Page 24 of Cupcake
I laughed and shoved her in the shoulder gently until she plopped back down on the couch. “Smart ass. Here, eat some of this now. Maybe you’ll be sober enough by four a.m. not to burn down the bakery.”
She bit into the pizza and moaned low in her throat. The sound made my dick jump in my pants on its own accord. All I could think about was that sound in my ear while I was bringing her to climax. The thought made me choke, and I coughed, covering it with a smile when she glanced at me sharply.
“You okay, bro?” she asked, taking another bite.
I swear she could see right through me and knew exactly what I was thinking. “Fine, thanks. I’m hungry, and it was too hot.”
“I bet you worked up quite an appetite out there preening for the ladies,” Haylee agreed.
“Waterskiing is hard work. It requires a lot of stamina. You should try it.”
“Never going to happen,” she said around the pizza in her mouth. “I can’t swim.”
“You can’t swim?”
She shook her head until she swallowed the bite of pizza. “Not well. I’m all hips and ass. It’s not pretty.”
I so badly wanted to say it was pretty. So pretty. I knew better.
She had a second piece in her hand when I glanced up again. She held up the pizza. “See, this is the reason I’m all hips and ass. Pizza and cupcakes.”
“You seem to think that being all hips and ass is a bad thing. At least that’s the impression I’ve garnered over the last seven years.”
The eye roll she gave me was powerful, and I would give it an eight out of ten if I were passing out scores. At least this time, she was able to bring them back to the center without as much effort. “As if you think being all hips and ass isn’t a bad thing. Give me a break. I have a bridge for sale if you don’t. Look at you with all your muscles in all the right places ‘n shit.”
I had to bite back my laughter, so I didn’t choke on my pizza. “’N shit? I worked hard for these muscles just like you’ve worked hard on those hips and ass.”
The pizza fell back to the plate, and the death glare she threw at me burned me to ash in the chair. “I’ve looked like this since the day I came out of the womb. Sometimes you’re the ass.”
“Why do you fight it then?”
“Fight what?”
“Being all hips and ass, to use your phrasing.”
The pizza went back to her lips, and she took a bite, silently chewing while she glared at me. “Darla McFinkle.”
“What about her?”
“She’s the reason I fight it. Her, and Jerry, Tim, Tieg, and that asshole I had brunch with today. Matt? Mike? Moses? Max?” Her hand waved in the air. “Something like that.”
“What about Darla? I’m confused.”
“If you’re confused, then you must be slow. Let me spell it out for you.” Her hands made a stick straight figure to her left. “Darla McFinkle. Tiny and adorable since day one.” She made a wavy line to her right. “Haylee Davis. A cupcake since day one.”
I raised a brow. “A cupcake?”
“Look at me!” she said, bolting upright. “I look like a cupcake. Thick on the bottom, thin on top.”
“Oh, I’m looking,” I drawled appreciatively. “I look every day, but I’m smart enough not to take a bite.” Her eyes rolled, and she sat again. “You’re saying that Darla is the reason you hate on yourself all the time about your figure?”
“You would too after twenty-five years. Her nicknames weren’t kind.”
“Where do Jerry, Tim, Tieg, and today’s asshole come in?”
She pointed at me while she chewed. When she finished that piece, she leaned back on the couch to relax. “They all spent a good portion of the date suggesting in not so subtle, and in a multitude of different ways, that my hips and ass were too big. The date I had today suggested I get a salad instead of a burger.”
“Well, fuck them then. If you’ve been this way since the day you were born, what makes you think you can change it because someone points it out? Tell them to kiss your sweet ass and walk away. Why do you give them the power to make you feel bad about it?”
