Wes walked out the door that night and never looked back. It has been two weeks, and although I can’t say that I wasn’t feeling depressed and insulted at the time, I wasn’t going to wallow in my sorrows over a man that didn’t even have the balls to tell me to my face that he didn’t want to continue, whatever it was that we were building. I gave myself one day to be sad because I was really starting to like him. I gave myself one day to feel like a whore because I had only seen the guy a whopping three times before I decided to sleep with him and finally I gave myself two days to be straight up pissed off. I was only going to give myself one day, but I was so angry I decided that I would allow two.

But that is all said and done now. Frankly, I have so much to do with work that Wes isn’t worth the mental space in my brain anymore. I went a year and a half without seeing him, I doubt I’ll be running into him anytime soon. My focus needed to be on work and not boys. Wes could suck it.

One of my part-timers Maddie is working the front of the store today while I am elbow deep in caramel buttercream. I’m putting the final touches on these cupcakes for the preschool bake sale that begins tomorrow. I told Tiff that I would put together a few dozen for her and she should be here any minute to pick up the donation. My phone begins ringing and I have to quickly clean up and I just barely hit the green button to accept the call.

“Hey, Stacy!”

“Holly, my girl, what is going on?”

“Not much, you’re on speaker so be good.”

She laughs, “Why am I on speaker?”

“Because I’m working, are you not working?”

“Meh, the shop is practically empty except for Georgia.”

I hear some muffled talking in the background. “What was that?”

“It was Georgia. She said hi.”

“Well, tell her I said hi back. So what do I owe this pleasure?”

“So you need to get over Wes, so let’s take a trip up to Fargo for the weekend and hit up a dance club. Maybe find you a hot college boy.”

I throw my head back in laughter, “Good lord, Stacy I’m 32 years old I am not going to try and get with a 21-year-old college kid.”

She huffs, “Why not?”

“Many reasons, but mostly because I’m no cougar. No, I take that back, mostly because I don’t have to get over anything.”

Stacy coughs out, “Lies.”

“No lies. Wes and I had a fling that turned into a one-nighter. I’m a big girl, I can handle a one night stand.”

“Holly, you liked him, just admit it.” Her judgement is almost seeping through the phone lines.

“I did like him, but I wasn’t in love or anything. Plus, I don’t want to be with a guy that can just break something off on text. He was hot and if he wanted to just do something casual I would have probably been down with that. Wes made it all fucking weird by pretending he wanted something that he didn’t.”

“Alright. But seriously, we need to do something.”

“I know. Let me check my schedule and we will plan something. If we wait any further you’re going to lose me to all the holidays.”

“Love you girl!”

“Love you too!”

I use my knuckle to press the button to end the call and slide my phone away from the counter so it doesn’t get frosting on it.

September is the calm before the storm. Although I don’t get bombarded with weddings in the fall, I get tons of orders for Halloween parties, Thanksgiving celebrations, and that doesn’t even touch Christmas. If this year is anything like last year, I will be baking my heart out until the middle of January.

I’ll get about two weeks off of the craziness and be right back at it for Valentine’s Day. This is what I love though and this is why I wanted to have a full bakery and not just a wedding cake shop. I love doing wedding cakes, but cookies, cupcakes, bundt cakes and all the holiday treats are where I really find my joy.

“Hey Holly?” Maddie calls from the front of the store.

“What’s up, Maddie?”

“Tiff Brown is here to pick up some cupcakes.”

“Awesome, go ahead and send her back.”

A couple of moments later, Tiff pops her head into my work area and gawks at the cupcakes sitting on the worktop. “Hey you! Wow, are those the cupcakes for the preschool?”

“They are, how do you like them?” I do a little Vanna White show off of one of the cupcakes.

Tiff almost squeals. “They look so good. Thank you again for baking these. The parents are going to drop dead when they see a few of your goods at the bake sale.”

“Let’s hope they don’t really drop dead because that would be bad for business and probably for the bake sale.”

“Yikes, you’re probably right.” She laughs. “Are you sure we don’t owe you for anything? At least let the school pay for the cost of the supplies.”

“No way! All those little kiddos are future Harlington and Valley View adults and I want them to grow up on my cupcakes and cookies. Like I said, as long as you agree to put the sign out that I dropped off yesterday, that is payment enough.”

In addition to the cupcakes, I boxed up a few dozen brownies and cookies that could be sold for the bake sale as well. Tiff kept insisting that it was too much, but the cost for brownies and cookies are so low for me, it is the least I could do. Once the final package of cupcakes is packed into her car, we stand outside the bakery. She gives me a huge hug to thank me again.

“I seriously cannot say thank you enough. This is really thoughtful of you.”

“It is the least I could do. Do I need to send you home with anything for Jimmy?”

“Not today, I’m not bringing any of this stuff home, it is going right to the school and then I’ll head home. He’d probably have a temper tantrum if I brought all this home and told him he couldn’t have it.”

I laugh and nod my head, “I get it.”

“Speaking of home, I don’t know if you knew this or not, but Jimmy and I have been remodeling a house for a while now and it is almost done.”

“You know, I had heard a few ramblings from Candy when I run into her. How is that going for you two?”

“Well, we haven’t killed each other…..yet.”

“That’s always a positive.”

“Right, there are days though.” She waves off her thoughts, “Anyway, we are actually almost done and we’re having a housewarming party the last week of September. “

“Oh how fun!”

“So two things,” she grins and holds up two fingers.

“Okay……”

“First, I wanted to invite you to the party. I know we don’t hang out outside of this bakery, but I feel like we probably should start doing that because you’re pretty awesome and I don’t think a girl can ever have too many friends.”

“I would love to come! “

“Yay! Okay second thing is, do you think you could bake a cake for us?”

“Ooohhhh I see how it is….”

“No, no! I swear we do want you to come, we’ll pay for the cake and everything. We aren’t cheapskates. Well Jimmy is, but I also have a debit card.”

I smile and laugh, “I’m just messing with you, Tiff! You let me know how many people you’re expecting and I will bring a cake with me.”

“Yay! And it doesn’t need to be fancy decorated or anything. In fact, a plan sheet cake that people can just take slices from would be perfect.”

“I can do plain sheet cakes, that’s actually a pretty simple request.”

“Yay!”

Tiff gives me a hug and gets in her car and drives away. I wave at her as she passes by to head back to the school and head back into the bakery to finish up everything for the night. I guess I can pencil in one more cake to do this month. A sheet cake won’t take long, in fact, I can probably whip one up the night before after I close the bakery. I have a soft spot for Jimmy and Tiff, so I’d make time for them even if it would take longer.