"It's really not--"
"Get in the elevator Maria." His tone is firm, leaving no room for debate. "I'll take you to whatever office you're clearly here to visit, and then I'll be on my way. Or we can sit here and you can argue until we have an audience."
My protest dies before I can speak it, and with an exasperated huff, I carefully step into the elevator. Carefully balancing the containers of cupcakes.
"Want me to hold those?" He offers.
"No." I clutch them tighter. "I've got it."
No doubt he would take every single one of the cupcakes for himself and ruin my reputation for good at the arena.
The elevator doors close, and suddenly the space feels a lot smaller. The silence is thick with unspoken words between us. Sparking with tension that threatens to strike.
"What brings you to the rink?" he asks.
"None of your business," I snap.
"It is if you want me to know what button to push."
Closing my eyes, I want to melt into the floor. "I'm here to see Carrie. I was invited to be part of some PR stunt."
"She's down on the ice."
"Great."
"With the rest of the team."
What he doesn't say makes my heart sink, and I let my head fall back until it hits the elevator wall. "Even better."
Because now, instead of just dealing with Carrie, and showing off my cupcakes for a camera, I'm going to be spending my morning with Lou, and I'll have an audience for this disaster.
Twelve
MARIA
When Lou shows me to where Carrie is I feel like I'm in way over my head. Her emails, and even our chat at the resort did not prepare me for the sight that greets me by the ice. It's not just one camera. No, there are cameras from the arena, as well as the local news station. All here to capture the reveal for the for the results of the voting. I recognize the sports anchor telling one of the camera men where he plans to stand.
"Great you're here," Carrie says. Her smile dims slightly when she sees Lou beside me, but she keeps her tone professional. "Lou, how about you go get on the ice with the rest of the team. Don't forget to take the skate guards off."
The guy from the news station smirks. "Are you sure you even want him in the shot given his season?"
"Honey," Carrie admonishes, "be nice."
"Sorry, love." He walks up to her and kisses her on the cheek. "But you've seen his season."
Lou leaves without a word, and suddenly, I feel like I've been thrown to the wolves.
Carrie points to a table right up by the entry to the ice, it's covered in a shiny blue table cloth that will make the cupcakes pop. "Set them up over there."
I get to work unloading the cupcakes. Each of the eight stack-and go-containers holds twenty four mini cupcakes and I brought three dozen full sized cupcakes as well. Most of them are bears and ice monsters, Luckily Carrie had not insisted all of them be made this morning, so I'd been able to make most of them earlier this week, but yesterday she'd requested a dozen for the early names too. So I included those too. There's a big blue curtain blocking my view of the ice, but I don't mind, especially when I can hear the sound of the team skating on the other side.
I get to the last container of regular-sized cupcakes, realizing it's the Coach's order for a cupcake assortment, and put it to the side. Nearly two hundred cupcakes later, I step back, eyeing my work critically. They look good, and I place a little paper sign next to the cupcakes with La Petite's logo next to them. I snap a few photos on my phone for my bakery's social media pages.
Carrie walks up, anchorman in tow. "I want the camera to be able to pan over them and then the team will skate in taking them away, until there's just the one winning one, and the camera can zoom out to show the machine on the ice cleaning up the competition."
"Brilliant," The anchor beams at her. "The team's going to smash the cupcakes on the ice?"
"Well, they can't be eating this garbage, especially on a game day."