Disaster

It was a disaster! That was the only way she could describe it. What should have been a light, fluffy sponge, golden in colour, cooling on the wire rack whilst she prepared the strawberry and cream filling was now a mangled, crumbly mess half eaten by the unabashed German Shepherd who stood wagging his long tail at her.
She should have known not to leave Zarek on his own whilst she answered the telephone. She wasn’t even gone a full minute. But he didn’t need a full minute with those lightning jaws of his. When it came to Zarek and food, blink and you missed it.
“Everything okay?” Matt asked as he came into the kitchen, car keys dangling from his hand.
“No!” she snapped, still staring at the soggy mess on the floor before her.
Zarek, who had been contemplating cleaning up the mess stopped when he heard her abrupt tone and looked up at her with his soulful eyes
Matt came further into the kitchen and saw what she was so mad at.
“Oh,” was all he said as he looked from the cake to the dog to her.
“What am I going to do?” she wailed in desperation. “Your mother will be here soon and I haven’t got a cake to serve with the afternoon tea!” She spotted the keys in her hand and her spirits plummeted even further.
Matt nodded. His mother had called him earlier and asked if he could collect her rather than his father driving them down. They lived not more than 10 minutes’ drive away which was not enough time for her to make another cake.
“Oh, God, I’ve failed before I’ve even started.” She covered her face as the tears started to roll down her cheeks. “I’ll never be good enough for her.” She lowered her hands and stared at her fiancé. Her future mother-in-law was a goddess in the kitchen. She was forever telling her about how important it was that a perfect wife should be a perfect cook.
“You haven’t failed,” Matt reassured, placing his hands over hers. “Just use that one you got from Marks and Spencer yesterday.”
“I can’t do that!” she cried, horrified. “She’ll know that I haven’t made it.
“She does it,” was Matt’s teasingly cryptic reply before dropping a kiss on her lips and heading out of the kitchen to go and collect his mother, whistling as he went.
She stared, open mouthed at him as he left the room, jingling the keys in his hand. Her mind was a blank until peals of laughter bubbled up inside of her, flooding the kitchen with its joyous sound as she opened up the cupboard door and pulled out the ready made cake.
Zarek, sensing that he was no longer in trouble, returned his attention to the necessary task of cleaning up the mangled sponge off the kitchen floor – a most enjoyable task to his mind.