Page 50 of The Great Maple Mistake

She ignores him. “Cody, can you breathe?”

He tries again. “Rae—”

“Don’t ‘Rae’ me.” I start to chuckle because damn if that doesn’t sound like ‘do re me.’ She glares at me. “It’s not funny, Alex!”

I hold up my hands, just as Cody loses his patience. “Rae Moan, stop!”

The crowd goes silent, and Rae’s jaw drops open. “Rae. Listen to me. I’m not allergic to maple. I’ve never been allergic to maple.”

“You are too! You almost went into anaphylaxis at Frozen Fest!”

Cody shakes his head. “No.”

“I heard you!”

Cody takes her hands. “I said I couldn’t ‘do’ anything with maple. Finn asked if I had an allergy. You overheard that and assumed I did.”

She looks utterly confused. “Why would you ask for no maple if you aren’t allergic?”

Finally at his limit, Cody throws up his hands. “Because I hate maple!”

The crowd collectively gasps. Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration, but only slight. Rae stares at him, slack-jawed. “I’m sorry, what?”

Glancing around, Cody seems to finally notice the crowd staring at him. He snaps his head around to look at me, eyes wide, begging me to help. So of course I step in. “Rae, it was a big misunderstanding.”

Before I can say anything else, a voice booms from the audience. “Why didn’t you correct that?”

How is this even happening? Cody and I exchange incredulous looks, and he tries to smooth things over. “I did try. Several times. But I kept getting cut off.” He doesn’t mention it was Rae doing the cutting off. Wise man. “I’m really sorry, Rae. I didn’t mean to have you go to all the trouble of baking special things for me. Or for people to believe I have an allergy I don’t. But I’m not allergic to maple. I just can’t stand the taste.”

She sniffs loudly and raises her nose at him. “Nonsense. You just haven’t tried the right combination.”

Cody looks at me, the panic back in his eyes. “I don’t—”

“Here, try this.” Cody opens his mouth to protest, but Rae slides a bite of Sheila’s cake into his mouth.

He grimaces but doesn’t spit it out, so points to him for that. I step forward. “Rae—”

That works about as well as it always does. “It’s okay, Alex. He’s not allergic. He just needs to find the right maple combo.” She grabs one of the other entries, and it seems like she’s going to try to force-feed Cody more desserts. He glances around, ready to bolt.

Thankfully, Eleanor appears from offstage and gently puts a hand on Rae’s wrist. “Rae, leave the man alone.”

“But he needs to try Luke’s Apple Charlotte.” She tries to lift her wrist, but Eleanor doesn’t let go.

Cody grabs more napkins and spits the unchewed cake into it, then tries to wipe off his tongue.

Eleanor’s voice takes on a stern tone. “Rae. No, he doesn’t. He said he doesn’t like maple, and we have to respect that.”

Eleanor doesn’t back down, and Rae finally relaxes, setting the dish on the counter. “We’ll find the right combination, Cody. Don’t worry.”

Jessica hurries over to Cody with a bottle of water. He takes it gratefully, tearing open the cap and guzzling down the entire contents. Eleanor gives him an apologetic look. “Sorry. We’ll be leaving you alone now. Great event, Alex. I hope you’ll be doing this again next year. We’re so sorry about the misunderstanding.”

Now that Rae isn’t force-feeding him maple, and he’s cleared the taste from his mouth, Cody seems to shake off his panic. “No problem. Thanks foryourunderstanding. I did try to clear things up.”

She nods. “I’m sure you did. Rae can be quite persistent when she wants to be.” She kisses her wife’s cheek. “And she often wants to be.”

She takes Rae’s hand and leads her offstage. Rae waves at us. “Don’t worry, Cody, we’ll figure it out!”

I walk over to him and take his hand, giving it a squeeze. “I’m sorry, too. I feel like I should have done more in the beginning to stop the allergy rumor. If I could go back in time, I’d figure out a way to change things.”

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