Save the Cake - Sample Chapters

Chapter 3

The story – or at least the official version of the story – began when Jose Vicente Altamirano III asked Hazel Charmaine Valencia out on a date in eighth grade. Her parents did not want her to go out alone with a boy, so Denise Lichauco and I watched over the two of them sharing an order of French fries at McDonalds for an entire afternoon, with nothing more than a meaningful glance between them.

That fateful date led to an entire semester's worth of "chaperoned" trips to the movies, and study sessions, and more merienda dates at the mall, until her parents were convinced that Hazel and Vinny were old enough to go out unchaperoned.

Nobody else - as far as I knew - had a problem with the fine-boned, silken-haired Hazel falling in love with the lanky, straight-backed Vinny. He was her homecoming and prom date throughout high school. He was her "first" in every way possible – not as if Hazel's standard of male beauty began and ended with Vinny, since the two of them had their own "lists" of celebrity crushes – but they had been together for such a long time that it was impossible to think of one without the other.

The Valencias and Altamiranos knew this about their children, and both families grew close during the course of the relationship. They didn't blink when Hazel moved in with Vinny in Boston after she graduated with a degree in hotel and restaurant management in Cornell. They didn't even say anything when Hazel got a job in Honolulu and Vinny followed her back, eventually passing the Hawaii state bar exam after failing for the first time in New York.

Nine months ago, Vinny and Hazel invited me, Denise, and her now-husband Eric for a brief Hawaiian reunion. We all figured out that this was the moment for Vinny to drop down on one knee and propose to Hazel, and we could not contain our joy when she finally said yes.

What we did not expect, however, was Vinny lining up an actual Justice of the Peace to officiate the wedding, on the spot, on the same day.

Pictures were taken on everyone's phone cameras. Fuzzy videos were spliced together. Soon everything was on Facebook, and we thought it was going to be a happy moment…

Until their parents were congratulated for a wedding to which they were not invited.

Six months later, the couple known as Hazel and Vinny Altamirano left their comfortable lives in Honolulu to face their parents, who – by virtue of their place in Manila society – had decided that their marriage vows could only be validated at a church wedding, before the eyes of God and hundreds of their relatives and friends…

Hazel and Vinny's wedding was the main topic of conversation during the dinner party at the Valencia residence.

"So," asked Hazel's father, Dr. Martin Valencia, "what is this I hear about Eloisa making the cake for this wedding?"

"She insists on it," Hazel replied diplomatically. "She has the blessing of everyone from Reyna Bakery to make this for me and Vinny."

"It would truly be an honor for the bakery to make this for us, too," Vinny explained further. "We've known Eloisa and her family for fifteen years now…"

"But she is one of your best friends," replied her mother, Mrs. Rosemarie Valencia. "Why can't she just be your maid of honor?"

"Well," I began, "the three of us – Hazel, Denise, and I – we have all agreed…"

"That we can't take Eloisa out of her busy schedule," Hazel interrupted. "It just so happens that the date we agreed on for the wedding came at a time when she's in high demand…"

"And you cannot manage your time to be my daughter's maid of honor?" replied Mrs. Valencia, raising a groomed eyebrow.

I squirmed. Not because I was afraid, but because the dress I wore for this dinner party was riding up behind me while I was sitting down.