Chapter 2
two
. . .
The opening was sold out, standing room only, so it was quite a press from the moment I stood on the balcony above the main display.
I had climbed onto the large swing in my duchess dress and descended thanks to the guys managing the ropes.
Two other aerialists were performing for the occasion.
It wasn’t the first time I’d had them but it had been awhile, so I was grateful everything went well and no one fell to their death.
Although death would represent that time period more authentically.
During the entire event, my heart pounded and I was distracted with thoughts of leaving my safe world and seeing for myself if there was a young winged person at this fight club. Was this the time all of my hopes and dreams came true, or would they be dashed again? Odds were the latter.
“You embody the dream of Marie Antoinette perfectly,” Maurice said towards the end of the evening, his accent particularly heavy.
He’d been born somewhere around Louisiana and sometimes the French Creole really came out and made him sound exotic and sultry.
He was tall, dark, and handsome, but when I looked at him, he reminded me too much of Dorian.
Both stunning specimens of masculinity with an inherent confidence that made women follow them wherever they went.
I smiled at Maurice and nodded towards the glass cases that had been filled with the most delectable cakes imaginable but were now mostly crumbs.
"Not at all. You create the cakes, therefore you are the embodiment of her true dream. Seriously, you outdid yourself. Everyone can’t stop telling me how brilliant you are. ”
He looked slightly uncomfortable then brushed off my words with a shake of his head. “The only brilliance I have was in asking you to work with me. It has been a genuine pleasure, Candy. Is your name truly Candy?”
I laughed lightly but my thoughts weren’t focused on him or this conversation.
I was really leaving my shop. It would be fine even though it was unlikely that my sweet little winged angel would be at the fight club.
“It is now. I had it legally changed when I was eighteen. How about you? Were you always Maurice the mysterious man with an irresistible allure, or were you born to something slightly more mundane?” Was that flirty?
Oops. I grabbed another truffle and stuffed it in my mouth.
His eyes gleamed as he leaned closer, the scent of his subtle cologne going to my head. “That is, I am Maurice, but that was my middle name. My first name is—”
“Oh, there you are, Candy dahling,” Gloria said, flinging her lime green feather boa over her shoulder and into Maurice’s face.
“Tom’s waiting in the getaway van. Honey said she can’t stay out too late because of some full moon business she’s involved in later.
You know werewolves,” she said, batting her long lilac lashes at Maurice like they were great friends.
“Beg your pardon?” he said, frowning, but not quite sternly, because she was too ridiculous to be seriously irritated by. You couldn’t seriously anything with Gloria.
“We’re off to the fight club,” she said to him clearly, pursing her bright red lips. “We have to hurry and get back before the full moon comes up.”
“Ah,” he said, glancing at me with a raised brow.
Yes, let’s tell everyone my business. I looked around and then waved Roberta over where she was standing and smiling and nodding at a particularly long-winded man and his long-suffering wife. She strode briskly towards me.
“Roberta, would you send Freddy out with the package I have for Gloria? I’m leaving now.”
Her eyes widened. I didn’t leave my store, particularly not on the day of the opening.
“I’m on it.” She flashed a smile at Maurice and hurried away.
I put my hand on Maurice’s arm. Very nicely muscled for a pastry chef. “Thank you again for this opportunity. The Candy Kingdom has never been so delicious.”
He glanced down at the low neckline of my bodice before returning his attention to my eyes. Awkward. As Marie Antoinette, I had a very low bodice, but I hadn’t felt indecent until that moment. I needed to pull my hand away, but I had to do it like I wasn’t freaked out about touching him.
His voice was smooth, as velvety as his cake. “You are the queen of deliciousness. Perhaps we can continue this conversation another time. I owe you dinner.”
“No, I owe you.”
His brow flickered. “Do you?”
Awkward. So awkward. I made this weird choking laugh sound and dragged Gloria towards the front doors like I wasn’t running towards my doom.
The old white cupcake van was visible through the thick glass and fancy bars, double parked.
It had an air of serial killer. Hm. Maybe I could use that for my Halloween display.
I held my breath when we hit the doors, forcing myself out of my haven and into the humid evening air. The van door slid open, and there was Honey with Catharine behind her, both of them gesturing me to hurry. Oh. I’d stopped moving.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and let go of the hold I had on the door, letting Gloria drag me across the sidewalk and into the waiting arms of my foster siblings, some of whom I hadn’t spoken with in twenty years.
I spent some time with my eyes closed, trying not to fall apart, trying to breathe, to be okay.
“Look at you!” Gloria crowed, so I squinted my eyes open to peer at her. She had the big box full of rum truffles and a bottle of pink champagne on her lap. My enormous purse was in there too. “You came out of the candy kingdom! That’s so exciting. Do we open the bottle now or later to celebrate?”
“Later,” Catharine said quickly, giving me a serious smile that went with her gray suit. “To celebrate or…” drown my sorrows and dashed hopes.
“Good. Sounds really good,” I said, nodding too quickly, like I was breathing too quickly.
We were all sitting on the floor in the back of the van while I tried not to hyperventilate.
I glanced around and happened to notice a flame-thrower attached to the wall above a large fireman’s axe.
Huh. It really would be perfect for the Halloween display.
We could park it out front to kick-start the mood.
“What are we doing here?” a woman asked from her position crouched near the back doors. I hadn’t noticed the stunningly beautiful woman, like she hadn’t been there at all until she spoke. You’d think her blue hair would have caught my eye.
“You remember Lucky,” Gloria said, elbowing me.
Lucky? Oh, right, Lucy, the slightly older girl who worked at the movie theater and pretended to be a ninja all the time.
She wasn’t like Honey who was a real ninja.
I’d helped Lucy make a good Halloween costume one year, some kind of monster slayer.
I smiled and nodded at her. She looked so different, so much paler, and that hair.
It didn’t look like mom hair, but supposedly she had two kids.
I’d gone to her small and simple wedding and thought I’d have the same kind of thing at her age or older. She’d gotten married so young.
“Hi, Lucy. It’s so nice to see you again.”
She smiled back at me, but still looked confused. “Is this really a bachelorette party for you?”
“Of course it is,” Gloria answered for me. “Why else would we be going to a strip club?”
“It isn’t a strip club,” Catharine said, but her soft voice was overridden by Lucy.
“I’m not going to a strip club! What kind of example would I be showing to my sons? Objectifying people isn’t okay, whether it’s men or women.”
She was the same old Lucy. That was a relief. The blue hair had to have a good story behind it.
“The Justice League took their vitamins today,” Gloria muttered. “Lucy, put your righteous indignation away. It’s Candy’s bachelorette party. Whether there are strippers or not, we’re here to support her.”
“It’s not my bachelorette party. Those are for people who are getting married,” I said feeling nauseous with everything too bright and too loud, because I was out of my house, my world, in the back of a careening cupcake van without a seatbelt. I’d also eaten too many truffles.
“You’re getting married. I saw it in my crystal ball,” Gloria said with a grand flourish of her lime feather boa.
It got into Honey’s face and she brushed it down and gave me a look.
I knew that look, even if the glowing gold eyes were new.
What did she use to get that effect? I could use it in my Halloween costume.
That look said to humor Gloria because otherwise we’d be hearing her lecture about seeing with different senses for the rest of the night.
“Is it to the guy I saw you with in there? Tall dark and handsome?” Lucy asked.
I shook my head too fast. “Absolutely not! We’re just working on a business collaboration.”
“He’d like to be working on a lot more than that,” Gloria said, elbowing me.
Her elbows were so extremely bony. “Seriously, though, he’s a looker, and the fact that he can bake is really attractive.
I mean, not as attractive as if he were an immortal descendant of Van Helsing, but you can’t have everything. ”
“You’re talking to Marie Antoinette. I think everything plus a decapitation is her motto.” Honey said, giving my outfit a once-over.