Page 11 of The Wedding Cake
She patted her temple and accepted Ricky’s offering, nodding a resolute yes to his offer of breakfast. He kept the kitchen door open so he could talk as he popped bread in the toaster and filled the ancient chrome cafetière with ground coffee, adding milk to a tiny saucepan.
Freya had only managed a couple of dreary shop-bought biscuits last night before passing out on the couch with the throw over her, Tiddles on the opposite armchair. Having accidentally set her alarm half an hour late, she’d had no time to bolster herself with carbs before heading to work.
“And when are you seeing Luscious Lars again?” asked Ricky, dancing a merry jig at this most promising piece of news.
Lizard Lars more like.
“Well, it’ll go one of two ways,” Freya replied in matter of fact style, despite wanting to dissolve in a fit of giggles. “He’ll either come to the cakery and go ballistic because he can no longer walk around Marbs without being a Pied Piper for all the gold diggers in town, since I put a pic of him on my socials… or he’ll thank me profusely for ditching him quickly so he could get it on with the honey at the bar whose legs and cleavage he couldn’t stop dribbling over.”
“Ohh,” Ricky froze mid coffee-pour, and Freya had to scoot very quickly to his aid before the mug overflowed. She made a mental note to buy a Nespresso machine. Every part of her lifestyle needed updating, and they’d burnt their fingers on the leaky old cafetière for way too long. “This I had not expected to hear. And now I feel terrible for encouraging you to go out with the scabby roaster.” God, you had to love Ricky’s regional insults. “Tell me more.”
“There’s nothing much to say.” Freya smiled as she took her mug from him and helped herself to a topping of steaming hot milk. “But while it was the usual waste of space of an evening in one respect, it was life-affirming in another. I’m going to be making a few changes around here.”
“Don’t take it out on us minions!”
Now Freya laughed.
“Relax, Ricky. I want you to be in charge on a Monday from this moment onwards – occasionally a Tuesday too. If that’s okay with you? Obviously the weekends are our busiest time so I can’t abandon ship then, but for too many years I’ve only allowed myself a Sunday off and that has to stop: I’ve decided I need to carve out time for living.”
“Say that again?” Freya had never seen Ricky looking so alarmed, except perhaps when she’d sent him off on his first and last wedding cake delivery involving a hairpin bend. Oh, and then there was the time when the guy he was two timing had popped his head around the cakery’s door. “I’m not sure I’m ready for this! Monday is the first working day after the majority of our wedding bookings. W-what if we get customer complaints?”
“What complaints, Ricky?” Freya looked from left to right as if searching for any quibbles that might be hiding on the shelves beneath the pots and pans. “We are FOM! No, we aren’t infallible but we always make sure everything is perfect before it leaves the premisesandwhen it’s laid out at the venue. Not a corner cut. We’re the very best at what we do. Every single one of us. If this step up the career ladder and the extra responsibility isn’t for you, then I’ll offer it, and the extra money, to Nicola or Jimena. I’m sure they’ll bite my hand off for the opportunity.”
“No, I mean,yes, I could potentially do it… I mean—”
“Come on. You know the business inside out and you’re my longest serving member of staff. I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t think you were capable.” Freya folded her arms. “Why not give it a go and if it doesn’t work out, perhaps we can devise a rota so that you share the role with one of the ladies.”
“I’ll make it work!”cried a suddenly animated and wholly convinced Ricky. “Freya, you’re a stoater!”
Luckily, Freya knew the latter word to be the Glaswegian for a brilliant person and she was only too happy to accept Ricky’s hug
“And what is madam going to be doing with all of this free time on her hands anyway?” her second in command asked her, once he’d let her come up for air.
Freya didn’t need any encouragement to share her exciting plans. Her list of potential pursuits was so long that the question was,what wasn’t she going to be doing?
“Hiking, paintballing, canyoning, white water rafting, jet skiing, horse riding on the beach, paraglid…”
“Stop! That little lot’s enough to make me faint.” Ricky covered his ears.
Whereas it was enough to make Freya happy dance on the cake turntable. But she brought herself back to present day February: The Goldsmith-Jackson taste test had gone brilliantly yesterday – overlooking the slight price shock hiccup and Merv’s annoying behaviour. The team had also received phenomenal feedback on all their recent cakes; a scrumptious medley ranging from towering croquembouches to the perennially popular naked cakes, botanical cakes decorated with foliage and ferns (Ricky’s favourite since the decor was a breeze) to a crowd-pleasing giant cupcake – all featuring FOM’s characteristic elegant aesthetic and laidback design. Ricky was relishing his new role and the others were responding to his promotion positively. Freya had another taste test booked in for next week (she loved those afternoons, it was always so fascinating to meet her clients in the flesh and it was often the only time it happened during the entire wedding process), and last but definitely not least, she’d just heard on the grapevine that Lars had moved back to Norway, his lucrative business deal with the golf course having fallen flat on its face.
Wasn’t that the cherry on the cake?
Things could only get better and better.
ALICE
The invitations had been sent out, most of the replies had already winged their merry way back to Alice and River’s cottage at the edge of the stables, and the wedding guest list was shaping up nicely. Their taxi driving friend, Hayley had even offered to lay on a minibus to Spain to take those who weren’t keen on flying.
“I’ll cover all the local excursions as a wedding present too. It’ll save you both forking out on hire costs while we’re in Spain. I’m thinking of a day trip to Gibraltar,” she added. This totally wouldn’t have anything to do with Hayley stocking up on tax free goods she could flog at a profit back in the UK… “And a tour of the second homes of the rich and famous in Marbella.” Hayley was incorrigible – she claimed she never got starstruck, then name-dropped lists of all the minor celebrities she’d had in the back of her cab and the intimate details of their conversations. “Anda visit to that gert lush chocolate factory in Mijas…. They make ice cream there too.”
“That’s very kind of you,” Alice jumped in before Hayley became even more of a runaway train (or taxi or minibus). “But it’s still early days and we ought to take everybody’s tastes into consideration.” In other words, there was so much more to the Costa del Sol and Andalucía. Like culture!
After their cake tasting with Freya, Mervyn had driven Alice and River all over the coast and then inland, to visit the key suppliers on their list. Although it felt as if they were on a conveyor belt at times, Alice had to admit that the man was efficient and extremely knowledgeable about all aspects of the wedding industry. Age was definitely no barrier for him – even if he was an oddball. Finca Preciosa was breathtaking. Alice had goosebumps from the moment they arrived to the moment River had to drag her back into Mervyn’s convertible Jaguar. Everything was exactly as she’d imagined it would be… and so much more.
Even before Mervyn had properly shown them around, Alice had her heart set on getting a collection of wedding pictures taken in the hacienda’s rustic tower. Flanked by mountains, green pastures and plantations of olive trees, the place was heavenly. A little swimming pool glimmered temptingly and she just knew that around its inviting blue edge was where they’d congregate the guests for the traditional wedding breakfast. All in all, it was a magical backdrop, and in the evening the lush carpet of the lawn would transform itself into nature’s dance floor beneath the canopy of stars. Add a Spanish guitarist and a churros cart to the mix and you had a swoonworthy setting.
They reluctantly made their way back to the coast, with Mervyn factoring in a speedy pit stop at a vineyard. Unable to choose between the delicious varieties on offer, Alice and River opted for a medley of bottles.
