Alexis and the Missing Ingredient (11 page)

Okay, you can just forget about cupcakes. Yup. You heard me right. My dream of owning a cupcake business when I grow up is over for good. Because I, my friends, am going into
the candy business
!

Dylan's Candy Bar is the best store I've ever been in in my whole life, and that is no joke. It is a marketer's dream; a perfect union of product and design; and a genius, wild, brilliant, and crazy store filled with glorious items for sale, many of them proprietary (which means the store makes them, so they don't buy them from a middleman, and therefore,
ka-ching!
More money for the store!).

Here's how it goes: You walk in, and there is candy for sale everywhere. Every kind you have ever heard of and many, many kinds you have never heard of but will love, anyway. It is a place where people will buy and try anything, because what's the worst thing that could happen? It's candy!

The music they play is all about candy. The floors are made with floating candy in intricate patterns. There are candy mosaics on the walls and huge plastic lollipops and enormous decorative peppermints and giant chocolate things in foil wrappers that are as tall as I am, and a chocolate fondue fountain and an ice-cream bar and a bathtub—a whole bathtub!—filled with bubblegum balls! It's like a fantasy. Everywhere you look there are beautiful rainbows on clothing, bags, cosmetics—you name it. It's like a color explosion, a feast for the senses, filled with things you really don't need but must have immediately, because they are so yummy or cute.

I couldn't stop looking everywhere. Luckily for me I was not hungry for any more sweets, so I wasn't spending my money on one-pound bags of candy the way most of the customers were. I did buy a little coin purse for my sister, because, after all, it said
DYLAN
'
S
on it, and then I bought one for
myself, because it really was cute. But other than that I just admired the way the store had created a place where I wanted everything, though I needed nothing.

It was sort of like what I'd observed at Madame Khalil's. The best things in life take the basics and make them better. Basically, this was just a place to buy sugar, something you can already get pretty much anywhere, something everyone understands and wants. It wasn't that different from the Maple Grove Candy Counter. In theory, anyway. But this store took it to a level no one had ever dreamed of before. They made it beautiful and glorious. I wanted to do that too, someday. I knew there was money in it, of course, but the genius of it was that you didn't even think about money while you were here. That, my friends, is a great business!

While I was waiting for the others to make their purchases, I leaned against the stair railing and watched the shoppers. This one blond girl had a big basket filled with things—big stuff, fun stuff. Not just one-pound bags of candy, but a big pillow made to look like a pack of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and fun pj's in candy patterns and giant lollipops in rainbow swirls. I was admiring her loot when she turned, and we looked right at each other. Oh!
OMG! My jaw dropped, and the girl smiled at me and gave a little wave as she knew I was realizing who she was.

It was Taylor Swift!

Right there shopping at Dylan's Candy Bar!

“Oh!” Quickly, I looked all around for my friends, but they were at the register downstairs on the basement level.
No!
This couldn't be happening! I was dying to ask for an autograph, but I had no pen! I wanted to run and get my friends, but I worried Taylor Swift would be gone by the time I got back. I was frozen in place, staring as she picked up a couple of final items and turned, smiling, to give her overstuffed basket to a salesperson who'd arrived to help her.

She reached into her purse to get out her credit card, and I searched wildly through the stairwell to the floor below for my friends, but I was out of luck. I couldn't see them.

“Please don't leave!” I begged quietly.

I dashed down the stairs two at a time, my shiny black Dylan's shopping bag swinging wildly.

Scanning the room, I quickly located Ava, Katie, and Mia on a long line to pay.

“Guys!” I shouted. Everyone in the store turned to look up at me, but I didn't care. I gestured wildly
to the floor above me, mouthing the words
Taylor Swift
!

What?
Mia mouthed back at me.

“Taylor Swift!” I stage-whispered.

Katie put her hand to her ear, miming that she couldn't hear me.

Exasperated, I took the last few stairs in a leap and ran across the floor to them.

Breathless, I called, “It's Taylor Swift!”

They all turned away, annoyed. “Ha-ha,” said Katie.

“That's getting old, Alexis,” said Mia.

“No! For real! I swear!”

“Come on!” said Ava. “At least think up a new one.”

Now
I
was annoyed. “You know what? Fine. I'll hold your place in line, and you can go up and see who it is!”

Ava and the others rolled their eyes at one another.

“Go! For real! Hurry!” I said, jumping into place.

Finally, Ava sighed heavily. “Fine. But you guys owe me.” She stomped off and climbed the stairs, not quickly enough as far as I was concerned. Her legs disappeared from sight for a second, then two,
then five.
What is taking her so long?

“Come on!” I muttered, willing her to reappear.

And suddenly she was back. “It's her!” Ava cried from the stairs. “It's really her!”

Katie and Mia looked at each other, dumbfounded.

I smirked. “See?”

Then they took off, and I wound up chasing them up the stairs.

“Hurry!” cried Ava. “She's leaving!”

By the time we got to the top of the stairs, all they got to see was a flash of blond hair exiting the store, and then a driver at the curb, opening the rear door of a white SUV with a flourish, and the girl—Taylor Swift!—climbing inside with two huge Dylan's bags.

“See?” I said.

“It was really her,” confirmed Ava.

“Thanks,” I said. I was so relieved to have a witness.

Mia's mouth was twisted in a wry smile. “I'm still not sure. It could have been anyone.”

“So ask someone!” I said.

Katie looked around and spied an employee in a black Dylan's Candy Bar T-shirt.

“Excuse me,” she said, walking over to him.
“But was that just Taylor Swift who was in here?”

The guy grinned. “Yes, it was!”

“Ha! See!” I crowed.

Katie smiled at him. “Thanks.”

Mia grinned now too. “Wow! We saw Taylor Swift!”

“Humph. Some of us,” I grumped.

“We
all
did,” said Ava, glaring at me meaningfully. “Peacemaker.” She wagged her finger at me and laughed.

“Pretty cool,” I said, burning with happiness.

“No trip to New York is complete without a celebrity sighting,” Katie said.

Mr. Cruz appeared with his arms laden with candy. “Who saw a celebrity?”

“Papi! We just saw Taylor Swift!” cried Mia.

“You did not! You can't pull that one on me. I wasn't born yesterday.” He laughed.

“Oh boy, here we go again,” I said.

“Papi, are you buying all that candy?” Mia asked sternly.

Mr. Cruz looked down at his armload and grinned in embarrassment. “I guess not,” he said, and he gently unloaded it into a basket.
Sorry,
he mouthed at the salesguy.

“Ha-ha. Don't worry. This happens all the
time,” the salesguy said with another chuckle.

As we walked out to catch a subway home, I said, “You know, I liked this place better than anything else.”

“Even Omen?” cried Katie.

“Even Omen,” I said solemnly.

W
e were pooped by the time we got back to Mr. Cruz's apartment. I couldn't believe how much of the city we'd seen and also how little of the surface we'd scratched. We hadn't even hit any of the things on my own list, and I knew there were hundreds, maybe thousands, more fun things to do and see here.

Back at Mr. Cruz's we all flopped on the sofas in the living room to watch TV while he went out to hit the gym and work off all the cupcakes. Ava stayed for a little while, but then it was time for her to go to her ballet rehearsal. Her mom came to pick her up in their car downstairs.

Katie and I stood to hug her good-bye and make promises to see one another again soon.

“Take good care of Mia for me,” cautioned Ava. “Katie, you're the boss when I'm not around. And, Alexis, keep up the good peacemaking.”

I laughed. “Will do.”

“And for goodness' sake, try to get into the city a little more often, please. Your urban education is really lacking, and I'm just the person to remedy that situation.”

“Okay,” I agreed. “But then you have to promise to come out to Maple Grove very soon. You can always stay with me if Mia's not being nice, you know.”

“Me?!” cried Mia, all indignant now.

Katie rolled her eyes at me and laughed. “Why would you start all this up again, Alexis?”

“Kidding!” I said.

“Seriously, thanks, you two, for making me feel so included,” said Ava. “I do sometimes get jealous and feel left out of Mia's new life and all her new friends.”

“You aren't left out!” I said. “We're
your
new friends too!”

“Thanks,” said Ava.

We gave Ava one more big hug good-bye and promised to Skype one day soon, and then Mia went with her downstairs to say hi to Ava's mom.

Katie and I re-flopped, and I asked if she'd mind if we changed the channel to
Celebrity Ballroom
, which she didn't. We watched for a while in silence as a minor Olympian and a former talk-show host did the tango. They were pretty great, actually, and when the host interviewed them after, little clips of the dance were replayed to illustrate what he was talking about.

“The best partners make their partner look great, am I right?” the host asked. He showed a clip of the male partner dipping the female, and she looked light as a feather, even though she was not a small person.

“Absolutely,” agreed the woman. “Jerry made me feel like a princess, and he made it all look so effortless. He made me show my best self out there!”

“Well, that's just wonderful,” gushed the host. Blah, blah, blah.

But the woman's words echoed in my head. It was like Madame Khalil. Like Dylan's Candy Bar. The best things in life take the basics and make them better. The best friends in life make you your best self. Funnier, a better baker, smarter, more graceful—whatever it is.

I turned to share this observation with Katie, but she had actually fallen asleep on the sofa, curled
into a little ball. It was okay. The person I really wanted to share this idea with was Emma, who was due back at her house in Maple Grove tomorrow morning. I couldn't wait to see her back home and fill her in on everything we'd done. It wouldn't all seem real until the retelling. I would be careful to tell her repeatedly how much we missed her and how it wasn't the same without her and how we talked about her all the time. That was all true. But I wouldn't tell her what I was just realizing, deep down inside: that it had been good for me to branch out, to spend time with Mia and Katie (and Ava, of course) and get some new experience with other friends. I could now see I'd been relying on Emma too much, and it wasn't good for either of us. I needed to take the bull by the horns and make plans and put myself out there to enrich my life. It wouldn't diminish Emma's role at all; in fact, it might enhance it. Who knew?

Mia came back upstairs and saw Katie sleeping and gestured that she was going to go lie down in her room, too. It seemed like a great idea all around. For a minute I almost considered taking a train back alone tonight, just to sleep in my own bed and, to be perfectly honest, to be already in Maple Grove to see Emma. But I knew it could wait another day.
In fact, it should wait another day. I closed my eyes to rest them for just a minute, and I, of course, fell asleep too.