The Wedding Cake

Sally was in the back of her bakery, adding the finishing touches to her second last order of the week when she heard the doors bell jingle. Her next client wasn’t supposed to be there until 5pm to pick up their anniversary cake, but luckily for her she was already done. She called out to them that she would be there in a moment, and she placed the cake in its box. Sally walked into the front of the shop and saw someone she hadn’t seen in almost three years. She was standing at the counter, an invitation in one hand and a tissue in the other, eyes red with tears. Before Sally could even express her shock at what she was looking at, the woman burst into tears.

“My wedding is in two days and the place that was supposed to be making my cake pulled out all of a sudden for no reason! I’m a mess, I can’t have my wedding without a cake and no other place will do it on such short notice”.

Sally didn’t know how to respond but knew what was coming next.

“Then I found your invitation to my wedding that I forgot to send and I remembered you were always so good at making little pastries and such and I thought maybe you might have something here” Jennifer had stopped crying now and held out the invitation for Sally to take.

Sally placed the box on the counter and took the invitation. Sally looked at Jennifer, still baffled at this whole interaction. Sally had never seen Jennifer in such a state before and for a moment she forgot everything that happened in the past and ignored the fact that she definitely wasn’t invited to the wedding before today and felt sorry for her.

“I don’t have anything; I only make my cakes for order, but I only have one order for four days’ time. I’m sure I can muster up a simple cake in time for the wedding.” Sally usually gives herself months to plan and prepare her cakes, not to mention that Jennifer was going to be a difficult customer to please and she was already regretting her generosity.

“Fantastic, the venue is four hours away and I’ll need it there at 9am. The theme is ‘Rustic but fancy’ so make sure the cake fits or it will be a disaster. Oh and maybe make it two or three tiers. Don’t worry about a gift, this can be your gift. You’re a life saver, see you then.” And with that, Jennifer turned and left, the bell jingling with her exit.

Sally was gob smacked, she had to make a three-tier cake in half a day because she already had another cake she had to finish. Between making Jennifer’s cake and spending a whole day at her wedding, she would only have one day to finish her other client’s order. And she was pretty sure that “this can be your gift” meant that Jennifer wasn’t going to pay.

Sally had no choice, she already said yes, and she knew what Jennifer was like. If she dropped out, she would suffer, and Jennifer wasn’t afraid of leaving a bad review. So, she went to the back and spent the rest of the day making Jennifer’s cake. Given that Jennifer gave nowhere near enough information on what she wanted, Sally had to take creative liberty. She decided on chocolate because who doesn’t love chocolate, and only two tiers, given that it would have to survive a long car journey. Sally didn’t have any idea what “rustic but fancy” meant, so she went with rustic. After a long night and another long day working on her other order, Sally was exhausted, but she was ready.

The morning of the wedding Sally had to wake up at 3am meaning she had only four hours of sleep. She dragged herself out of bed and searched her wardrobe for anything fancy, she settled for her long black dress, usually reserved for funerals but Jennifer didn’t need to know that. She didn’t put much thought into her hair or make up, as she decided she wasn’t going to be staying long. After ten minutes of getting ready, she packed the cake into her car and drove.

Sally didn’t realise that the venue would be so difficult to find and she ended up being thirty minutes late. When she finally got there the location was an extravagant and posh building, all white and polished. She struggled to carry the cake up the many steps, when she finally reached the double doors she was confronted by a stressed-out woman holding a clip board.

“I assume you’re delivering the cake” the woman exclaimed “you’re late”. Sally wasn’t awake enough to care and just wanted to deliver the cake and go home to her bed.

“Where do you want me to put it?” Sally asked, looking at all the staff busying around, there seemed to be a sense of panic in the air. Then suddenly Sally realised why.

At that moment Jennifer came marching in, wearing a white satin robe, hair still in rollers and her make up freshly finished.

“Where have you been? What on earth are you wearing! Ugh, never mind, just place the cake over on that table there where all the staff are rearranging the flowers. You can’t imagine what the place looked like when I first got here.” And with that exchange, Jennifer walked off, yelling at some idling staff members as she went.

Sally looked at the wedding planner who simply pointed to the table and Sally decided it best she just do as she was told. Sally approached the reception area; it was decked out with flowers and lights and fancy food. She walked over to the table and placed the cake on an empty platter reserved for the wedding cake. With the cake surrounded by all the other decorations and food, Sally realised that the venue wasn’t “rustic but fancy”, it was just fancy. Everything was white and frilly, and the cake had chocolate icing with a few decorative flowers. It didn’t fit the aesthetic at all.

As Sally was realising this, the wedding planner approached and looked at the cake and Sally with disgust. “Jennifer had requested to see you upstairs.” Then she grabbed Sally by the arm and lead her to Jennifer’s room.

Jennifer was getting into her wedding gown when Sally was dragged into the room. Jennifer looked at her with the same distaste as when she first saw her.

“This look won’t work for my wedding aesthetic; you look like you’re dressed for a funeral, we have some spare dresses for guests such as yourself who don’t look the part. Also the makeup artist has finished with all the bridesmaids so she can do you before she leaves. I can’t have you looking like that at my wedding.” Sally was in shock, the belittling comments aside, she didn’t want to be expected to spend all day at an event where Jennifer is the focus.

“That won’t be necessary, I wasn’t planning on staying very long” but Jennifer was already leaving the room.

“Even so, you might be in some of the photos, and that whole ‘no makeup’ look you’re going for might work for you, but it doesn’t work for me” and Jennifer was gone.

“I’d do as she says, it’ll be easier for everyone, plus I get paid by the person, so you’d be helping me out” suggested the makeup artist with a small smile “and it’ll keep you out of her line of fire for a little while”. That was good enough a reason for Sally.

“Alright, but only to help you out, if it takes you all through the service to finish, that’s fine by me. But I won’t bother trying to fit into any of those dresses, I know Jennifer so I can guarantee none of them are a size 12. She likes to do this thing where she makes people feel bad at any opportunity she gets.”

Sally spent the next two hours getting her makeup done and another hour chatting to the makeup artist. She hoped that if she hid long enough, she wouldn’t have to go to the actual wedding and she was right. By the time she mustered up the courage to go down to the reception, it was one o’clock and everyone had already finished eating. Sally hid in the corner with a drink in hand chatting to Danny the makeup artist because she decided she would wait until they cut the cake in case Jennifer had a surge of kindness and decided to thank her for all her trouble.

After hours it was finally time to cut the cake. Everyone gathered around as the bride and groom made a grand entrance. The crowd parted for them as they cascaded along, arm in arm, smiling at everyone. Then they finally reached the cake and Sally realised that this is the first time Jennifer was seeing it, and it took her half a second to notice that she wasn’t happy.

The fake smile dropped from her face, and Jennifer searched the crowd for Sally and Sally shrank into the crowd when Jennifer found her.

“What the hell is that?” The crowd of onlookers fell silent, and an awkward air engulfed the room. Sally knew there was no escape, so she stood forward and simply said,

“It’s the rustic wedding cake you ordered with only half a day’s notice” and Jennifer was not happy with this response.

“It’s only two tiers, I ordered three. And its chocolate, we were friends for five years, you should know that I can’t eat chocolate, I break out! And don’t even get me started on how it looks. How stupid do you have to be to get a cake so wrong. Also why are you still wearing that horrid dress, I gave you better dresses to wear, I’m sure even your cake eating ass could fit into at least one of them!”

Sally had gone through too much for that cake to let Jennifer talk to her like that, so she finally told Jennifer how she felt, “We haven’t been friends for three years, I’m sorry I forgot that someone I don’t care about doesn’t eat chocolate! And belittling comments like those are the reason I cut you out of my life. I don’t want your toxic, narcissistic bony ass in my life”.

“Oh, now the true motives come to light, you’re trying to sabotage my wedding with your ugly cake because I told you the truth. Well, I’m not eating this pile of crap, and neither is anyone else”.

“Fine!” and with that Sally stormed up to her cake, took the knife from the groom’s hand and cut into the cake herself. The whole crowd gasped. “I’ll cut the first piece shall I” and Sally grabbed the slice and ate it in Jennifer’s face. “It’s delicious, none of you deserve any of the trouble I went through to make this cake”. Sally put down the knife and picked up the whole cake “My cake eating ass is leaving and I’m going to enjoy this cake all on my own. Enjoy your life with this” Sally said to the groom and headed straight for the door.

Sally made it to the stairs when she heard someone calling her name, she stopped and turned to find Danny, which was a big relief.

“Where are you going?” Danny asked Sally when she caught up to her.

“To eat this cake, or maybe throw it off a cliff” Sally answered honestly.

“Want some help?”, Danny asked, wanting to leave the wedding almost as much as Sally.

“Definitely”.