Love, cake, and whisky

The evidence was there, sprawled out on the kitchen table like a dieter’s crime scene.

Dark crumbles of chocolate cake, strewn across a white tablecloth, meeting the seeping stains of red wine from the now empty bottle, on its side trickling its last drops onto the floor.

She rubbed her eyes, smudging mascara further into the bags underneath.

Her head was pounding, as she looked for a clean glass and went to the kitchen tap.

She stumbled on the way over, knocking the saucepan containing the remaining chocolate frosting onto the tiled floor.

The collision reverberated in the tiny flat like a giant bell.

Rising from under the huge, rumpled doona on the sofa, Lu emerged.

“The springs in your couch are popping through,” she croaked, “Just thought you’d want to know.”

Her carefully teased and primped 1960s bouffant, a total triumph the night before, was a Tower of Pisa this morning. Her fitted red sateen off-the-shoulder number was twisted vice-like around her body and she had bits of flesh popping out in all sorts of uncomfortable ways.

Jen laughed and winced with the effort, while Lu attempted to straighten up.

“Coffee?” she offered limply, licking crusty chocolate icing off a wooden spoon.

“Yeah, sounds like a plan,” Lu replied huskily, as tears formed in the rims of her eyes, pooling before the big leap onto her rosy cheeks.

Lu was her best friend. But it was more than that. She was everyone’s dream of a perfect sister. Her pal, her confidant, her partner in mischief, her counsellor. They had always been in sync, from the moment they met in their first year of high school.

They loved the same books, they swooned over the same pop stars, shared the same anxieties and the same crushes at school…ah Danny Malone…that blonde brute…she frowned at the memory.

The truth was, without being blood related, Lu and Jen had become for each other, the real meaning of family.

So, when her own parents divorced and Lu’s father died, leaving her mother vanquished with depression, they had just become closer.

She couldn’t bear to see Lu so unhappy. She wanted to mangle Benjamin, the womanising, gaslighting, bastard that had cheated on Lu and somehow convinced her, his infidelity was her fault.

“You know, luv,” Benjamin had said as he collected his bags from their flat, while his new girlfriend waited outside with the engine running and her hand hovering insecurely over the car horn, “you really are a bit of a fatty, and there’s nothin sexy about that.”

You really have to wonder about some people, the psycho had left a parting gift wrapped in hot pink paper with an orange polka dot ribbon – a diet cookbook and a two-week gym membership.

What a prick.

Jen could feel her blood boiling and it made her headache worse.

The coffee coughed in the percolator, and she turned off the gas. She warmed some milk in the microwave and added it to the rich, dark coffee. The smell was always better than the taste, but this morning the coffee was life-affirming.

Until recently, neither of them had been truly lucky in love.

Their friendship had survived the debacle that was Danny Malone.

He had strung them both along as teenagers, and they lapped up the attention like honey.

He was beautiful.

Tall, blonde, green eyes, and perfectly formed deep pink lips. He was goalie for the school football team and played bass guitar in the grimy schoolboy band they believed, in their heart and soul, was headed for the charts.

But when they compared notes and realised, he had met both of them in the park on separate occasions to kiss and grope – they knew what mattered.

Each of them had taken things further than they would have, if they weren’t so “in love”, and Danny was relishing his newfound power for sexual conquest – his motto, the more the merrier.

They made a plan. Jen set up a time to hook-up . She took Danny deeper into the small woodland near school and backed against a young tree in the throes of a sticky kiss, Lu emerged from the bushes and slipped a rope through and tied him down.

Strapped to the tree, Danny was helpless. With a big thick permanent marker, they had printed, SMALL DICK, on his forehead, before marching off together clucking like chooks that had laid an egg.

They tipped off one of his mates, that he might need rescuing. Danny had to wear a beanie for a week.

And Jen and Lu were stronger than ever.

Boyfriends had come and gone since then. Sexual encounters had been dissected and analysed and laughed about over coffee, tea, red and white wine, and the occasional whisky, for the more complicated relationships.

And then Jen found Anton and he was a keeper. Among his many wonderful qualities, Jen knew he loved Lu like a brother should. Anton understood Lu was “family”, so there was never a moment where Lu felt Anton's presence would crowd her out.

Then Lu met Benjamin. And Benjamin was arrogant and cruel. Jen cursed the Gods of Love, for also also making him incredibly handsome, sexy, and occasionally charming.

She had watched on, taking strength from Anton’s counsel, while Benjamin did everything he could to dismantle the beautiful, voluptuous, ebullient, brilliant person that was Lu.

Anton knew there was little Jen could do, and that the most powerful thing they both could provide was friendship.

Now, in the grey light of her kitchen, as tears rolled down Lu’s face, Jen wanted to be able to give more.

She wanted to turn Benjamin into a toad, not just a toad, but a slow, dull toad that would easily be caught under the wheel of a passing car.

She wanted to crawl inside Lu’s mind and pack up every negative message Benjamin had placed there and post them to Alaska.

“Lu,” she said softly, because softly was all either of them could deal with at that moment, “you have to believe me, when I tell you, you are so beautiful inside and out, you are the most beautiful person I know.”

She folded Lu in her arms and let her cry for quite a long time.

They showered and put on some clean clothes. They tidied the kitchen slowly, glad-wrapped the remaining cake and put it in the fridge, and relegated the wine bottles to the recycle bin.

They walked in the park, had more coffee on the high street.

Lu got enthusiastic about making a salad for dinner, a sure sign she was still habouring Benjamin's words about her weight.

Jen looked at her and said, “but we don’t love salad, especially in winter, and today we need love.”

So, they bought the makings for minestrone – cabbage and carrots, borlotti beans, garlic, onions, a little pancetta and some tomatoes, fresh parmigiana and crusty bread.

At home, they cooked. They put on their favourite music and danced in the kitchen.

Setting the table with a clean cloth and the best plates, Lu picked rosemary and marigolds from the garden and with her usual flare, decorated the table a la Provence.

Outside the weather had turned, so they made a fire which was going nicely by the time Anton came home.

Windswept and pale with cold, Anton smiled apologetically as he entered.

“Jen luv,” he whispered in her ear, arms wrapped around her, “I hope you don’t mind but my cousin arrived unexpectedly from Edinburgh, I’ve asked him home for tea, we can always get pizza.

“Hey, Lu, luv…how’d you pull up...this is my cousin Brodie. Brodie this is Lu, may as well be Jen’s sister, so looks like we’re having a family dinner tonight,” he beamed.

Brodie was a big man, nothing like Anton, apart from their steady, honest brown eyes. He was 6’ 4”, and sturdy with big hands that matched his broad smile.

There was a kind of shyness about him that is sometimes the case with big men, and when he shook Lu’s hand, he blushed all the way to the top of his hairline – a thick mop of wavy auburn locks.

They stoked the fire and sat at table, enjoying the soup. They picked at cheese, pickles, and chorizo afterwards. They talked about their work, the problems with the government, Brexit and the Royals, and the possibility of Scottish secession.

They spoke of family and relationships and then Lu talked about Benjamin, laying bare the whole disaster.

Brodie rose up suddenly, went to his backpack and pulled out a bottle of fine whisky.

“I don see ye ofen enuf cousin, so I brought you a wee gift from home, but I think we should exorcise some demons tonight,” he said glancing at Lu with a warmth so strong, she had to lower her eyes.

“And for that we need a sacrifice,” he smiled. “Bring me the present that bawsack bought ye,” he commanded.

Jen took the package between her fingers as though it were a rotten fish and gave it to Brodie.

He looked at it with contempt and splashed some of the whisky on the book and the gym pass.

Taking Lu by the hand, he walked her to the fireplace and handed her the package.

“Throw it in and repeat after me, it’s gaein be awricht ance the pain has gane awa,” Brodie said.

Lu tried her best with the accent – they all laughed – and the flames around the package flared blue before the hateful gift disappeared into the embers.

Brodie grabbed her hand, sat her down and poured her a whisky.

“Rich and mellow, smooth and bright, it’s a fine drop, just like you,” he nodded at Lu, smiling shyly.

“Now there is only one thing to have with this whiskey,” Jen beamed at Brodie, and lovingly at Anton.

And there it was, that cake, a little worse for wear, but still decadent and chocolaty, and together they savoured every bite.

******

Hope you enjoy this one, please press the heart if you do - thank you