Page 82 of Wild Card
Epilogue
Giovanni
One Year Later
We do end up getting a second cat, another calico named Spice. The bakery is doing incredibly well, and Catriona, media maven that she is, wasn’t kidding about the whole Food Network thing.
She developed a series of videos chronicling the launch of the bakery and driven by the enormous popularity of her personal channel, the series took off, and Catriona sold a pilot based on them.
It is called Sugar and Spice, and the cats are featured heavily, though only in the personal interstitial segments, and nowhere near the food, not to worry.
It’s hard work, but it’s unbelievably fun and rewarding.
Everything is more fun with Catriona.
And I’ve worked out a little surprise with the other producers of the show. We’re filming a one-year-out special, discussing where we’ve been, and where we plan on going next.
We’re shooting in the living room of my place, right above the bakery. I sit on the couch next to Catriona, filming our little talking heads segment.
“So what do you think is next, my love?” I ask.
“Big trends in hybrid pastries. But only ones that make a good portmanteau. Like a donut muffin. Duffin? Muffnut? Probably can’t say muffnut on TV.”
“How about experimental cannoli?” I ask.
She bursts into giggles, and I hand her a small cardboard box.
She opens it, and there’s a cannoli inside.
“Experimental, huh?” She says, reaching in with elegant fingers to pick it up.
“Take a closer look and you’ll see what I mean.”
Nestled on top of the pastry is a diamond ring. My mother’s.
She gasps and picks it up gingerly.
I move from the couch, down on one knee.
“Catriona, my mother always used to say that baking was equal parts chemistry and magic. I never fully knew what she meant until I met you. Will you marry me, my sweet, beautiful fairy?”
She hands me the ring and holds out her hand.
“Yes,” she says, her eyes shiny with tears. I slide the ring on and kiss her.
“What kind of weirdo proposes with a cannoli?” she asks, giggling furiously. “I love you so much.”
“You started it with the cannoli jokes.” I pick her up and pull her into a giant hug, and then we eat the cannoli Lady and the Tramp style.
The crew claps and hoots, and the episode is one of our highest rated. An unexpected side effect is a big demand for “proposal cannoli,” as Catriona calls them now.
Two nights before our wedding—she’s spending the night before at a hotel with her sisters—I hold her in my arms, both of us naked and sweating from the incredible sex we’d just had.
“I love you,” I say, kissing her forehead. “I can’t wait to marry you.”
She sighs contentedly and stretches against me.
“I love you too,” she says, dreamily. “I’m glad we’re not filming the wedding, though. I want that just for us and our friends.”
