After blinking, I saw she was younger but she still had the masses of fabulous platinum hair, enormous bosoms, and she was wearing skintight stonewash (yes, stonewash) from shoulders to toes (including platform boots made of stonewash). The entirety of this was adorned with what looked like a layer of glitter, not to mention a heavy array of rhinestones decorating the shoulders and down the front of her jeans jacket.

Whoa.

“You exist,” Martha snapped and my eyes moved from Dolly to her.

“Hey,” I said softly.

Suffice it to say, with my life as crazy as it was, I didn’t have time for Martha except for some random texts and quick phone calls.

And suffice it to say, Martha wasn’t down with that.

She pushed in and her posse pushed in with her, Elvira giving me a wide-eyed look that spoke volumes and those volumes were that I needed to brace because Martha was on a tear.

She didn’t have to warn me. I’d known Martha a long time. I knew before I even opened the door.

Damn.

I closed the door behind them, turned, and trailed them as Martha made a beeline to my kitchen, introducing, “This is Shirleen and Daisy. They’re friends of Elvira and Gwen’s. Gwen met Shirleen during her thingamabob and with Shirleen came Daisy and with Gwen came Elvira and with Elvira comes me and now we’re all here.”

I looked to Shirleen and Daisy and greeted, “Hi guys.”

Daisy gave me a bright smile and I knew she was Daisy because she said, “Hey, I’m Daisy.”

“You’re Tessa of Tessa’s Cakes,” Shirleen (the black lady) announced like I didn’t have that information.

“Yes,” I confirmed.

“I been to your place, like, a lot. Too much. It’s important for a black woman to have booty, but not a Tessa’s Cakes booty. You owe me at least ten pounds. You get what I’m sayin’?” she stated.

“Uh… yeah,” I replied because I did but even if I didn’t, she was kind of scary of the Elvira variety so I still would have agreed.

“Only two things better in the whole world than your frosted sugar cookies with daisy sprinkles and those are pigs in a blanket and a man with a fine package. This I know as fact,” she declared.

I blinked at this unusual compliment, Daisy emitted a little giggle that sounded like bells, Elvira grinned big at me, but Martha shouted.

“What the frig?”

We all turned to her to see her glaring at the empty, ornate, milky-green glass cake stand at the edge of my counter (I’d rotated).

“What?” I asked.

Her eyes cut to me and she jabbed a finger at the cake plate. “What’s that?”

I looked to the cake plate and then I looked to her.

Then I answered, “That’s my fabulous, ornate, green glass cake plate.”