100 Days of Cake Read Online Free Page B

Girls doesn’t start until three), when Alex comes in to relieve her.
    Immediately JoJo materializes in the front of the store and collects her stuff from behind the counter. “Audi, kids.” She gives a wave, and the bell on the front door dings her exit.
    â€œYou finally got the full JoJo experience firsthand?” Alex smiles, and I laugh. “I’ve had that pleasure a few Saturdays.”
    â€œIt was definitely something, you freaking A-hat.”
    Alex smiles. “Yeah, JoJo’s cool, though.” He shoves his hands into his pockets. “So, what happened last night? You guys run out to avoid me?” he says nonchalantly, but I still feel a flicker of panic.
    â€œElle wasn’t feeling great, so we cut out early. Sorry, I should have let you know, but we left kinda quick.”
    â€œNo worries. She okay?”
    It takes a half second before I realize he’s asking about Elle and the illness I invented for her. “She’s good now.”
    We throw a nod back and forth.
    â€œNext time, I guess,” I tell him.
    â€œSure.”
    More nodding.
    â€œOh, I have something for you.” He reaches for his backpack.
    Alarms start wailing in my head.
    We’re seventeen—hell, he isn’t even my boyfriend—this can’t be a surprise proposal, can it?
    Nope. He pulls out a gray T-shirt with orange-and-yellow flames on the front and the words “The Flaming Dantes” printed above them.
    â€œThe band’s got a new name,” he says. “Our drummer just realized he was super-inspired reading The Inferno last year.”
    â€œOhhh, I likey.” I’m totally touched, but I also can’t help wondering how many of these shirts they had made.
    In the past two years his band has changed names at least five times. They’ve been Cyanide Six-Pack, Approximate Proxy, Bad Times for All (which they really liked but eighty-sixed when they discovered there was already a group in Chicago called that), Baggage, and something I can’t remember, other than that it had to do with cell phones and elephants, maybe Celo-phant or Ele-o-phone. They’ve never actually played a show under any name, but sometimes Alex will bring his guitar to the store, and if it’s really dead (pretty much always—it turns out that Charlie was wrong, and Coral Cove wasn’t really clamoring for saltwater fish), we’ll go to the roof deck on top of the building, and he’ll fool around with some chords and lyrics. It always sounds pretty good.
    â€œThank you much,” I say.
    â€œNow you’re ready for our first show.”
    â€œAbsolutely.” I wonder if a bunch of the Hot Topic girls will be there in these tees too.
    The Golden Girls block starts with the one where Blanche, Dorothy, and Rose accidentally book a Valentine’s Day vacation at a nude beach resort and spend their entire trip staring out the window at the nakeds, trying to work up the nerve to strip down and go out themselves. The fourth season wasn’t my fav, but this episode always slays me.
    With chopsticks he found somewhere behind the counter, Alex sneaks into my leftover lo mein stash, and smiles up at me when I catch him.
    On-screen the girls finally decide to go to dinner in the buff. Hiding behind giant heart cutouts, they drop everything when they make it to the dining room. Even though I’ve seen this episode a thousand times, I still laugh when the snooty waiter tells them, “Excuse me, ladies, but we always dress for dinner here. And in your case, we’d appreciate it if you’d do that for all three meals.” Alex is laughing too, and things feel normal and good, even if I still can’t shake all of last night away.
    We watch another episode and give directions to a guy who comes in completely lost, trying to get to the Disney parks in Orlando. That happens at least a few times a month. Just to be nice, sometimes people will buy one