The first customer after my divorce ordered our anniversary cake

Dear Delyara, I decorate cakes for a living, and today my first order after returning from divorce leave was almost identical to the cake my former husband and I ordered for our tenth anniversary: lemon sponge, white buttercream, tiny sugared violets around the edge. The customer stood across the counter explaining that her husband always bought her violets because they had been in her wedding bouquet. I nodded, wrote everything down, and did not tell her anything about mine. In the kitchen, I shaped each violet by hand, pressing the petals thin with the tool my ex-husband once bought me for Christmas. He used to sit on the counter while I worked and steal the broken sugar flowers. Three times today, I turned toward the empty doorway because some part of me expected him to be there. When the cake was finished, it looked better than our anniversary cake had. Straighter sides. Finer petals. More delicate piping. I hated it for being beautiful without us. The woman cried when she collected it and said her husband would love it. I smiled and wished them a happy anniversary. After closing, I found one damaged violet on the workbench and ate it. I expected bitterness because grief has made me unreasonable enough to think even sugar should understand what happened. It tasted exactly as it always had.