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“This place is so cute,” Parker said, looking around the quaint space.
“It really is.”
A smile spread wide on Parker’s face as she looked down at my pants.
“What?” I asked. She bent over and plucked my ass. “What the—" She held up a piece of purple yarn, and we laughed. “I pulled an entire ball of yarn out of one of the chairs in the lobby yesterday.”
“It was probably Janice. She forgets everything.”
“I didn’t know you were making friends with the Hookers.”
Parker shrugged. “They’re all really nice, and Janice was showing me how to make a cat bookmark.”
“Here we are!” Lainey announced as she came out with two wooden boards. Each board had a line of slices of cake atop it.
“Oh my,” I said, touching my chest as Lainey placed the board in front of me. Beneath each slice was a black box and written in chalk the flavors. “This is like a wine tasting, but with cake.”
“That’s exactly what it is,” Lainey said. “I got the idea from Sherry.” She pointed at the board. “So the first slice is a white almond cake with a vanilla buttercream and a strawberry jam. The second slice is a chocolate raspberry truffle cake—my personal favorite. It is brushed with Chambord liqueur and filled with dark chocolate ganache and raspberry preserves.”
“Yum!” Parker declared.
“My thoughts exactly,” Lainey said, before pointing to the third piece. “That’s your more traditional vanilla cake, but I brush it with some Frangelico, then fill it with a thin layer of dark chocolate ganache and hazelnut praline buttercream. Then the fourth slice is a blueberry buttermilk cake filled with blueberry jam, topped with a maple buttercream. Enjoy!”
“I don’t know where to start,” Parker said, and I agreed.
“They all look amazing.”
“Let’s start with the blueberry and work our way to the white almond cake,” she suggested.
“Sounds like a plan.” Not having eaten all day, I dove in. My eyes rolled in my head, and I accidentally let out a moan of appreciation. “This is amazing.”
“So good,” Parker said around her second forkful.
“Laurent would love this,” I said. “In college, we used to get blueberry pancakes for breakfast on the weekends. He always said he looked forward to it all week.”
“I make it for his birthday every year,” Lainey said. “It’s his absolute favorite, and I would not be surprised if he requests it in your wedding cake.”
I nearly choked on the piece of cake in my mouth, forgetting for a second we were “engaged.”
“I’m surprised he hasn’t brought it up. I imagine he’ll let you and Sherry plan the whole thing. He won’t care too much about the details, he’ll only care about marrying the love of his life.”
I forced a smile. I guess Sherry hadn’t let Lainey in on the whole scheme. It felt dirty to go along with this charade, especially with someone who was close to the Grassos. Because I was too afraid to face Marion, I’d dragged Laurent into a world of lies.
“Oh god,” Parker muttered, knocking me out my thoughts.
“What is it?” I asked, then saw her eyes focused on her fork. “The chocolate? It’s amazing, right?”
“I can’t marry him.”
My head snapped to my sister, eyes wide, confusion swirling in my head. “Wait. What?”
“I can’t marry him.”
I took her hand, imagining what my mom would say to me if we had this moment together. “Parker, cold feet is normal. You’re still young, and marriage is a huge step, and that’s scary, but it’s also great, too.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s not cold feet. I don’t love him.” She blinked up, blue eyes catching mine. “Not like you love Laurent.”
My lips parted, but I didn’t speak. I had no idea what to say. I was sick of lying, sick of making people believe this fairytale, when really, I wasn’t the princess in my story. Not anymore. I was quickly becoming the villain. I didn’t want Parker to lose out on love because of me.
