~Part Nine~

The kitchen inside of the hotel café was much larger than Maria could have possibly anticipated. Compared to the one in the Parker's home, it was massive! The size alone had to match that of the café dining area, and the working space was nothing, if not impressive.

"It's such a strange thought that anyone would need this many surfaces just for cooking," Maria remarked, as Liz led her over to a counter with three round objects of various sizes sitting on top of it.

Liz laughed, shaking her head lightly. "You would think we needed more if you saw what this place looked like during the lunch rush." They did have a good-sized kitchen for the fact that it was inside of a hotel, but Liz had seen bigger...much bigger. Oh, how she envied some of those establishments; their stoves were so new, with hinges that didn't make a sound when you opened the doors, and counter tops that didn't look like the entire surface had been stripped of a layer from use. She hoped one day they would be able to expand. The possibilities were there, and she knew she'd be able to find them.

"Now then," Liz said, setting the bowl of icing she'd brought from her home down onto the counter. "This is a spatula," she told Maria, sticking a long, flat object into the girl's hand. "And these," she stated, waving towards the countertop where the circular objects sat, "are cakes."

Maria stared at the strange bits of food, fighting the urge she'd suddenly had to poke at them with the thing she now held in her hand. She'd heard of 'cake' before, even tasted a bit a very long time ago, but from what she could remember she thought it had been extremely unhealthy and disgustingly sweet. What was she suppose to do with these things? Toss them out for the birds? Surely Liz would never be so cruel...

"It's a tradition to have a cake at your wedding," Liz told Maria, pulling the covering off of the frosting, and scooping some up with another spatula she'd taken off of a nearby wall. Putting a good-sized dollop on top of the cake in front of the fidgeting girl, she also scooped some up for the cake that was sitting directly in front of her. "After they're married, the bride and groom each cut off a piece and feed it to one another. It's something that's been passed down through the ages."

Maria nodded mutely, as the thin girl next to her began spreading the white concoction smoothly over the top surface of the cake on the countertop in front of her. Slowly, as though it would suddenly jump up and bite her, Maria pushed the frosting on the cake in front of her across the delicate surface, as Liz had done.

"Good, now make sure you get it all evenly distributed on the top and sides," Liz instructed her, starting in the sides of her own cake. If something happened to the cake Maria was working on, it wouldn't really matter. Liz had made sure that two cakes of each size would be baked, just incase anything happened to one of them.

"Why exactly do people get married?" Maria asked, suddenly turning her questioning gaze towards the girl. "If two humans decide to stay together for the span of their short existence, why do they need to announce it in front of a town on a specified day? Unless they don't trust each other. In which case, I couldn't really understand them bonding this way in the first place," Maria said, deep in thought as she analyzed this strange behavior. After all, it wasn't exactly a normal thing to do...unless of course you were a human.

Not really taking much time to think about it, Liz answered her, "Because that's what people do when they love each other."

"So...if you love someone, you're obligated to marry them?" Maria asked, finally getting a bit more insight into the whole 'love' concept, although she was still a bit confused. "I thought that a 'love' happened between more than two people," she stated, tilting her head in thought.

"Oh! It does," Liz corrected her, watching Maria's face scrunch into a frown.

"So Max isn't going to be your only husband?"

Realizing the implication of what Maria had thought she was saying, Liz turned a slight shade of red. "No! I mean...yes! Max will be my only husband. I don't have another one...won't have another one...." she said, tucking a piece of molasses colored hair behind her ear, embarrassed.

Maria nodded her head in what she thought would be portrayed as understanding, though she was perhaps more confused now than she'd been before about the ideas of 'marriage' and 'love'.

Looking around distractedly, the small pixie of a girl noticed a few oddly shaped objects sitting on the counter behind the cakes. Pointing to them, her face lit up a bit. "What are those for?"

Liz looked in the direction Maria's arm followed, thankful for the sudden change of topic. "Oh those, they're cake decorating tubes. See," Liz began in full demonstration mode again, loading frosting into one of the bags and closing the end tightly before squeezing the end of the tube slightly to push a bit of frosting out of the tip and onto a small board she'd pulled over from the other side of the counter. "You squeeze the bag gently, like this, and you can form shapes out of the frosting to decorate the cake with," she told her, demonstrating how to make a small white flower with the icing.

Glancing up at the girl across from her, Liz caught sight of something behind Maria that nearly made her throw the tube of frosting onto one of the delicate cakes next to her. Carlos, one of the chefs that worked in the café, was chopping up vegetables with an extremely deadly-looking knife, all while scowling at the new hire as the younger boy rushed back and forth in the kitchen, doing his best to help out inside. While very talented with cutlery, Carlos remained as such only when he was actually paying attention to what his hands were doing. They hadn't had an incident yet with him, but Liz was positive that if he didn't make peace with Nicholas soon enough over the issue with the stew and the crab, he'd be missing more fingers than they could really afford him to loose at the moment.

"I'll be right back," she told Maria, looking back towards their projects. "Go ahead and finish up with the cake you were working on. This shouldn't take me too long...I hope." Taking in a deep breath, Liz strode quickly towards the cook, a determined look on her face.

Maria looked back at the cake she had been frosting just moments ago, picking up the spatula in her hand. Slowly, as if by their own accord, her eyes drifted down to the tube holding the white mixture Liz had set down. The shapes Liz had created didn't look too difficult, and it had almost looked...fun.

Watching Liz talking animatedly to Carlos, Maria reached over and grabbed the decorating contraption.

It couldn't hurt to try making just one...

. . .

Michael growled in frustration as he turned away from Max, trying as hard as he could to get the guy off of his back. He wasn't in the mood for a conversation about the infamous Parker and Evans wedding at the moment, and Max seemed to be filled with never ending questions for him about trivial things like...whether or not he remembered what time he was suppose to be at the church. It may have seemed pointless to be there an hour early, but it wasn't like he'd be doing anything else that day. As he understood it, he really didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

"Did you pick up the suit?" Max asked carefully, knowing how much Michael hated being fitted for clothing. The guy just didn't like being touched, and he couldn't really blame him.

Dumping a bucket of oats into a horse trough, Michael grunted an affirmative. Max's line of questioning was going to find him a black eye for his wedding night if he wasn't careful...

"What about the dress shoes?" Watching as Michael once again nodded his head and quickly stocked away, Max followed him. "As well as a tie?"

Max couldn't really help the fact that he was jittery about the wedding. After all, he had Michael for a best man, didn't he? Grant that the said friend had been there for him during this entire event, but still...this was Michael he was talking about. He'd grown up with the tall brooding man, and if there was anything he'd learned, it was that with Michael it was good to be consistent. So, if he happened to ask his friend about these things constantly it was only because he knew the outcome would be much better than if he simply left him alone.

"How about the dress socks?"

Michael turned around, his face looking a slight bit redder than Max felt comfortable with. "Yes Maxwell! I've got the suit, I've got the shoes, and I've got the freakin' dress socks! Now would you just back off and let me get back to work?!" he asked incredulously, waving his arms wildly in circles.

Max sighed. Well, he guessed he should just get it over with...

"Did you...get a date?"

. . .

This was a dream, an absolute dream. There was no possible way she could be awake right now. This could not be true...

Liz stared down at the counter where Maria had been experimenting with the tube of frosting that was now sitting on the counter, far away from the two of them. An innocent expression was sitting hidden on the blonde's face, and she seemed completely enthralled with the cake in front of her as she smoothed the frosting across its surface.

Stuttering for a moment, Liz finally closed her mouth and looked at the girl. "You did this?" she asked, pointing at the odd shapes.

Without looking at her, Maria nodded her head as her teeth pulled gently at her bottom lip. "Are you upset?"

"Upset?" Liz asked, disbelieving. "Are you kidding me? These are amazing!"

Picking up one of the delicate iced flowers from the counter, Liz looked closer at it, noticing how perfectly Maria had captured the essence of a white rose. It almost looked as though it had been picked from a field, shining and alive.

Carefully scrutinizing the talented girl, Liz put the flower gently down. "Do you think you could do that on top of a cake?" Liz asked her, smiling as she raised her eyebrows.

Of course Maria could create more flowers on top of a cake. It hadn't really been that hard. She'd lived years beyond what everyone suspected, not a day going by that she hadn't enjoyed studying all of the flowers in the meadows. It just seemed natural.

"Yes."

Liz clapped her hands together in excitement. If Maria could do these in the short amount of time that Liz had been dealing with Carlos and Nicholas, she didn't doubt that Maria could make a living out of it. Perhaps she'd have to mention it to her later...

"Great! Let's get started then."