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“CUZ, I AM SO GLAD YOU’RE all right,” Katie said later at the Cozy Cupcakes Café, “Everyone’s talking about it. It’s crazy what just happened. It’s all over the local news.”
“I know,” Dana sighed.
She glanced up at the flat screen TV on the wall of the café lounge above the fireplace. They’d recently installed the large flat screen TV so that customers could glance up at the forecast or latest news from BC24 which broadcasts news twenty-four hours a day and periodically shows clips of human interest stories and entertainment news.
There it was on the screen, the whole fiasco with the accident earlier.
“No serious injuries reported but police are still trying to piece together what happened as they look for the suspect driving a blue sedan with damage done to the front end and an orange ribbon tied to the antenna according to one of the witnesses,” the broadcaster said.
Dana felt flushed. “Yep, that’s me. One of the witnesses.”
“Oh, Dana. I’m just glad you’re all right,” Katie said again, her eyes glued to the TV screen.
“I just hope poor Ned will be all right,” Dana said.
The reporter on the TV continued, “Dana Sweet of the Cozy Cupcakes Café was at the scene when the accident occurred delivering cupcakes, Dana can you tell us what happened?” the reporter had the camera right in Dana’s face and the microphone at her lips.
Dana stared at herself on the TV screen in horror. Her face looked so much bigger and her nose looked huge with the camera up on her like that.
“Dana, that’s you!” Katie beamed. “You’re on the news!”
“Please don’t remind me.”
“You’re a local celebrity.” One of the customers called out as they all watched.
Dana was feeling very flustered right now. Her stomach felt tight. “I didn’t know they were going to interview me,” she murmured.
“Seems like wherever there’s a cupcake from the Cozy Cupcakes Café, there’s murder or trouble.” The commentator made a joke when the clip went back to the news station. “Yes, it’s true that the Cozy Cupcakes Café has been known to have their cupcakes somehow entwined in crime scenes in the Berry Cove area. That can’t be too good for business.”
All eyes went on Dana. Heat climbed to her cheeks.
That was the part she wished they hadn’t seen.
“How dare they say that!” Mrs. Newman, a long time customer of the Cozy Cupcakes Café since Grandma Rae owned it, said in Dana’s defense.
“Yeah, that’s so unprofessional of them. You should sue them!” another customer said.
The commentator then chuckled on the screen, the co-host made another comment.
Just then the channel switched over. “I think we should watch something else.” Inga had turned the channel from the back.
Dana’s spirit plummeted to an all time low.
“Hey, no worries, cuz,” Katie said. “They’re just trying to get ratings.”
“Yes, I know...at our expense.”
“Well, business has never been better. Think of all the publicity.”
“But I don’t think we need that kind of publicity. Gosh, what would Grandma Rae think?” Dana said.
“She’d probably give that reporter a piece of her mind, and it won’t be sweetened with any sugar either. She’d give it to her plain and good,” Katie said.
Dana couldn’t help but grin. Grandma Rae was a darling sweetheart who was kind and caring to everyone, but if you dare put her down or her family, she’d certainly tell you a thing or two to put you right back in your place.
“You know something, she probably would,” Dana agreed.
Dana and Katie went back to the kitchen through the swinging doors. “Well, at least something good came out of it,” Katie said as she washed her hands in the sink and proceeded to get back to the counter to prep some batter for another batch of cupcakes.
“What’s that?”
“You got to see your hot and sexy detective boyfriend again.”
Dana playfully rolled her eyes. “He’s not my boyfriend. Hot and sexy, yes, but I already told you...”
“I know, I know, he’s off the table. You’re still healing from your broken heart and he’s too busy and healing from his broken heart, too. I swear sometimes, I think you guys concoct these incidents for an excuse to get together. On that TV clip, I saw him looking at you while you were talking to the reporter. He was in the background yet his eyes kept darting in your direction.”
“Really?” Dana hadn’t noticed that. “Oh, he was probably just making sure I don’t say anything to mess up the investigation.”
“Yeah, sure. Keep telling yourself that, girl.”
“It’s true. Besides, I think there’s more to the accident than we think.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, his wife kept trying to discredit my eyewitness report. The car was blue but she kept saying it was green.”
Katie looked up interested. “Now why on earth would she say that?”
“Beats me.”
“I think that witchy woman is hiding something or trying to cover something up,” Katie said.
“Tiffany thinks so, too. I tell you there was such a thick tension there, you could cut it with a knife.” Dana told Katie about the whole argument between them.
“Well, isn’t that interesting, the wife and the mistress.”
“Well, the divorce will be finalized soon. And we don’t know for sure if Tiffany is his mistress.”
“Oh, she is, child,” Gerdie said, as she walked into the kitchen through the swinging doors.
“Gerdie!”
“It’s true. They are an item. She admitted it herself. She said they’re just waiting for the divorce to finalize.”
Well that really changed things up a bit. Dana wondered if it were true that hell hath no fury than a woman scorned, if Kim would raise hell and try to destroy Ned’s store in revenge.