Chapter Five
Nicole stirred the batter furiously. Brady had been stirring before her and had gotten the batter all over the handle of the spoon and all she wanted to do was drop the spoon and go wash her hands. She didn't want to help make this stupid cake anymore. She didn't care if it was the anniversary of the first time Shawn had taken Belle to the movies, she didn't even like Belle. But Belle had called Brady earlier and Brady had heard how upset she was and wanted to do something to cheer her up. And helping Brady make the cake would get her on Brady's good side.
"I don't know why Brady and I have to finish the batter while you two get to play around with the icing." Nicole complained, shooting a dark glance in Sami and Lucas' direction. Sami had came over to help make the cake for Belle and Lucas had come too.
"Because it's still my apartment and Sami and I already did most of the work because you and Brady were too dumb to do it." Lucas reminded her as he squeezed the icing into the icing bag. He had went over to his grandmother's house earlier to get a cake-decorating kit from her and he and Sami were making sure everything would be ready to go when the cake came out of the oven.
Nicole rolled her eyes, "I didn't have to help. I did it out of the goodness of my heart."
"What heart?" Sami snickered, filling her own icing bag full of fluffy, pink icing. Sami knew Belle was going to love this cake, even if she was going to be the only one eating it. Sami didn't know anyone else that actually liked blackforest cake but it was Belle's favourite.
"I wouldn't talk." Nicole shot back, flinging a plastic, batter-covered spoon at Sami. Sami dodged the spoon and it flew onto the counter a few feet away from her. She snatched the spoon off the counter and threw it back at Nicole. It missed and Brady dropped the spoon into the sink before Nicole and Sami could do anymore damage with it.
Lucas lost his concentration and he automatically continued filling icing bags full of icing as he thought about his current closeness to Sami. She looked so cute, even though it was obvious how annoyed she was getting with Nicole. She was squeezing the icing bag a little harder than she needed to, gripping it firmly with both hands. Actually, he wouldn't mind being squeezed like that by her. He quickly suppressed the thoughts, fumbling with the icing bag nervously. How could he turn something as innocent as getting ready to decorate a cake into something sexual? It was just the effect Sami had on him, he decided.
Lucas reached over to grab something from across the counter and accidentally elbowed Sami in the process. This caused her to squeeze the icing bag a little bit tighter, causing icing to squirt out of the icing bag and onto her face. She let out a howl of pain.
"My eye!" she wailed, dropping the icing bag, "You made me squirt myself in the eye, you moron!"
Lucas was immediately concerned, "Here, let me see." he examined her eye and once he realized she was okay, he smirked at her, "I think you're going to live, Sami."
Sami glared at him, "So will you." she growled, picking up her icing bag and squeezing it. Icing spurted out of the tip of the icing bag and hit Lucas in the face. He stared at Sam in shock for a moment, then raised his own icing bag and began squirting her with it was well. Brady and Nicole watched as they covered each other's faces and aprons in sticky icing.
"All right, that's enough." Brady finally intervened, "Can't you two act your age for once? What a waste of perfectly good icing."
"You bought enough icing to cover ten cakes, Brady, stop whining." Sami responded, looking up at Lucas. Pink icing was all over his face, even sticking to his eyelashes.
"God, you look funny." she giggled as Lucas wiped his eyes clean of icing.
"You look even funnier." Lucas told her, "Too bad I didn't get any in your hair."
"You better not have." Sami warned, reaching up to touch the top of her head. It didn't feel like there was any icing in her hair but she would have to check in a mirror to make sure there wasn't.
"Come on, let's go wash this stuff off." Lucas said, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the bathroom, leaving Brady and Nicole alone in the kitchen.
Nicole smiled devilishly, "What do you think Kate would do if I called her and told her that Lucas was squirting Sami with his icing?"
"You wouldn't." Brady looked mortified at the idea.
"Oh, yes I would." Nicole's smile widened, "But I'd have to be sure to mention that they were baking a cake before he started squirting her."
"I think I'm going to hurl." Brady moaned, "I really don't want to think about that."
"I'm going to call Kate right now." Nicole added, reaching towards the other counter, trying to grab the phone. Brady moved ahead of her but before he could get to the phone, he slipped on the floor and had to grab the corner of the counter to keep his balance.
"Gross, Sami and Lucas got icing all over the floor." Nicole started laughing after he said that, drawing forth a grimace from Brady, "Why must you twist my words? I'm serious. There's pink and green icing all over the floor. And I stepped in it." he yanked off his sock and left the kitchen, "I have to go throw my socks in with my dirty laundry." he called back to her.
Nicole sighed and looked down at the icing on the floor. Not wanting to end up stepping in it herself, she grabbed a rag and wiped it off the floor.
Sami wiped off one final clump of icing off her forehead, "There." she threw the damp paper towel in the trash can. She turned to Lucas, who had also finished wiping the icing off of his face. The two of them had also done a half-hearted job of wiping off their aprons but those could go in the washing machine so it didn't matter. Lucas looked at her face and grabbed another paper towel.
"You missed a spot." he told her, gently wiping away the last bit of icing left over from their fight. He let the paper towel fall into the trash without taking his eyes off her. And he had that look in his eyes. Sami had seen that look before and she knew what was coming. Unable to fight off the mixture of growing panic and excitement flowing through her veins, she tried to shake her head emphatically but she was almost unable to make any movement with her head at all. She felt like she was frozen.
"Lucas, don't." she whispered as he lowered his head to meet her upturned face. But she said it so softly that he didn't even hear her. Then he was kissing her again. His lips was so gentle and teasing against her mouth and if it hadn't been for Brady and their bet, she probably would have ended up getting lost in that perfect kiss.
But Brady was in the apartment at that moment and he might even be watching her. Abruptly she shoved Lucas away from her so hard he almost hit the wall behind him. Before she even realized what she was doing, she slammed her fist into the side of his face, not hard enough to hurt, just hard enough to stun him.
Without staying in the bathroom for a second longer, she spun around and shot out of the room. She went back into the kitchen, her breaths coming out low and ragged. She couldn't believe she had just hit Lucas. What was she thinking? This bet was driving her crazy. She wasn't thinking straight and all she wanted to do was do everything in her power to make it look like she didn't have feelings for Lucas. She looked over towards the bathroom door. Lucas still hadn't come out. She wanted to apologize but she didn't know how she was going to be able to speak to him again after what had just taken place.
Lucas brought one hand up to his cheek where Sami had punched him. She hadn't hit him hard enough to break anything or to really hurt him physically. But then there was that outright rejection and that hurt like hell. He had thought Sami had wanted to be with him as badly as he wanted to be with her after everything that had happened in that past few weeks. Then she just kept mixing up her signals and he didn't know how to act around her. But he had believed if he kissed her, she wouldn't protest.
His hand dropped from his face and he scowled at his reflection in that mirror, "Well, that sucked." he muttered to himself before leaving the bathroom. When he returned to the kitchen, Brady, Nicole and Sami were all talking as the cake sat in the oven.
"Blackforest cake is the most disgusting kind of cake I have ever eaten." Brady was saying when Lucas came up to stand beside Sami, who kept her eyes trained on Brady. She seemed too embarrassed to make eye contact with Lucas, "The only ones who like it are Belle and my dad."
Nicole frowned at the mention of John Black, "Your dad is a creep. He thinks I'm the killer and he really doesn't approve of our friendship. I wish he wouldn't always act like such a prick."
Sami couldn't resist jumping in with her opinion, "John is a prick. And he destroys wonderful marriages and happy families. I wish I had never met him."
Brady was shooting daggers at both Nicole and Sami. Then, without realizing the impact of his words and without realizing whether he was directing the words at Sami, Nicole or both of them, he said, "At least my dad is alive."
Sami's jaw dropped at Brady's response. She covered her mouth with her hand and bolted for the apartment door, leaving the apartment Brady was staying in and slamming the door behind her.
The enormity of what he had just said finally sunk in and Brady groaned, "I didn't mean it like that. I just meant....." he stopped speaking when he noticed the way Lucas and Nicole were looking at him.
Nicole was shaking her head in disgust, "You're really in a sensitive mood tonight, aren't you Brady?"
As for Lucas.... if looks could kill, Brady knew he would be writhing around on the floor at that moment, "You are such an asshole." Lucas snarled savagely before storming out of the apartment to go find Sami.