Page 50 of Cookbooks and Demons

Cindy perked up and flashed a pained smile. “It’s the job I chose. It has its good days and bad days, but if I wasn’t there to do it, they would all bebad days.”

“Okay, well that makes lunch on me,” Helena said, trying to lift up the heavy mood as she made adjustments to her turkey BLT and French onion soup plate. It seemed perfect after all the rich food she’d had the night before. “And let me ask you this: how would you feel if a guy licked you?”

Cindy eyed her as she chewed around a full mouth of her Greek sandwich. “I guess I would need to know thecontext.”

“It was something…” Helena hesitated. “Sorry, I don’t know how I feel about it myself, but…” She sighed. Too late to back out now. “It happened last night. WithRafferty.”

“Oh,” Cindy said, her eyes twinkling now. “You were holding out on me. And now I need all the gory details.Spill it.”

“We were trying to enjoy the desserts from the restaurant at home, and we had this layered thing with chocolate and cream, and we were about to eat, and we were talking about … food and sexy play, and then he sort of slapped some of his dessert, you know, on my cheek and then licked it off.”

Cindy’s eyebrows kept rising as Helena spoke. “Oh. Wow. Okay, that’s a lot to break down.”

“Like I said, I just don’t know how to feel about it. I think he was teasing me because you know we were talking about it and being silly, but it sort of threw me off because I was suddenly uncomfortable, but I know that wasn’t what he intended, and now it all feels funny, and I don’t know… I don’t know… I just don’t know.”

Before Cindy could answer, Helena’s eyes landed on the last person she wanted to see, just before he walked up tothe table.

“Hi Yosef,” Helena said, forcing her smile.

“Cityside catering called. They want an appointment today,” he stated, holding out the message to her.

“Did … you come to find me?” she asked,taking it.

“No, I just happened to see you,” he said, acknowledging Cindy. “You better get going if you want to make it.” Then hewas gone.

Cindy’s beeper went off. “And just like that, there’s lunch. Well good luck with that. I’ll call later and we can finish talking.” Then she toowas gone.

That left Helena no choice but torun too.

Chapter 26

It’s Not

Opera Cake

“Thank you for coming with me to this,” Helena said to Rafferty as they walked up the sidewalk to the restaurant where the tasting was being held. It looked like it was part bakery, part catering service, with a window full of different kinds of cakes lined up asexamples.

Rafferty grunted an acknowledgement, his hair dancing in the air as he squinted inthe sun.

It occurred to Helena that she should get him some sunglasses. As well as some other clothes. They had made do with the clothes she had bought him yesterday. She had washed his shirt in her laundry, reattached most of the buttons, and he had ironed it himself once she showed him how the electric one worked. Apparently, the process of ironing hadn’t changed much in the last few hundred years, and the only difference was hers heated up with electricity, not from being set on the hot oven or hearth.

For his pants, she did a quick spot clean since they were supposed to be dry clean only. Since he had only worn them a few hours, she figured they were squeaking by until after she could run him to Target or Kohls or something and get him more clothes. It was what credit cards were for anyway.

For now, they both had to settle with him looking like a semi-casual black shadow with his jacket and no tie. She dressed in a long wool skirt and cream blouse bundled under her winter coat. He didn’t seem to mind the cold though.

“A little background information: I haven’t had the best interaction with these people so far, and now I wish I had canceled the tasting, but I figured, let’s just get it done, and if it’s a complete bomb, we can go get something else afterward, okay?”

Rafferty grunted, and she grabbed the door to open for bothof them.

The inside of the place smelled of baking goods, but with something else sour underneath, though putting her finger on that smell proved impossible. It did nothing to change her impression of the business. There was a long L-shaped counter that filled the space with glass in front to display a bunch of other baked goods, everything from cookies to pastries to more cakes like those in the window. An annoyed looking woman stood behind the counter helping another customer, her frizzy hair barely contained inside ahairnet.

Helena and Rafferty waited.

Then Rafferty made a non-committal grunt in his throat. Glancing up at him, he stood there with his arms crossed, staring down at the display case with a grumpy look on his face. She leaned in, grabbing his upper arm to pull him down a bit toward her so she could whisper more or less inhis ear.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Those aren’t opera cakes,” hegrowled.

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