Love Me Tomorrow (19 page)

Jake’s loud barreling laugh ripped him out of his own thoughts.

Levi glanced down at his tablet, reviewing his notes thus far, while doing his best to remain focused on the task at hand. It was difficult to concentrate listening to Jake and Julia’s incessant schoolgirl giggling. It was obvious they were each a bit tipsy as they sat patiently in the large dining room waiting for Armand Beauchene, baker and wedding-cake-maker extraordinaire, to finish setting up his exquisitely decorated samples.

“That man is a freakin’ genius with icing,” David Kramer, said, sidling up next to Levi who finished typing in the last of his notes thus far on his tablet. “Gorgeous, little cake-lettes of perfection.”

David had been Levi’s inside connection to the Rainbow Palace. He’d been the GM of the restaurant and adjoining Stratosphere bar on the opposite side of the building for the last ten years or so. David’s long-time partner, Todd Everton, had been Dan’s investment banker for years and had helped secure the funding for the boardwalk revitalization.

“It seems almost a shame to eat them, doesn’t it?” Levi asked, staring at the elegant mini-cakes.

“I’ll continue reminding myself of that.” David frowned. “My waistline appreciates any and all abstinence from sugary baked goods.”

Considering the man was rail-thin with zero percent body fat, it seemed an unlikely issue David had ever been faced with, which meant he was likely fishing for compliments.

“Are you kidding me, you look incredible, David.” Levi looked him up and down. “You’re either spending way too much time in the gym or you and Todd are working things off some
other
way?”

David’s mouth fell open in faux-shock and awe. “You’re too much, Levi Goode—
God
how I miss you. You were the first boyfriend of Dan’s that I didn’t want to stab in the face.”

Levi coughed, choking on the swig of water he’d just taken.

“I’m sorry, that was mildly melodramatic.”

“Only mildly?” Levi asked.

“You know what I mean, I can have an actual conversation with you and I haven’t been able to say the same for many of Dan’s other boy toys. I don’t know where he finds them. Is there a ‘Dumb and Full o’ Cum Mart’ that I’ve never heard of where you can find brainless Stepford studs?”

“I love you for saying that,” Levi said, feeling a bit of a lift, having been referred to as a boy toy with brains, even though he knew deep down he shouldn’t consider that a compliment. Still, once you turned thirty, the conditions on which compliments are judged become shorter.

“It’s entirely selfish on my part, one more dinner party discussing creatine shakes and testosterone supplements and I’ll kill myself.” David sighed nudging his head toward Jake and Julia. “What’s going on with you and the elusive Mr. Freeman?”

Levi stood up straight, wondering what the hell David meant by that. “Nothing.”

“Well,
nothing
has looked over at least a dozen times since I walked up and started talking to you, my friend. Where I come from, that ain’t nothing.”

“We’re friends, sort of… I think,” Levi said, cringing as he wasn’t actually one-hundred percent sure what they were.

“Did he split with that stick-up-his-butt boyfriend, Victor something or other?”

“There’s nothing going on, David, Scout’s honor.” Levi held up two fingers. “And is there anyone who actually likes Victor?”

“That’s the peace sign, dummy.”

Levi scowled, trying in vain to recall what the actual Scout’s honor gesture was.

“And have you met Victor?”

“Briefly,” Levi said.

“Need I say more?” David asked.

Levi tried not to smile, wishing the fact no one liked Jake’s boyfriend didn’t fill him with quite so much glee.

David shook his head. “Just be careful.”

“I would, if anything were going on, but since there isn’t, I have nothing to worry about.”

“You might wanna tell that to Mr. Dreamy-eyes over there, then.”

He turned, walking away before Levi could make any other declarations of innocence and decided it was best to avoid looking at Mr. Dreamy-eyes at all costs.

A quick glance over at Armand and Levi could see they were almost ready to begin.

It had taken a little finagling on Levi’s part to get Armand to do the tasting here. Normally people went to Armand, not the other way around, but the Freeman name carried a lot of weight, and like David, Armand had loathed Libby Washington, refusing to work with the woman, regardless of her amazing clientele list. Unfortunately for Libby, Armand’s reputation went far beyond her long arm of retribution, as did the Rainbow Palace’s.

Both had been able to diss Libby and come out on the other side unscathed.

Though he didn’t need the business, per say, Armand was certainly aware that landing the Freemans as clients would be a feather in his cap, especially now that he’d no longer have to deal with Libby in order to work with the family. In turn, Levi was hoping this event would be the first of many he would organize featuring Armand’s award winning pastries. He’d been especially forthcoming with the praise and compliments over Armand’s brilliance since he’d arrived… nearly an hour late.

At this stage, they’d lost Gregory and his brother, Richard, to the Stratosphere bar on the opposite side of the building. Richard had flown in for the weekend from the Kingsley’s European headquarters in London and while he seemed a jovial sort, he didn’t appear to care much about helping his brother and sister-in-law settle the menu for their anniversary party. He also didn’t share Gregory’s leading-man, good looks, and while he could certainly see the family resemblance, Richard was a little more generic looking in comparison.

To their credit, the brothers had made it through the menu tasting, but the wine and champagne pairings had marked the end of their attention span—having left the cake selection up to Julia and Jake. Harold and Gloria were unable to attend the tasting as they had a prior commitment in D.C. Once he’d heard that, it made sense why Julia had been so insistent upon scheduling the tasting for this weekend. Apparently she was still holding a grudge over the whole Glennellen incident.

“Looks like we’re almost ready to begin,” Levi said as he passed by Jake and Julia on his way over to the buffet table where Armand had painstakingly arranged his array of beautifully decorated petite confections.

They each nodded back acknowledging Levi, while sipping on the last of the champagne. Julia punched Jake playfully in the arm. “Listen here, pally, I took a bullet for you by greedily hogging all the selfish genes when we were in the womb together, leaving little Jakey with only saintly goodness and light.”

Jake scoffed at that and Julia began poking him in the sides making him giggle while he attempted to swat away her hands.

Levi was doing his best not to laugh at the two of them as he stepped up to shake hands with Armand.

“I’m not very saintly in the bedroom,” Jake said, in a devilish tone, eyebrows wiggling.

Startled hearing that sort of declaration, Levi tripped over his own feet, falling into the table where all the cake samples had been laid out. His hand landed right on top of one of the perfectly iced confections and for a moment it was like time itself had stopped.

Armand let out a yelp, like he’d been physically wounded by seeing one of his precious creations squished under the weight of Levi’s hand. David was standing at the other end of the table with his hand covering his mouth as he transitioned from gasp of horror to laughing under his breath.

Levi was completely mortified and slowly glanced up to see Armand glaring at him.

“I am
soooo
sorry, Armand.” He carefully lifted his hand, the cake and icing mushed between his fingers, jumping slightly when the plate made a loud clang as it broke away and fell back onto the table.

Armand was pointing, his mouth agape while several versions of squeak came out.

“I’ve totally ruined it, I know. It’s was an accident, I swear.”

Julia was trying not to laugh, and failing miserably while Jake looked on, visibly amused.

“
Fils de pute
,” Armand muttered, peering down at the card to see which one of his babies Levi had just murdered. “The amaretto almond crème with white chocolate ganache filling… this is my
signature
cake!”

Levi stood there, unable to move, his mouth hanging open, unsure what to say. “I’m—”

“But whatever, no big deal…” Armand said, his accent getting thicker the angrier he became. “What are you, Jerry Lewis? Catastrophe!”

“I am truly sorry. I tripped, Armand, please,
please
forgive me?”

“
Trou du cul
,” Armand muttered, still scowling at Levi.

He didn’t understand French, but Armand’s tone was dripping with sarcasm so he assumed it wasn’t ‘I forgive you’. Julia and Jake were both giggling, and not even bothering to try and hide the fact at this point.

“How they will be able to make an educated decision now, I do not know,” Armand said, tossing his hands in the air.

“Let’s all just calm down.” Jake looked distractingly sexy, sauntering over to Levi and grabbing him by the wrist. “I got this.”

Levi was confused for a moment thinking Jake was
going to use the napkin in his other hand to help wipe the cake off. Instead, Jake lifted Levi’s cake-caked hand up to his mouth and seductively took his index finger all the way into his mouth, slowly sucking it clean.

Levi was fairly certain he’d stopped breathing altogether and could see David was now looking at him smugly, most definitely not buying the whole ‘we’re just friends’ bit. Jake stood there for a moment, chewing and moaning as if pondering the flavor before swallowing the mashed up baked-good.

Levi was doing his level best to not sprout wood as that had been the single most erotic thing anyone had ever done to him. That thought immediately made him sad. However, Jake’s icing smeared mouth helped lighten the mood. He looked completely silly, smiling and nodding his head.

“That
is
good,” Jake finally said, jerking Levi’s hand out toward Julia. “You have to try this.”

Armand was completely stunned and not the least bit pleased as Julia stood there, frozen in place. She was snickering but Levi could tell that in spite of however amusing she found all of this, her inner germ-a-phobe couldn’t quite make the leap, allowing her to join in the finger-licking-fun.

“I’ll take your word for it.” She nodded, clinging to her champagne flute the way a toddler did their blanky.

“Your loss,” Jake said, repeating the action by taking Levi’s middle finger all the way into his mouth and slowly sucking the second finger clean.

Levi jerked his hand free not wanting to provide Jake with an opportunity to lick the rest of his hand. He was laughing nervously since there had been definite wood-sproutage following the second act.

“That is tasty,” Jake said earnestly. “I see why it’s so popular.”

Armand was still scowling, but he forced some semblance of a smile. “Thank you, Mr. Freeman.”

Levi was more grateful than words could ever express that Julia hadn’t repeated her brother’s actions as he was fairly certain he would never be able to look Julia Freeman-Kingsley in the face again had she sucked cake from his finger.

Levi forced a smile and sheepishly glanced over at Armand who still stared back at him like Levi was the Anti-Christ. “Awesome…
yay
… crisis averted. I’ll just go wash my hands and we’ll move on, ‘kay everyone?”

They all nodded, and Jake was smiling at him in a manner which would no doubt get the man thrown out of many a garden party in polite society. He sucked down the last of the champagne from his glass and as much as Levi wanted to smack the crap out of him, Jake had been trying to help—in his own completely inappropriate way, mind you, but his heart had been in the right place.

That’s what Levi decided the truth was going to be at any rate.

Levi snagged a cloth napkin off the table and placed it under his cake-hand so he wouldn’t leave a crumb trail in his wake on the way to the restroom.

* * * *

The dim lighting and rich, dark finishes of the Rainbow Palace men’s room felt comforting to Levi, who splashed some water on his face in an attempt to rinse his own embarrassment away. After that performance, he was finding it difficult to muster up the strength to go back out there and face everyone.

“Fucking humiliated,” he muttered, still hearing Jake Freeman seductively saying the words,
I’m not very saintly in the bedroom
, over and over on a loop in the back of his mind.

“Ridiculousness.” Levi patted his face dry with the paper towel and glanced up at his reflection in the mirror. “That was the single most idiotic thing you have ever done in your entire life. What the hell is wrong with you?”

He jumped, startled by the door swishing open to find Jake standing there, staring at him for a moment before walking over to the urinal. “Pretty sure that cake tasted ten times better served right from your hand.”