Trivial Pursuits Ch. 03

Denny smiled softly, leaning ever-so-slightly forward, "For the record, I am. Thank you for sharing."

The sincerity and warmth in his voice felt like a stroking hand down her back and made her heart flutter to the point where she was actually concerned if she was having a heart attack, a physical, uncontrollable response. She knew her face was flushed and looked back at the screen, suddenly intent on finishing so she could escape.

Denny watched her studiously, noting the pinkening of her cheeks and smiling to himself over her response. He decided to not make her any more uncomfortable, knowing she would likely fight back or shut down. He was content for the moment to know that she was not immune to him and responded in spite of herself.

The following day was Friday, and Alessa felt a constant tightness in her stomach, fear that she would walk into Denny at any moment. And when nine-thirty that evening came and she had only seen him in passing, she told herself she was relieved, though couldn't account for the surfacing disappointment. On Saturday she only worked 'til one, amazingly finding herself caught up on all tasks assigned to her. She knew the freedom wouldn't last, but the accomplishment sent her into a cheery, sorbet sort of mood.

It was her sister's birthday, and her family was meeting at her father's house for the party. Alessa had to circle his block twice before finding a tight, but free space on the curb. Granted, there was plenty of space in his double-wide drive way, but she never parked there.

She got out, retrieving the heavy box beautifully wrapped in silver and pink wrapping and ribbons. She sat it atop her small seventy-eight Fiat and then reached in for the large pink cake she had spent four hours baking and decorating. Her head had the tinge of a sleep-deprived headache, but the beautiful cake had been worth it. She sat it on the gift, balancing it delicately and then walked half a block to her father's house and made it up the steep yard, nearly slipping in the grass.

She was at the back door, her arms full and unable to hold the heavy items with only one arm to open the door. She could see through the window in the door as her father was on the phone and her step mother, Shelly, was brushing back the hair from her sister's shoulder. She tried bumping the door to gain their attention, but when that failed to work, she tried kicking it. Her step mother looked up.

"Hello!" Alessa called out, the pain from holding the heavy objects becoming too much to bear. "Can someone open the door?" she called louder when Shelly didn't make a move.

Her sister turned and smiled, hopping to the door. She flung it open. "Alessa! You came!"

"Of course, Octo, wouldn't have missed it if you paid me to stay away," she returned with a large smile as she made a quick dash for the kitchen counter to set her packages down on.

"My cake is so pretty!"

"It's not from Cakemakers," Shelly stated with a frown.

Stretching out the cramps in her arms, Alessa scrambled for a response, "Ah, no. I wanted to bake it myself."

"But Cakemakers is her favorite. If I'd known you weren't going to get the cake from there, I would have done the job myself."

"Oh, nonsense," Alexander, her father, interjected as he slid his phone into his pocket, coming over to look at the beautiful cake. "I think it looks perfect," he added, placing a hand on Alessa's shoulder and pulling her near him. He placed a kiss at her temple. "Hi honey. Happy to see you. How's the job?"

Alessa just smiled and nodded, indicating all was well.

"I think my cake looks wonderful!" Cadence agreed with a giant smile. "It'll be my new favorite!" she promised, turning and squeezing Alessa tightly around the middle.

"Thanks, Octo," Alessa smiled softly, putting her arms around her, too.

Shelly sighed. "Well, as long as Cadence is happy with it, I suppose it's okay."

"Alessa, come look at the new clothes I got!" Cadence shouted, taking her older sister by the hand.

"You've already opened your presents?" Alessa asked.

"No, silly, they're just clothes mom bought me yesterday."

"Oh," Alessa replied, giving a nod of the head indicating, of course, she should have known that. The fourteen-year-old girl, with long, gangly, clingy limbs that had earned her the name 'Octopus'-Octo for short-from her adoring older sister, tried on each new outfit while Alessa sat on her bed and indulged the birthday girl.

The two were discussing Octo's classes at school when the doorbell rang. "Gram is here!" the flighty, younger sister said and tugged on the last shirt she had left to model. She ran out the room and down the stairs, leaving Alessa to look around her sister's pink and purple room, wishing she could stay there for the rest of the day. But knowing that wasn't really an option, she took a deep breath to calm the wash of acid pouring through her stomach before standing up to trail slowly behind Cadence.

She found the family standing together in the dining room where Shelly's mother was holding Cadence at arm's length and discussing her pretty new top. It was some minutes before anyone noticed that Alessa had arrived.

The dowager-looking woman with the sweeping, short, gray hair looked up, her smile fading to cool civility. "Oh, hello Alessa. I didn't think you were going to be able to make it."

Alessa had no reply to that so merely smiled a tight-lip grimace.

"Your job going well? Been able to keep up?"

Alex's phone rang, and he turned from the group and walked into the entry to speak.

Alessa breathed in and forced a smile, appreciative of something positive to talk about. "Yes. I've enjoyed it immensely. It's been a great challenge."

The older woman's face had a blasé, unimpressed expression. "Well, one can't expect to be good at everything. I just hope that if you work hard enough you won't be too great a disappointment," she offered, choosing to interpret Alessa's words to mean she was struggling with her work.

Alessa knew it was useless to try to explain. The woman had, from the very first day she met her, chosen to believe the worst about her, and nothing Alessa said or did ever convinced her otherwise. "Here, Shelly," the grandmother said, "take these gifts and I'll put this food in the kitchen." She picked up the large sack marked La Ciccia, and instructed Alessa to come help. Holding her tongue, for what was there really to say, Alessa followed dutifully behind.

The grandmother set the large sack of Italian take out on the counter. "Where did this come from?" she questioned, looking down at the light-pink cake as though it had flown in from Mars.

"Alessa made my cake," Cadence answered as she trailed her sister, smiling and coming to look down at it again. "Isn't it pretty?"

"I thought we were getting a cake from Cakemakers," the old woman asked, now turning her frown to Alessa.

Alessa attempted to answer, to open her mouth and speak, but was cut off from Shelly as she came in the kitchen. "Alessa took it upon herself to make the cake. I just hope it turned out well enough to be edible."

Again Alessa made to speak, but really had no defense. "I bet it'll be the best cake I've ever had," Cadence assured, smiling at Alessa, completely oblivious to thinly-veiled hostility coming from her mother and grandmother. Alessa's sister's faith in her made her smile, and so she chose to focus her attention on her instead.

"At any rate, we need to get this food plated so we can eat it before it gets too cold," Shelly said, pulling the plates from the cupboard. "Alessa, will you set the table while we get the food ready? It shouldn't be too hard for you; everything I want is laid out on the table already. You just have to put it where it goes. I've already ironed the table cloth; it's draped over the back of the chair in the sitting room." With the final instruction, she turned back to her mother who was already removing cartons of Cadence's favorite Italian eatery.

Alessa, grateful to be able to leave, quietly went about to do as asked. The meal was a happy enough event, everyone talking admiringly of Cadence who was a blonde, pretty angel and the obvious apple of her family's eyes. Though Alessa said very little, she watched interactions, happy for a moment that she was generally forgotten about.

After dinner was presents. And though Cadence had just received a new wardrobe, her parents still bought her the latest smartphone, a new Louis Vuitton purse, various accessories for her new phone, and a gift certificate to several of Cadence's favorite stores. Her grandmother bought her a pair of leather riding boots, though Cadence had never ridden in her life. Lastly, she opened her sister's gift.

"It's so heavy! I wonder what it could be," she asked with a huge smile. She tore off the pretty wrapping and ripped open the box. "Books," she said with a smile.

"They're all the books I had to read my freshman year, and I imagine you'll be required to read them, too," Alessa explained, happy to share her love of reading with her sister. Some of those books had turned out to be gems, ones she would always carry with her, and so it was a sentimental sacrifice to pass them along.

"Used books? And not even used you bought, but already owned? Good grief, do they not pay you at that fancy law job you can't even afford to buy your sister a gift?" the grandmother asked incredulously.

"I'm sure they pay her plenty-" her father attempted to defend, but was cut off.

"So then she's just stingy," the grandmother concluded.

Neither Alessa nor her father had a quick enough reply for Cadence piped in. "Alessa is not stingy. She would give me her last dollar if she needed to. And in fact, I think she did that, on more than one occasion. Alessa loves reading and she knows I love reading, too," she supplied, turning back to her sister. "Thank you, I shall treasure them," a determined expression accompanying her promise.

Alessa was struggling to control her anger, but was able to manage to smile gratefully back at her sister, whose infinite grace always seemed to overcome her family's words. "I'm glad you like them. And I'd love to discuss them with you when you're studying them."

Cadence smiled back. "Thanks."

For a moment the room was tense until Shelly cut in with, "Well, I guess it's time for cake. We might as well get it out of the way." Together the family and Alessa returned to the dining room and sat around the table while Shelly got out the cake plates and forks and then went back into the kitchen for the large, gorgeous dessert. She placed the fourteen candles around the top and lit them before carrying the cake in. They started singing happy birthday, Cadence beaming at the dreamy cake coming her way. Alessa was smiling at her, focusing on her joy, but when she looked back to her step mother approaching, her expression turned to one of horror as Shelly seemingly tripped and launched herself forward, the heavy cake propelled off the short cake stand, crashing against the edge of the table and landing with a splat onto the floor.

Silence followed the abrupt chaos for a solid five seconds.

"Oh, that is a shame," the grandmother consoled. She turned to look at Alessa. "You must have worked so hard on that."

Alessa remained silent with wide eyes and an open mouth. And then she turned to look at her sister.

"Oh, Alessa, I am so sorry," Shelly said as she scrambled down onto the floor to scrape the crumbled disaster back onto the cake stand. "I've completely ruined your cake!" she said with disgust.

Alessa watched Cadence's eyes begin to brim with tears.

"No," she disagreed, a hard edge of anger laying under the surface of her voice, "not my cake. Cadence's." She clenched her jaw as she turned her irritated gaze to the grandmother, and then to Shelly whose eyes popped above the surface of the table.

"Oh, Cadence, sweetie, I'm sorry. I know you were looking forward to eating it. But don't worry, baby, I'll take you first thing tomorrow to Cakmakers and we'll get you a brand new one," she promised indulgingly.

"But I don't want a new one. I want the one Alessa made," she wailed, her tears now flowing down her smooth cheeks.

"But sweetheart, it's been ruined. Don't worry, we'll get you a better one at Cakemakers."

Through her tears, Cadence argued, "But is it even open on Sunday?"

"Oh, you're right. It'll probably be closed. Alex, sweetheart, why don't you take Alessa to Cakemakers and let her get Cadence a new cake since we can't eat the one she baked," Shelly suggested as she stood, lifting the evidence of the ruined dessert.

"That's okay, I'll buy the new since Alessa's already gone to the trouble of baking one," Alex argued.

"But she wanted to be responsible for Cadence's cake. The least we can do is let her," Shelly returned, walking back into the kitchen.

"Right, well, okay, Alessa let's go," Alex relented, standing to leave.

"Wanna come along?" Alessa asked, turning to her sister, rubbing a hand on her back. "I'll let you pick out your cake," she offered soothingly.

Cadence's tears were coming to an end, and, lifting her head, she wiped her reddened face. "Really?"

"Sure, why not. It's your birthday after all."

"Okay," the teen said at last, her face finally brightening.

"Alessa, do you need to move your car?" her father asked, indicating it might be blocking him in the drive.

Alessa shook her head, "No, I parked on the street."

"You were able to find a spot?" he asked.

"Sure."

"Why don't you just park in the drive like everyone else?" he questioned.

"You know her," Shelly chimed in, still wiping up the last of the pink icing from the dark-stained, wood floors, "she always parks on the street."

"Why?" he asked, clearly not having noticed her tendency.

Before Alessa could answer, Cadence piped in, "So she can escape whenever she wants!" she giggled.

Alessa narrowed her eyes, wrapping her arm around neck her sister's neck and pulling her along out the house.

For the remainder of the day, Alessa was able to keep her calm, spoiling her sister with affection. When she went to leave, Octo walked her out to her car.

"Why do you still have this car?" she asked, her disapproval at the old car evident.

"I'm saving my money. This car still works. Plus I don't even drive that often. Why get rid of it?"

Cadence just shrugged. "Thanks again for books," she said as she threw her arms around her, hugging her one last time before she left.

"Welcome," Alessa answered, hugging her back. "Sorry about your cake," Alessa offered quietly, still hugging her sister.

"Shouldn't I be saying that to you?" Cadence asked, before kissing her quickly on the cheek. "Have me over soon," she begged once she let go.

"Sure, maybe next Saturday you can spend the night," Alessa answered vaguely.

"I miss you," Cadence whispered sadly. "Ever since you started work, you've disappeared again, just like when you were in school." She still had her arms around Alessa's neck. Alessa frowned at her confession. "Promise I can come over?" Cadence pressed.

"No. But we'll talk about it with our parents," she assured.

"Okay," Cadence relented. "Love you. Call me later."

"Sure thing," Alessa promised, kissing the top of her sister's head before extracting herself from her arms. But Cadence clung on. Alessa laughed. "You are such an octopuss!"

Eventually she was in her little car and pulled from the curb, watching her sister wave in the rear-view mirror. She kept the tears inside for almost an entire block.