27. Emmie
27
EMMIE
“ D o you think that this is in poor taste?”
“My aunt made me this sweater,” Marius argued.
His red sweater was decorated with snowflakes and an anthropomorphized cupcake that had a dagger sticking out of it.
“I’m not the only one dressed up,” Marius said, pointing at groups of people wearing various murder- and cupcake-themed items of clothing and eating the mini cupcakes I’d baked along with savory treats from Girl Meets Fig. “This party is to help raise money for your cat café franchise. You have to play up to people’s expectations.”
“This whole committee is going to hell in a handbasket,” Gertrude complained loudly, walking by me, trying to collect donations for the pets-to-prison-pipeline project—working title—that Cora had started at the county jail with Rosie, who was shopping her story around for a Netflix special.
“Look at all the tickets we sold,” I reminded her. “This money’s going to help a lot of needy cats this winter.”
Gertrude harrumphed. “That’s because you were using sex to sell tickets.”
“Let’s see the goods, hot stuff!” Several drunk senior citizens whooped to Marius.
“Convince me to buy another raffle ticket.”
“Striptease!”
“My adoring public awaits.” Marius leaned in to kiss me hungrily, promises of good things awaiting me under the tree that night.
“If that’s how he kisses, I’m gonna buy the whole book of tickets,” Ida declared.
The band, consisting of several of the local high school boys, played the last few chords of an enthusiastic rock and roll rendition of “Silent Night.”
On stage, Marius pulled his sweater off, shaking his head. His hair, not combed down like it normally was, fell over his forehead. He tossed the sweater into the audience to screams for the seniors.
My heart fluttered.
“Thank you for coming and supporting a cause dear to my heart,” Marius said into the microphone one of the teens handed him. “Each party ticket does come with a raffle entry, but buy more! You could win a date with me at the infamous murder cat café, for cupcakes and coffee.”
“I’m going to have to change the name, aren’t I?” I sighed.
“And maybe you’ll even adopt a feline friend,” Marius continued on stage. “I adopted my second cat from the Murder Cupcake Café.”
“You literally sleep with him,” Zoe reminded me before I could reach for my wallet. “You don’t have disposable income to spend on extra raffle tickets for a date with your own boyfriend.”
“Last chance to make sure you’ve got your raffle tickets, everyone. The drawing’s going to be in fifteen minutes.”
When Marius loped back to me, he held out his hand for his sweater.
“Uh-uh.” I trailed my fingers up those washboard abs and rested my chin on his broad chest. “I like you just like this.”
People dumped money into the Santa-hat bucket I carted around to collect last-minute raffle sales.
“It’s too bad. I was hoping Oakley was going to be here. I wanted to see where she bought that baby bump,” Ida was saying as I counted out her twenty raffle tickets. “She cleaned up real good at those baby showers.”
The band started playing “All I Want For Christmas Is You” as Alice took the giant bin full of raffle tickets up to the stage.
She made a big, dramatic show of pulling out a ticket.
“Number eight two three four. Who has that ticket?”
A few yards away from me, a tall brown-haired man with green eyes raised his hand.
“We won, Marius!” Lexi screamed as Marius’s boss held up the ticket.
“You’re going on a date with your boss?” I snickered, nudging Marius.
Zoe waggled her eyebrows at him. “I’d pay to read that romance novel.”
“Aww, you bought a ticket, Grayson?” I said when he walked toward us.
“Can we convince you to take a cat?” Zoe added.
Grayson smirked and slapped the ticket in my hand.
“Merry Christmas.”
“But it’s my café and my…” I gestured helplessly at my boyfriend.
“I need you to speed up the dating process,” Grayson said matter-of-factly.
“We’re going to have children soon,” Lexi gushed.
“And I’d like for our kids to grow up together, Marius,” Grayson added.
“So get busy, you two!” Lexi broke open one of the sprinkle-filled Elf-Fetti cupcakes over my head, showering me with sprinkles. “This is my favorite cupcake yet! You need to ship these advent calendar cupcakes nationwide!” the short redhead told me.
Marius leaned down to kiss me again. “What do you say? You want to go on a date?” He nuzzled my neck. “You know, I have never actually tasted one of your cupcakes.”
“Seriously, Marius?” His great-aunt swatted at him with the bunched-up sweater. “I thought I taught you better than that. Be careful! If you don’t do oral, she might just murder you!”