UNSPOKEN

18 (Present and Past)

To everyone that has been following Marion and Jackson: IM SO SORRY!!!  I was gone for so long. My husband and I took the kids to beach for 8 long days!!! It was full of sun, water and fun. I also came back with what seems a 2nd degree sunburn. But to make up for that time  I will update two chapters today!!! 

Present

The next couple of weeks I realized that Leonard's job made him travel a lot. He didn't go very often to the bakery and his phone calls were always made from some place outside the Tri State area or the U.S.A. altogether. Last time we spoke he was in London. I was preparing the day's menu and he was about to have lunch. Still we managed to go out on a couple of coffee dates and one movie.

"Alexa and Jackson want me to enter a cupcake contest," I said one of those outings as casual as I could. Leonard cocked his head and smiled. I was getting to know that look, he was looking me with the I know something that you already know look. "What?" I smiled.

"You are doing it," he said drinking his dirty Martini. I've come to realize that he was very sophisticated in his likes.

"I don't want to," I shrugged taking a sip of my chocolate Martini. It was delicious.

"Yes, you do," he said reaching for my hand. I looked up to him and said convince me with a smile but he didn't get it. We didn't have a secret language.

"Cupcakes are not my thing," I shook my head.

"Have you made them?" I nodded "Are you any good?" I nodded and blushed. "Then go ahead and do it."

"I've always wanted to enter that particular contest," I admitted.

"What's the prize?"

"A cupcake shop anywhere I want," I said biting my lip.

"Do it, Marion!" he squeezed my hand "You'll nail it."

It took me a couple of days to make my decision. It had taken me a little over two weeks to get to a conclusion but between the research I did online, the tulips (yes there were more) and the talk with Leonard I reached a decision.

"I'm doing it," I said one Sunday afternoon at the bakery while Alexa read a stupid fashion magazine and Jackson looked at his computer. They both looked up from whatever they were doing.

"You are?" asked Alexa and I nodded.

"Good." said Jackson and came over to the counter where I was standing.

"Alexa, the notebook," he said reaching for a notebook that Alexa had under the counter.

"This is the Cupcake tour," he said opening the notebook to a cupcake drawing "Alexa did that," he said changing the page, "we've planned all the tiny cupcake competitions you are going to be doing from today until the day of the national," he said showing me a calendar of all sorts of contests with the themes, dates and times mapped out. I wanted to cry.

"You did that?" I asked Jackson.

"We both did," he said.

"Not really," Said Alexa looking between the two of us, "I only did the cupcake at the first page but I am excited," she said smiling.

"Thank you, guys," I said putting my arms around both of them and hugged them.

The first step was to enter an online contest where the only thing that would be judged would be the documenting of the step by step of the process of making a cool cupcake and the picture of the end result of the cupcake. According to Jackson that would allow me to get the experience that I claimed not to have even though Alexa said that I did because I had done at least 50 catering services that included cupcakes. That was a 40 minutes debate because I said that it wasn't the same, Alexa said that it was and Jackson said that the "Tour" was designed for that. Either way, I was going to be up to my elbows in cupcakes.

Past

"So why exactly are you doing this?" Jackson asked me. We were in his pool house with a bunch of ingredients I stole from my grandma's pantry to try a new recipe I saw online.

"Because it's new and fun and I need to have experience in a lot of things," I said while making some frosting.

"You should come back to bed," he said patting the bed. He'd come back from college for a couple of days for his fall break. It had been an amazing surprise. I was sitting at the picnic tables outside of the bakery doing some homework, glad that I was graduating that year, when I felt it; I felt my whole body react, it was as if the winds had changed, my hands shook and my lips tingled. When I looked up he was there, sitting against the hood of his car with his legs crossed at the ankles and his arms crossed. He was smiling I missed you so much. I stood up and ran towards him and when I got to him I jumped and put my legs around his waist, my hands on his neck.

"I missed you too," I said and then kissed him like there was no tomorrow. Maybe there wasn't, maybe he was there for a few hours. I looked at him and smiled How long..?

"The weekend," he kissed me still holding me by the waist, "I leave on Sunday."

"Then we have to make the most of it," I said.

And that's what we were trying to do at the pool house.

"Taste this," I said sitting with him in bed. He took a large bite. I laughed and kissed him.

"You had frosting," I said licking my own lips, "what do you think?" I asked.

"It's delicious. What is it?" he said devouring the rest of it.

"It's a vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting."

"Is that a thing?" he asked grabbing me by the waist.

"Just a thing I saw online," I shrugged and giggled while he kissed my neck.

"You should tell Ronan about it, he might include it in the bakery." He began to unbutton the shirt I was wearing, which happened to be his.

"I don't know," I thought for a bit while he REALLY tried to unbuttoned the shirt, "I don't think cupcakes will be a BIG thing." I shrugged and let him undress me.