“I am.”
He rubs my shoulder, a little rough, but it’s what I’ve come to expect from Zach. He was a football player and track star in high school, so he comes across as the All-American boy. Sometimes that means he’s not super emotional or tender, but I’m used to it.
“Here we are,” Emily says, emerging with a tray of hot drinks. She sets them down in front of us at the table, then glares at our dads. Reaching over Mom’s head, she pulls an album down from a bookshelf. “Here are some of the cakes we’ve made in the past. Look through and tell me if you like any of them.”
I expect her to hand the album to my mom, but she hands it to me. Oh, yeah. I’m the one making decisions, right?
I open the album and take a sip of my tea while the moms add some cream and sugar to their coffees. Mom tries to sneak a peek at the album, so I hold it between us.
As I flip through the pictures, I realize more and more how little I’ve actually thought about the wedding. I have no idea what colors I want, or how to decorate, or even what type of venue we should have. My heart beats a little faster, and my stomach flutters. Is this…excitement? Nerves? Anxiety?
“This one is pretty,” Mom says, pointing at a cake with alternating square and circular tiers. Each tier has a deep red ribbon around the base, and the sides are decorated with purple squiggles. I just nod.
“Or how about this one?” she asks, pointing at a topsy-turvy cake that looks like it’s about to topple over, decorated with blue swirls.
I shrug and show it to Zach.
“That’s pretty cool,” he says.
“Are we hoping for ‘cool’ on our wedding day though?” I ask.
“Sure, why not?” he says.
I press my lips together, trying to imagine a cake like this as the centerpiece of our wedding.
“Claire, hon?” Julie asks, and I look up at her. “Do you already have an idea that you were hoping for?”
“Um, not really.” I look down at the album and flip through a couple more pages. “I guess I hadn’t thought much about the details yet.”
“That’s okay,” she says, event planner mode activated. “You can just get some ideas today. And we can pick out the flavors. That’s not going to make a huge impact on the rest of the wedding.”
Relieved, I nod and sigh. Now I can look through the pictures without feeling the weight of decision-making on my shoulders.
“Here we are,” Emily says, coming out with a tray with a plate and forks. The plate has four pieces of cake on it, one for each flavor, and they’re tiny. I mean, TINY. Like, max three bites for each slice of cake.
“Oh.” Mike says behind us as Emily sets down the plate. She gives him an evil grin, deliberately setting a fork in front of me, Zach, Mom, and Julie. Then she looks back at me. “The first here is a lemon cake with cream cheese frosting. This one is a white cake with raspberry jam and white chocolate frosting. This here is the chocolate peanut butter, and the last one is red velvet.” She nods her head at us. “Enjoy.”
She leaves us to try our minuscule portions of cake. I’m disappointed to see there isn’t a white cake with strawberries, but I guess the raspberry jam is close enough for now.
“Well, let’s dig in!” Julie says, picking up her fork.
“Here, Dad,” I say, turning around and handing my fork to him. “Try the peanut butter chocolate.”
“You haven’t even tried any yet,” he protests.
“It’s okay. I know you’re dying for cake.”
He furrows his brow at me, and I know he wants to say no, but his gaze switches to Zach. “Hey! Save some for the rest of us!”
“Huh?” Zach asks, his mouth full of cake. And not just any cake, but the peanut butter chocolate.
My dad and Mike groan. There’s just a smear of peanut butter frosting and a couple chocolate crumbs left.
“Let’s go to Starbucks,” Mike says to Dad. “They’ll give us coffee and pastries.”
Dad sighs heavily and follows Mike out the door.
“Definitely that one,” Zach says, pointing at the plate. “That was delicious.”
