Jessica's Fate

Chapter 21

Two ... ish... weeks later... Prom Night: T minus 15 days and counting...

I hummed softly as I chopped onions and peppers for the fajitas I was making for dinner. Things had gotten crazy busy with homework and working at the diner and Zack had other things so he hadn't been eating at the diner every night that I worked but had gone back to calling in an order and picking it up. We'd shared dessert on my break on the nights he did eat in the diner and we'd ran together on Saturday mornings. But we'd barely had time to spend together. I swear my teachers had deliberately given a ton of homework and set crazy deadlines that were almost impossible to meet without staying up all night. Every night.

So, I had been. I didn't want to let anyone down so I didn't ask for any shift changes but Luke had Sang there almost every night and between the two of them, they covered for me and stuck me in a booth to do my homework so that I only had to help when it was busy. I was grateful for the time. I had let them try the cake and Uncle loved it so I was making three cakes a night so that they'd have dessert for the next day, so in Luke's logic, I made cakes therefore I could do homework for the rest of my shift if it wasn't busy.

I never was one to argue with Luke's logic.

But finally... Tonight. The stars were aligned properly. Mom was working, and Zack and I were finally going to have a date.

A stay in date.

Dinner and a movie at home. So, it was steak and chicken fajitas with rice and homemade tortillas. I'd decided to keep the chocolate cake as it was made the first time and had moved on to carrot cake. I know, I know. A good self-respecting Southern girl would make red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting as her next go to cake.

Ugh.

Red velvet. I shuddered at the thought.

I cannot stand red velvet cake. I don't know if it was because I had a bit of a sensitivity to red food coloring as in, I could taste it over everything in anything it was in. I didn't even eat red M & M's because of it. Or maybe it was because everyone else made their cream cheese frosting so sweet it made my teeth hurt just thinking of it.

So, carrot cake jumped high up on the list. Coconut cake was next but I had to do this. I'd made a few tweaks to the recipes that I'd found. No raisins, for starters. I'd added fresh ginger and chopped up candied ginger and candied orange peel instead. I added some coconut and crushed pineapple and used pecans instead of walnuts. I used fresh squeezed orange juice for added flavor instead of any extracts. I was really excited to taste it all together.

My cream cheese icing and filling was not overly sweet. I'd used the juice of one orange in it with zested orange peel and a tablespoon of ground ginger. I was very happy with how it had turned out and planned on using it during the holiday season on gingerbread. I'd added a layer of orange marmalade in between the cake layers before putting the icing over it. It was a 3-layer cake and I'd frosted it entirely with the cream cheese icing and sprinkled the top with more pecans, candied orange peel and ginger. It was a stunning cake and I hoped Zack would like it.

I hoped everyone would like it. It wasn't chocolate so Luke would probably wrinkle his nose at the carrots but he typically liked cake in any flavor.

I glance at the clock. Good. Just enough time to run upstairs and change. I wanted to be able to serve dinner as soon as possible once Zack arrived so I really should go now, all the dinner prep was ready and the rice had been in the rice cooker for a bit.

I made it back downstairs just in time for him to text that he was on his way.

I texted back a smilie face blowing a kiss and put on an apron to cover the shorts and tank top I'd put on. I got the pans ready and started cooking the meat and veggies for the fajitas. I had them seasoned and fully cooked when he rang the doorbell. I made sure the burners were down on low before I headed to answer the door. "Hi." I smiled up at him, my heart flipping over in my chest as I stared at him. I'd missed him. I'd missed how I felt when I was around him.