically the law here.Imagine the headline: KENTUCKY MAN EXPIRES FROM FAILURE TO ADHERE TO OL’ SOUTH GENTLEMAN RULES.
Me: Okay, we can’t have that.See you tomorrow.
