“Tess is busy,” Holly said stubbornly. “She’s applying for other jobs, better jobs, with other better and hotter bosses.”
“I don’t see how they’re going to be hotter than me,” I said after a moment.
“You are so full of yourself.”
“I’m just stating a fact.”
“Get away from my counter; you’re scaring away my customers.”
“Can I at least order a cake?”
“No.”
“Not for me, for Tess,” I explained. “An apology cake. A big one.”
“What kind?” Holly asked.
“I don’t know. Just pick something.”
The café owner raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to apologize with a cake but can’t even take the time to specify the cake.”
“Specify it?” I asked in confusion. “You can’t just do chocolate or vanilla?”
Holly pulled out a sheet of paper with tiny print and check boxes, double-sided.
“These are the custom cake options. You also need to give me a design.”
“Round?” I said helplessly.
“You need to make a design,” Holly said, pointing. “There are crayons in that bucket next to the high chair.”
I sat down at one of the tables and looked through the cake worksheet.
“Why are there so many flavors of cake?” I muttered. Banana, coconut, every single type of fruit, and five kinds of chocolate cakes because, apparently, they were all different. Then there were the cheesecakes and ice cream cakes.
What would Tess like? Maybe an ice cream cake? She liked ice cream, and she liked cake. Both in one cake might be nice. But then I had to pick a shape. You could have a heart or a star or a circle or a square or ones shaped like various animals.
I chose the cat since Tess liked Hello Kitty. I picked chocolate cake because I knew she liked that, and for the ice cream, we would go with strawberry because it was pink and then white frosting for the Hello Kitty design.
After making my selections, I inspected the worksheet that I was supposed to use for my design.
I drew what I decided mostly resembled a cat’s head and tried to draw a little sign. Maybe the cat could hold it.
I wrote, “Youwereright.I’m sorry.”
I took the paperwork up to Holly, who peered at it.
“You want this on the cake?” She made a face.
“It gets the point across,” I said defensively.
“I’ll start working on it tonight.”
“Thanks.”
Since I was paying in cash, there shouldn’t be any issues closing on the condo. Once I had the cake and flowers, I would just need to convince Tess to come over.
“Can I have my tea now?”
