Chapter Two: Rash Decisions Don't Itch Do They?
Marie grinned as she walked from the back office into the large warm kitchen. "Morning Becca." She said gleefully. As much as her loneliness from the night before was just a faint memory as she happily began her day.
Becca gave her an odd look. "Did you get laid by a mysterious lover you've been hiding from me all this time?" She asked with a growing snarky grin. She knew it really wasn't true but she couldn't help but get in a playful sarcastic jab at her best friend.
Marie rolled her eyes and giggled a little, "Unfortunately no...but when I do get laid Bec, you'll be the first to know." She assured jokingly. She loved having such a close friendship with Becca. They'd met in culinary school and had helped her through sanity and lots of study breaks with conventional business school after getting into the field. They'd worked together at restaurants and had always talked about working in their own place someday. Once Marie had finally secured the right financing and began her business she knew that she was going to need a friend, someone that she could really count on to help her out. She knew she already had Anthony, her best friend from business school at NYU , but she also knew that she'd need someone who could help her run the baking end of the deal. "Anyways what's up?" Marie asked grinning.
"Not much just wondering how you're doing? You've been kind of really into the whole business thing and I'm just worried." She said beginning the same discussion as the day before.
"I just want to be here that's all. I mean yeah it's been a while since I've gone out on a date or anything but I'd rather be here than out in the dating world."
"Isn't it lonely though?" She posed playing devil's advocate with her friend. She hated to see her best friend throw away the balance between career and love just because she didn't really want to bother with the dating world and how for every 100 wrong matches there was maybe one right match.
"Not everyone can fall madly in love with their high school sweetheart Bec." Marie retorted reminding her best friend that what she had with her own husband was truly a rare occurrence. "I mean granted I was engaged once, but seriously look how that turned out...here I am single in the city." She joked back reminding herself of her last and longest relationship. Her then boyfriend had proposed and they had been engaged for about a month before they both mutually broke it off. The feelings that had been between them had dulled into nothing really more than friendship.
"You're extremely difficult you realize this?"
---
Nick buttoned his white linen button down shirt then rolled the sleeves up to his forearms silently hoping the slightly dressy, and mainly casual attire would be kosher on his blind date. He studied his reflection in the mirror mentally trying to hype himself up for the evening. He didn't want to admit the more than slight feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. He knew all of his friends were only trying to find him someone that could be a good companion but every time it turned out to be someone who he would have dated back before he was a father. They were usually Hollywood types, pretty, rich but horridly vapid. He heard small footsteps behind him and looked down in the mirror seeing Livie's blonde waves peeking above the countertop. "Yes Miss Livie?" He asked faking a southern accent. She giggled at the name and reached her hands up to him to hoist her up onto the counter. He gave her a stern look but melted at her grin and reached down hoisting her up onto the counter letting her scoot back enough to where she could lean back against the mirror.
"Where ya going Daddy?" She asked with innocent curiosity. He sighed and gave her a sympathetic look studying her honest expression. He figured that of the two girls Livie was truly going to be the biggest handful. She was always the first to ask questions, question authority in school and at home. While at some times he found that to be one of her best traits that she was an individual and thought for herself even though she was only 3 years old but at other times it infuriated him to no end that she couldn't just accept certain things. He realized that she was a lot like him in many ways, a ball buster, and a bit of a troublemaker like he was in his younger days. Maybe it was Karma coming back to bite him in the butt for all the pranks and mischief he'd played on his family and friends growing up.
"I'm going on a date." He said honestly. He definitely knew being up front and honest with the girls would be the best course of action. While he did sugarcoat it to make it less than what it really was he still valued being honest with them. He figured that if he was honest now, while they're young that they'd be able to build up a really strong trust that when they needed to be honest with him about something that they would be.
"What's a date?" She asked playing with her father's hairbrush.
He chewed his lip for a few moments trying to figure out the simplest yet nicest way to put it. "Well Liv...it's like how Mommy and I used to go out to dinner alone. Do you remember any of that?"
"No..." She said quietly. Nick immediately felt horrible for bringing up Anna. He knew that Livie was really too young to remember much if anything at all of her mother. On any normal day Livie didn't really have many memories to fall back on as far as her mother was concerned. She knew her face from pictures and video but remember words she said, remembering certain events were a faint blur to her. She didn't really think about it much as a result, unless someone pointed it out to her that she was the one really gypped out of losing her.
Nick sighed a little placing his hand on her bare knee. "I'm sorry babe, let me rephrase that. It's when a guy takes a girl out to an activity, dinner at a nice restaurant, a movie maybe, the park even..."
"Ohhh the park!" She giggled interrupting a bit.
Nick grinned and squeezed her knee gently, "Yeah well it's to get to know that person better, and maybe fall in love." He explained lightly. He knew she wasn't going to understand the concept of love or really what dating meant but he figured that putting at least some idea of the reality of it into her head at a young age may help her understand it as she grows and matures.
"Like you love mommy?"
"Kinda, though it'll be different than that. But love like that takes a long time and a lot of work to build up. It took Mommy and I a while even after your sister was born to really understand the love she and I had for each other." He tried to explain. He thought it was slightly ridiculous that he was trying to explain the situation to his three-year-old daughter when he himself didn't even really understand the entirety of the situation.
Whatever the case maybe Livie seemed pretty satisfied with that answer and moved forward on the counter giving her father a bear hug. "Well I love you Daddy."
Nick wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her back, "I know and I love you and your sister very much. And I want you to know that if and when I do find someone that doesn't mean I'm going to love you and Jo any less than I do now. It means that you'll have another person who loves you too." Nick picked her up and glanced at his watch noticing it was time for him to get going or else he was going to be late. He carried Livie down the stairs and into the living room where Jo was coloring with Aaron. "Hey Aaron be good to your nieces." He said sternly. Aaron rolled his eyes at him as Nick gave each girl a hug promising he wouldn't be out too late and to get to bed early.
---
Marie sighed as she sat in her office the following morning. She'd successfully finished her sketch for the quincenera cake. She looked at it noting the large amount of intricate piping she was going to have to do. She shook her head smiling a little. Was this what her life was completely and solely about? Had her work become so engrossing that all she cared about was the next project, the time it would take and the amount of money she was going to make off of that to keep her business in the black? She hated when she got like this, when she frustrated herself to such an end that usually resulted in her throwing her pen, or piping bag across the room in abject frustration.
Just then Rhianne softly wrapped on the office door bringing Marie out of her silent reverie. Marie smiled expectantly awaiting an explanation for the interruption. "Sorry Mar, but you have a visitor out front." She said simply and Marie nodded appreciatively in return standing up straightening her olive colored chef's coat and walked out to the front smiling widely at the tall lanky brunette who was practically drooling on the glass encased pastries.
"Angel!" Marie exclaimed smiling brightly. Angel stood up abruptly and smiled back reaching over the counter and hugging Marie both of them giggling at the ridiculousness of how they looked to the other customers in the bakery.
"How are things? Looks like you've expanded quite a bit from just a cake decorator!" She smiled back. "I love the pastries, they all look so delicious."
"Yeah Becca and Anthony are in charge of all those goodies, I'm still just a cake maker/decorator." Marie replied happy to give credit where it was due. She loved owning her own business but even more so she enjoyed that she had talented friends who did more than just contribute to the success of the business.
Angel grinned brightly and ordered herself a croissant and grabbed a bottle of water. "Let's go sit outside, I want to catch up!" She said excitedly as they walked out to the patio. "I never get used to the cold winters in New York." Angel said as they sat.
Marie laughed a little, "I don't even think the natives here do either. It's like how I assume the summer in Death Valley would be only the opposite you know?"
Angel nodded as she picked at her croissant humming in delight at how deliciously flaky it was. "God these things are amazing!" She exclaimed, "How do you make them so layery she said trying to find the right word to describe how good it was."
Marie grinned, "Well I don't know if you'd like it after I tell you how much butter is in one croissant."
"How much....?" She said as she stopped chewing on the pastry and swallowed the small piece that she had been chewing on.
Marie gave her a glance and a devilish grin. "Every croissant has about a half a stick of butter. It's all in the folding process to roll it out and fold it so you eventually have 96 layers of dough and butter." She explained getting a very matter-of-fact tone to her voice. She giggled as she watched Angel's eyes widen and she set the croissant on a napkin and pushed it away from her.
"Dear God...I am never eating one of those things again." Angel said staring at the offending pastry with a look of utter disgust.
Marie laughed heartily at her, "Yeah it's one of the things I love to make but refuse to eat. A lot of the things I make are not good for you. I mean I cut some of the calories and fat from the recipes but croissants you kind of can't without using something even worse like margarine."
Angel listened to her for a moment realizing that food was one of the few things Marie ever talked about anymore. If it wasn't a cake she was designing or a new confectionary goodie she'd created it was about the nutritional facts behind her food. "You know you sound like you need a vacation..." She said a plan forming in her head.
"Yeah a vacation would be nice, but where would I go? Where would I stay? I mean I know I'd have everything covered at the bakery and could even leave things up to Bec and Rhianne and everyone but still you know me I'm a control freak. I'd be calling them every minute for status updates."
Angel chuckled and shrugged, "What about the West Coast? I mean I could really use someone to watch my dogs for me. My brother is supposed to drop by to feed them and all but yeah he's got a lot on his plate right now. And you need a vacation away from your busy Manhattan life, so maybe you know you could try LA on for size?"
Marie mulled the idea over in her head for a moment, maybe it was a really good thing that Angel had come to see her. She was most certainly in need of a change. Her professional life was booming at the moment but her love life was rather dismal...maybe just maybe a vacation would help her reevaluate her priorities and get her on the right track and when she'd get back she'd realize exactly how to get that piece of her life going as well. "You know what...what the hell. I'm in, I need a vacation and for once in my life I'm going to take it and do something for myself."
"Exactly...when do you want to leave?"
"As soon as I possibly can..." She replied feeling something in her finally snap. It had been too long since she had done anything remotely resembling something selfish and now she felt the extreme compulsion to do so.
---
Nick hit the punching bag harder than normal, knocking Mike his trainer back a step. "Whoa there, cowboy..." He said smiling at him. Nick's face didn't budge he just kept going getting stronger and stronger every time. He wondered what had gotten into him that had provoked such a fervent effort on his part. Once Nick hit the bag one more time he stopped and looked around the room going over to his water bottle taking a drink quickly before sitting down on a bench. Mike walked over and sat down next to him. "Care to share?" He asked hoping to get more of a gruff reply. It seemed lately that Nick was more mum about his life than usual. In the past he always talked Mike's ear off about his daughters and his life as of late. But it seemed that once he had started getting back out into the dating scene that all of his frustration and anger towards himself and his situation he seemed to clam up and just use the physicality of his work out to essentially ‘work out' his aggressions.
Nick took a long breath and rested his elbows on his thighs, just above his knees. "Women..." He said softly making Mike smile at him.
"Are nuts, but you knew that a long time ago. Didn't stop you from marrying one, or having two ferociously adorable girls at home. But what's the problem...?" He asked hoping Nick would elaborate. It was funny to him how his clients always used him like he was a therapist. He figured that it was almost like a woman and her hairstylist an easy way to open up while doing something constructive.
"Blind date from hell number four thousand and twenty-two." He replied hyperbolically making Mike chuckle at him. "Seriously this girl was horrendous. I mean she started out great, was on time, sweet, good looking and marginally intelligent."
"So what's the problem? Adam's apple?" He asked trying to make light of the situation.
Nick hissed slightly and snickered, "No, far too Crying Game for me...Anyways she was great and we went to this great little place and I ordered dessert and it was pecan pie. She asked for a bite, which I gave her and her fucking face blew up like a balloon and she was like ‘oh my God does this have nuts in it?'"
"And that's a total deal breaker?"
"Dude I ordered pecan pie and she forgets that pecans are actually nuts. Something was definitely wrong in her head. I spent the rest of the night in the freakin' hospital and she was all consoling me for being there with her. I mean come on first I get the slutty party girls on dates, then the ones who think a casting couch is a euphemism for sex and now this? I swear these women I've been set up with are nuts. And friends or family have set all of them up. It's like wow no one really knows me at all do they? Especially if they think it's kosher to set me up in the first place, let alone with girls that make my first few relationships look like rocket scientists."
At this point Mike could no longer contain his laughter and broke out in loud guffaws much to Nick's chagrin. "At least they knew they were going out in the first place. I mean come on it could have been much worse."
"Define worse? I mean come on where are the nice intelligent women? Hell Anna couldn't have been that rare could she? She was beautiful and had substance and I keep getting these extraordinarily hot girls yet they don't have two brain cells to rub together and you know that's saying a lot coming from me."
"Obviously you were meant to be with Anna, but obviously you're meant to end up with someone else. You'll find her man, when you least expect it." He said trying to give him the best advice he could. Mike stood up and held out his hand. "Come on I have a boxing ring with your name on it." Nick stood up with him and the two of them headed over to the ring.
Author's Chapter Notes:
So for the wonderful response I got from the first chapter I decided to post the second! I'm working on WSIT at the moment hope to have another chapter of that out today too (hopefully). Enjoy and lemme know what you think!
Chapter End Notes:
thanks so much and lemme know what you all thought!
