Chapter 4

So here I am, standing at the altar awaiting my bride. Sure, it took me a long time to realize that Sam was the one for me. I certainly was clueless until that fateful day when I found myself staring into the eyes of the woman who loved me. I found that the desire to spend the rest of my life with this best friend of mine was overwhelming. The wedding processional music began and I could feel my pulse in my neck as my heart raced in anticipation of seeing my Samantha walking down the aisle.

Sam had to stay in the hospital for a couple of more days and I was trying to keep myself busy to ease the "tension convention" going on in my head. Nobody likes to see their loved one in the hospital and my mind was still reeling from the possibility that my Sam could have leukemia. The mind plays tricks on you that way and all of your worst fears seem to be at the forefront.

I still had not been able to get in touch with the cake lady, so I headed over to her shop to find it closed with a note on the door. The note said it was closed due to a death in the family. It also had another phone number for emergency contact.

Well if this wasn't an emergency, I thought, what is? I rushed back home to make the call. A man answered the phone and I inquired about our cake and the wedding plans. He informed me that he was the cake lady's husband and that she had unexpectedly passed away the day before Sam went to the hospital. I gave him my sincerest condolences and hung up, sitting there in my kitchen searching for any solutions to this new development. I wanted to handle this for Sam and not have her stressing about this while she recuperated.

Our one disagreement during all of the wedding planning had been where to spend our honeymoon. Sam had always wanted to honeymoon in Hawaii while I wanted something closer, without a long plane flight. After all, I should get my way about something shouldn't I?

Sam moaned and complained every time I put my foot down about Hawaii. She wanted to have one good reason for not going to Hawaii, other than the distance and I was hard pressed to give her one. That is until I found out about the great bargains available on the internet. So I did my homework and found an all time favorite that we had grown up listening to, Billy Joel, playing in Las Vegas.

She relented without too much whining. A man has to set the boundaries of just how far he is gonna go. I found a great package for us with airfare, room & show included and made the arrangements. There was no turning back on this one.

The problem with the cake was really nagging at me, until I remembered a woman that my mom knew who always made the most wonderful cakes. Perhaps she would be able to help me with this situation. I contacted my mom and told her the tale of the dead cake lady and she told me she would call her friend and find out if she was willing to take on the task of making the cake for our wedding.

I got a phone call a few minutes later from Marge, my mom's friend, and she was quite understanding and was willing to help. I told her that Sam was getting out of the hospital in a day or two and asked if she would be willing to make a sample of the cake for Sam to try and she replied that it would be no problem. She even had photographs of some of the cakes that she had done over the years that would help to calm Sam once she heard what was going on.

Sam was released from the hospital right on time. The doctor spoke with us before releasing her and informed us of the results of the tests on her blood. All was clear; there was no trace of anything other than Sam having a case of the flu and having become de-hydrated. I felt a whoosh of relief flood my whole being. My fears had driven me to distraction these past few days and this news was welcome indeed.

The music was playing, her mom was seated, my folks also. The bridesmaids were making there way down the aisle. I shifted my weight between my feet. I took a big breath and calm flowed through my being. The music swelled and she appeared, at the door, on her father's arm. Samantha was a vision of beauty, her dress was perfect and the flowers she carried were just the way she had planned. Wow!

We got Sam to her house and to her room without a word about the wedding plans. I was waiting for the right time to let her know about the cake lady and the solution I had come up with. I waited until she was settled in and had rested a little, keeping myself busy fixing her some chicken soup for her lunch. We ate a little lunch and sat talking for a bit when she asked me for her laptop so she could check over the plans.

I got her the laptop and, while it was booting up, I mentioned to her that everything was still on schedule except for one thing.

"Tom", she queried, "what have you been keeping from me?"

"Well Sam, I tried to get in touch with the cake lady and nobody returned my calls so I went down to her shop and found a note and a phone number. I finally spoke with her husband who explained to me that she had suddenly died."