Page 8 of Games We Play
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“Is the McCarthy order ready yet?” Enid, the owner and head baker at Rose City Bakery, opened the door to the back kitchen and barked like a yappy little dog. “They’re coming by at three to pick up the kid’s cake!”
Leah looked back down at the cake she was decorating. Orange fringe only dotted half the circumference. Beside her, Gina prepared to writeHappy Birthday, Connor!
“Should be ready within the hour, ma’am!”
“It’s a little after two, so hop to it!”
The door slammed shut. Leah and her coworkers rolled their eyes before getting back to work. A sheet describing what the clients wanted hung up before them. Some ten-year-old boy was having the birthday of the year and got the sheet cake to go with it.
They weren’t the best bakery in Portland. Hell, they were hardly second-tier. While they were a step above a supermarket bakery, Leah couldn’t say that this was the career she dreamed of when she went to culinary school and dedicated her education to learning the finer points of baking. She hadn’t spent every night watching reruns of cake decorating shows and YouTube clips of amateur decorators because she wanted to work at Rose Fucking City, let alone for a tyrant like Enid.Maybe if she spent more time curating a nicer clientele, we would be happier to decorate Connor’s cakes.That would require paying more than two dollars above minimum wage. The only reason this was better than working for a supermarket bakery was because the benefits package was at least decent.
“Leah!” Enid burst through the door again. “Your mom’s on the phone!”
Leah handed the cake over to her coworker. After taking off her gloves and washing her hands, Leah went up front and picked up the phone. “Mom?”
The woman never wasted time. “I need you to pick up Karlie right now.”
“What? What’s wrong?” Leah rarely tasted her own adrenaline, but all she had to hear were the words “Karlie” and “pick her up right now” and she immediately assumed the worst. “Something happen at school?”
“I don’t know. Lincoln’s office called me saying that she’s complaining of menstrual cramps. I can’t leave work out here in Beaverton to take care of her. You’re not too far from the school. You need to do it.”
“I’m at work too! Can’t she pop a Midol or something?” At the same time, Leah knew her little sister wouldn’t call if she wasn’t in genuine distress, and Karlie was notorious for having debilitating periods if she didn’t take her birth control.
“Get her or not. It’s your responsibility now.” Leah’s mother hung up.
The dial tone beeped in Leah’s ear before she hung up as well.My responsibility. That’s right.Karlie was her responsibility, and had been since the day she was born. She may have been the daughter of Ray and Janet Vaughn on paper, but Leah knew thatshewas the real parent around there.
My responsibility.
Leah called the school and asked to talk to her sister. Karlie whimpered over the line that her cramps hurt so badly that she had already thrown up once and couldn’t get another ibuprofen down. Even the nurse expressed concern that Karlie should go straight to a doctor’s office. “She’s not faking,” the nurse said on the phone. “We can keep her here for a little while, but school will be out soon and I’m not confident she’ll get home without help.”
The McCarthy order called to Leah in the back kitchen. The birthday message had been spelled out, and it was Leah’s job to finish the fringe and other details. The clients would be by in half an hour to pick it up, and the bakery couldn’t afford yet another 2-star Yelp! Review that claimed they were the slowest bakers around. Hell,Leahcouldn’t afford it! Enid always said that she could replace them with one ad in the paper. Bakers and chefs with enough training were a dime a dozen in Portland. Up there with baristas and strippers.
Leah’s eyes glazed over. She forgot the cake and her sister’s plight in that single instance.God, what a great birthday.She held onto those little memories of two nights ago before rushing through the McCarthy order and asking if she could run over to Lincoln High School to pick up Karlie and take her home.
Enid was less than impressed.
“I can make sure everything’s ready by myself,” Leah’s coworker insisted. “If her sister’s not feeling well, then she should go take care of her.”
“Don’t you haveparentsto take care of their child?”
My responsibility.“My mom works in Beaverton, and my dad is out of town for business too. I’m the only one close enough to do it.” Leah was already pulling her belongings out of her locker. “You can either dock my pay or I can come back later and finish up some work. Get a jump on tomorrow’s cupcakes.” Wouldn’t be the first time Leah did that. She would rather be home soaking in the tub and thinking about that incredible night with a woman named Sloan, but the thing about being thirty was that the whole “responsibility” thing took precedence. “Either way, I’ve gotta go.”
Enid had a few more words for her, but as soon as they bumped into the McCarthy’s out front, Enid transformed into the nicest, most professional woman to ever bake a cake in Portland. Leah spared them a smile as she shuffled out the door and turned west.
Lincoln High School was a seven-minute walk away, depending on traffic lights. Rush hour was getting a jump, however, and Leah had plenty of time to get on the phone with Melissa before she reached the downtown Portland high school campus.
“Hey, birthday girl!” Melissa sniffed at the end of her greeting.Birthday girl. That has such a nice ring to it.Leah loved how Sloan had called her that more than once Saturday night.While she fingered me and sucked my nipples. Whoo!It didn’t take much to excite Leah, but that?That?She grinned like an idiot as she crossed 10thStreet and the streetcar honked at her. “Are we still calling you Birthday Girl? When does the party stop, exactly?”
“I dunno, Mel, I feel like we ended on an awesome note Saturday night.”
“The tequila shots?”
Yeah, sure.That’s when she became too drunk to remember much of anything else. Both Leah and Melissa had spent most of their Sunday sleeping off the hangovers. Leah hadn’t been drunk when Sloan got her hands on her, but it was the first big idea to cross Leah’s mind when she rejoined her birthday party. “More like that present you scored me!” It was the first time she brought it up. “Where’d you find a woman like that, Mel?”
“What are you talking about?” Melissa laughed. “You mean the strippergram?”
