Page 9 of Merry Mix-Up
Oh, God, How was I going to explain this to Amber? Or Naomi? And how was I going to keep myself from wanting this again? He pulled away and looked in my eyes, then whispered, "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?"
"No," I squeaked again and whimpered when he pulled away.
I was ruined. I had to have him. I just didn't know how to pull it off.
6
NEWT
December 5th
Naomi had her entire wedding party and Mom and Dad all waiting, refusing to allow anyone to even think about tasting cake samples until Amber arrived. It was snowing lightly with a few inches forecast, but I hardly believed that was the reason for her twenty-minute delay. When I sent her a message, she didn’t respond, so I assumed she was driving. The cake testers parked in my parents' living room would just have to wait.
They chatted about the snowfall and how a snowball fight was in order when the cake testing was done, while Mom worked on a crossword puzzle and Dad read the news from an app on his phone. I listened to Naomi's tale of being younger and having a snowball fight with Amber at the park when a group of teenage boys joined in and slaughtered them. The group laughed and chimed in, but I saw lights flash across the mirror hanging on the wall and went to the front door.
Amber arrived twenty-five minutes late and dusted in snow with a crimson smile beneath rosy cheeks. I opened the door for her and she brushed the snow off her dark hair, tied into a messy bun, and the shoulders of her pink puffer coat.
"Hey, I texted you. Nomie's being a czar when it comes to cake samples. We need you." I stepped aside so she could enter, and she stomped her feet on the mat outside before stepping in and unzipping her coat as I shut the door.
"Yeah, sorry. I didn’t mean to lose track of time." She shrugged the coat off, and I took it from her. With her face chilled from the cold outdoors, she looked very much like a pixie. And the messy bun was hot. I'd taken her for a very put-together and bold woman the way Naomi talked about her. It was nice that she felt she could relax around me.
"What kept you so busy that you almost forgot your best friend's cake tasting when you're her maid of honor?" I chuckled and hung the coat in the coat closet, and she brushed a stray hair out of her eyes.
"I was working on the dress. The design is one of my favorites." Her hand slid down the front of her red and green Christmas sweater and into the pockets of her jeans.
"You, working on a dress?" I raised an eyebrow and her eyes widened.
"I, uh… I mean I was helping Jade. She needed to know more about Naomi's tastes." Amber looked flustered but also startled, like she almost let a secret slip. But we all knew her sister was designing the dress.
"Merry mix-up, I guess," I said comically, and she chuckled nervously before darting into the living room.
Confused, I followed her and sat across the room while she went right to Naomi's side and started corralling the bridezilla. Even Jared looked relieved that Amber was here to help out. Naomi calmed down as each person ate their small one-inch by one-inch square of cake from each flavor they had selected. I favored the chocolate, which seemed to melt on my tongue. When Amber ate it, she looked like she was in heaven, eyes shut and head arched back as she enjoyed it.
"What do you think?" Naomi asked her, but Amber scrunched her nose up.
"It's okay. I think the strawberry is my favorite." Amber licked her lips and used a finger to scrape the rest of the chocolate icing off her plate and lick her finger clean. It didn't appear that she liked the strawberry best.
People watching was one of my favorite pastimes. I enjoyed studying them, getting to know who they were as people based on their body language and facial expressions. It was almost like Amber was picking strawberry to keep Naomi happy, not because it was actually her favorite. I'd have to ask her about it later, but right then, I found it very intriguing that she went back for a second square of chocolate while everyone else donned their hats and gloves.
"Time for a bit of a romp before everyone goes home. We decided on snowball fighting." Naomi dragged Amber toward the coat closet, but Amber protested.
"I'm not feeling up to it. I think I have a sore throat coming on." She coughed a few times, very obviously fake, and Naomi scowled.
"You sound like Jade. She hates the snow but you love it. You'd never pass up a chance for a good snow fight." Naomi's whiny tone didn't even convince Amber, who crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head.
"I mean it. I feel sick, Nomes. You go on, okay? It's your big day." Amber planted herself resolutely in the front entryway and refused to budge, so Naomi and the rest of her friends donned their coats and dashed into the darkness without her. I watched as she stood near the front door staring through the window as her friends threw snowballs at each other until I joined her there.
"Not feeling up to it?"
"No," she grumbled, but it sounded more like she had no desire to go out into the cold, not the fact that she was sick.
"Well, it looks like Mom and Dad retired for the night. Care to join me in the kitchen for another slice of cake and some wine?" I held my elbow out toward her, and she wrapped both arms around my bicep and grinned.
"I'd love to," she announced happily, and I decided she'd planned this too. How could a woman who loves the snow as much as my sister not want to go out with her entire friend group to mess around? Unless the real reason she didn't want to go out was because I was here and I had shown interest in her.
I led her into the kitchen and pulled a chair out for her, then grabbed the box with the rest of the cake samples and two glasses for wine. I set them in front of her and returned to the wine cooler for a bottle of wine, and when I came back, Amber had a slice of chocolate cake in her hand, licking her fingers on the other hand.
"I knew it," I told her, laughing softly. "You told Nomie you liked strawberry, but I saw your face when you tasted that chocolate. It’s heavenly, isn’t it?" I popped the cork on the wine bottle and poured some into each glass as she covered her mouth and grinned behind her hand.
