“I would be the same way.” I offer a nice smile. I pick up the cat-themed spatula and say, “At least the theme is pretty cool.”
Birdy tilts her head to the side. “Is that sarcasm?”
I shake my head as I take in the pink space. Walls covered in pink murals, aqua and seafoam-green utensils, as well as appliances with cats everywhere you look, Pussycat Cupcakes really went all out. “I like cats. I had one growing up named Jiggles. He was my best bud.”
“Really?” she asks. “You’re being serious?”
“Yeah.” I chuckle. “I guess it would be hard to believe, but yeah, Jiggles and I were quite the pair. He would follow me around outside while I flew my model airplanes, and at night, he would cuddle on my pillow.”
“Aw, that’s so sweet. What happened to him?”
“Feline cancer. But he lived until he was eighteen, so he had a nice, full life.”
“Okay, so maybe I don’t feel that bad about taking you to a cat-themed cupcake place then.”
“Oh no, you should still feel bad.” I wink at her just as her friend starts the class.
I’m surprised that the cupcakes are already made. For some reason, I thought we would be baking from scratch, but what I come to find is this is a decorating class, so we learn to make the frosting and how to pipe it onto the already cooled cupcakes.
After a tutorial on how to make the frosting, I dip my finger along the side of the mixing bowl and take a taste of the buttercream.
“Not bad.”
Birdy does the same, and I watch as she slips her finger past her lips and lightly sucks on it.
Nothing about it is sexual, nothing at all, but for some odd reason—maybe because it’s been some time for me, or because she is really fucking pretty—watching her suck the frosting off her finger makes the back of my neck sweat.
“Ooo, that’s good.” She wipes her finger on a towel. “What color should we do?”
Gathering myself, I say, “Well, we could go with the proposed color, pink. Or we can be rebels and pick something else.”
“A pink pussy . . . cat seems too generic.” Her pause makes me laugh. “But blue . . . that’s clearly not an option.”
“No one likes a blue pussy . . . cat,” I say, causing her to laugh this time.
“Green makes me think ill. And a sick pussy is not something I want to eat.”
“Or lick,” I add.
“Exactly.” She taps her chin, a smile playing on her lips. “What about red . . . uh, wait, I take that back.” I laugh out loud, grabbing the attention of the other bakers. She rests her hand on my arm and says, “Shhh, you’re gathering attention. If we’re straying from the pink pussy, we need to be stealthy about it.”
“Sorry, but definitely not red.”
“That was a terrible suggestion. How about orange or yellow? Those feel right.”
“How about both?” I ask.
“Now, I think you’re onto something.” She hands me a bowl and says, “I think if we split the icing in half, color one orange and one yellow, and then put them in the frosting tube at the same time, then we will get some sort of tie-dye effect.”
I blink a few times at her and say, “Uh, I thought you weren’t into baking.”
“I’m not, but I do aimlessly scroll on Tik Tok. The algorithm has decided I like to watch baking videos. And secretly . . . I do.”
“It probably decided that because you watch the video in its entirety instead of swiping up. This knowledge is on you.”
She cutely raises her hand. “Guilty. But I don’t watch for the education. I watch because I have a problem.”
“I can see that. You know, this makes me think of you differently.” I joke around as I stir in the yellow dye while she does the orange.
“I completely understand. If you want to leave, I won’t stop you.”
“You know, leaving would be the right thing to do in order to teach you a lesson, but I think I’ll be the bigger man and stay.”
She smirks. “Don’t act like you’re staying for me. You’re just staying for the pussy cakes.”
I laugh out loud again. This time, it disrupts the class enough for me to have to apologize and then turn back to Birdy, my cheeks flushed.
“Thank you for coming tonight, it meant a lot to Callie,” Birdy says as we reach her white SUV.
“You know, I think I will say this once and only once because I don’t want to give off the wrong impression about my likes and dislikes for baking, but I had fun.”