Red Velvet & Anemones, Sample

Eight Months Earlier...

As Milli listened to soothing piano music and piped black swirls onto two tiers of a white velvet five tier cake, she remembered her wedding only six weeks ago. The love she had for Edgar pouring out her hands into the delicate design she was creating on the cakes.

He was her first everything since the moment she had saved him from being mugged outside the Velvet Rope Club the day she did a vampire wedding cake, to the first thought she had this morning when she woke and then kissed him goodbye for the day. She had gone to pick up Marni at 3AM. Her sister was always getting off work just as Milli was getting ready to head to work. She and her sister’s lives always blending together seamlessly since the day Marni’s parents had adopted Milli. Side by side, always there when the other one needed them. Nothing ever came between them. If Marni didn’t have the job she had, Milli never would have met the man of her dreams.

As she applied the pearls to the quilted-looking layer, Milli’s mind went back to that night.

Edgar Rowling was in the parking lot being beaten up when Milli pulled in. She had dialed 9-1-1 then grabbed the pepperspray she always carried. Terrified, she yelled at the men to stop, even spraying one. They had jumped in Edgar’s car and sped away as Milli tried to comfort the injured man. The end of February wind had been bitterly cold as she tried to shield his bruised face from it with her tiny body until the ambulance came.

The next day when she got off from the bakery, she had taken him an assortment of sweets. He had looked at her with such gratitude and admiration from his hospital bed, it embarrassed her. His cousin Heith had come from Dallas and was shocked to meet her. After taunting Edgar that ‘this little tiny thing’ had saved him, Milli had backed Heith into a wall, berating him for being rude about her size and threatening to kick his butt. Heith had apologized profusely and grudgingly Milli had offered to drive him to a hotel. The two tall Texans had started calling her Tornado Lil’ Bit, which made her giggle.

Milli stopped and picked up Marni on the way because Marni had texted that she needed to go shopping before work. Her sister had gaped at the giant man and mouthed the word “DIBS” behind his back, which made Milli laugh out loud. Heith took them to dinner and regaled them with stories of he and his cousin’s wild childhood. Marni called off work that night and they all went back to the hospital with food for Edgar, who again proclaimed to all the nurses that Milli was his tiny guardian angel. His version made her feel braver than she was. He had pursued her relentlessly until she agreed to marry him.

As her hands flew over the surface of another cake, stacking the tiers and pipping the flowers, Milli thought about how Edgar had showered her with gifts, and attention like she had never received. Growing up with Marni meant every boy had only shown interest in Milli to get to Marni, but Edgar was different. He love Milli, he wanted Milli, not Marni. It was Edgar’s cousin, Heith, who had taken an interest in Marni and she in him, soon they were double dating. Doing everything together socially as a foursome, the only hiccup to their happiness was Heith and Milli both insisting they be married before moving in together. So in April, they all had got married, a double wedding in a small chapel, just the four of them.

Everything in their shared household seemed ideal. Heith and Milli always seemed to be up early, even when they didn’t have to work, while Edgar and Marni were the nightowls. They had settled into a comfortable family-like life in Milli and Marni’s two-bedroom rental. Milli cooking and baking, Heith did the dishes when he was home, while Edgar threw in laundry, and Marni... Well, Marni just did the things Marni did around the house. Milli had never been happier.

Milli leaned back and rotated the cake slowly, ivory roses and hand piped lace, it was lovely. Milli carefully put the glossy fondant ribbons in rich scarlet on the cake, wondering what was going to happen when Heith got home from South Dakota. His job as an energy engineer and geologic surveyor would keep him gone until next week and then, when he got back to find out Marni had gone back to working at The Velvet Rope Gentlemen’s Club. He and Marni would start fighting again.

Milli couldn’t imagine that Heith would be very happy about it. She knew Marni well enough to know she wouldn’t have asked him about changing back to her old job. Milli could feel a headache coming on as she thought about the fights Heith and Marni had about her working there before she quit the day of their wedding. She almost cringed about the next fight they were going to have about her going back to work there, but the money was 10 times what Marni made as a teacher’s aide and Marni loved to shop. Milli worried that Marni would go back to her party girl ways if she and Heith broke up.

Heath was old fashioned, he wanted his ‘respectable’ wife at home to raise a family. He was the opposite of his cousin.

Edgar was fine with Milli working, he didn’t even care where she worked or what she did at work, so she never talked about it. Milli envied Marni that her husband worked so hard while Milli’s husband lived on a job created by his mother that amounted to just meeting people, mainly men, and taking them out for a good time on the company dime. Truthfully, Milli wondered if Edgar was as much of a player as Marni was a party girl and fervently hoped he never cheated on her. She wondered how much things would change in when the sisters got their inheritance, she had never told Edgar about that money.

Marni and Milli had been left well provided for by their parents, once they turned 25 but for now, they had a choice; college or employment with a small stipend for living expenses. Milli had gone through a culinary arts program in high school and pastry school right after. Marni had taken office management and a few elementary teaching classes. However, once their parents had died, Marni went back to her wild child ways worse than ever. It was Milli’s greatest fear that someday she would get a call saying Marni had died, killed by the lifestyle she played at in high school once she got the means to fund it for real.

Milli felt someone tall standing over her shoulder and pulled out her ear plugs. “Heith? You’re back early. Welcome home.” She tried to sound happy but secretly she was wondering how she could text her sister without him noticing.

His face looked like he was barely containing his temper, “Where’s Marni? She wasn’t at the school all week.”

Milli hesitated, then shook her head, there was no use hiding the truth. “She didn’t tell you, did she? She went back to work at the club.”

His jaw clenched as he looked down at her strangely. He muttered under his breath, “There’s a lot she isn’t telling either of us.”

Milli looked at him oddly. “Her shift starts at 4PM, she said she’d UBER.”

Even his southern drawl sounded strangled as he spoke in a stilting, hesitant way. “Milli, there’s something I need to tell you but I... I don’t want to hurt your feelings. You’re a really good person and I know you didn’t know... I found out something...” His phone rang, and he cursed under his breath before turning away. “Rowling here.”

He turned pale under his tan and Milli hooked a barstool out from under the decorating table. For a moment, she thought he was going to fall down. She sat him down on it as he seemed to struggle to breathe, even sitting he was still taller than she. She grabbed him a bottle of water from the cooler. “Heith, what’s wrong?” Her fear screamed at her.

“Our... our grandfather died. He was helping with the cows and... and got gored in the leg. He.. he.. He bled out before they could get him t-to...” Heith stammered the words out.

Internally breathing a sigh of relief that is wasn’t Marni, Milli wrapped her arms around his neck and let him cry. Heith and Edgar had both been raised by their grandfather after their parents’ divorces. She murmured soothing things to him. In the bakery around them, the cake was taken away and another set in its place but she ignored it. Her phone buzzed, a text message from Edgar, telling her what she already knew. The patriarch of the Rowling family was dead, Heith and Edgar needed to go to Texas.

Telling Ramses there had been a death in the family, Milli took Heith home. Edgar was sitting on the couch, he was drunk. Marni was trying to get him to give her the tequila bottle he was drinking from. She was curled up next to him, with her feet tucked under her, whispering and cooing soothingly. Heith yanked her away from his cousin and dragged her to their room. They immediately began yelling at each other. Milli couldn’t hear what they were saying, only that that were angry.

“Edgar, honey. What can I do?” Milli asked quietly.

Truthfully, Edgar scared her when he was drunk, he got angry so easily. He was always sorry afterward, but she had seen so many of her mother’s companions turn violent that it always scared her. Her fear made him even madder, he didn’t know about her childhood before her adoption.

“Nothing, Lil’ Bit.”

“Have you eaten?” Milli asked softly, afraid of provoking one of his tirades, but he just shook his head. “Okay, I’ll make dinner.” She went into the kitchen and made dinner; his and Heith’s favorites.

Heith stomped into the kitchen just as Milli finished putting in a spiced peach pie in, and after she was taking the twice baked stuffed potatoes out. He froze, staring at the food she had made, muttering she was too good for them. The front door slammed and Milli knew Marni had left like she always did after she and Heith had a fight.

“Thanks for dinner, Lil’ Bit,” Heith muttered.

Nodding she made him a plate. “I’m so sorry, Heith.”

Heith sat and ate quietly, alone, while Milli took a plate into the living room and managed to coax one bite at a time down Edgar. Milli came back just long enough to take out the pie, and cut a piece for Edgar. When Heith went into the living room, Milli and Edgar were gone and music was coming from their bedroom.

Later that night, Milli laid next to Edgar wide awake. She couldn’t sleep when he was drunk, too many bad memories of her mother’s drinking problem. Her phone chimed, and she slipped out from under his arm, he muttered in his sleep and turned over. She dressed quickly and headed out to pick up Marni from work. Milli was glad that she was off today, she was exhausted. In the living room, Heith was sitting in the chair by the front window.

“Where are you going?” he demanded roughly.

“Uh... Marni gets off work in a while, she’s not supposed to drive.”

Milli edged toward the door, trying to keep as much distance between them as possible. She had never been afraid of Heith or Edgar the way she was usually afraid of other men, but tonight there was something different about the way they were both acting. Something dangerous. Edgar had been cruel, and now Heith... Heith seemed to radiate a need for violence, just like Dante used to, and she didn’t want to provoke him.

“So, you’re her chauffeur now too? You’re her cook, her maid, her slave, anything you don’t do for that whore?” His words were hateful.

Milli was shocked about the way he was talking about her stepsister, it made her angry. “Hey. That’s my sister and your wife, you’re talking about Heith. I know you’re upset about your grandfather, but that’s no reason to get drunk and take it out on everyone. Grief is hard, but you can let it make you bitter, or you can be better,” Milli snapped, repeating a phrase her mom and her therapist had said often when she was growing up.

Heith snorted, “Bitter or better, uh?”

He stood up shakily, and staggered toward her. He towered over her tiny frame. She backed up till she was flat against the wall. His pale blue eyes hard as he trapped her between his arms.

“Heith, back off,” Milli said in a low voice. She needed to get out the door to get away.

He smelled her hair, murmuring drunkenly, “You always smell so good, like everything wonderful in the world and he doesn’t even care.”

Milli felt like she was hyperventilating, she repeated breathlessly, “Heith, back off. You’re drunk and...”

“Of course, I’m drunk.” His head lowered to her neck as she turned her head away. “I married a whore, while my whore-mongering cousin is married an angel.” He laughed, and his breath fanned her neck. “So small and sweet, the perfect size for a treat.” His lips brushed her skin. “You even taste sweet.”

Milli was so terrified, she couldn’t stop herself from shaking. Breathlessly. “Please...”

“Do you feel it too, little angel?” Then he was kissing her.

She knew shouldn’t be letting Heith kiss her, she wasn’t that kind of girl and he was married to Marni.

“Please, stop.” She half-sobbed against his lips. Her heart pounded in her chest in a way it never had with Edgar’s tantrums.

Something in her tone got through his drunken stupor and he stepped back shocked. “Oh Gawd, Milli, I’m s...”

She didn’t wait to hear the rest of it, she ran out the door. Jumping in her car, she started it and sped away. Looking in the rearview mirror, to see Heith standing in the yard, looking upset.