Page 148 of Cakes for the Grump
Kiren wags her finger in the air. “Hey, don’t call my best friendannoying!”
I sigh, desperately wanting to cover my face. “I’m right here.”
Noor pats my shoulder. “We know. Just let us have this. We need to properly chastise your fiancé. It’s irresponsible to disappear from someone’s life.”
“We’re not—engaged. That was fake.”
She waves my logic away like it’s an unimportant insect. “How did you know where to find us?” Noor asks him.
“You’ve been geotagging your social media.”
“I don’t have you as a friend.”
“It’s not me who has been following you.”
“It’s me!” Theo bounds out from behind us, casting himself in the strongest overhead lamp he can find, as if he’s been waiting for his entrance. He’s certainly posed that way with his arms spread out and head tipped up to the sky.
There is screaming. Light arm punches. Hugs.
How I ache to embrace Luke, I pour into Theo. “I’ve missed you,” I say into the middle of his chest.
He squeezes back tightly. “That’s almost enough for me not to be mad you left without a word and to forgive you for not responding to my texts.Almost.”
“You’ve been messaging me? I don’t think you have.”
This issue prompts an impromptu session of problem-solving. Noor grabs my phone and Theo’s phone, comparing the two devices with focused intensity.
“Her number is listed wrong in your phone,” she says. “You got it wrong by one digit, you dolt.”
Theo clears his throat. “Alright, I’m glad that you didn’t get those last few messages I sent. They got quite dramatic and desperate. I think I called you names.”
The college kid from my floor has ambled over. “Do you need phone help? I’m good with technology.”
I look back and see people have migrated closer in one nebulous group mob, stopping a few feet away, sending the college kid as their sacrificial first contact lamb.
“This is your party,” Luke says, meeting my eyes. “It’s about celebrating you.”
What he means is:We’ll talk later.
My heart pounds faster.
“Wait,” says Kiren. “Have we threatened him enough? There’s still time.”
Noor glances back. “Not when the aunties start to circle. Quick, rapid fire!”
Kiren wags her finger again. “You better not hurt her!”
“I would never hurt her. If anything—she’ll be hurting me.”
What does he mean? Is it about how I left?
Sharp pain drives through me. My reasons—they haven’t changed.
I can’t ask since an auntie has latched onto my arm, tugging me toward her. It’s far enough that I can’t quite catch the rest of Luke’s answer, but did he just say:It’s not in me to deny her anything…Is that what he said?
My friends’ voices don’t have the same issue of distance. I have no trouble hearing their threats of disembodiment, how they’ll cook him up in a pot since they have the appliances now for larger-scale cooking so his body will fit, and that Noor has access to drugs on the street (a lie), so she’ll tranq him before he can use his fit body to fight back…
From the corner of my eye, I see Theo spring to Luke’s side. He seems to pop between him and my friends, clearly playing both sides depending on his flip-flopping mood to insult or defend.
