Page 8 of Challenged By You
The next morning,I wake up alone, tucked safely into my daybed. It’s a little after seven. “Jesus.” I shoot up like a rocket. Then my heart slows down when I hear Elle in the kitchen saying, “This is a special treat.”
I groan. “What processed garbage are you feeding my kids?”
“Mama!” is shrieked from two identical mouths. Soon Annie and Chris are bounding up on my bed. Their faces are smeared with powdered sugar.
“I no longer have to guess,” I drawl, as Elle comes in with a familiar pink-and-orange box and drops it in between us as she crawls back next to me.
“It’s a special day, my friend. We had to celebrate.” She takes a donut hole and pops it into my mouth.
“Why?”
“Because while you were passed out…asleep,” she tacks on as two little bodies settle in to listen to her every word. “My phone was blowing up. When I went to get donuts, I connected to the Wi-Fi since your building hates giving me a decent signal. Anyway, when I did, all these messages came through. Here, catch.” Elle chucks her phone in my direction.
I unlock it since we both know each other’s password. After all, we’re each other’s person. We have been since pastry school years ago. We’ve lived together in hovels, we’ve burned our first attempts at pâte à choux together, we fell in love around the same time. And when first her relationship with Erik, then mine with Will, came to an abrupt end, we still held on.
And Erik and Will had each other.
It takes a certain kind of love to be able to withstand that, I muse as I quickly pull up her message app. Then I choke on the donut as I read some of the comments in the string she has going with some of the other people at Seduction.
Holy crap, Spencer’s gone!
He was such a dick. Can’t believe he managed to keep his job as long as he managed to.
Please, oh, please Elle. Tell me it was Trina who got him canned. I’ll carve her name into my workstation as a shrine.
I can’t prevent my smile as I read more comments about how much of a peach everyone thought Chef Spencer really was. Then I still even as my eyes dart back and forth.
That’s bullshit about Trina getting fired!
What??? No. Freaking. Way. If Trina’s gone, I’m out. I’m not working for some long-distance assclown who doesn’t stand up for their people.
According to the new EC, she’ll be back, but I won’t believe it until we hear from Elle.
What a damn mess.
Elle plucks the phone out of my hands. “Ahh, should I put them out of their misery of searching for new jobs? I didn’t want to be presumptuous and do so without asking.” She wings an eyebrow at me, but her thumbs are poised ready to type.
I nod, my damn emotions causing the donut to stick in my throat.
Her fingers fly. Turning her phone, she shows me her text to just Pasquale.Confirmed. Can you text everyone? No internet; can’t get on the app. Trina is staying. She’ll be back on Saturday. We’re celebrating with kids and donuts in that order.
“Yeah, that works,” I croak, just as Annie’s little arms wrap around my neck. Younger by six minutes, she’s delicate where her brother is much more sturdy. But to look at them both is like looking at myself at that age. And I’d do anything to make sure they never live a single day the way I did—feeling unwanted and unloved.
“Mama sad?” She traces her dusty fingers over my cheeks.
Waiting until just the perfect moment, I twist my head and pretend to munch on her fingers. “Nom, nom, nom!”
Annie squeals in delight. “Mama! No eat!”
Chris, not wanting to be left out for a second, dive-bombs us both. Instead of waiting, he aims his chocolate-filled fingers for my mouth. He manages to get one up my nose. That’s okay. I nibble on the other four. “What tasty children you are. What do you say, Elle? Do you think we could bake something tasty with them as the center?”
Elle lets out an evil cackle. “Why yes, my pretty. Something delicious.” She immediately crooks her fingers at my babies, who go screeching and shooting off like a rocket.
Elle immediately gives chase, giving me a chance to get up out of bed.
Chris, the little demon, comes toddling down the hall on his chubby legs. I block his way and yell, “I got one, Elle!”
He shrieks and turns around, dashing past his sister, who yells, “Wait! Wait!”
