Their eyes met, held for a beat, and was Ava the only one irritated by the little flutter she felt low in her belly?
Giving herself a mental shake, she forced herself to focus on what was in front of her, which were things she could control. The amount of carrot. The smoothness of the flour. The weight of the raisins. The type of nuts (pecans instead of walnuts) and oil (vegetable rather thancoconut). She was the boss when she baked. She was in total control, and she liked it that way.
Ava had a sort of a zone when she worked, almost like a mental bubble she closed herself into. It likely came from working in a large kitchen with so much other activity around her, plus having a boss like Goldie who seemed to enjoy making her employees nervous simply from her presence. So Ava had learned to tune everything else out. Sometimes, she even put her AirPods in andliterallytuned everybody out. She didn’t have them today, thinking this was going to be a class of some sort, and now she was wishing she did.
But she could focus. She was good at it. Keeping Becca in her periphery so she could make sure the cream cheese frosting was done right, she got to work combining wet ingredients and then dry. No mixer for this cake, as the batter was thick and chunky. She poured the wet into the dry and used a rubber spatula to mix them together until she had a lumpy brown batter, which she then spooned into three round baking pans. Once she slid them into her oven, she glanced around.
Vienna and Regan both had their cakes in. Madison, Maia, and Paige were close. And Liza was watching her.
“Nice work,” she said with a nod, and continued to the next workstation.
They all moved on to the frosting.
Chapter Five
Well,” Maia said, as she fell back onto her bed. “That was a day. Wow.”
“Jesus, right?” Regan said, bringing her glass to her lips and sipping her wine.
The six of them had gathered in Maia and Vienna’s room after dinner. They were all exhausted but also wired, so they asked May if they could take two bottles of wine and some glasses upstairs with them, and they convened in one room.
“Sure was.” Ava sipped from her own glass as Madison laughed and said, “Says the woman who made the best carrot cake.” She raised her glass. “Nicely done, by the way.”
They all raised their glasses in toast.
Madison sat on the foot of Maia’s bed, her feet dangling off and swinging slowly. Vienna and Ava sat on the other, while Regan and Paige were in the rolling chairs they’d pulled out from the desks.
“You guys.” Paige shook her head. “A hundred grand. Like, what the actual fuck? Did anybody see that coming?”
Regan raised her hand. “I mean, I knew it was a possibility. She did the same thing three retreats ago, like Maia said.”
“Yeah, but like, on a whim?” Maia asked. “’Cause that seemed like it was on a whim.”
“I’m sure she wanted it to seem that way,” Ava said. “But I don’t care how much money you have, you don’t just randomly give away a hundred grand without running it past some people first.”
“Agreed,” said Vienna, who had kicked off her shoes and was nowrubbing her right foot. “There are tax implications. Things like that.” Ava nodded her clear agreement. “So, likely not an actual whim.”
Regan sat back and listened, sipping her glass of very good Merlot as she moved her gaze from one woman to the next, all of them unique in looks, personality, talent. Vienna was the only woman of color, which Regan found surprising, and it made her sad that Vienna seemed to not only accept this but expect it. Maia’s hair and tattoos told Regan that she was her own woman, and she didn’t give one tiny fuck what others thought of her. Paige was easily the most petite person there. She couldn’t have been more than five-one, and if she weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet, Regan would’ve been shocked. Paige had kind eyes and a big smile, and it was only fitting that she roomed with Madison, who was probably the most cheerful person Regan had ever met. Her positivity was contagious.
And then there was Ava. Regan tried to study her without studying her. She was definitely the quietest of the group. The most reserved, and that was by design, Regan knew. Ava had told her once when they worked together that she thought people talked too much and didn’t listen enough. So she made a habit of staying quiet in a group and listening carefully before she spoke. Now she sat next to Vienna, her gaze moving from woman to woman as they spoke, and that was another thing she remembered about Ava: You could always be sure she was listening to you because her eye contact was very direct. It never wandered. She didn’t do other things while you spoke to her. Shelookedat you.
It could be unnerving.
“So, is anybody else disappointed?” Maia asked the question, then reached her empty glass out to Regan. The wine was on the desk behind her, so she refilled the glass and handed it back.
“What do you mean?” Vienna asked.
“I mean…” Maia sighed. “Maybe this sounds stupid, but I came here to learn. I applied to this retreat so I could hone my craft, you know? Not so I could battle the rest of you. Yeah, the money would be amazing, but now it all feels different.” She gazed around the room at each of them, clearly looking to see if any of them agreed. “You know?”
“There’s definitely been a shift,” Ava said, her own glass dangling between her knees.
Murmurs and nods went around the room, and then a silence fell, as if each of them was lost in her own thoughts.
“I love your shirt, Regan,” Maia said, pointing at her.
Regan grinned as she glanced down at the print on her navy T-shirt that saidLife Is About Taking Whisksand had a picture of a baker holding a hand whisk. “Thank you. I have a ton of them. My last girlfriend gave me this one as a gift, and I found the website and bought a bunch of others.” She shrugged as she looked up to find Ava’s dark eyes on her. “They’re corny, but they make me happy.”
“Something to be said for happiness,” Maia said.
