Page 39 of Revenge Cake

Logan: Are you home right now? I’m coming over.

CHAPTER 14

Past—The Bliss

Logan

I unzip my hoody to let the autumn breeze sweep over me, still not used to the way the Santa Ana winds can make Novembers warm in Santa Barbara even though I’ve lived here three years now. When I look up, I catch sight of her fancy grey dress, so out of place in the middle of the Old Town Farmer’s Market. Our eyes meet and she smiles at me. My breath catches. It’s my favorite smile—the one that brightens her whole face, like she’s delighted to find that I’m here waiting for her. As if she wasn’t just with me two minutes ago when she walked over to that booth to buy her oatmeal pancake mix.

“How much time do we have?” she asks as she approaches me.

I glance at my phone. “Shit. We should probably start walking over there now.”

We’re celebrating tonight. She submitted her last graduate school application this morning. I was planning to take her all the way to a fancy restaurant in Malibu, but I ended up making a reservation at bouchon instead. Lani insisted on staying local because she didn’t want to miss our weekly farmer’s market trip.

I love how she does this. I love how she treats our everyday routines like they’re sacred.

The last few months have been absolute perfection. I finally feel like she’s lowered the invisible wall. She tells me she loves me all the time, with almost religious diligence. It doesn’t even sound natural coming out of her mouth. It’s stilted and awkward, almost robotic, but that just makes it all the more special, because I know why she’s doing it.

She’s trying. She’s making the effort because she knows it matters to me.

She hasn’t given in on everything. She still won’t commit to living with me after we move, but she insists it’s because I wouldn’t like living with her. “I’m a nightmare to live with, Logan. I’m a neat freak and I never sleep and I constantly have a TV running in the background to block out my anxious thoughts.” As if I didn’t know all that stuff about her already, when we’re practically living together now.

I can let it pass. If she’s willing to meet me halfway, the least I can do is the same for her.

As we start walking toward bouchon, I glance at the bag in her hand. “Why didn’t you get the oatmeal kind?”

She takes a deep breath, squaring her shoulders. “I’m attempting your Grandma Louise’s chocolate chip banana pancakes again, and this time, I’m getting them right. I’m determined.”

I smile as I grab her hand. “They were delicious the first time.”

She shakes her head sharply as she interlocks her fingers with mine. “They weren’t right.”

“Yeah, because you’re a much better cook than Grandma Louise. She made hers out of the just-add-water stuff. I never should have told you they weren’t the same. Now the perfectionist in you is obsessing over it.”

“I only obsess when I’m on the cusp of innovation, and this,” she lifts the pancake mix in the air, “is a just-add-water mix. I’m getting them right this time. And so help me god, when you try these, you’ll be transported back to your Grandma Louise’s giant, cold basement with the old-school Nintendo.”

The warmth that spreads through me makes me feel almost lightheaded. How the fuck does she remember every single trivial thing I’ve ever said to her? I ought to be embarrassed that it makes me feel like the king of the universe, but I’m too happy to care.

“I think it’s my turn,” Lani says, startling me out of my reverie.

Oh, that’s right. I forgot about our game. “Truth or dare?” I ask her.

When I glance her way, her eyes are narrowed and she’s pursing her lips to the side, like she’s mulling over her choice. I look away so she doesn’t see my smile. Lani takes everything seriously, even the silly kid games we play sometimes to pass the time. I’d bet my last dime that she was the kid who played every game of Monopoly from start to finish, diligently putting houses on all of her properties and calling out her friends when they tried to steal from the bank.

“Dare,” she says.

Now that we’re on State Street, I glance around to make sure I don’t see anyone we know. When the coast is clear, I look back at her. “I dare you to take off your underwear and hand it to me. You’ve got to do it right here too.”

“Easy. I can even do it while I walk.” Just as she reaches toward the skirt of her dress, she frowns up at me. “I’m not wearing underwear. I forgot.”

I narrow my eyes. “I feel like there should be some kind of penalty for reneging on a dare.”

She bites her lip for a moment before looking up at me with that steady, brown gaze. “What if instead I stuck my finger in my pussy and put it in your mouth so you could lick it?”

I inhale sharply. I don’t know why I’m not accustomed to this by now, how even after spending almost every waking moment with her, she still manages to shock me. My already half-mast dick grows fully erect. “Lani, don’t do this to me, please. I’m still a little hard from when you flashed me. I don’t want to have blue balls the whole time we eat.”

“Why would that give you blue balls?” She sounds genuinely baffled. “You lick my vagina all the time. This is just a finger.”

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