Cake (5 page)

“You know that I spent the first thirty years of my life chasing my husband. What you probably do not know, and thank God many gossipmongers never knew, is that he was married.”

I’m shocked because I didn’t know. Never would have even guessed. Not that my aunt is perfect, but chasing a married man doesn’t seem like something she would ever have done or had to do.

“I see the look of shock on your face. It’s not something I’m proud of, but I think you can relate to what I was feeling. It was the beginning of summer, and the first time we met it was as if the world stopped spinning. He walked into the soda shack that fateful day and my heart was never my own. A mutual friend immediately informed me that he was single, but not for long because he was also engaged. Everyone said it was to prosper both families’ business holdings, which was the truth, but he cared about her too. He just wasn’t in love with her. God, I loved that man from the first conversation we had. I was all in, hook, line, and sinker. Being young and naive, I thought I could win him over, and I tried my best the summer before his marriage. We spent every day together, but come three months later, never mind that we were both head over heels in love, he stood at the alter and married her.”

I can’t believe I never heard this tale before. I see the wetness she tries to conceal as she looks away telling her story.

“My father allowed me to travel after my mother told him of my broken heart. So I spent the next three years living in Paris studying fashion. Once my mother became sick, with what I now believe to be breast cancer also, I traveled back home to be with her. One of the reasons I refuse to let you or your mother be with me every second is because I know what it’s like to sit, day after day, watching someone you love whittle away. At the funeral, I glanced up from her eulogy to see my love standing across from me. This time, he pursued me,” she says staring off, caught in a different time. “I was lost and let a married man chase me. I refuse to detail the gory history, but to be honest, we both acted like hedonists when we shouldn’t. Forbidden fruit and all that.”

Smiling, she shrugs at me, and I reach to squeeze her hand.

“One day, I woke up realizing that this was no life. A love that I couldn’t tell anyone about, nor was it going anywhere. So one morning, I packed my bags and without a single goodbye, moved with some friends to New York. My heart ached because I never allowed myself to give any other man a chance, and believe me, there could have been others. Several years later, I opened my door to once again see my lover standing on my doorstep. He was devastated after his wife had died in a car accident along with his infant daughter, and ironically, with her own lover as she was evidently leaving him. Within a year, we were married, and I loved him more than life itself. I never knew if his death was my punishment because I loved him more than God almighty, but a year to the date that we said our vows, he died of a heart attack. The greatest tragedy for me is that I allowed my heart to die with him that day, never realizing that life is too short and, at the same time, so long, to think your love is limited.”

Tears gather in the corners of my own eyes as I listen to her story. I never knew.

Gripping my hand tighter, she pulls me closer to her, saying, “The biggest tragedy would be never knowing for sure how Trent feels or denying someone else of having their own happily ever after because their soul-mate is hung up on the wrong one.”

“What if I can’t stop loving him, and he doesn’t feel the same way about me?”

“What if he does, Kylie? You will never know until you lay it on the table. While you wait, you are just spending your time, precious minutes that you will never get back.” Groaning, she pulls back her hand and reaches for her back. “Enough gabbing with an old lady for today. Go live your life. Live it until Trent comes home, and then, you can decide what you need to do. Don’t waste a second.”

I help her as she struggles to stand, hugging her closely until she finally does. “I love you so much, Aunt Leigh.” She has lost so much weight that I take extra care not to squeeze too tight. My soul hurts with the knowledge that her time on this earth is limited.

“I know you do, dear. Just remember that the heart is capable of many loves. It took me way too long to figure that out. By then, it was too late.”

Kissing my cheek, she calls out for her nurse to help her back inside. Turning to look back over the lake, I release the tears I’ve been holding back and digest all that I’ve learned today. Can I begin to give other men a chance when I know that my heart is elsewhere? To me that is just cruel. But what if Trent isn’t the one?

Later on that day, sitting at my desk while working at Decadent Darling, I look up as Madison breezes in on a cloud of her signature True Religion perfume.

“Who loves ya, Babe?” she says, holding two tickets in her hand. Plopping down in the chair across from me, she waves them saying, “Two fifty yard line tickets to the opening preseason football game. Who is with me?”

“I’m sorry, Mads. I can’t. Leo and I have inventory that night for the VIP sale the next day.”

“Bitch, please. Let Martha or Jess help him out. Don’t make me drag your raggedy ass out.”

“Sorry love, but my raggedy ass will be working.”

“When the chance of seeing hot sweaty men in tight pants doesn’t lure you out, I really don’t know what I can do for you anymore. God! Please tell me this isn’t because of Trent Moss, because if it is, I swear I’m going to go all jungle girl and find his sorry ass just so I can choke him out.”

“It’s not about Trent.”

“And why don’t I believe you?”

Saved by the bell, or, in this case, Jess, my newest sales assistant, as she strolls in saying, “I couldn’t help overhearing you girls.”

Okay, so she is proven to not only be terrific in sales, but a good listener, if not a little too nosey. Great.

“Okay, who is this Trent Moss? You talk like he is the next Channing Tatum or something,” Jess asks as she hops up to sit her size zero tiny butt on the edge of my desk, loudly popping the chewing gum in her mouth.

I glance from my personal conversation with Madison to her, rolling my eyes as they land directly on Jess. “Lose the gum, it isn’t allowed around the store inventory.”

Right in front of me, she leans her platinum blonde head over and spits it in the trash. My. Trash. Can! If she wasn’t so adept when it comes to fashion, I don’t think this would be a mutually beneficial situation. Was I ever this stupid at her age?

“C’mon, I’ve been listening to you both go on and on about this guy for weeks. What gives? Who is he and where can I find one?”

My annoyance simmers just a little; however, instead of telling her to get back to work, I find myself giving her a short answer first. Lifting my eyes up to hers, I begin, “Trent is just a guy I met in college.”

Madison’s guffaw of laughter makes us both jump. Holding her hand up in my face, she barely spits out, “Dear Lord, you did not say he is
just
a guy you met in college.” Turning fully towards Jess, she continues to laugh, “Trent was
the
guy she met in college. As in, the girl took one look at him and fell head-over-heels. You see, Trent was this sexy do-gooder college boy that all the girls were gaga’ing with their lady parts over. Except yours truly,” she pauses only to point at herself, “because I like my boys dark and dirty.”

I return with my own burst of laughter, “No, it’s more dark and dense. And let’s get something straight, Trent was more than just your average college boy. He set out to change the world and save lives,” I reply towards Jess, “he is an Environmental Engineer that travels to third-world countries to establish clean water supplies. While there, he helps build schools, orphanages, and medical centers. He is the most caring, humanitarian that I know, and he is my
best friend
,” I emphasis the last part for Mads. It always makes her jealous to hear me say that he is my B.F.F.

“She wishes friends with benefits, but the boy likes his chicks granola-fed and tree-hugging. Alas, he sees our dear maiden as his personal assistant slash friend when he needs her,” she says dramatically. “One night of drunken college passion, that he doesn’t even remember, does not a relationship make.”

“Shut it, Mads.” There are some things that I do not need, nor want, anyone to ever know. My stupidity in ever confiding to Madison when I should have kept my mouth shut. Giving her the evil eye seems to quiet her for a second.

“He sounds great,” Jess says sarcastically. “Almost as if Mother Theresa and Gandhi got together with the Peace Corps, had an orgy, and spit out a child. What I really want to know is his stats and do the
inche
s add up?” She holds up each of her index fingers to show about seven inches in measurement. “C’mon Miss Lord, you’re semi-young still. Tell me the stuff that really matters.”

Frozen by the sheer audacity this girl has, it takes me a second to recover, but before I can add my scathing reply, Madison opens her big mouth.

“I think I have a serious girl-crush,” Mads says to Jess as they share smiles with one another. “The man is a hottie in an ‘I need a shower and shave look’. Longish thick-curly brown hair with matching dark eyes, lean-muscled body, and I haven’t seen it, but I’ve heard from good authority that the banana is ripe and hard, if you get what I’m sayin’.”

“Enough!” I stand, yelling at both of them. “Jess, back to work. That is if you still want your job?”

Smiling at Madison, she turns to me and replies as she walks back to the front of the store, “Sounds like I need to find some granola to munch on and a tree to love.”

The clicking of her heels on the floor grates my nerves. Turning towards Mads, I ask, “Really?” She only shrugs back at me. Gathering my purse, I decide to call it a day.

“Where are we going for dinner?”

Rounding on her, I reply, “Are you kidding me? You just told an employee of mine one of my inner-most secrets that only the good Lord above and you know about. Don’t make me take you out of the equation.”

Mads’s laughter follows me as I walk to the front of the store. “Jess, I’m out for the night. If you need me, please just call my cell.”

“Will do, Boss,” she flippantly replies.

Turning to walk back, Madison leans against the wall her arms crossed against her chest.

“Look, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. Let me take you out tonight to make it up to you.”

“No thanks. I’ve had a long day. I’m emotionally spent after spending the day with my aunt.”

“Which is why you need to get out. If I know Aunt Leigh as well as I think I do, she would tell you to get your fabulous phat ass ready. And I mean that with a P...H. There is a small get together downtown for some new artist. I wasn’t planning on attending, but I know how you like that anime artsy junk.”

I start to reply no, when I remember the words spoken today with my aunt. Before I can think things through, I answer, “Let me find us something fabulous to wear then.”

Smiling at me, I see the relief on Madison’s face.

“Follow me up. I have some new inventory in my apartment.”

As we head to my upstairs, she begins to tell me about Lil Rip’s hectic tour schedule, as if I care, but I listen as she details all of it because she’s my friend. Hearing Jonsie’s barks before even I open the door, Mads groans.

“I really hate that little shit.”

Laughing, I reply, “Believe me, it’s mutual.”

Loving on him for a second, he laps up the attention until I feel his little body go stiff as he turns towards Mads. Low growls emanate from his throat, making him sound pissed.

“Calm down, mini-Cujo. I’ll feed you to my cat if you bite me on the ass again tonight.”

Giggling, I answer for him, “He only bit you because you were lying on his side of the bed the last time you were over.” Mads never did anything to him. He’s always disliked her on site, which, deep down, she hates. We’ve both tried to bribe him to like her to no avail.

“Well he’s lucky that he has a little mouth, and I had thick jeans on. Otherwise, we would know the answer to if
All Dogs Go To Heaven.
I certainly believe this little devil would not.”

A barrage of barks sounds as I take him downstairs to do his business. Once we are back up, I feed him and refill his water, returning him back to his crate as I head back to my bedroom. Rifling through the new inventory that I still haven’t decided to personally keep or not, I pick an outfit out for each of us.