The Icing on the Cake (Otter Bluff)

by Linda Seed

  “Right. Well, anyway … I wanted you to watch something.”

  Brian e-mailed a link for the video to Ike, then he waited while his friend watched it. He heard Ike’s fiancée, Benedetta, talking about the video, too—they were both watching with Ike’s phone on speaker.

  They laughed in all the right spots, so that was good. The laughter sounded natural, too—not like they were being polite.

  When they’d finished, Brian asked both of them, “So? What do you think?”

  “Oh, my God. That was a scream,” Benny said. “I’ve seen that girl around Cambria. How did you find her?”

  “Oh, she does the maintenance at my mom’s vacation house, and I’m staying here, so …” He decided not to share the story about Cassie getting caught using his kitchen without permission. Or the story about him seeing her nearly naked. They were good stories, and he’d told them to Ike, who was, after all, his best friend. But it wouldn’t be gentlemanly for him to tell those stories to Benny.

  “She’s good on camera,” Ike said. “Really good. Has she done this before?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  “Well … she’s kind of a natural.”

  Brian thought so, too, but he’d wanted to get Ike’s reaction without influencing it by offering his own opinion.

  “You think so?” he said.

  “I do. You said you just met her?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Huh.”

  “What does that mean?” Brian asked.

  “It’s just … I wouldn’t have thought that. The two of you seem like you’ve been together a while. The chemistry …”

  And there was the magic word. This was going to work—he just knew it. The question was whether Cassie had any interest in being a regular on YouTube. Another question was whether it was smart to mix his professional life with his personal life.

  That kind of thing was fraught with peril. And yet.

  “You thinking of taking her on as your new partner?” Ike asked. “Or, wait. She’s the girl you’re dating, right? That could be complicated.”

  Ike and Brian had been friends so long that he’d just voiced Brian’s own thoughts, as though he were somehow in Brian’s head.

  “Yeah, I’m thinking it. And yeah, it could be.”

  “Okay, you watched the video and answered the questions,” Benny told Ike over the speaker. “Let’s go shopping.”

  Chapter 19

  Cassie was behind the reception desk at Central Coast Escapes on Monday when Brian sent her a text message to tell her that their YouTube video was up.

  Oh, God.

  It had been one thing to make the video. It was entirely another to know it was out there, available for the world to see.

  Okay, thanks, she texted back. Then, after some hesitation: How did it come out?

  Just watch it and see.

  Well, that was no help. Why couldn’t he just tell her? Why couldn’t he just be straight with her? Was it because the video was bad? Was that why? Had he avoided the question because he knew what a train wreck it was?

  Oh, no. This was terrible. Cassie would never be able to show her face in public again. Especially not in Cambria. Everyone knew her here. The comments would be brutal. The looks people would give her—pity, she imagined. On the other hand, Cambria tended toward an older demographic. Maybe no one would see the video. Maybe no one would know….

  Oh, God.

  She avoided watching it at first, reasoning that she was at work—it would be unprofessional to watch YouTube at work. Never mind the fact that nobody had been into the office for more than an hour, and she really had nothing to do. Still. She was on the clock. This was Central Coast Escapes’ time, not her own.

  She made busywork for herself as a means of avoiding the video. She cleaned the office bathroom. She vacuumed the carpet, even though she’d already done it once today and it looked fine. She emptied the wastebaskets, even though there wasn’t much trash to dump out.

  With all of that done, she went back to her desk and sat down, looking for paperwork to do. She couldn’t find any—she’d done it all.

  Finally, with no other way to occupy her time, she followed the link Brian sent her and clicked on the video.

  One of her fears had been that she would look terrible. People always said the camera added ten pounds, and everybody knew that you never looked the same on camera as you did in your own head.

  So, as the video began, Cassie was relieved to see that she looked … like herself. The Cassie in the video was the one she’d always known. So that was okay.

  At first, she was thrown off by the odd sound of her own voice. Was that how she sounded? But as the video progressed, something else happened.

  She stopped worrying about it and started enjoying it.

  The experience was almost like she was watching someone else—someone she didn’t know but whom she liked just fine. She and Brian laughed, joked, decorated cake, and through it all, Cassie felt herself wishing she were a part of that camaraderie, that jovial friendship.

  Then she remembered that she was.

  When it was over, she felt a kind of inner glow—a sense of having done something well and being satisfied by it.

  She texted Brian: It’s good, isn’t it?

  He responded in under a minute. It’s already picking up steam. Ten thousand views, and it’s only been up an hour.

  And that was when she started freaking out again.

  Is that good? she asked.

  In an hour? Yes, it’s good.

  Okay. So, the video wasn’t going to pass by unnoticed the way she’d halfway hoped it would. People were watching it. A lot of people.

  Cassie took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and tried to calm her nerves.

  When Cassie read the comments that had been posted on the video’s YouTube page, she began to think maybe this whole thing would turn out to be good for her.

  —Oh my gosh. That cake is beautiful! Cassie’s, not Brian’s, LOL. How can I buy one of her cakes?

  —We need a link to Cassie’s website.

  —My mom and dad are going to have their twenty-fifth anniversary and they live on the Central Coast. I want Cassie to make their cake. How can I get in touch with her?!!

  Of course, there were also comments about Brian being funny, questions about when Ike was coming back, inquiries about what Brian had planned for the future, and comments about people being glad they didn’t have to clean up the mess.

  But there was enough positive feedback about Cassie’s work—enough comments about Central Coast people wanting to buy her cakes—that it buoyed her hopes for the business she wanted to build.

  And then there were the commenters who thought Cassie should be a regular part of Brian’s show.

  That was something to think about another time.

  For now, she needed to figure out how to get a commercial kitchen and health department approval so she could start advertising her business in earnest.

  She spent the rest of her free time at Central Coast Escapes online researching the legal requirements for bakeries; commercial property available in Cambria; and how to get a small business loan. She made notes on a yellow legal pad and became so absorbed in her work that she barely noticed when five o’clock came and it was time to go home.

  Once he’d gotten out a video he felt good about, Brian had some time to relax.

  Relaxing meant letting his mind wander, and of course, when his mind wandered, he began thinking about Cassie.

  She’d been busy lately, but her day off from Central Coast Escapes was coming up, and the wedding cake she’d been working on was completed and in the past. He hoped that meant she might go out with him on another date—potentially with more kissing at the end of it.

  Or maybe more than kissing, if all of the stars aligned and their various parents left them alone.

  He wanted to call her or text her, but he knew she’d been slammed with everything she had going on, and he didn
’t want to be that guy who demanded all of her attention, giving no respect to her many obligations.

  He wanted to be the guy she looked forward to seeing as sweet relief from all of the pressures of life.

  So he hung out at Otter Bluff on Tuesday, biding his time, playing with his dog, and trying not to think too hard about his mother and Lorenzo.

  Which was hard, since his mother and Lorenzo seemed to be everywhere.

  “Oh, darling, there you are. Lorenzo and I were wondering if you wanted to join us for brunch.”

  Brian and Thor were out on the back patio, Brian in an Adirondack chair and Thor lounging on the ground beside him, when Lisa poked her head out the sliding glass door.

  “Isn’t brunch a Sunday thing?”

  “Well, it doesn’t have to be. Why should I be constrained by a concept that was pure invention in the first place? If I want to eat scrambled eggs at eleven a.m. on a Tuesday, I don’t see why—”

  “Okay, I get it.” He’d stepped right into that one. “Thanks for offering, but I’m good.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Brian, if you’d give Lorenzo a chance …”

  “That’s not why I don’t want to go,” he lied. “I just don’t feel like it. You two have fun, though.”

  She seemed to consider that, then came out onto the patio and sat down beside him. “Are you all right, Brian?”

  “Yeah. I’m good. Why?”

  “It’s just that you haven’t been talking much lately. I know Lorenzo was a shock to you, but—”

  “It’s really not that.” This time, he was telling the truth.

  “What, then?”

  Should he tell her? For the past thirty years, since he’d learned to talk, he’d made it a firm policy not to tell his mother anything significant about his life. It had always worked for him. But she was here, and he was here, and she seemed genuinely interested, and he wondered, what could it hurt? Where was the harm in letting her in, just a little?

  “I just have a lot on my mind. I’m wondering when I can go back to my house and how much the work is going to cost me. I miss Ike. I need to figure out what I’m going to do with my show now that he’s gone so I won’t lose momentum. The video with Cassie and the cakes is doing well, so that’s good. But I need a plan going forward. And then …”

  “Then what?”

  “And then there’s Cassie.”

  Her eyebrows rose delicately. “Is there a problem between you and Cassie?”

  “No. No problem. Not at all. That’s just it. Things are good. I think … I think this might be something.”

  “Really.” She said it not as a question, but as a kind of statement of surprise.

  “I think so. I really like her.”

  “And she likes you as well.” That wasn’t a question, either.

  “You think so?”

  “I know it, dear. I watched her while you were making that video. She positively glows when she looks at you.”

  Brian felt a rush of sensation at that. Was she right? Did Cassie glow? It seemed to him that she always glowed—that it was just a natural part of her.

  A second shoe was going to drop here—he just knew it. “You don’t approve,” he guessed.

  “What?” Her eyebrows shot upward again. “Did I say that, Brian? Did I utter even one word to suggest that?”

  “No, you didn’t. But I know you. I know that a woman who lives in her parents’ backyard and works for minimum wage and wants to bake cakes for a living would never meet your standard of sophistication.”

  Left unspoken was the fact that Brian, with his YouTube show and his affection for video games and blockbuster movies, didn’t meet that standard, either.

  “I’m not nearly as big a snob as you seem to think I am,” she protested.

  “Yes, you are.”

  He’d expected her to argue the point, but she didn’t. She simply sat back in her chair, looked out at the ocean, and sighed.

  “I don’t disapprove. It’s just …”

  Wait for it.

  “It’s just that I imagined you’d move to Los Angeles one day, and you won’t do that, I assume, if you’re involved with a woman who lives here.”

  This came as a surprise to Brian. “You thought I’d move to LA?”

  “Well … yes. I live there, after all. And now Ike does, too. And you’re in the entertainment industry. There’s a lot for you down there. I’d thought … I’d thought that you and I could repair our relationship.”

  She thought that? How in the world might that happen, given how she’d virtually abandoned him when he was barely out of toddlerhood?

  “Mom …”

  “Is that so far-fetched an idea?” she asked, interrupting him. “Is it so impossible?”

  And, God help him, for a moment he considered it. He considered what his life might be like if he could let his seething resentment for his mother go—if he could have that weight off of him.

  “It’s not completely beyond the limits of possibility, no.”

  And yet.

  Brian didn’t consider for a moment that Lisa really was okay with Cassie. After all, Lisa’s art centered mostly on disdain for domesticity. The piece that had sold for two hundred thousand dollars had been a collage of women in bondage made out of the packaging of consumer products: mac and cheese boxes, cleaning products, frozen food containers. She loathed anything that might suggest housewifery—and he couldn’t imagine she’d make an exception for baking.

  “She’s going to open a bakery here,” he said. “And I want to see where this thing with us might go. So … I’m not planning a move any time soon.”

  “I see.”

  Brian could virtually smell his mother’s thought processes, starting with the fact that he was choosing Cassie over her, progressing through her evaluation of Cassie as an inadequate partner for him, and ending on her idea of Cambria and the entire Central Coast as a fine place to visit but an inferior place to build any kind of reputable career.

  “Weren’t you headed out to eat?” Brian asked.

  As if on cue, Lorenzo opened the sliding glass door and called to Lisa. “You’re ready for brunch, no?”

  Brian was glad he’d declined. Could he sit through a meal with that man-bunned asshole?

  No.

  Chapter 20

  The next day, just when Cassie was wondering when Brian might call, he did. They made plans to see each other that evening, and that was a development she’d fully expected.

  Barely an hour later, his mother called.

  She hadn’t expected that.

  Cassie was at Jitters on Main Street, in line to order a vanilla latte, when the call came in on her cell phone.

  “Cassie, is that you? Darling, it’s Lisa.”

  Cassie was so surprised that she didn’t say anything for a moment. Then, the thought popped into her head that this had to be about the house, because why else would Lisa be calling her?

  “Oh. Lisa. Hello.” She regained her composure as she moved forward a little in line. “Is there a problem with Otter Bluff? Is it the power socket in the bathroom? I told Elliot—”

  “No, no. The house is fine. Well … the interior design is terribly dated, of course, but I have no one to blame but myself.”

  “Oh. Is Brian okay? I just talked to him earlier today, and—”

  “Yes, yes. My son is fine.”

  Clearly, Cassie wasn’t going to be able to guess what this was about. There was nothing to do but wait for Lisa to get to the point.

  “Lisa, can you hang on a second?” Cassie muted the phone and ordered her latte. She paid for it, then stepped aside to wait for her drink. She unmuted the phone. “Okay, I’m back. What can I do for you?”

  “Dear, I just wanted to tell you how impressed I was with your cake decorating skills. You’re an artist with frosting.”

  Coming from an actual artist—one who was, by all accounts, enjoying a hugely successful career—that meant something. Cassie picked up her
drink at the counter, found a table by the window, and sat down.

  “Thank you so much. I really appreciate that.”

  “Well, it’s simply the truth.”

  As flattering as it was, there was no way Lisa had called just to tell her that. Something more was coming, and Cassie already felt uneasy about it.

  “That’s very kind,” she said.

  “Listen, dear, I’m sure you’re busy, so I’ll get to the point. Brian told me you’re interested in opening a bakery, but you don’t have the capital.”

  “That’s … that’s true. I’m looking into getting a small business loan, but—”

  “Well,” she went on as though Cassie hadn’t spoken, “my financial adviser has urged me to find a business to invest in, and I thought perhaps you and I might enter into a mutually beneficial partnership.”

  Cassie blinked a few times, wondering if Lisa could possibly mean what she seemed to be saying.

  “You and I? A … partnership?”

  “I’d like to bankroll your business, Cassie. For a percentage of the profits, of course. Do you have an attorney? If not, I’d suggest that you get one, as the legal details of these things can be utterly excruciating. I can offer you some names.”

  Cassie still was having trouble processing what Lisa was saying. “You want to … to help me open my bakery? But I can’t ask you to give me that kind of money. It wouldn’t be …”

  “I wouldn’t be ‘giving’ you anything,” Lisa corrected her. “It’s an investment, as I mentioned. But that will be worked out by the lawyers, God bless them. If I had to deal with paperwork loaded with legalese all day, I’d lose whatever sanity I have left.”

  Cassie took a sip of her latte, needing the caffeine to help her get her brain working properly, then rubbed her forehead with her hand. “But how can you be certain the business will run a profit? I’m sure the first year, at least, will be tight, and after that …”

  “I’m aware of the realities. The question is, are you interested?”

  “Does Brian know you’re making this offer? Did you tell him about this?”

  The beat of silence that followed told her the answer, and that caused a growing sense of unease in Cassie’s belly.