Lady of the Cake

 
They wanted a Kagami Mochi. I never baked a rice cake before. How difficult could it be? Unfortunately it was the size of the job that stomped me. How could I have known rice doesn’t stick. A few days ago the Japanese consulate asked me to bake them a Mochi cake for their New Year’s celebrations which was supposed to be on January 1. “You Lady very good cake design….Yes?!” the Japanese lady from the consulate asked. Oh yes.. I was. She asked for a traditional Japanese cake that consists of two Mochi rice cakes. The first was to be a large round rice cake with another smaller one placed on top. As I said, how difficult could it be? What I didn’t realize was that they also wanted to attach decorative leafs on top of those cakes as well as sheets of Konbu, which are edible kelps, and a skewer of dried persimmons, or fruits under all that mochi. I was also asked to make a stand called a Sanpo which is supposed to ward off fires for the following year. The cake was easy. The decorations were not. She wanted all those by next week for their New Year’s party. How the hell do you make decorative rice cake stick to another decorative rice cake?!!?… I should not have taken that job. I was stuck in rice cakes when he came into my shop.
 
“Hi,” he said. His first ‘Hi’ more than thirty years after his last ‘Bye’. I recognized my ‘first and only’ the instant he came in from the rain. He was drenched, and shivering, as he tried to swipe dry what remained of his golden hair. Those blues were as bright as the day he said it wasn’t meant to be between us. I cried for months after that. He went off to enlist in the Navy after our prom night, and I’ve been baking cakes ever since. I never saw him again until that day.
 
I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction that I recognized that smile when he didn’t. “Yes, Hi..” I replied. “How can I help you?” I had to remain calm even though my legs were trembling underneath.
 
“I’m wondering if you are able to do a cake by next week?” he asked. “I know it is short notice but my daughter is coming home for New Years and I want to surprise her.” He surprised me alright. I should have known he wasn’t going to behave himself for thirty years since that wild school party, although he wasn’t wearing a ring to prove it. ‘A daughter?!…mmmm’… what other surprises was he hiding?
 
“What kind of a cake are we talking about here?” I asked. New Years was just a few days away and I was already swamped with orders. No way was I going to do this. “If it is something simple, I might be able to squeeze you in.” I should not have said those last words. I was hoping he didn’t notice my pale white skin turning red in front of him. Last time we touched skin I was red in places I didn’t even know could turn that color.  
 
He was looking around admiring the catering decorations, plates and accessories scattered all over my little baking shop before he answered. “I was thinking of a college graduation theme, something really nice and extravagant,” he tried to explain. “Jenny just graduated from business school and is moving to L.A. for her first job. She will only be home for a few days and I want something she would remember always.”  
 
‘Jenny!!!’ I almost collapsed hearing my name. Now why would he go and do a stupid thing like that? He could have named her ‘XYZ’ for all I cared. I hate surprises.
 
I was about to throw him back out into the rain when he surprised me with yet another request, “I see you also do catering,” he said. “I was going to look for someone to do that. Can you do it for me?”
 
Of course I would do anything for him. But he was asking for a miracle, a cake that said it all, catering for more than thirty people, and my soul with it. “I think I might be able to do it for you.” And I just signed my life away. It was either a return to that rice cake or a chance to see what my life could have been before opening my “Lady of the Cake” baking shop. I also get to visit his life, get to know what my namesake turned out to be, but most of all I would get to know the girl he chose to replace me with. And I would get paid while doing the catering for thirty people. What more could I ask for? I will sleep after New Years or in hell if something goes wrong.
 
‘Hell’ was starting to sound like a piece of cake. I didn’t sleep for days working on seven cakes simultaneously, all for New Year’s celebrations. I sure as hell wasn’t going to loose that  Japanese consulate account. Coffee was my constant companion and the idea of strolling into his house made my eyes twitch. I blamed it on the coffee. Finally the night they drop that midnight ball was approaching I drove my van into his drive way. He greeted me outside his house to help me bring the catering stuff inside.  
 
“By the way, I never got to know your name,” he asked as he was putting a box of plates on his kitchen counter. I was surprised we were all alone in the house. I was looking forward to meeting the misses. I kept looking left and right expecting her to pop out of the woodwork at anytime. I didn’t even notice he was asking for my name. His house was huge.
 
“I live alone,” he must have realized I was behaving awkwardly trying to take a peek in every room. “My wife died a few years ago,” he tried to explain. I felt stupid when I finally heard that. Damn that coffee.
 
“I’m so so sorry,” I tried to apologize. “I was thinking how best to set up this party of yours. I’m sorry about the wife… what was it you were trying to ask me?” I had to pull myself out of the shock of knowing he was available once again.
 
“I was asking how should I call you,” he smirked that smile that made me fall in love thirty years ago. He still does it perfectly.
 
“I’m sorry,” I kept apologizing again. “My name is Laurel. Miss Laurel.” I haven’t used my middle name since I wrote it on my driver’s license. I sure as hell wasn’t going to use Jennifer right now. Somebody must have opened the gates of hell because I was drenching from sweat even though it was freezing cold outside. I asked him to help me bring in the last box that held the cake for his daughter’s graduation party and we placed it in the middle of the dining room table. I was very proud of this one in particular. An amazing piece of design, with my name written all over it.. well, actually his daughter’s name written all over it.
 
By nine everything was set up. The decorations were immaculate. The food was lined up and ready to be served to the guests who were supposed to be arriving soon. I kept the cake in its box to be opened before the party girl comes into the house with her friends. I was getting paid to stay until the party was over to get everything cleaned up. I was sitting on the sofa waiting while he kept looking at me side ways.
 
“What?” I couldn’t help it. It was getting uncomfortable being starred at for an hour straight. “What!?” I had to say something. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
 
He finally spilled it out, “I was waiting to see how long were you going to keep this up, Jenny,” his first surprise for the night. My jaw must have dropped to the floor.  
 
“You son of a bitch,” I almost came swinging at him but went straight into his arms. “You knew who I was all this time?” I was in shock and in awe at the same time. Oooo… he was good.
 
“I knew who you where the moment I stepped into your shop.” He confessed.
 
“Why didn’t you say something?”
 
“I thought you didn’t want me to,” he replied.
 
I stepped backed and looked all around realizing what had just happened. “Wait,” I felt a knot in my stomach. Something didn’t add up. “There is no party is there?” Was I that naive?
 
“Oh no there is,” he replied. “Jenny will be here with her friends very soon.”
 
“How many friends?”
 
“Three or four?” He replied and I wanted to strangle him.
 
“You shit,” now I was angry. “You made me work three nights straight for nothing.”
 
“Oh no. Not for nothing. I wanted to make it worth your time,” he smirked again. Well, I did get paid for all this and much more. Still, I wanted to kill this guy. Who does he think he is?
 
“What now?” I finally asked. I wasn’t sure what kind of an answer I was expecting to get when I did.
 
“What do you want it to be?” Oooo… he was good. I hate it when people answer you with a question.  
 
“You do realize I’m not the girl you left at the prom,” I’m sure he did. Every bones in my body knows it too. So why was he still interested? Heck, I haven’t even shaved my legs for months. I don’t supposed those wrinkles on my hands are much of a turn on either. “So why me?”  
 
“Why not?”  
 
One other thing kept throbbing in my mind “You could have picked a better name than Jenny,” I said.
 
“I’ve always loved that name” he replied. “I insisted on ‘Jenny’ and the wife accepted.”
 
That was what I was afraid off. ‘love’ and ‘Jenny’ in one sentence. “So why did you leave?” I had to ask the last of my stupid questions.
 
“I went to the Navy, remember?!” He replied. “I didn’t know if I was ever coming back.”
 
“But you did.”
 
“Yes, I did. Only you weren’t around anymore.” He was right. I moved right after high school and never came back ever since.  
 
We were a few feet apart looking at one other and wondering what was to happen next. The next came when four young ladies suddenly burst into the house and screamed “SURPRISE!”
 
“DAD!!!!” Jenny ran into her father’s arms and hugged him like a loving daughter would. “Dad, this too much. I think you over did this,” Jenny looked around seeing all the food on the tables and all those beautiful ‘congratulations’ signs and decorations covering the walls of her house. “You did all this?”
 
“Jenny, meet Miss Jennifer Laurel Styles. She helped me set this up.” He introduced us and went to open the box of cake sitting on the dining table.
 
“Dad… you didn’t have to do all that,” Jenny was still surprised and grateful to her father as she ran to see the Japanese Kagami Mochi being on displayed on the dining table of her house…
 
“WAIT….WHAT?!...”
 
My phone was ringing straight which I had been ignoring for the past half hour. I looked at it and it was the number of the Japanese consulate… “LADY of the CAKE…MISTAKE … CONGRATULATIONS….MISTAKE…where MOCHIIII?!?…” she was shouting and cursing in Japanese …or I think it was Japanese ...