Free Bearly In Time by Kim Fox

one
     
     
     
    Five days before the wedding…
     
     
    Rebecca gave a bitter smile as Linda, the baker, placed the sample wedding cake in front of her. It was three layers high, each level lined with sugary, pink flowers. Their initials would be on top, an R and an M, in sparkly, silver letters. It was even better than she had pictured it.
    So why did it feel all wrong?
    “This one is for a wedding this week,” Linda said, wiping her hands on her icing-stained apron. “I can make it with vanilla or chocolate. Or a mix of the two.”
    Rebecca stared at the cake with blank eyes. The smell in the tiny bakery was making her nauseous. She glanced over at Mark. His soft body was turned away from her, his eyes on his phone.
    “What do you think of this one?” Rebecca asked the black and gray hair on the back of his head.
    “How much is it?” Mark asked without taking his eyes off his phone screen.
    “This one is five hundred dollars,” Linda said.
    “For a cake?” he asked. He swatted his hand in the air like Linda was an annoying fly. “No.”
    “Look how pretty it is,” Rebecca said. “And that’s a really good price.”
    Linda gave her a tight smile before glancing over her shoulder and looking up at the ceiling.
    “Do we really need a cake?” Mark whined, finally taking his eyes off of his phone. He looked at her with narrow eyes.
    Rebecca hated when he acted like this. Like she was the enemy. They were shopping for their wedding cake. This was supposed to be fun. She pictured sitting here with Connor. He would’ve fed her the cake and laughed as he touched her nose with an icing-filled finger. Stop it. That guy doesn’t exist. It was all an act.
    “I’ll let you two discuss it,” Linda said, picking up the cake and walking back to the counter. She was shaking her head.
    “Thank you Linda,” Rebecca called out.
    “If I’m going to spend five hundred dollars on something I expect to get my dick sucked,” he said, snorting a skin crawling laugh.
    “I don’t like it when you joke like that,” Rebecca said. Mostly because she couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.
    He rolled his eyes. “I’ll make a deal with you,” he said. “You can spend a hundred dollars on a cake if I can go see Jeff at the pub.”
    “Now?” she asked, her shoulders slumping. “I thought this was something that we could do together.”
    “It’s just cake shopping,” he said. “We’ll have time to do all kinds of boring shit like this when we’re married. Jeff is only in town for two weeks babe.”
    Rebecca sighed, her stomach in a knot. “Fine,” she said, looking at the worn-out table in front of her.
    “Thanks babe,” Mark said, kissing her cheek. She winced as his rough lips hit her. “One hundred dollars max.”
    She wondered how much he was going to spend at the pub.
    Linda came back once Mark was out the door. “So? What do you think?”
    “It’s beautiful,” Rebecca said, feeling tired with a sudden lack of energy. “It’s just out of our price range.”
    “I understand,” Linda said with a smile. She glanced at Mark’s empty seat and sneered. “I hope you two are very happy together.”
    Rebecca felt a pang in her stomach as a feeling of dread washed over her.
    Me too .
     

     

     
     
     
    Rebecca walked along the streets of Manhattan with the foggy, dark sky reflecting her mood perfectly. She turned into a park and sat on a bench, watching the New Yorkers and tourists enjoying the city. She felt like she didn’t belong among all of the smiling faces.
    She sat quietly, her hands folded in her lap, as he came back to her. He always did, no matter how many times she tried to push him away. His hard body. The way that his dimples made his gorgeous face light up when he flashed her a warm smile. The easy way that he made her laugh.
    Rebecca sighed.
    It was all an act. It was a one night thing to him. She was just another notch on his bedpost. She had been foolish to think that he had felt