Page 67 of Rebound

Ms. Christopher laughs, a soft tinkly sound. “You two are beautiful together.”

“Thank you,” I say, finally finding my voice.

She smiles and stands as a young man joins us at the table. “Tariq will take you through the process and assist with anything you need. I’ll be back when you’re done.”

Without waiting for us to say anything, she leaves and our attention shifts to Tariq. “Welcome to Frosting. Is this your first cake tasting?”

“Yes.” Patrick seems to be doing all the talking for us today.

He smiles and steps aside as two other servers bring over trays laden with cake and small bowls of frosting. My mouth waters as I stare at the display.

“These are all of our standard base flavours and the small bowls have buttercream and filling, if that’s something you want to include. Feel to mix and match. Please write down the combinations you like the best.”

I swipe my finger through a bowl of buttercream as I go through the printed list. Before I can taste it, Patrick’s mouth wraps around the digit and sucks it clean. My pussy throbs and I stare at him as he picks up a piece of cake and spreads another buttercream flavour over it. Like he didn’t just suck frosting off my finger.

I’m still in shock when he says, “When are you going to come clean?”

“What … what do you mean?”

“With Ms. Christopher. How are you going to tell her why you’re really here?”

Oh, right. My brain was already thinking of ways to apologise to him for our mess, but that was not what I was expecting him to say. Shaking my head, I shove a piece of cake into my mouth to give me the time to settle my racing heart.

“I’d…uh…probably give her my real name.”

He frowns. “As opposed to?”

“I made the appointment for Tamara and Patrick J. It was the only way I could get this.”

“So she thinks we’re really getting married.”

I hum and eat another piece of cake, aware of his eyes on the side of my face. I’m afraid to look at him because I don’t know how he’s going to react. Instead, I cut a piece into two sections and make a sandwich-like thing with raspberry in the middle and vanilla on the outside, then hold it out to him.

“This feels like a safe option, no?”

He takes a bite and shrugs. “It’s a standard combination. How about a chocolate with the raspberry? Or…what are the other fillings?”

“Lemon and orange might be nice.”

“That sounds like an overload of citrus. Would a lemon cake be too much?”

“Not everyone likes lemon cake,” I reply as Ms. Christopher returns, still beaming.

“You’re very right. It’s not a popular flavour, but we include it in case some folks might like it.”

Patrick leans forward and wipes his mouth. “What’s your most popular cake request?”

She smiles. “Oh, chocolate of course. Usually a simple cake does the trick with thick frosting. The other day we made a chocolate and raspberry one that was a big hit.”

“Told you,” he says to me and I roll my eyes. “She’s very picky about her dessert, so we’re always arguing about what’s best.”

“Well, it’s your wedding cake. It should be perfect,” Ms. Christopher offers and I nod.

“Exactly, thank you.”

Patrick snorts. “Then again, if I left this up to you, we’d have an entirely chocolate cake.”

“I don’t see the harm in that,” I shoot back, smiling as our eyes meet.