Throw Him My Way

*****

The next morning, Heidi got up early, as usual, and did her dog rounds.

She swallowed her guilt when she got Apple from Zoe. Apparently, Zoe was using the time to practice her meditation techniques.

Heidi figured that it was as good a way as any of dealing with such adversity.

But she got Apple and left quickly, without staying to chat, despite the fact that Zoe obviously was full of what had happened.

From everything, it sounded very much like Christian had kept his word.

She had had a few uneasy moments that morning, wondering if he would. She was so screwed if he didn’t.

To keep herself occupied, she taught Apple a new trick – balancing a biscuit on her nose.

The dog sure was smarter than her person.

By the time she got the rest of her canine cohort, she was feeling much better.

She hadn’t gotten any calls that indicated that she might be arrested or slapped with a very hefty fine. There had been nothing alarming.

Heidi was even relaxed enough to hum by the time she got back home, and pondered what to bake.

Something extravagant to celebrate not being in trouble and not having set anything on fire, decided Heidi, and settled on red velvet cupcakes.

She had cream cheese, red food coloring, cocoa powder, the fine cake flour that worked best with the recipe, vinegar, buttermilk – everything she needed.

She was soon whipping her butter and sugar, getting her eggs, and enjoying the slight fatigue that came with turning her nose up at an electric mixer.

You appreciated it more when you took the trouble to do it by hand, believed Heidi. Besides, it toned her arms quite well.

By the time she had her batter in the cake tins and in the oven, and the icing ready to go, she was definitely calm.

Until she thought about Christian again.

He had come to see her sing, to listen to her. What had he thought of her?

Would he come again?

She was surprised by the strength of her desire to have him there again, to listen to her again.

Why hadn’t he stayed to talk to her? She wished he had.

Maybe he had come to keep an eye on her and make sure that she didn’t set anything else on fire.

That was as likely as anything else.

But he had told her that he’d heard of her. He’d heard her before.

It was a relief when the oven timer went off and she could get the cake layers out.

They looked perfect. Belatedly, she remembered that she had meant to bake cupcakes, so that they wouldn’t stuff themselves with butter and sugar.

Well, maybe she was still a little rattled.

Heidi tried to distract herself by updating all her social media accounts while the layers cooled enough for icing. She checked comments on YouTube – they didn’t make her want to scream or cry, which was excellent for comments on YouTube. She went on Tumblr and made an update. Replying to messages and emails distracted her enough.

She was getting a few more invitations to sing, round and about. That was good, wasn’t it? She was getting noticed.

That was the point of it all.

Wincing, she even ventured onto Reddit and saw that nobody had been particularly nasty.

For Reddit, that was excellent, too.

Heidi was feeling buoyed enough to even consider an AMA. She wasn’t well-known enough for it to be feasible, though.

If only she could get a break, thought Heidi, frustrated.

She worked so hard. She worked her ass off.

And she knew that she would get that break. She would. She believed it.

But she really wanted it to be sooner rather than later.

Barney’s was always open to her, and there were a few more watering holes that counted on her for open mic nights, but she needed more than that.

Just a chance.

Sighing, she got up and got to work icing the cake.

Maybe she got a bit carried away. When she was worried, she tended to get a bit more intricate that usual.

By the time she went over to Mrs. Spinelli’s, she had managed to paste her smile back on.

“Heidi, I made gnocchi. For you.”

Heidi had to fight back tears. Gnocchi was her favorite thing ever. She knew that it was a fiddly thing to make, and it was a lot of trouble.

“You are too good to me. But I made us a red velvet cake.”

“Oh, that looks magnificent! Why, you have outdone yourself! Heidi, my dear, if you get tired of singing, you could open a patisserie and make a fortune. Or at least an excellent living. But we will need to go for an extra yoga class to pay for this. I think you have a client who could help, yes?”

Heidi shook her head wryly.

“I think we’ll go to somebody who knows what they’re doing. Mrs. Spinelli, I’m so sorry I was short with you last night.”

The older woman waved away Heidi’s apologies.

“Never you mind. It’s no matter. You were tired, and upset, and refused to take a break. You look better today. Today, we will sing together and we will forget about yesterday.”

Heidi smiled.

“Forgetting about yesterday sounds like a wonderful idea.”

But Mrs. Spinelli was sharp.

“You don’t mean that, not completely. What else happened yesterday?”

Heidi tried, very hard, to look as if she didn’t know what Mrs. Spinelli was talking about, and failed.

“Come on, Heidi. Have this nice bread I baked, and tell me.”

Heidi shook her head.

“You didn’t bake it.”

Mrs. Spinelli laughed, loud and booming.

“I didn’t, but it’s good, nonetheless. Now tell me. It’s a man, isn’t it?”

Heidi gave up. She would have to tell all, of course.

“Yes. The one who put out the fire. His name is Christian. Mrs. Spinelli, he came to Barney’s last night. He came to hear me sing.”

The older woman smiled and sighed.

“Ah, young love.”

Heidi shook her head vehemently.

“Young, yes. Love, no. Don’t you start picking out china patterns for me yet, Mrs. Spinelli. Come on, let’s have lunch.”

But if Heidi thought that that might be the end of it, she was wrong.

Mrs. Spinelli grilled her until she could probably have drawn a picture of Christian, and a very accurate one, from Heidi’s description of him.

Heidi was, for once, extremely glad when the singing part of the program began. At least she couldn’t be grilled then!

By the end of it, Heidi was exhausted. She had pushed herself harder than usual because she hadn’t wanted Mrs. Spinelli to start asking questions again.