Danita’s Delectable Cheesecakes

Danita Carter was drained, the kind that penetrated to the bone and tugged at the edges of her eyelids. It was nearing midnight, and she stood in her small apartment kitchen, delicately taking a cheesecake out of the oven. The plum-colored sweet potato filling was smooth, the top golden in spots, waiting for its shiny coat of dark chocolate crème brûlée to be caramelized come tomorrow morning.

She put it on the counter with a sigh of relief. This was her legendary cheesecake the one people lost their minds over, the one she didn’t even have to advertise because word of mouth had carried it all over town. Weddings, church functions, graduations someone always asked for the purple sweet potato cheesecake.

Danita leaned against the counter, rubbing the wrist where the whisk had inflicted a stinging pain. She thought about how many of these she had prepared in the past five years. Hundreds, maybe even thousands. Each one had her one step further toward her dream, but never quite close enough.

“Lord,” she said into the quiet kitchen,
“may this be worth it.”

–

Her anchor was her parents, Joe and Jacky. They’d sit around their kitchen table with cheesecakes before them on Sunday afternoons after church.

Jacky, with fork poised, would always take the first bite. “This one right here? Mmm. You could make a grown man cry with this.”.

Joe would shake his head, already halfway through his slice. “Girl, if people don’t open their pockets for this, then something’s wrong with the world.”

Danita would smile, although it was often masking the worry below. “I just… I don’t know if I’ll ever save enough. Rent, bills, the cost of ingredients.

Her mother leaned over the table and put her hand on top of Danita’s. “Baby, don’t you give up. Your gift is worth more than an accounting book.”

Danita had no idea that her parents were secretly saving, putting away money for years, determined to help her dream come true.

But trouble had a knack for showing up unexpectedly. One spring, her mixer broke during a large order, and she was forced to dip into her savings account to purchase a replacement. And then, the price of cream cheese skyrocketed, clipping into her profit margins yet again. There were times when she wished she had just given up on the dream, maybe cheesecakes weren’t meant to be her life’s work.

One evening, after having delivered three cheesecakes in the rain, driving back, she stumbled into her parents’ kitchen, hair damp, shoulders slumped. “I don’t know if I can do this anymore,” she admitted. “Every time I take a step ahead, something knocks me two steps back.”

Her father looked at her. “Danita, do you trust us?”

“Naturally, I do,” she whispered.

“Then come with us tomorrow. There’s something we want to show you.”

–

The next morning, they drove to Main and Willow’s sleepy corner. Danita sat in the back of the car, baffled in her heart as they pulled up in front of a minuscule storefront window with a ‘For Lease’ sign.

Her mother turned in her seat, eyes shining. “Go on, baby. Open the door.”

Danita frowned. “Unlock it? I don’t have the keys”

Her father pushed a jingling set into her palm.

Her breath caught. “What’s this?”

“Go find out for yourself,” Jacky urged.

Danita pushed open the door, her heart racing. The store was bright and spacious, sun streaming in the front windows. In the back was a brand new kitchen gleaming countertops, ovens, and walk-in cooler. All she had ever dreamed of.

Tears brimmed in her eyes and blurred her vision as she spun back to confront her parents. “I don’t… I don’t understand.”

Joe’s smile was firm and unyielding. “You don’t need to. You just need to know that we believe you can do it. We’ve been saving for this, waiting for the right moment. And the moment is here.”

Danita grasped the keys to her chest, dazed. “You… you did this for me?”

Jacky hugged her tightly. “We did this for your dream. Because it’s our dream too.”

–

The following weeks were a blur of paint cans, recipe creation, and late-night plotting. Danita painted the walls lavender, put up gold-framed photographs of her cheesecakes, and constructed a sign that read:

Danita’s Delectable Cheesecakes

The opening day line wrapped around the block. Neighbors, passersby who had caught wind of the buzz, and friends populated the tiny shop. The first thing to sell out was her dark chocolate crème brûlée-topped purple sweet potato.

Danita stood at the counter, her cheeks aching from smiling, her apron covered in cocoa powder. Every slice she cut off was like a piece of her heart that was at last set free.

Her parents sat at a table by the window, beaming with pride as their daughter’s dream came true.

And as Danita looked out upon her thriving shop, the happy hum of satisfied customers’ conversations all around her, she knew that every hardship, every late night, every moment of doubt had been worth it.

It was, at last, perfect.