Part 9 (1/2)
”Make sure you film everyone having a great time,” Rachel told him.
She walked toward the front window display by the model AstoriaMegler Bridge lined with cupcakes, and Mike joined her.
”Who was that?” Mike asked, nodding to Caleb.
Rachel smiled. The young tech guy was only twenty-two but looked much older, old enough to be considered compet.i.tion. ”Do I detect a hint of jealousy?” she teased.
Mike grinned. ”I can't ask you to marry me if you're interested in someone else.”
Rachel rolled her eyes. ”Be careful how you joke with me, Mike Palmer. One of these times when you ask me to marry you, I might be tempted to say yes.”
”Really?” Mike asked. ”Then tell me, who's the techie?”
Rachel shrugged. ”He's just a friend.”
”Like me?”
”Rachel has lots of friends,” a woman nearby interrupted. ”She's friends with everyone, the friendliest person on earth.”
”I think you've had too much to drink,” Rachel told her.
”There's never too much to drink,” the woman said and asked the crowd around her, ”Am I right?”
”Right!” the people cheered.
Two months ago Rachel might have cheered with them. Tonight all she wanted was to kick them out of her shop. But she couldn't. Tonight she was filming the promotion video for Creative Cupcakes, the most hip, perfect party place in town.
”You didn't have to do this,” Mike said, his face grim. ”This isn't you. This isn't the Rachel I know.”
”You're right. This was a mistake.”
Mike gave her a solemn look. ”The party? Or me?”
”Definitely not the party,” Gabe said, dancing around with a winegla.s.s in one hand, a rocky road cupcake in the other.
”I'll catch up with you later,” Mike told her and backed away.
”Mike, wait,” she called, but it was too late.
Other people were clamoring for her attention.
Suddenly, a loud shriek shot across the room. Rachel turned her head and saw a woman jump back and b.u.mp into the four-foot-high tiered cupcake display. The entire table of iced cupcakes tipped over and crashed on the floor.
Other people jumped back, and more screams erupted as everyone jostled this way and that, hopping from one foot to the other. Scream after scream pierced the air. Then the crowd parted, and a six-inch hairy gray animal ran straight across the middle of the floor.
”Rat!” someone cried out.
Rachel groaned. She'd wanted this Memorial Day weekend party to be memorable in a good way, but everything had turned terribly wrong, and this was the icing on the cake, pun intended.
She found Andi's and Kim's horrified faces in the crowd. Then like magnets they pushed through the screaming customers and drew together.
”How did a rat get in here?” Andi shouted.
”Through the front door?” Kim asked.
Beside them, their skinny, tattooed next-door neighbor began to sway.
”Have I ever told you I . . . I . . . have an extreme fear of rats?” Guy said, his eyes rolling back.
”Oh, no!” Rachel exclaimed. ”Catch him!”
”The rat?” Kim asked, confused.
”Guy!”
Andi caught him on one side, Rachel on the other, and Kim tried to support him from behind.
”He's fainted,” Andi said, her voice strained. ”Put him down.”
They let his limp body sag to the floor, and the rat ran right past him. Good thing he wasn't awake to see it.
Gooseb.u.mps rose on Rachel's arms and p.r.i.c.kled her skin. She didn't like rats either.
Jake ran forward with an empty garbage can and threw it over the rat, but the rodent kept racing across the room, pulling the can with it.
The crowd shrieked even more, and everyone tried to run out the front door in a ma.s.s panic. An old man fell to the ground and would have been trampled, but Mike pulled him to his feet just in time.
Rachel let out a sigh of relief. The man reminded her of Grandpa Lewy.
A siren grew louder as it approached, and she turned her head toward the window. ”Did someone call the cops?”
Officer Ian Lockwell and his partner stepped inside. Mike must have slipped out while she and the others were giving their statements because Rachel didn't see him the rest of the night. Caleb slipped out, too, before she could stop him from uploading the video to YouTube.
And to add a final poke to the party, someone had stolen the golden cupcake trophy.
Chapter Nine.
When stressed, women eat ice cream, chocolate, and sweets because stressed spelled backwards is desserts!
-Author unknown RACHEL WOKE THE next morning after a restless sleep and sat at the kitchen table with Grandpa Lewy. Neither of them talked. Her gaze drifted to his. Was it possible he was feeling as down and depressed as she?
Reaching into her purse, she pulled out the black-and-white photograph Bernice had given her and slid it in front of him. Her grandfather didn't look at it, didn't move. He just continued to stare into s.p.a.ce.
Her mother, however, glanced over his shoulder as she brought the coffee mugs to the table.