Page 99 of Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake
“This is… a lot to think about,” Lizzie said, rubbing her fists against her eyes. “I think I need to go to bed,” she added, glancing at the clock. She couldn’t keep talking about it. Her brain felt crowded, and any other profound statements from Indira would be like pouring water over glass and expecting it to absorb.
“Of course,” Indira said, reaching over to turn out the light, the pair snuggled in Indira’s bed. Lizzie knew she had to find a place of her own, but she’d give herself a few days before starting the search.
“And you don’t mind going to get my stuff tomorrow?” Lizzie asked, punching her pillow into a comfortable position. Lizzie didn’t want to go back into the apartment. She didn’t want to feel the happy memories poke and pinch at her skin as she gathered the rest of her stuff.
“Of course not,” Indira said. “I’ll go during lunch.”
“Thank you,” Lizzie said with a yawn, allowing a dreamless sleep to take her.
Chapter 44
LIZZIE was not at peak performance for work on Monday. She’d burned two batches of cupcakes for the store’s new Yonic Boom flavor—peach cake with a lemon curd filling, topped with pink buttercream suggestive of labia—and was close to a mess of angry tears when Bernadette approached her.
“Why are you dimmed, dear?” the woman asked, patting at her mass of gray curls.
“Dimmed?”
“Your energy. It’s faded today.”
That was all it took for Lizzie to start sobbing. Bernadette wrapped Lizzie in a tight hug, rocking her gently from side to side as she cried, humming as Lizzie’s tears eventually subsided.
“Tears are so healthy,” Bernadette said, pulling back to retrieve a tissue from the pocket of her chunky knit cardigan. “They’re the body working. All of those feelings and emotions flow through every corner of your body like oxygen, and when they’re finally released as tears, it’s your body saying it’s prepared to let those emotions go.”
Lizzie blinked at Bernadette. “Really?”
Bernadette shrugged. “While I did make that up, I think it’s a rather nice notion.”
“I do too,” Lizzie said, breaking into a smile.
“What’s bothering you?” Bernadette asked. She pulled Lizzie toward the front of the shop, flicking theOPENsign toCLOSEDwhile they had a lull in customers.
Lizzie told Bernadette. She poured her heart out to the old woman, explaining Rake and their inability to stay platonic and the way his failure to defend her cut like a knife. She explained what a fuckup she so often felt like, how many fears and hopes she had about the future. She cried and talked, and Bernadette sat there calmly, nodding along.
“Do you know why I hired you?” Bernadette asked after Lizzie finished.
“Because our auras were complementary and I was willing to bake titties all day.”
Bernadette opened her mouth to say something, thought about it, then nodded. “That’s the long and short of it, yes,” she said, a small laugh in her voice. “But it was more than that.”
Lizzie looked at her, blowing her nose on a thin napkin.
“All my life, I’ve had these strong cosmic… feelings,” Bernadette continued, fiddling with the many rings on her fingers as she spoke. “These nudges of energy that point me in the direction I’m supposed to go. And I trust them. Fiercely. And by trusting them, I try to plan for them, accommodate them. Sometimes I get it wrong, but many times I get it right. And I was planning for you.”
Lizzie’s eyes shot wide. “Shut up. You predicted me? That’s so badass, Bernie.”
Bernadette smiled. “Not you specifically, dear, no. And I’m not psychic. But I had a feeling about this bakery, like I was holding things down until the right energy could fill the space and allow it to shine. I started making the erotic treats on a whim, and it made my wife and our friends giggle. But something about it felt like that energy nudge. So, I kept doing it, trying not to question this odd little hobby.”
Lizzie smiled.
“Over the past few years, I’ve sensed my time running this shop myself was coming to an end, and I began to plan for what the next phase in my journey will look like.”
Lizzie held up a hand. “Bernadette, I’m begging you, if you’re about to tell me you’re closing the store and I’m out of a job, this is objectivelynotthe best moment.”
“Hush, child, let me finish.” Bernadette picked up one of Lizzie’s hands. “What I’m telling you is you’re the energy this store always needed, exactly what it’s been waiting for. What I’ve been waiting for.”
“Bernie, you’re going to make me cry again,” Lizzie said, dabbing at her eyes.
“Which is why, at the end of the year, I’m making you a co-owner of Bernadette’s Bakery.”