punching cupcakes

it was the only thing tessa could do to keep from getting in her chevy luv pickup truck and driving through the night. he had gone to boston. she had never been to boston but she knew she didn't like it. she had met too many guys in bars from boston to think otherwise. he had met one guy in a bar from boston and with that, he left, leaving behind more confusion than she knew how to deal with. so here she was in her kitchen, punching cupcakes.

it had been wendy's suggestion. wendy was good at coming up with absurd yet effective means for dealing with "the heavy," as she liked to call it. when wendy had run over her neighbor's teacup pomeranian by accident and subsequently wound up in the midst of a dead doggy lawsuit, she dealt with the stress and the legal fees by learning how to knit. then she started up an online doggy sweater store and eventually quit her job at "the trap," as she liked to call it. despite all the drama, she never seemed to lose her perspective. this, among other reasons, was why tess had wendy as #1 on her speed dial.

so the night he left her while she was baking his birthday cupcakes, she pushed the "1" with her frosted finger and said "he left." wendy was over by tessa's 5th cupcake. she felt sick. wendy took tess by the messy hand and said "look, I always knew he was a giant douchepopsicle. I must confess I'm not surprised. the only thing you can do now is head out into the world laughing at one more joke life has told you." and with that she picked up a pink sprinkled cake and threw it up in the air, and as it began its arching decent, she punched it, hard.

anyone, no matter how low, would be lifted by the sight of an exploding cupcake. tess laughed and grabbed one herself and did the same. it was amazing - with each cupcake she smashed she felt better, lighter, more hopeful. that night they punched all 48 (minus the 5 she had already eaten). they cleaned the kitchen until it was morning and then they laughed together cupping mugs of coffee. wendy went home to sleep and tess started making more cupcakes. wendy was right and tess was fine despite her disaster. tess knew she would eventually forget all about boston and the man she once thought she knew.