The Icing on the Cake (10 page)

 Kristine woke early, her internal time
clock having been set years before.  She glanced around her room.  She felt
sluggish and some memory danced around the fringes of her mind.  She sat up and
flung her legs over the side of the bed.  She needed to get dressed and ready
for the day.

Wait!

She suddenly recalled the evening
before, in which her mother and sister had ambushed her when she’d arrived home
from her date with Joe.  They had accused her of awful things.  Her heart
twisted as she remembered each painful detail of the heated conversation. 

She had told them she wasn’t going into
work today.  She felt conflicted about that now.  If she didn’t go in, would
Lori actually buck up and take her place?  And if she did, could she actually
be counted on to keep the case filled with baked goods for their customers? 

Minnie wouldn’t be happy to walk in and
find Lori waiting.  The two had never gotten along.  Despite the age
difference, Lori had never treated her with the respect she should have
afforded all her elders.  Instead, when forced to work at Branton’s, she had
made the experience miserable for all involved.  Her efforts there were
half-hearted at best, as she frowned and pouted and generally complained the
whole time while she was there.

Kristine wrapped her arms around her
knees and rocked herself, as she considered the pros and cons of following
through with her threat.  Finally, she decided she wasn’t going in to work.  It
was time Lori had a wakeup call, literally.  However, she wasn’t going to give
it to her.  If her sister hadn’t set her own alarm, in order to get up in time
to open the business this morning, then she would have to accept the
consequences.

As she lay back down in bed and pulled
the covers up to her chin, Kristine knew full well who would suffer the
consequences of Lori’s lack of motivation.  And if Lori actually went into the
bakery, Kristine knew she would be the one to clean up the mess she would
inevitably leave behind.  But it was a chance she had to take.  It was time her
sister experienced some tough love.

She rolled over on her side and closed
her eyes.  Willing sleep to come, she lay quietly, struggling to think happy
thoughts.  Joe immediately came to mind.  He had told her the evening before
that he wanted to get to know her better—that he had feelings for her.

She too cared about him, but she
suddenly wondered, should she pursue a relationship with him?  Could she?  Her
mother and sister believed she’d crossed some sort of loyalty line and had
betrayed Lori.  But then, it had been years since Lori and Joe had dated and
Lori was currently involved with someone else.

Had she broken a sisterly dating code? 
She honestly didn’t know.  Maybe she had. 

She forced away the disturbing thoughts,
now yearning for sleep.  The truth was, she needed it.  Her body ached for it. 
If only she could sleep…

Finally, she began to drift off, when
she was startled awake by her door being flung open.  “Kristine!  Get up!” her
mother cried.  “You’ve overslept.  Minnie just called and…”

“I’m not going to work today,” she said
groggily.  “Remember.  I told you last night.  It’s Lori’s turn.”

“She’s sleeping!” Ruth cried.

“Wake her up.”  She rolled over, away
from her mother’s alarmed face.  Obviously, her mother hadn’t taken her
seriously when she said she was taking the day off today. 

“But you know Lori…”  Her mother’s words
trailed off.  The unspoken part of her remark spoke volumes.

“Yes, I do,” Kristine murmured.  “And so
do you, yet, you sided with her against me, making horrible accusations… 
Untrue accusations.”

“Kristine, we don’t have time to talk
about this right now.  The bakery…”

“Will survive a day without me.”  She
sighed.  “It may not survive Lori, but I’m going to let you worry about that
right now.”  She rose slightly and pounded her pillow, and then lay back down.

Ruth stared helplessly at her daughter. 
Finally, she left the room and closed the door behind her.  Kristine perked her
ears, listening.  Was her mother actually going to rouse Lori, who would sleep
in until eleven otherwise?

“Lori!  Wake up!”
 
Her mother’s command floated along the hallway and to Kristine’s ears.

She smiled.  So her mother was going to
enlist the help of her oldest?  How was that going to work out for her?

***    

Kristine woke hours later.  Her eyes
widened when she spotted the time.  It was after ten.  She hadn’t slept so many
consecutive hours—ever.  She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. 
She wondered how Lori was faring at the bakery, provided she had actually gone
in to work. 

She rose with a yawn and padded to the
bathroom she shared with her sister.  She found it in disarray, her sister’s
makeup scattered all over the vanity.  Apparently Lori had started her day in a
hurry, which meant…

Kristine couldn’t help smiling.  Lori
was about to get a taste of real work for the first time in a good, long
while.  She prayed Minnie would forgive her for unleashing her on a loyal,
long-time employee.

Where was her mother?  She perked her
ears and listened.  No sounds emanated from inside the old Victorian. 

Where was Devon?  She prayed they hadn’t
forgotten about her precious nephew.  Had either one of them remembered to take
him to school?  She detoured to his room, found it empty, and sighed with
relief.  They hadn’t driven off without him.

She returned to the bathroom and quickly
showered and dressed, and then headed downstairs for a bite to eat.  She
prepared toast, downed a few ounces of orange juice, and made an impromptu decision
to go for a walk.  She hadn’t taken a leisurely stroll in years.  Nothing about
her life had been leisurely for years.

She grabbed a light jacket from the coat
closet and started off.  Seemingly of their own accord, her feet took her into
downtown.  As she reached the bakery and casually strolled by, she spotted Lori
inside, behind the cash register helping a customer.

Even from a distance, she could see her
sister appeared harried and overwhelmed.  Strands of her blond hair had escaped
her hair net, and her cheeks were bright red from apparent exertion.  So, Lori
had been exerting herself?  She chuckled at the thought, felt guilty for her
meanness, but chuckled again.

Her mother suddenly hurried toward Lori
with a tray of brownies.  She slipped it into the case, spoke briefly to Lori,
and scurried back to the work area.

So her mother had joined Lori at the
bakery?  It was a good thing, she mused, since Lori would have been out of her
element without her.  Her mother hadn’t spent a single day at the bakery since
her husband had passed, but she was definitely better equipped than her
daughter to make a go of it.

Feeling slightly better after seeing her
mom was helping Lori out, but also feeling a bit wounded that her mother had
never mustered the energy to help her, she continued on her way.  She had just
reached the corner of the building when Minnie appeared, stepping off a walkway
between the bakery and the building beside it.

“Minnie!”

“Kristine!”

Minnie suddenly grasped her by the
shoulders.  “How could you do that to me?” she cried. 

“Do what?” she asked, confused.

“Unleash both of them on me!”

“I … don’t understand.”

She sighed.  “Listen, I can handle
working with your mother, and I might even be able to handle working with Lori,
but both of them at the same time!  Are you trying to kill me?”  She pinned her
with eyes that reflected sudden worry.  “Are you all right?  Your mom said you
weren’t feeling well.  I got concerned because you never miss work.  Thank
God,” she muttered under her breath.  “Thank God you’re okay.  You are okay?”

“I’m okay.”

“What happened?” she demanded. 

“It’s sort of a long story,” she said,
smiling ruefully at her friend.  “What are you doing?  Did Mom send you on an
errand?”

“No, I’m going home sick,” she said with
a wince.

“Oh, Minnie!  Are you feeling ill?  Do
you need anything?”

“I’m not sick,” she whispered, dragging
Kristine away from the bakery.  “I just couldn’t take another moment with those
two.  Between their bickering and complaining and their general ineptitude…”

Kristine shook her head, confused.  She
didn’t doubt for a single moment that Lori was inept from lack of experience,
but her mother…  She’d worked at the bakery for years, prior to her husband’s
death.

“Minnie, I don’t understand…”

“Come on.  Let’s talk,” she whispered. 
“My car is parked just up ahead.  Hurry!  We don’t want them to see us.”

“Them?  My mom and sister?”

“Yes!” 

“Oh.”

Kristine climbed into Minnie’s car and
watched her friend round the hood and climb in.  She appeared frazzled, as if her
hours with her new coworkers
had
really taken a toll.

Minnie started the car and pulled away
from the curb.  “Duck!  They might see you.”

Kristine chuckled as she slid low in the
seat.  She rose up when they’d passed the bakery. 

“What were you thinking walking past the
bakery like that?” Minnie demanded.  “They might have seen you.”

Kristine laughed uncertainly.  “Oh,
well.”

“They would have dragged you inside. 
Neither one of them knows which end is up.”  She shook her head and blew out a
breath.  “I’d forgotten how awful it was working with your…”

Minnie’s eyes widened.  She’d nearly
said too much.

“With my mother?” Kristine clarified,
surprised.

“I’m sorry, Kristine.  But yes, working
with your mother.  Frankly, the only thing more stressful and difficult is
trying to work with your sister.”

“But…  Mom has years of experience…”

She moaned and took a withering breath. 
“I’m sorry.  I’ll just … shut up.”

“No.  Please.  Let’s talk.”

“You’ll fire me.”

“You know better than that.”

“Do you promise if I tell you the truth,
you won’t punish me for it?  I love my job, but only when … you and Mitch are
working with me.”  She pointed ahead to a fast food restaurant.  “Shall we go
in and get an early lunch?  We can talk there.”

“Sure.  Okay.”

Inside the restaurant, the women ordered
and after receiving their meals, selected a table at the back.  Minnie watched
Kristine warily, as if she had perhaps already said too much.  Kristine sensed
her discomfort and reached across the table and patted her hand.  “Minnie, it’s
okay.  Just tell me the truth.  I won’t fire you.”

She watched Kristine speculatively and
finally relented.  “First, Kristine, will you tell me what happened at home
that prompted you to foist those two on me today?”

She was still shaken by her mother and
sister’s accusations.  She took a deep breath and relayed the story to her
friend.

Minnie sat back in the chair and widened
her eyes in shock when she stopped speaking.  “Wow.  I’m so sorry, Kristine. 
That must have been horrible, having them gang up on you like that, and when it
was undeserved.”

“Was it?” she said.  “Did Joe come into
the bakery originally, in order to find Lori?  Did he come back to town to
rekindle their relationship?  Did I somehow insert myself into a situation that
didn’t involve me?  I mean, it is strange that Joe said he has feelings for
me.”

Minnie gasped with delight.  “Hey, you
didn’t tell me that part.  Details!” she demanded, smiling brightly.

“Well, he took me to dinner and for the
most part, we had a really nice time.”

“Yeah, yeah.  Get to the good stuff.”

“He told me he wants to get to know me
better.”  She grinned sheepishly.  “He likes me.”

“Oh, he more than likes you, honey.”

“No.  I mean, we really don’t know each
other very well.  He used to come around the house when I was a kid, because he
and Lori were dating back then.”  She winced.  “Maybe in light of that, it
isn’t inappropriate for me to get involved with Joe.”

“Kristine, that was ancient history.”

“But Mom and Lori do have a point that
Joe seems to have developed an interest in me fairly quickly.”  She dropped her
head.  “Neither one of them can understand what he sees in me, I guess.”

Minnie practically leapt out of the
chair.  “
What?
  I’ll tell you what he sees in you.  You’re smart, loyal,
kind, hard working, not to mention—beautiful, and you care about others.  You
really do.  You’re unselfish.  You put the needs of others above your own. 
You’re clever, funny, fun to be around…  Shall I go on?”

“No,” she said, smiling at her friend.

“Oh, and if you’ll remember, Joe didn’t
suddenly develop feelings for you over the past few days.  They’ve been years
in the making.”

“What?  That’s not true.  He’s been away
for a long time.”

Minnie pinned her with a look.  “Do you
remember when you graduated high school?  You worked that summer at the bakery,
until you went off to college?”

She nodded.

“If you’ll search your memory, you’ll
recall that Joe came into the bakery every day, sometimes twice a day—to see
you.”

“No, he came in to buy baked goods for
his coworkers.”

“Kristine!”  She watched her as if she
were a bit dense.  “Boy, those coworkers of his must have been rotund by
summer’s end, because he bought enough to feed a Third World country.”

“No!”

“Yes!  Kristine!”

“But that was such a long time ago.”

“True, but do you remember when you
returned home after college…?”

“Yes.  I went right back to work at the
bakery.”

“True, and Joe hadn’t left town to start
his own business yet.  As had happened during the summer previously mentioned,
he stopped by the bakery every day, sometimes twice a day,” she said,
chuckling, “to see you.”

Kristine shook her head, truly
confused.  Was Minnie correct?  Had Joe come in to see her?

“Did I even talk to him?” she asked,
genuinely perplexed.

“Yes.  You’re always friendly to every
customer.”

“Did I use my feminine wiles on him?”
she asked with a humorless laugh.

“I wish,” Minnie said.  “Maybe you’d be
married to him by now.”