Life Is What You Cake It [Jessica]

[Marshall Quatrevaux]

When your hope’s on fire
But you know your desire
Don’t hold a glass over the flame
Don’t let your heart grow cold
I will call you by name
I will share your road

___

December 12, 2013

Having both the lead psychologist and the lead psychiatrist absent for any length of time was unusual, and they both tried to avoid it when they could, but this trip was called for, because both of them had matters to attend to. Matters that included each other, as it happened. They had yet to announce their engagement to the rest of Jung’s staff, but Khalidah already knew, as did Irma, Marshall’s friend and colleague. Everyone probably already suspected something of that nature, so it would probably be something of a non-surprise.

The trip would be short, which meant it would involve a good deal of running around. Because their wedding would be in Louisiana, they would have to make arrangements there - choose a venue, pick a florist, find a caterer, arrange any entertainment they decided on, and whatever else either of them were forgetting. The wedding itself was not rushed; the visit was. Most of what needed to be done had to be done in person, and while Marshall could return to do anything they left out, or at least have a family member do that, he preferred to have Jessica with him to make the decisions as well.

As for Sammie, they had placed her at Jung in the care of Irma and the rest of the staff. Sammie seemed to be doing much better, but she still had moments of lucidity versus moments of relative instability. He doubted anything would go wrong, but Irma could contact him immediately if something did.

At the moment, they were looking into cakes. An attendant was taking them through a folder of about a dozen different cake flavors and some dozen designs, while explaining that the designs were examples and theirs could totally be customized. Marshall was not sure whether Jessica had anything in mind, but more or less he would leave the design of the cake to her, unless she asked for his opinion.

The flavors he would be a bit more vocal on. Looking at the flavors, he doubted that the carrot torte would really go with anything unless they went for a whole carrot cake, and that was just… no. He would have picked either a cake that was the traditional white cake, or, if they chose to go for different layers, probably a fruit theme. That would go well with champagne, right?

In honesty, he was more concerned about the venue. His practicality got into the way of design. There was either his family’s home on Grand Isle or somewhere in New Orleans. Doubtless his family would expect the ceremony to be at their home, as his sister’s and his brother’s had been, but his family’s home and their marina were small and really there was not that much to see on Grand Isle. Perhaps he was just biased from having lived there for so long and then moved to a city.

Maybe a park in New Orleans, then. He was paying part attention to the attendant and part to the venue thoughts. Typically he was not able to pay attention to much for long, but when it became a necessity he could push himself to do anything. His full attention flicked back to the matter at hand and the attendant was talking about cake sizes. That sounded like something that would have to do with how many guests they had. Jessica’s family, Marshall’s immediate family, Marshall’s extended family via Gabriel, and their friends… that would total….

He tilted his head slightly. “Before we get to that, I think we should probably try some samples first. Just to be sure.” His New Orleans accent was returning with a vengeance, he noted, amused.

The attendant looked a but chagrined, as though she were annoyed that her cake shop might have competition. Nevertheless, she led them to another table and smiled. "Of course, Mr. Quatrevaux," she said as she did. Marshall decided not to point out that she both missed his title and mispronounced his last name; even the city's natives had trouble with it. That made him wonder, not for the first time, whether Jessica would choose to take his name, because, well, due to the obvious. “I’ll bring you a sample of our flavors,” she said with a bright smile before heading into another room.

Marshall took Jessica’s hand and squeezed it lightly. “I think you should lead on this one,” he told her with a soft chuckle. “I’m already a little lost.”

The attendant returned with a tray of square slices of cake and placed it before them. “Go ahead,” she said. “I’ll let you know which one is which as you go.”

___

Words: 723.
Outfit: Umm. Will pick later.
Excerpt: Mumford & Sons, “Hopeless Wanderer.”
Comments: yay Lauressica! (And feel free to use the attendant.)

[Jessica Conelly]

When I see your face
Nothing that I would change
Cause you're amazing
Just the way you are

---

It felt good to be away from work for a few days. It didn’t exactly mean that Jessica was able to relax of course since any number of emergencies could occur and with both the lead doctors away… Ugh, it was enough to give Jessica a headache if she thought about it too much. Chances were it would be quiet at Jung and they would be perfectly fine but Jessica couldn’t help but worry just the same. Especially with leaving Samantha behind. Sammie hadn’t been happy about it either, she held on to Jessica’s engagement ring as a way of ensuring that Jessica and Marshall would come back, strange girl but Jessica hadn’t wanted to argue with the fragile girl.

As it stood, Jessica had to come to terms with the fact that she was a workaholic. She spent far too much time at the office. It was almost like she had been made only for the purpose of working at Jung and nothing else. Thankfully she had Marshall to pull her back from that and remind her that she had a life outside her office. And to think she hadn’t liked him when she first met him.

So much to plan for their wedding, the venue and the caterer as well as other various bits and bobs. Jess wasn’t worried of course, they still had time though how much depended on when they could book the venue of course. Then there was the guest list and the… Ok, so maybe she was a little worried. For now though they could focus on what they were doing now, cake tasting. The tastier thing to do on the wedding list. This wasn’t her thing either if she was going to be honest, not once had she ever thought she would be getting married and she hadn’t been one of those little girls who thought about what her wedding would be like. No, she had always been more practical and now she was paying for that practicality.

Oh well, at least she had Marshall there with her.

Looking over at her fiancé, she realized that he was off in his own little world and smiled. What was he thinking? More than once, especially when it came to Marshall, she wished she had been born a telepath. His mind had to truly be a twisted yet fascinated lair of overthinking. The folders of different kind of cakes and flavours had been set out for them and Jess’ eyes glazed over slightly as she looked at all the options. So many options. Too many options honestly. She didn’t want anything too fancy, it wasn’t her thing but at the same time she didn’t want to just pick something and go. This wasn’t just her wedding, it was Marshall’s as well.

The attendant seemed intent on helping Jessica and Marshall choose their cake but Jess wasn’t big on her hovering as they looked over it. Couldn’t another couple walk in and demand her attention? Jess glanced over at the door but no saving grace appeared. Looking back to Marshall, she laughed and clicked her fingers in front of his face. “You’re zoning out on me.” She teased as she looked back at the folder and flipped a few more pages. So many cakes had themes to them. Was there a ‘wedding that doesn’t go wrong’ theme?

Marshall thankfully asked for the samples which meant the attendant had to walk off. She almost sighed in relief before grinning. “See, I told you it was a good idea to wait to eat until after this. That being said…no pigging out.” She tried to look firm but couldn’t keep the look up before running her hand through her hair and sighing. “I feel a bit lost at the moment as well. I guess I suffered under the delusion that weddings just sort of happened, I forget the whole ‘planning’ thing.”

Jess gave the attendant a smile of thanks as the samples were placed in front of them. “Thank you very much.” She picked up a piece and took a bite. It was very creamy, definitely vanilla. She did like vanilla cake. “We should have brought Sammie with us, she would have told us which cake to buy. Could have helped with the cake design like she tried to help with the flowers.” She laughed at the memory of Sammie running around the apartment they had with Marshall with flowers all day. She thought she was brilliant in mixing flowers but didn’t quite understand that flowers died.

“Also keep talking, that southern drawl of yours is kind of sexy.” She said with a playful wink.

[Marshall Quatrevaux]

I’m okay
You have that effect on me
But I need you desperately
You know I need you desperately

___

Had he been zoning out? Marshall barely realized it. He had a tendency to do that when something was not holding his attention, however - his patients never had that problem, and board meetings seldom did, and Jessica, when she wanted his attention solely wanted his attention on her, that was exactly what she got. But in something like this, well, there really were other things that were taking up their short time in New Orleans, and he sis not want to spend too much time on the cake. He was sure the guests would eat the gist of it, so they really had to think of them, but that was an entirely different thing. They should have brought Sammie with them. Probably.

“Oh. Sorry.” He leaned in and looked at the pages as Jessica flipped through the folder. Nothing particularly stood out to him, but then again, he really had no idea what he was looking for. He had been to plenty of weddings, but it seemed he had never really paid attention to the cakes.

He gave her an innocent smile as she warned him not to pig out, but then grinned as she did. “I guess I did too. But, well, it will be worth it.” He gave her a smile. The thought that they should hire a wedding planner had occurred to him, but he had wanted to be more involved in the planning of it, for it to be more personal than a pick-your-stuff-and-go sort of thing, with no idea that the more hands-on approach would be so complicated. “We’ll figure it out. And it’ll be perfect.”

He placed a hand on her shoulder as the attendant brought out the samples. “Those are the vanilla ones,” she told them as Jessica and Marshall picked up similar ones. Indeed, it tasted like fairly normal wedding cake. It was rich enough, and not too sweet.

“That’s strawberry,” the attendant said as Marshall picked up another. Marshall turned to chuckle at Jessica first, as she mentioned Sammie.

“Sammie would have picked out something colorful and wonderful.” Now he sort of regretted leaving behind their daughter. Their daughter - she was theirs now, legally, and although she had lived at Jung and with them for a while now, it was still hard for him to think of himself as having a daughter, even an adopted one. She was one of the most wonderful things to happen in his life, the other being Jessica.

“Is it?” He gave her a sly smile when she mentioned his accent. He had been away from New Orleans for far too long. “I could always read the phone book to you. Or a bit of Shakespeare. That might be more interesting.” He wrapped an arm around her and leaned his head on her shoulder. “If anything, we should go with the softer flavors. Ones that will go with the vanilla.” Glancing up at the attendant, he asked her, “Could you show us which are the more subtle flavors are?” And the attendant immediately set about changing around the samples to meet that request. “I think that will be much better. Jess, what do you think?”

___

Words: 532..
Outfit: Umm. Will pick later.
Excerpt: Jane’s Addiction, “Superhero.”
Comments: and bedtime.