Confectionately Yours #2: Taking the Cake! by Lisa Papademetriou Read Free Book Online Page B

Sheila.
    “Wonderful!” Sheila looks like I’ve made her day.
    Well, I guess that makes one of us.

“I s that going to be enough?” Annie asks, eyeing my sandwich. “Do you want some chips or something?”
    “Okay. Thank you.” Annie hands me a bag, and we exchange awkward smiles. We’re being extra polite to each other after my dressing-room outburst.
    Dad pays for everything, and we head out into the food court with our trays.
    My sandwich looks a little sad, sitting there on my plate. The top piece of bread is askew and some lettuce is spilling out. I could have made a better-looking sandwich in my own kitchen. But it doesn’t taste bad.
    Annie and I are quiet as we eat, but Chloe and Dad are talking about a movie they both want to see. Chloe and Dad both love action comedies. So do I. Chloe says, “Should wesee it? It’s playing in an hour.” The movie theaters are next to the food court. Why not?
    “Sure,” I say, trying hard to sound excited. The red dress is in a bag at my feet, and I wonder how I’m ever going to get myself to wear it.
    Chloe reaches for one of my potato chips, and when she pulls her hand back, she manages to knock over her own drink. Apple juice sloshes all over the table and onto Annie’s feet.
    “Oh, I’m so sorry!” Chloe cries.
    Annie’s first reflex is to go for the bags. She grabs them off the floor and holds them aloft as Chloe dabs the table with her flimsy napkin. It’s about as useful as a Kleenex would be for mopping up a tsunami.
    “I’ll get more.” I dash to the counter, and just as I’m heading back with a huge brick of napkins, I spot my mom.
    Happiness flashes through me, and I’m about to call out, when I realize where I am and who I’m with. It would be a complete horrorburger if Mom came over to our table. In an instant, I visualize Dad introducing Mom to Annie. I can hear Annie’s nervous giggles and see Mom’s brave smile.
    Must. Not. Happen.
    I turn my back on my mother and scoot back to our table.
    “Quick,” Dad says, grabbing the napkins from my hands.
    Annie dabs at her shoes, which are suede, and I’m wondering how many pairs we will manage to ruin before she decides that it’s not worth hanging out with us anymore.
    I wipe off my side of the table, and sneak a glance over at Mom’s table. Someone sits down across from her.
    Oh.
    Em.
    Gee.
    It’s Police Officer Ramon! This is … what is this? Is she on a date ?
    Make me disappear, I beg silently, just as Mom looks up at me. I see her face register the situation — Chloe apologizing profusely as Dad and Annie scramble to dry the table.
    The wet napkins are heavy in my hand and I feel this moment driving us both forward…. Now Mom will meet Dad’s girlfriend; Dad will meet Mom’s date….
    And then Mom looks away.
    She looks away, like she didn’t even see me. Maybe she didn’t, I think. But I know she did.
    My mother can’t deal with this situation. Neither one of us can, and — for some reason — I’m angry with her, but also relieved and disappointed in her all at once.
    “Hayley, more napkins?” Dad asks, and I snap back to the moment. “Here,” I say, handing him some. We get thetable cleaned up, and Dad offers to buy Chloe a new sandwich (hers drowned in the apple-juice flood) but she says she was finished, anyway.
    “So, should we head to the movie?” Chloe asks.
    For a moment, I’m afraid that maybe Mom will turn up in the same movie. But when I look over at her table, I realize that she and Officer Ramon have disappeared.
    I wonder what she told him.

I don’t want Mom to meet Annie. The truth is, I don’t even want Mom to see Annie. Like, ever.
    That’s because I don’t want Mom to realize that she’s seen Annie before.
    She came to our house once, back when we used to live in a house, before we moved in with Gran.
    About a year before Dad moved out, he dumped his low-paying job at the DA’s office to work for a glamorous law firm. Annie is a paralegal at