Authors: Elizabeth Butts
chapter twenty three
The next morning I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Side note: whoever came up with that saying was sick as hell. I mean, seriously? Poor chicken. Moment of silence for the chicken.
I wanted to find a picture of Nonna to have in the shop for the mini photo shoot that Karyn was going to do today, but was having trouble picking one. And I needed to find the perfect antique frame to go with it.
Chirp
Crap, I had a message. Where had I put my phone? I ran around looking for it, finally finding it upstairs in the bedroom.
I slid my finger across the screen expecting the message to be from Ashley, Karyn or Nick.
Huh, it was from Jim. Weird, I thought his name was John. I was going to have to break it to him at some point that we had zero chemistry and I was in no way interested.
'Hey, guess what I'm doing right now?'
'I have no idea, what?'
A few seconds went by and I saw that I had a picture message downloading. I opened it up and threw my phone across the room. I was bent over, dry heaving. I would never get the image out of my mind.
He had sent me a picture of his erection, and next to it was a photo of me he must have printed off from Facebook.
'Dude, what the hell?'
‘I'm hittin' it to your picture.'
'Why would you even think to share that with me?'
'Wait, I thought you would be flattered. This shit is sexy as hell. You should be flattered.'
'Have you ever had a girlfriend before? Have you had sex before, with something other than your hand? Not sexy. NOT. SEXY. Opposite of sexy. We're done. Toodaloo.'
Ugh. Romance was clearly dead thanks to technology.
I looked over at the wedding picture of Nonna and James sitting on the bedside table. Sigh. I wish love like that still existed.
As I sat there staring at the picture I started to notice that it was in a pewter old antique style frame. The exact type of frame that I wanted pictures in on the wall at the store.
“Thanks, Nonna.” I grabbed her wedding photo, my violated phone, car keys and headed out to meet my new friends.
It took me only seconds to find Ashely and Karyn at the coffee shop. Instead of my preferred corner table way in the back, they were front and center where everyone could see them.
“Hey ladies.” I slid into the seat that was left at the table and grinned at my new friends as I placed Nonna’s picture on the table.
Ashley snatched it right up almost as soon as I put it down.
“Oh my God, look how beautiful she was. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this one before. Was that her James?”
I nodded.
“It was on the nightstand, so unless you spent some fun time with Nonna in her bedroom, you probably wouldn’t have seen it. And if you were into doing the nasty with her, please don’t ever tell me. I was just getting to like you.”
Ashley swiped at my shoulder. Karyn almost spit her coffee up all over the table.
“Thanks, Alex. That’s an image I’ll never get out of my head.”
“Speaking of which, remember that guy, Jim I went out on
one
date with? The reason I’ll never do online dating ever again?”
“I thought his name was John.” Ashley tilted his head in confusion.
“Yeah, well, apparently I was at such a high level of not being into him that I had his name wrong. Oops. Anyway, you will
not
believe what he sent me today.
I handed my phone over to the girls, trying not to laugh as I watched their eyes get bigger and bigger as they read his messages. I could tell the moment they got to the photo he sent because their faces registered shock and their eyes both closed up tight. Karyn was about to throw the phone at me, but I held up my hands.
“Keep reading past the picture, trust me.”
Ashley glared at me, but held her hand over the top part of the phone so she could continue reading without looking at…
that.
Shocked eyes whipped back up to my face.
“He thought that was being sexy?”
“And that I should apparently be flattered.”
“Holy shit. That is all sorts of wrong. And that picture, despite being a close-up, wasn’t really
inspiring
. At all.” Karyn held up her index finger and thumb in front of her, indicating that his size wasn’t anything worth writing home about.
The three of us drew a lot of attention with the uncontrolled laughter that poured from our table. I had tears running down my face and if I wasn’t careful, I was going to pee myself.
“Guys, seriously, I can’t.” I was bent over grabbing my stomach and still laughing, trying to get air.
“You two are going to be the death of me.”
Ashley grinned.
“Death by laughter, that sounds interesting.”
“I’d rather try death by chocolate.” Karyn looked at me pointedly. I smirked back at her.
“Was that your subtle way of letting me know that you are hungry?”
“I don’t believe in subtlety. Life is short, say it like it is.”
“Amen, sister.”
We clinked our coffee cups and each took a long sip of coffee. What was it about coffee that made your soul sigh with contentment when you took a long sip first thing in the morning?
“Okay, so what do you say we take these drinks to go and head on over to the bakery that has yet to be named for some modern fusion cornetto.”
“Great idea. Modern fusion?”
“Trying out names for the menu.” I grinned sheepishly.
“I figured that because I was going to have the traditional version and my souped up version of classic Italian pastries, I needed to come up with something to call them. ‘Modern fusion’ sounded good in my head.”
“Hmmmm.” Karyn tilted her head as she considered it.
“I don’t
hate
it, but it makes me think of one of those fancy restaurants, you know, the ones where they call their cuisine ‘Asian fusion’. While your bakery is going to be awesome, it just doesn’t strike me as that snooty.”
“I’m with Karyn. It’s just not
you
. You’re like this badass biker chick type girl. Modern Fusion sounds way too, I don’t know,
fluffy. You don’t strike me as fluffy. Why don’t you just tell it like it is? That’s more your style, anyway.”
“So, what, like….” I bit my lip as I tried to find the word to describe what I was doing to classic pastries. “…amped?”
“Amped classics. Yeah, I like that.” Karyn smiled.
“Agreed. I think your menu could even be divided up into Traditional and Amped Classics.”
Okay, so I was having a split personality moment. On one side, I was beyond thrilled to have this help. I was feeling completely alone in putting together the dream bakery. It was overwhelming as hell. So finally having some help and suggestions was a huge deal. But part of me resented it a teensy bit, that they were taking over my menu design. It was a really good idea to split the new versions away from the classics so that they could stand alone.
Eh, screw it, this was what having friends was like, and these chicks were awesome. I shook off my moment of being stupid and stood up from the table.
“Let’s go, bitches!” Linking arms we decided to walk to the bakery. It was a few blocks away, but it was a gorgeous early fall day so perfect walking weather. Plus, the view of the ocean and the feel of the salt air was intoxicating. Seriously, I felt bad for people who didn’t know how ocean air felt. There was just something magical about it.
I let them into the bakery and locked the door behind me. Karyn just stood there with her mouth open.
“Alex, this is perfect. I love how welcoming it is. I can almost see that display case filled and the line that will be out the front door.”
She turned to the polka dot wall.
“So this is where you’ll put the photos up?”
“Yeah, I think it will help make this seem like a home instead of a business, so it will almost be like people are walking into Nonna’s kitchen as opposed to a cold store on Onset Avenue.” I walked in front of the wall and held up the framed wedding photo.
“I really hope we get some pictures to add to this because I’m kind of obsessed with this idea now.” I lowered my arm and quickly hugged the frame to my heart as I turned to place it on the counter. It felt right having her in here with me.
I turned around and saw that Karyn had her cell phone out and was taking pictures of the bakery.
“Let me get one of you with the register and Nonna’s picture.”
I stood behind the antique register, with the picture frame on the counter in front of me. A chill ran through me as I realized how real this was going to be.
“So how soon are you thinking of opening.”
Karyn was in reporter mode, now.
“First I need a name. Once that is set, I was told that turnaround for a vinyl sign to hang in the window and menu printing would be about two weeks. That’s for a temporary sign. I’ll get a more permanent one to put outside above the entrance.”
“How long should we let people vote?”
“Do you think a week is enough?”
Karyn and Ashley nodded.
“More than enough.”
“Okay, so that means I can pick an opening date.” Wow. An opening date. Was I ready? I quickly looked around and saw that I had the equipment in place, the tables had arrived and needed to be assembled, and obviously I needed to spend a day baking. Yeah, I was going to be fine.
“When is the article coming out?”
“The paper publishes on Wednesdays and is distributed everywhere on Thursday. It will be online with the voting active on Wednesday.”
Two days.
“Okay. We open for business three weeks from Wednesday. Holy shit.”
The girls let out little cheers and crowded around me for a group hug. I stiffened up a little and then got into it. I may have even slapped them on their butts. They might as well get used to me.
“So, tonight’s the big date?” Ashley asked once we’d stopped our minor celebration.
“It’s not a date.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
“Are you shaving your legs?” Karyn leaned on the counter and threw me a knowing look.
“Well, duh. I’m going to be wearing capris. I don’t want to be looking like Sasquatch throwing my roundhouse kicks.”
“It’s a date.” The two girls said simultaneously.
“Guys, I don’t think I can get involved with him. Not again.”
“Wait, again? We’re supposed to be your new best friends. How is it we did not hear about this past relationship?”
“Uh, maybe because we’ve only been best friends for about three days? I haven’t told you my whole life story in three days, you know.”
“Okay, so here’s the game plan now. My stomach is growling and you haven’t started melting even an ounce of chocolate. You start working on getting me my food, woman. Ash, you and I will start assembling one of these tables for us to sit at and be the first guests. Alex, you do a good enough job on my coronet and I might even throw in a tip.”
“It’s called cornetto.” I flipped her off with a smile on my face as I got behind the counter to heat up the chocolate.
While I worked, I filled them in on the teenaged romance that Nick and I had shared. It brought me back to the heartbreaking sweetness of stolen moments beside Nonna’s house. There was something innocent about the first crush.
The girls sighed when I told the story of our first kiss. It was an amazing moment. I had managed to freeze it in my head like the perfect photograph. I would be a liar if I said I hadn’t compared every first kiss after that to it. Each one had paled in comparison.
“Did it go any further than that?” Karyn had a wolfish grin on her face as she waggled her eyebrows.
“Ew, seriously? I was a kid. Way too young for that sort of thing.”
“So you never sealed the deal with him?”
“Nope.” I was going to have to check the thermostat in this place, it was clearly broken, because I was starting to get really warm all of a sudden.
“Wait a minute. Alex, you have sealed the deal with
someone
, right?”
Shit.
“Ash, maybe you should fill your mouth with this delicious work of art that I’m about to put in front of you, and with less talk of sealing any deals.” I tried to look pissed off and not embarrassed as hell as I put the plate down in front of her.
“Oh. My. God. You are a
virgin?
” She whispered the ‘V’ word as if it was some sort of a big taboo or something.
“Shut it, Ash.” That may have come out a little harsher than expected. But yeah, I was a virgin. Every time I’d come remotely close to giving it up, I ran. Truth be told, the closest I ever came was with that rat bastard, Ryan, when I strung him up for his wife to torture. That was such a fun day.