“I’m not,” I lied.
“Don’t lie to me, Laidie.” He spun me around as the music softened into the final lines of the song.
Oliver spun me out once more. This time, when he brought me back in, he held my back to his chest and wrapped his hands around my front. “It’s all coming back to me now,” he sang into my ear as the keyboardist played the ending chords and the song ended.
Knock, knock.I rapped on the door to Adelaide’s suite with my right hand as I balanced a heavy silver tray in my left.
“Just a moment!” she called, her voice faint. A few seconds later, I heard her feet gently padding across the floor before the door opened. “Oliver! Hi, what are you doing here?”
She was wrapped in a fluffy white robe tied tightly around her waist. Her hair hung in damp tendrils around her face, which looked as though it had been freshly moisturized. On her feet were comfortable-looking pale pink slippers.
She had rarely looked so beautiful.
I cleared my throat, suddenly nervous.I should have texted her that I was coming.“Hi, sorry, I know it’s a little late. But the wedding planner mentioned to me last week that we would need to pick a cake flavor soon, so I asked her to have the bakery box things up so we could do a taste test here. The samples arrived earlier today, but I thought some late-night cake would be more fun than making a whole ordeal of itwhen everyone was around.” The words tumbled out of my mouth at warp speed.
Adelaide grinned. “You had me at cake,” she said, opening the door wider to let me in.
“Are you sure? We can do it tomorrow if it’s too late.”
“Ollie, it’s fine. I just took a bath and was getting ready to read for a while, but I think I can fit you and your offering of cake into my very busy evening schedule.” She winked over her shoulder as she led me to the loveseat in her sitting room.
I placed the tray on the coffee table, removing the cover and setting it aside before I took a seat next to her. The aroma of lavender bubble bath clung to her skin, and it took everything in me not to bury my face in her neck and inhale deeply.
Adelaide’s eyes widened as she tucked her feet underneath her and surveyed the array of cake and filling samples before us. “They put all of this together for us?” she asked incredulously.
I nodded. I didn’t tell her that the bakery had sent the samples over in a box and that I had been the one to transfer them to the tray, along with a handful of forks, two bottles of water, two glasses of milk, and two napkins. I knew the kitchen would have done it if I had asked, but I wanted to do it myself. I loved doing things for Adelaide.
It had been a few weeks since we danced together at the Eros Festival. Even though those around us would not have noticed a difference, I had felt her soften toward me since that night. She smiled more freely when we were alone together and initiated more physical contact—brushing her hand along my arm as she told a story or letting her knee rest against my own when we watched movies together with Rosie, little touches that sent my heart soaring.
I foolishly hoped that she would agree to marry me for real after all of this was over, even if it wasn’t in June. But, if nothing else, I was starting to believe that a true friendship might be in our future either way.
I pulled a notecard out of my pocket. “All right, here’s what we’ve got,” I said, reading off the flavors as I pointed to each one on the tray. “For the cakes: classic white, carrot, coconut, lemon, red velvet, and chocolate—which they assured me is extra rich. For the frostings and fillings, we have: vanilla buttercream, raspberry buttercream, chocolate ganache, cream cheese, lemon curd, pineapple curd, and whipped cream frosting. They said we can mix and match in whatever combination we like.”
“An embarrassment of riches,” Adelaide whispered delightedly as she reached for a fork and napkin.
We both dug in, pairing bites of cake with different fillings and frostings. “Mmm, that carrot cake is amazing,” Adelaide said as she swallowed a bite of the moist cake with a dollop of cream cheese frosting. “But it definitely has pineapple in it and Dad is allergic, so that and the pineapple curd are both out.”
I shot her a fleeting glance, wondering if she would correct her mistake—this was all for show and the wedding wasn’t really happening, after all, so we could choose whatever we wanted—but she didn’t. She continued eating, practically levitating with glee.
“Is this what heaven is like?” she asked, turning to me and stopping with her fork halfway to her mouth when she saw me holding back my laughter. “What?”
“You’re fucking adorable, is all. I had no idea some cake samples would make you so happy. If I had known, I would have arranged for a cake tasting every week,” I answered,chuckling as I reached forward to wipe a spot of frosting from her lip.
She shrugged. “I’m a simple woman, okay?”
I snorted. “Hardly.”
She gave me a playful shove against my shoulder before returning her attention to the tray. She cut off a piece of the chocolate cake and took a bite, her eyes rolling back in her head. “Oliver, this. This is the one. Holy shit! You have to try this.”
Scooping up another bite of the cake, she topped it with a bit of the raspberry buttercream and brought the fork to my mouth. I took the bite and chewed, my eyes never leaving hers.
She was right. It was rich and tender and chocolatey, and the slightly tart raspberry frosting complemented it perfectly. “Okay, you’re right, that’s a damn good cake. I’ll let Skylar know tomorrow that this is the one.”
Adelaide took another bite and settled back against the couch. “It’s a shame that cake will never actually happen. It would be worth getting married just for that.”
My heart leaped.Cool it, Oliver. Be cool.
Shadow chirruped as he jumped up to snuggle between us. I turned to face Adelaide, scratching the cat behind his ears.
