Chapter Five

MAMA RITA’S CAKES AND PIES was, without doubt, the most renowned and celebrated pastry store on the state. Despite this, the store itself was small and simple. If you walked by it, there was no chance you would think it was as prestigious as it really was. And it was very prestigious. If you wanted to eat one of Mama Rita’s famous cakes or pies, you had to order it at least a week in advance. Sometimes even more. But it was certainly worth it. Mama Rita, a short and very pretty old woman of Italian heritage, could make a mixture of simple ingredients taste like heaven in a way only few other people could.

Which is why what Nora and Ryder saw as soon as he parked the car was extremely surprising.

“I really can not believe this,” Nora whispered as she stared at the small and open store standing right before her eyes.

Ryder was smirking like crazy.

“Told you,” he said and then hopped off the car.

Since Nora seemed not to be able to make any kind of move, Ryder walked to her door and opened it for her. “Come on. Get out.”

She did as instructed, still in awe.

Ryder’s smirk turned into a sweet smile. “You know,” he said as he took her wrist again and dragged her to Mama Rita’s door, “seeing as this was easier than I thought, I think I will be a gentleman and ride you to the hospital after we are done here.”

“I’m fine, thank you.” That was a lie.

Ryder, oblivious to her throbbing head, smiled and pulled the entrance door open. The chirming bells on the threshold made Nora’s head hurt even more, but she wouldn’t mention that to Ryder. That would just give him a reason to actually act like the gentleman he had proved to be years ago, when they were in second grade. Which would mean he would ride her to the hospital. And if there was something Nora hated–and maybe, just maybe, even feared–that was hospitals.

Ryder pulled Nora into the store without letting go of her wrist.

“I’m not a dog, you know,” she said.

Ryder chuckled. He didn’t say anything, but he let his hand slip until it was enveloped around hers. “Better?” he asked.

Nora’s blush lasted only a few seconds, but Ryder still caught a glimpse of it by the corner of his eye.

“You are way too smooth for your own good.”

“I will take that as a compliment.”

As it turns out, even Nora wasn’t sure what it had actually been, so she just rolled her eyes in response and shook his hand away from hers.

“Huh,” Nora said as she looked around the empty store. Pastries and cakes and pies where displayed behind glass counters, but no one stood behind the cash register. Or anywhere else, for that matter. “No one’s here. How surprising.”

Ryder chose to ignore his companion’s pessimistic attitude. “Mrs. Rita,” he yelled in no particular direction at all.

CRACK.

Both Ryder and Nora jumped at the sudden noise and turned to look in the direction it had come from. The only thing they could see was a table with a few magazines featuring Mrs. Rita in the covers and a little purple couch next to it.

“That was weird,” Ryder said. He sounded out of breath. Nora was sure he could hear her heart beating fast inside her chest.

“Yeah,” she said and let out a nervous laugh. “Scary.”

“You know, for a second I felt just like I did when that goat–“

Suddenly, an enormous black furry being jumped out of nowhere–from behind the purple couch, perhaps­–making both of them scream. For a few seconds, all they could see where big claws and large teeth. Ryder, in an impressively fast and agile move, pushed Nora behind him and then extended his fists, ready to attack whatever it was that wanted to eat them.

“It’s just a cat, Ryder,” Nora told him just as he realized what the gigantic figure really was. She didn’t sound calm, though.

He let his fists fall to his sides. “Ha. Look. It’s a cat.”

“Yeah.”

“A very big and scary cat.”

“Very.”

“A black cat.”

“A black, scary cat.”

What followed was a staring contest. The two of them against the creepy yellow eyes of the monstrous cat that kept flashing them its teeth every once in a while. At least until it roared. He actually roared. It wasn’t as powerful as a lion’s roar probably was–neither of them had ever encountered one in real person to be able to tell–, but he was still scary enough to make them both take a few steps back.

“Holy sh–“ Ryder began saying, but he didn’t get a chance to finish.

“No profanities in Mama Rita’s!” a loud gruff voice with a strong Italian accent said behind them.

Not completely giving the chilling cat their backs, Nora and Ryder turned to look at the person who had just entered the room. Before them stood whom Nora presumed to be Mama Rita. Short, round, white haired and with big blue eyes. Wearing a James Bond apron.

“Leave Fluffy alone, profaners, and say what in hell you want.”

If either of them noted the irony of the name of the cat or the fact that the old woman had just called them profaners and immediately after said a profanity herself, neither of them acted like they had. There was no time for it.

Ryder took a step in the woman’s direction. “Mrs. Rita. Hi, I don’t know if you re–”

“Oh, I remember you,” Mama Rita said. It wasn’t exactly was Ryder was going to say, but she sounded angry enough for him not to think of correcting her. “Wild kid. Broke a window of mine once. And it is Mama Rita. Don’t you think I would have called my store Mrs. Rita’s Cakes and Pies if I wanted people to call me Mrs. Rita?”

Ryder considered the question to be a rhetorical one, but the short woman kept her strong bluish gaze firm on him, and he realized she wanted an answer anyhow. Another thing he realized was that the woman’s eyes could be just as scary as her cat’s were.

“Yes, Ma’am. I suppose so.”

“MAMA RITA, YOU DEAF KID, NO MA’AM! And you suppose right. Now why you and your scared friend here?”

Ryder turned to look at Nora for a second, and sure enough, she was still constantly gazing at the unmoving creepy cat. She was so freaked out by the creature–she was a dog person, after all, and the thing was scary as hell–that she hadn’t even repaired on Mama Rita’s accent or grammatical mistakes.

“And?” Mama Rita said.

Ryder turned his full attention back to her. “I called a few days ago to place an order for today morning.”

“It is today afternoon. Soon night,” Mama Rita said as she walked towards a coffee machine.

Nora’s stomach grumbled. Loudly. Soon, three pairs of eyes where on her.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

Mama Rita went back to her coffee preparations, ignoring the silent and embarrassing girl who couldn’t take her eyes of what Mama Rita though of as her sweet and caring Fluffy. “I do not have ‘em,” she said with a shrug.

“What do you mean you don’t have them?” Ryder asked, perplexed.

“Pies already sold.”

For a long second, it was like the world stopped for both Ryder and Nora. The former went pale and wanted to scream and cry and break everything around him, windows included. The latter wanted to laugh hysterically, tell Ryder ‘I told you so’, and cry, too, because her head had began hurting very badly again. And she was hungry. For the first time in the whole day, going back to the party and it’s fancy food seemed more attractive than anything else at all. She was even prepared to face Janette Crawley and whatever it was she did to same-as-hers-dress-wearers if that meant she could have some food.

“But I-I called. You… How? Why?” Poor Ryder looked devastated, desperate. Nora could have easily felt sorry for him if it hadn’t been his fault she was currently surrounded by food she couldn’t eat.

“You did not come,” Mama Rita explained as she poured her freshly made coffee into a large cup. “Other people did.” She added three sugar teaspoons. “I did not know if you appear.” A small shot of milk. “I sold ‘em.” The spoon clanked loudly against the clay of the cup as the woman moved it.

“But tho­-those where mine.”

Nora sighed. She even forgot about the cat as she pulled a stunned Ryder away and stood right in front of Mama Rita, the only thing between them being the counter.

“How many of the twenty pies are gone?"

“Fifteen.”

Nora didn’t turn to see Ryder’s expression. She could imagine what he looked like, and that image was upsetting enough for her not to want to see the real one.

“Do you happen to have any other pies besides the five remaining?”

Mama Rita took a few seconds to study Nora. Maybe it was the fact that Nora didn’t seem scared anymore. Maybe it was the pained look on Ryder’s face.  Maybe Mama Rita thought Nora’s poker face was impressive. Whatever the reason was, a small smile appeared on the corners of her until-then-straight lips. “I have two more.”

“Okay, then. How much for the seven apple pies.”

Mama Rita extended her finger and pointed in Ryder’s direction. “He paid advance. I do not refund.”

“I think that is very wise of you. Do you think what he paid would be enough for us to take the seven pies you have left?”

Mama Rita again took some time to answer. She looked between Nora and Ryder a few times, thinking, considering, scrutinizing.

“Oh, come on. I–” Ryder began saying, but before he could finish his sentence by saying something stupid, Nora cut him off with a wave of her hand.

“I understand you don’t do this, but we need those pies,” she said to Mama Rita. “We have a house full of people expecting to have the perfect Forth of July celebration. I understand you are not American and that’s the reason your store lacks decorations and you are working on a national holiday. But I know you can understand. Please, Mama Rita. All we need to leave and let you get back to whatever it was you where doing peacefully before we came, are those pies. If you want, we’ll even gladly,” she threw a quick glance in Ryder’s direction, “pay extra for them.”

Mama Rita’s smile widened, but instead of looking at Nora, her eyes where on the boy standing behind her. “Strong and persuasive young girl, this one. If me were you, I not let ‘er go.”

Before either of them could respond, she was gone behind a curtain and into a room that looked like a kitchen.

Ryder walked up next to Nora. “That was very impressive. I don’t think anyone has ever seen her smile until now.”

“I want to be a lawyer.”

Nora wasn’t sure why she said it, but for some reason, it felt good saying it out loud. Her family knew what she wanted, and her friends had heard it from her bragging parents hundreds of times. But she had never actually said the words out loud to anyone before. There was no particular reason why, she just had never had to or wanted to until that moment.

“Well, if I ever find myself in a complicated situation again, I’ll make sure to call you.”

“You should,” Mama Rita said as she appeared from behind the curtain with seven pies in her hands. “If it been just you, Fluffy would had take care of you,” she continued as she caressed the black cat with creepy eyes that was resting comfortably around her neck.