Whereas Nikki was nervous to meet Delia at the beginning of the class, that nervousness was immediately replaced by the confidence that Nikki had for her creation. It was an objective confidence grown by her appreciation for her craft. This confidence and genuine appreciation were heard in her voice as she described the wedding cake to Delia.
“I had to adopt the staggered, three-tiered design to allow for my main concept…”
“The waterfall,” Delia interrupted while staring at the cake. She’d obviously noticed how a graceful stream of blue flowed down from the top tier of the cake and down the side of each tier like a waterfall.
“Exactly, the waterfall is the center of attention.”
“But why? It’s a wedding cake, right? Is a waterfall appropriate for this occasion?”
Nikki turned from studying her cake to looking at her instructor. She couldn’t believe the words that she found coming out toward her icon. They weren’t defensive at all, but rather searching for the truth. “Well, that depends.”
“On what?”
“On how it makes you feel. Does it evoke anything inside of you?”
Nikki’s intent was not to turn the table on her instructor or to obtain her critique of it. But that’s exactly what ended up happening, to Nikki’s humbling surprise. All the while, Ryan just stood holding Nikki securely in his arm while listening to these two artists converse. Ryan wished he had a way to record this interaction – not to show Nikki later, and not even to capture a conversation between a chef who was considered great today and one who he knew would one day also be considered great. No, Ryan wished he was able to video record this conversation because the spark of passion that radiated in Nikki’s eyes was inspiring and incredibly attractive to him. As if he didn’t already consider Nikki one of the more attractive women he’d gone out with, this glimmer in her eyes wasn’t just something that made her attractive. It made her beautiful. That was a look which he wished he could capture forever.
Delia’s sincere critique almost brought Nikki to tears as each word of it revealed to Nikki that Delia was complimenting her creation. “Does it evoke anything in me? My dear, I’ve never heard someone ask that about a cake. But the simple answer, is yes. It evokes passion, romance, and hope. Frankly, those are the things I attend a wedding to try and experience. And those are things which most chefs only dream of inspiring in a cake. Most wedding cakes only are celebratory and not moving. Not this cake. The waterfall is a beautiful idea, and the coloring of the light blue water is perfect. Nothing too dominating. Instead, it’s the centerpiece artistically to all of the flowers around it.”
“Touch it,” Nikki instructed simply with excitement.
Delia reached out to touch what she thought was stylized, hard icing. But at the touch of it, she was surprised to instead find it much too rough to be icing.
“Is that? …”
“It’s finely crushed rock candy.”
“But the coloring …” Delia was asking about how the coloring subtly changed from dark blue towards the top, to light blue at the bottom. But even then, the coloring of the crushed rock candy transformed into white on the outer edge of the stream’s water – allowing its coloring to blend in naturally with the white cake wrapped around the rest of it.
“Yeah, that took some time.”
Delia’s critique continued: “And I love how you’ve styled the flowers on simple - yet elegant - green vines flowing around the cake, but still leading to the top where, I’m sure figurines of the couple would be placed.”
“If they like.”
“The entirety of the presentation is moving. Stirring. Flowing – like the sparkling water in the waterfall, giving life to the flowers wrapped around it, and symbolizing the new life formed from the newlywed’s union. Nikki?”
Nikki was surprised that Delia had remembered her name from before. “Yes?”
“Can I keep it here in the store – to put on display in the window?”
Nikki’s eyes lit up in excitement. “You bet!”
“And give me your number … just in case, well – you never know.”
Nikki rushed to exchange numbers with Delia before the iconic chef changed her mind. She then quickly took a picture of her cake before handing it over to her icon. Nikki then couldn’t help but chuckle at Delia’s next statement. Delia’s words were obviously said in jest at Nikki’s earlier failed attempt at humor in front of the class: “I guess that being a great chef doesn’t require being a comedian.”
Nikki was beyond flattered, her mind racing through the clouds at the dreams of endless possibilities due to the genuine compliments graced upon her by Delia. Once Delia received the text from Nikki with her contact info, Delia just winked and said one last thing before moving on to the next couple’s workstation. “I thought I’d be teaching a class tonight, not being a student.”
As Delia left their table, Nikki all but jumped for joy behind Delia’s back at the complete state of bliss she was experiencing. She leapt right into Ryan’s arms and placed a huge kiss on his lips. It felt good releasing her excitement into the arms of someone else, and someone else who she knew was genuinely excited for her.
She snuggled in close as they locked fingers while leaving the rustic downtown building.
“So, what’s the plan for the rest of the night?” Ryan asked.
“Honestly, I gotta just walk to get this out of my system. I can’t believe what just happened!”
The couple strolled thru the ambiance of the city. Nikki replayed the whole cake-making process and critique from Delia out loud. Ryan watched the reenactment as Nikki would move in excitement from grasping onto him closely, to letting go and reenacting the class with her arms, before moving back into being with him. Ryan laughed repeatedly in sincere happiness at having been able to be a part of this significant moment for his girlfriend.
They walked around the block, really to nowhere at all. Indeed, after about an hour of walking while reenacting the class and Nikki explaining why it meant so much to her, they found themselves right on the street next to where Nikki had parked. Subconsciously, they must have taken the long route – the very long route – back to where she’d parked.
Ryan knew not to ask about going back to either of their places. Even though he’d definitely have loved that, just being called this beautiful woman’s boyfriend tonight was more than enough for him. So, instead he expressed exactly what he’d realized while watching Nikki create her cake that evening.
“I love you.”
The words rushed out like the waterfall Nikki had so beautifully created on her cake. And the current of that waterfall almost overcame Nikki as the surprising words flowed from Ryan’s mouth. She was overcome with emotion and happiness, but also in the back of her mind was the predicament that she was now placed in with the two men. Since escaping her abusive prior relationship a couple years ago, she had searched for a man whom she respected who would express exactly what Ryan felt. And now she’d found such a guy!
A single tear quickly welled up in her eye and streamed down her cheek at the shock of Ryan unexpectedly expressing his love for her. Nikki’s instinctive, natural reaction was to jump into Ryan’s arms and kiss him. But as the kiss lingered, being suspended in the air by Ryan’s muscular hold, she wondered if she did this to avoid having to say that she loved him in return. The thought quickly entered her mind that she had to say something back. She wanted to say she loved him. She knew that she at least loved being around him, and knew he was the type of man she could easily fall in love with eventually.