Page 157 of Feels Like Forever

Rae and I finish eating before the other two since we got here sooner, so we head to a photo booth. We come up with some pretty good poses: regular smiles, silly smiles, a hug, extending hugs to Liv, blowing Liv a kiss, scrunched-up faces, looking like zombies—that one has us cracking up immediately, so our last picture ends up being a candid snap of us laughing. Then our time is up and I’m put in charge of keeping the two strips of pictures safe while we dance.

We only enjoy half a song, though, before the cupcake contest comes around. That’s fine with us, because we’re excited about it and there will be more dancing afterward.

We get back to our table, and I fill out the blank card someone dropped off while we were away. Then we watch lots of decorating supplies get passed out to all the tables. When it’s our turn, Abby chooses a vanilla cupcake and Rae chooses a chocolate one, and we’re left with a tray full of the fun stuff. It’s a remarkable spread for an elementary school function: there are various kinds and colors of sprinkles, a few frosting options, things like candies and chocolate chips, what appear to be edible pearls of different colors, and more yet.

I sincerely can’t wait to see what we come up with.

Neither can Rae. She’s nearly bouncing out of her seat.

However, funny enough, she’s calm as can be once she starts decorating. I hold the cupcake in place while she meticulously spreads white frosting on it…and I meanmeticulously. She doesn’t want any frosting on the sides and she doesn’t want what’s on top to look messy. I watch in amused puzzlement as her usually awkward fingers do an outstanding job of swirling the plastic knife around. She almost looks like she belongs on one of those baking shows for kids.

When she’s satisfied that the frosting looks wonderful—and it does—she asks what I think about toppings. I sample the candy pearls to see what they’re all about, and they actually taste good, like white chocolate. She likes how the light purple ones look, so we go with those. And I’m fascinated by her once again when, instead of dotting them over the top of the cupcake like I expect, she starts carefully sticking them around the edge, where the frosting meets the cake.

I lean close enough to whisper seriously, “This is going to looksogood, Rae.”

“Yeah!” she whispers back. “Maybe we’ll win!”

Honestly, I think we have a chance, especially when she finishes with the pearls and tells me she doesn’t want to use anything else. Our cupcake is straight-up classy; I can only hope whoever judges the contest doesn’t pick wild cupcakes like Abby’s just because itlookslike a kid decorated it. It’s clear that Abby is having fun, but…well, her and Bill’s area is a total mess.

Rae and I agree that I should get a picture of her next to the cupcake so we can show Liv later. Then we walk the masterpiece and our information card up to the table of judges. When all four of them ooh-and-ahh over it, looking very impressed, she and I trade hopeful smiles.

And now it’s dancing time again.

I have much more rhythm than I do real skill, but Rae doesn’t care. We spin and hop and wiggle and do robot moves, and it’s fun. When one slow-ish tune comes on, I let her stand on my feet while I sweep us around like a fancy ballroom dancer, and she loves it. She laughs and laughs, and it makes my heart happy.

We dance with other people, too: Abby and Bill and some other girls and their dads or grandpas. There’s no room for feeling dumb about dancing like a goofwad in front of the other men, because they’re doing the same thing. Well, I do spot two men and their girls across the room, looking uninterested and gloomy respectively, and I have Rae run over and pull the girls into the fun. They should put their own princess dresses to good use even if their dads don’t care about this event.

Rae and Abby start a thing where they do‘ballerina stuff’and me and Bill have to copy them. It’s entertaining, even more so when others get involved, because most of us have very little grace. A couple of girls are actually in dance classes, so they try to help us be better, but it doesn’t work all that well and it’s pretty funny.

When a bunch of the kids start their own dance group, it leaves us guys to just stand by and watch. We can’t say we mind it since our feet get a bit of rest.

And as we all make small talk together, I get spoken to as Rae’s dadfourdifferent times.

‘What grade is your daughter in? My Amber there is in the first.’

‘Hey, man, your daughter had a great time at my girl’s slumber party a few weeks ago!’

‘Did you see your daughter help mine up a minute ago when she fell down? Such a sweetie.’

‘You got any other kids or just this one? I have triplet girls. Yeah, those three right there? All mine.’

It makes me weirdly sad to say I’m actually Rae’s uncle. Makes me sadder to think I’m not even that, and that Liv might not be okay with me still calling myself so.

But surely she wouldn’t let me go off alone with Rae if she wanted to sever our bond?

Yeah, surely not. Liv always does what she thinks is best.

I know that damn well.

Rae bounds back over to me and reaches for my hands, so I hold them while we twist around in a circle. And I decide the only thing that really matters is my determination to be the best I can be for her, whatever the label on it may read.

By the time we’re all being called to pay attention for the outcome of the contest, my feet hurt and Rae is looking tired despite her good mood. We’ve been on the dance floor for a while. Sighing, we plop back down at our table with Bill and Abby, and I check the time—and even with sore feet, I’m disappointed that there are only about fifteen minutes left of the dance. To think we’ve looked forward to this for several weeks and it’s already almost over.

Rae isn’t thinking about going home whatsoever. Like all the other girls in the place, she’s got her mind on her cupcake.

The woman who’s been doing all the speaking tonight doesn’t keep us waiting long.

“All right, young ladies and beloved gentlemen! It’s time to announce the five winners of our cupcake decorating contest! Please remember that even if your cupcake was one of the runners-up, you still did a great job and you’ll still be receiving a participation award!”

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