By Natalie Smith
When I open the door to the bakery, a little bell rings and I smell the rich scent of sweet buttercream icing. I walk up to the glass displays and am immediately overwhelmed by the pretty sweets. While staring at an absolutely beautiful strawberry roll cake, the baker behind the counter asks, “Want a slice, sir?”
“Uh, no, no. I’m here to pick up a cake for my sister’s birthday, actually,” I explain. My eyes move up from the cake to the man behind the counter. His buff arms cross and a smirk is drawn across his face.
“Pity. The cake matches your hair. Pastel pink and cute.” My cheeks and ears grow warm as he chuckles. “We have examples of our in-stock cakes right over here if you’d like to pick one out. I can even write ‘Happy Birthday’ on it, if you’d like.”
“Uh sure. She uh…really likes chocolate.”
“Then how about this one? It’s chocolate cake on the inside.” The baker points to a cake with brown icing, chocolate crusted along the top and dripping down the sides, and delicate frosting flowers overlaid on the edge. I nod, “Looks good.”
“Okay, then one floral chocolate with fudge drip. Do you want me to write something on it?”
“Yeah, sure. ‘Happy Birthday, Sadie!” would be nice.”
“Sadie with an IE or Y?”
“IE”
“Gotcha. I’ll take care of that in the back. Wait here, please.” He gives me a grin and I nod. I was just supposed to pick up a cake and be on my way. There wasn’t supposed to be someone so cute here. Heck. While I wait, I text Sadie that I’m coming over soon and she replies with a smiley face and a couple heart emojis. He returns from the back with a bag tied at the top. “It should be secure enough to get to your sister without too much damage. Just don’t go around shaking it too hard,” he explains, placing it down next to the cash register.
I hand him my credit card and he swipes it, then looks at it while giving it back, “Noah, huh? Nice name.”
I can already feel myself starting to blush again, “Oh! Thanks!”
I pick up the cake and he says, “Hope you come again soon, Noah!” and then winks. Winking? While I’m already blushing? With those kind eyes? The audacity! Needless to say, I rush out of there in gay panic, cake in hand.
***
I knock on the apartment door and Sadie opens up, wearing a sapphire dress with her blonde hair braided to the side. “Noah! It’s so good to see you!”
“Well it is your birthday and you’d probably kill me if I didn’t come, so here I am.”
She laughs, “Well I’m honored that you would leave your oh-so-comfy apartment for me nonetheless.”
“Wow, Sadie, you don’t have to call me out like that.” I smile.
“What? I get to hear from mom how she’s worried about you all alone in that apartment of yours all the time. I tell her that you’re fine, but you know, she’s mom,” Sadie explains.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s not like I’m socially isolated and don’t interact with others. But it’s hard to explain what a live streamer is to our digitally uneducated mother.”
“True,” she agrees. “Anyways, what’s that you got in your hands? Is it for your dear lovely sister?” Sadie asks, eyeing the carefully packaged cake.
I hold it out to her, “Of course it’s for you, birthday girl!” Sadie takes it from my hands and starts walking toward the kitchen, where she places it down on the counter. “I see you’ve already guessed it’s something sweet.”
“As expected of my brother, the sweet tooth.” She unknots the plastic bag and pulls out the box from inside. Wait what? There’s two boxes, not one. There’s the big cake box I expected but what I didn’t expect was the smaller box taped to the top.
“Wait, Sadie, I don’t know what’s in the small box. I only ordered you the big cake.”
“Free item then? Let’s see!” She opens the little white cardboard box and inside lies a slice of the strawberry roll cake I was eyeing earlier. “Is that a phone number written on it? Noah, you gotta tell me!” she grins, looking toward me in anticipation. That baker…he iced his phone number onto a cake slice while he was in the back? Sly bastard. “You’re already turning red! What happened? Don’t leave me in the dark!”
“Baker was cute and saw me drooling over the strawberry cake in the display case. That’s all,” I explain.
“That’s all? I haven’t seen you blush this hard since…well…him. You should text this baker guy!” Sadie exclaims. Oh yeah…him…the one who made me abandon all relationships in the first place.
“Probably not the best idea”
“Aww why not?”
“Nobody’s gonna want to deal with all this baggage I have,” I explain.
“Bullshit! Give me your phone!”
“What? No.” She steals it from my back pocket anyways and while I do attempt to take it back, she successfully keeps it from my reach. As I try more desperately, she starts rehearsing the number out loud repeatedly until she reaches the bathroom and locks the door. I knock on the door, “What are you, a child?”
“Just a concerned sister!” she calls out.
“I should have never told you my phone’s passcode,” I sigh, staring down at my shoes. A few moments later, the door’s lock clicks and Sadie opens the door. I hold my hand out expectantly and she drops my phone onto my palm. It buzzes and lights up. On the iPhone screen reads a notification that says “Sure” followed by a winky face. Oh that’s him alright.
***
Why my sister chose to set the date here, I don’t know. During the summer, on Friday evenings, small bands play music at an outdoor pavilion venue downtown. You know, I bet she just thought of a previous date she had with her girlfriend Lisa and that’s how she decided to make me meet him here. Either way, here I am now, standing near some food trucks watching the line for beer grow longer. The band is setting up on the stage while on the lawn in front of the pavilion, a family sits on a picnic blanket. A little girl blows bubbles while her younger sister claps to pop them and laughs.
Maybe wearing pants on such a hot day wasn’t the best idea, but I wanted to look nice. Over text, I had learned the baker’s name, Matt. I also learned that he had only moved here a few months ago from a more rural town and that he is only about a year or so older than me at age 28. As a Twitch streamer, I meet new people online everyday but it still feels so different when I know I’ll be seeing the person in real life. Speaking of, the real life Matt the baker walks up to me offering a red carnation from his capable hands. “Oh! Thanks!” I exclaim, fingering the stem as I examine the bright red petals.
“I thought it’d look good in your hair if you want me to cut the stem shorter,” he explains, his smooth voice convincing me immediately. I nod, and he takes the flower back only to pull out a pocket knife and cut the stem to a more suitable length.
“Do you uh…always have a pocket knife on hand?” I ask, my face contorted in confusion.
“With the amount of flour and sugar that the bakery goes through, I’m always opening boxes so it’s just easier to always have it on hand,” he laughs. “What, do I look like I go around stealing people’s lunch money with a pocket knife or something?” He tries to make an intimidating face and I laugh. He smiles, “Your laugh, I like it.” Then he leans towards me and my face grows warm as he threads the carnation into my hair. “Cute,” he grins, clearly pleased with himself as he pulls back.
The band on stage starts to introduce themselves so we decide to head closer onto the concrete floor. We aren’t the only ones as a small wave of people seems to enter under the pavilion’s awning. “Now that our spot is saved, I’m gonna go grab a beer. Want anything?” I shake my head as he saunters off to the now shorter beer line. The local band starts off with some of their original music, music that most of us likely have never heard, but it does have a nice beat to it. Something to sway or tap my foot to.
“Oh wow, Noah, is that you? It’s been almost two years now, hasn’t it?” Oh no. I’d know that voice anywhere. Him. Eli walks up with a new boy on his arm, glass of wine in hand. Wait, are they even selling wine at this event? His blue eyes, they don’t look at me with malice, just as if I were an old friend. Does he not even realize that what he did back then was shit? “It is you! You dyed your hair, didn’t you?” I nod, unable to respond as I can feel my body tensing up. Why does he have to be here? My mind transports me back to those dark nights lit up by my phone screen as I stared at our texts waiting for replies that didn’t come. Back to wondering if I wasn’t good enough. If I was selfish for wanting more than I had.
I jump a little bit as I feel a hand on my shoulder, and look over to see it is marked with a black X in sharpie. My eyes follow the strong, tan arm to Matt, who looks at me intently before turning towards Eli, “Oh, who’s this?” Matt places his arm around my shoulder. “Old friend?”
Eli doesn’t wait for me to respond, “Ah yes, Noah and I were together back in the day. But it didn’t work out so I’m glad to see we’ve both moved on.” Asshole. It didn’t work out because you would leave me alone for weeks and then come back into my life like you never left. And I let it happen.
Matt replies, “I see. Well since you know how wonderful Noah is, I’m a little selfish and would like to keep him to myself tonight if you don’t mind.” Matt steers me away and sits me down on some chairs set up nearby. “You okay there, strawberry boy?” he asks, looking at me with concern in his chocolate eyes.
“Thank you.”
“Bad ex, huh? Your eyes glazed over like fresh donuts.”
“Yeah.”
“Wanna talk about it?”
“Not really.”
He holds up his plastic cup of beer to me, “Want some?” I take it from his hand and take a big sip then give it back to him. We sit in silence for a few moments as the band starts to play covers and people dance near the front. “Ok so what if I take my pocket knife,” he starts and I quickly twist my head to glare at him. “Oh. Ok. I’ll admit, bad idea, bad idea,” he chuckles. “But Noah, whatever you’re carrying, he clearly isn’t, so it’s not fair to yourself.” He takes my hand and says, “Plus, we came here to dance, right?” The band starts to play their rendition of Mr. Blue Sky as I stand up and he leads me off to the side to dance.
Natalie Smith 