This is a snapshot of Chapter 1 of my novella Twelve Days till Dating (not so much a childhood story, but still). It was a combination of experience and wishful thinking from my own work experiences. Check out the novella on Wattpad if you're interested in hearing more.
Was it possible to find a cookie tin in the fridge in less than a minute?
That's what Lauren Cohen was asking herself as she was busy looking for the order of Grinchmas cookies that the older gentleman had come to pick up in the back refrigerator. Grinchmas cookies, one of the Party Hearty bakery's holiday specialties, were small but decadent creations where vanilla and green dough intermixed to create a swirl pattern. Meanwhile, sprinkles adorned the edges like sugar on a martini glass for the perfect mix of softness and crunch. If you were lucky, you might bite into a grey speckle in the middle of the dough. Only one batch a day held a cookie with this Grinch-like gray shape. Should you bite into it, you could bring a photo of it or bring the cookie to the bakery for a free treat.
Finally, finally, Lauren found the personalized tin that read "Joe Claus" (was that his real name or was he a mall Santa?) on the tag and dug it out. Careful not to let the tin scrape against her fresh mistletoe-colored manicure, she picked it up and returned to the front of the store. He's make a good story, Joe. She'd put him in her mental character file.
"Here you are. Fresh from the oven," Lauren said with her best customer-service grin. Old people were always late in picking up their cookie orders, but a little time in the microwave and they'd be as luscious as ever.
"Well, now, isn't that lovely!" said the man who must be Joe, in his raspy old voice. "My granddaughter is going to love these. I certainly hope they taste better than the Grinch, though."
Lauren smiled. Smile and nod. That was the first rule of working with chatty old customers (who may or may not tell bad jokes), as she'd learned ever since starting at Party Hearty four months ago. One of New England's most unique bakeries, it sold desserts from truffles to cookies and even doughnut holes. You could even order special dessert tins, which was their specialty.
"No, they're great. I'm not just saying that because I work here, either. Absolute heaven." She beamed and noticed the owner, Chris, in the back of her eye. Time to get the sales pitch going. "Would you like to get anything else while you're here? Surprise your granddaughter with a chocolate Santa, maybe?" She pointed to a mini Russell Stover Santa on the back table.
"I don't think we should be eating any more sweets. It's only November and we're stocking up on Christmas cookies! The wife worries that we won't have enough Got to leave some for thehigh school bake sale, you know!" The bakery sponsored the school's band fundraiserevery year. He paused and frowned at her. You know, perhaps my granddaughter knows you. Does Deidre Burbank ring a bell?"
Lauren frowned. "No..."
"No? Well, maybe you don't go to the same school. I just assumed that you did because the bakery is so close. You go to Creekside High?"
Grr. Here it comes. Lauren took a deep breath and waited for the inevitable. Really, she shouldn't be surprised anymore. She'd gotten this type of thing many times in her life. Pushing her shoulder length hair back, she took a breath.
"No, sir. I graduated from Brookport two years ago. Creekside High is ancient history." She smiled as best as she could.
Joe brightened. "Really!"
Lauren exhaled. Maybe the dreaded comment wouldn't even come.
"Such a pretty campus...my daughter got her master's in education there and it was wonderful to walk around. Forgive my question. You don't look like you're in college."
Darn!
Joe looked squarely at Lauren. "Tell me. What's the secret of youth? You got any tips? I'm getting up there, you know."
Lauren tried her best to be a good sport. If Joe knew how many semi-positive/downright hurtful/jokey comments she got about her looks from customers, he might have been nice enough to let it slide. He seemed like that type. But unlike the real Santa Claus, he didn't have a magic snowball to look into and see what kinds of interactions she was having during the day.
Eager to change the subject, Lauren pushed the tin toward Joe. "Maybe it's these cookies." Then she remembered. "Have you heard about our latest promotion? If you bite into a cookie and-"
"-see a Grinch, you win a prize. Yes, I'm well aware," Joe chuckled. "Probably why the wife wants so many already."
Lauren laughed. "Maybe. Your total comes to $25.00."
Joe'e eyes widened. "Twenty five bucks? I need to stop asking my wife to order them in tins. Of course, we'll probably have enough to give the tins away to all our neighbors at the rate she's going..." Still, he willingly handed over the cash as he took his cookies. "If I don't see you yet again, have a merry Christmas, Lauren."
"Merry Christmas, Joe. Enjoy your latest batch!" He waved as the door swung shut behind him, ringing the bells on the knob.
"If I get another comment about the way I look, I'll have their cookies and eat them too," Lauren grimaced to Grace, her coworker.
"Don't be like that," Grace whined, who was preparing an order of brownies behind Lauren. She was in her thirties and already had some gray strands poking out of her brown curly hair. She was a second generation Italian-American and attributed it to family gatherings. "I'd love to be you. It'll pay off one of these days, ya know."
"Blech, yeah, right." She pretended to laugh and busied herself with smoothing out her nails, though they looked fine.
"And you get all the good customers. You get the chatty grandpa whose wife is baking too much and I get the chubby soccer mom who wants to know why the cookies she ordered 30 minutes ago aren't done yet. Your looks draw people to you, ya know."
"Yeah? Try watching all your college friends go on dates while you're in the dorm alone on Saturday nights."
"That's quite enough talk, people," said Chris, coming out of absolutely nowhere, as she was apt to do. "We have customers in and out all day and they hear what we say about em. One comment, one bad Yelp review. One bad Yelp review, hundreds of lost customers. Hundreds of lost customers, lost employees. You get me? Okay, I'm off for the day. Lauren, Austin, closing time is all yours. Grace, don't forget to freeze the leftover dough again. Goodnight, everyone." And she was gone.
"She's something, isn't she?" Grace sighed. "I once got a bad Yelp review, directed towards me. It was ahhw-ful. You should have seen it...ranting, raving, everything."
But Lauren was only half-paying attention to Grace's semi-typical whining. She'd gotten used to that early on; Grace always spoke in a whiny tone and she soon learned it wasn't' a slight against her or anyone.
Now that Chris was gone, she was going to catch up on some reading.
She and her best friend from college, Shannon, were experts at social media stalking. Shannon claimed to be able to find a guy's house on Google Maps just by looking at a couple photos with a side of the house in the background. So it was by their methods that she found The Red Hat Society, aka Austin's blog. All his opinions and rants about sports could be found there, which was fortunate, since he didn't allow anyone to see his social media profile or request him as a friend. Sometimes he even posted his own experiences, including the time where he cried when he played his last high school soccer game. She would give anything to see him play soccer...gosh, she was such a teenage girl. She wondered what he was doing here instead of writing about sports somewhere. Then again, why wasn't she writing as a job yet? Maybe jobs were too hard to find. Hopefully her English degree wouldn't go to waste. Perhaps she could start a blog, and they could follow each other...
"Checkin up on your guy friend's blog?"
"Uh huh!" Lauren squeaked without looking up. She'd told Grace she liked a guy, but of course she didn't mention who she liked. She didn't understand half the jumble about golf...who wrote about golf in November??...but hearing it in his awkwardly light, husky voice playing in the back of her head, that was something--
"Reading during the workday, Lauren?"
"Eek!" Lauren turned around and her stomach swooped. Fortunately, it wasn't Chris, but Austin. She slammed the phone down and he laughed.
Something else entirely.
"Don't worry, I won't confiscate it," he said, grinning.
"I know, I know. It's cool. You just surprised me is all." She slid the phone into her pocket. Mental note: get out of the Internet app ASAP!
Sometimes Lauren forgot that she liked him. All butterflies flew away as she focused on holding a conversation. Austin was so easy to talk to and was usually the one to steer the conversation forward. It was a good thing, too, because she usually couldn't focus very well around cute guys until she was used to them. It bit her in the butt during her first couple days at the bakery, when she spent two hours a day with him learning everything she could while trying not to be too caught up in his boyish smile and small eyes that still managed to be deeply chocolate colored. She would never know how she picked up anything about working there. It was looking back on the incident a while later when the butterflies got going again.
"Nothin serious. She's reading her dreamboat's blog is all," Grace said, flouncing toward the back storage room. Lauren felt her face burning. Maybe she shouldn't have mentioned that her crush had a blog, especially to a coworker. Gosh. Did she ever think?
"How was your day? Any tough customers?" she said, trying to smile and change the subject. With her mouth closed, of course. Somehow some of her back adult teeth had missed the memo that they were supposed to grow twice their current size.
"You know, it was pretty much the usual. You get a little of everything working here, right?"
Lauren laughed. "I know! My favorite's the old people, though. Love the old people." She sighed. Quick, avoid the awkward silence...
Austin saved her. "I know. The grandpas are my favorite. Sometimes they're more friendly than the thirty-somethings."
"The soccer moms are the worst!" Lauren agreed.
"Amen!" Grace chimed in from across the room.
So easy to talk to. He never even thought about Grace's blog remark. The absence of Joe and the cranky lady that Grace was helping made the shop seem much quieter all of a sudden, reminding her that they were about to close.
"I hate to leave ya, but I got to go and get a second Thanksgiving dessert party ready," said Grace, who was already pulling on her coat. "I'll spare you the details"
"No worries! Good luck." Lauren smiled. It would just mean that she and Austin would be alone to close. Squee!
As Grace walked out the door, Lauren's heart did flip-flops. That was a close call earlier. No more gossip with coworkers about guys. Ever.
As she packed away cookies and maybe popped a truffle in her mouth, she took in the silence. Just her and her dream guy, alone in the store. Her heart pounded as she considered asking him out. Just for coffee, nothing serious. She was one decision away from a completely different life; she saw that quote on Pinterest once. Well, what about now? She was going to do it. Her throat went dry. Was her throat pounding now? She couldn't tell. She tried to open her mouth and ended up swallowing air. What if he laughed at her? This tiny blue, wide-eyed girl who dared to ask him out?
"Hey, guys."
The brunette flipped her hair as if she wasn't even trying. She probably wasn't, Lauren thought. She didn't look too much older than Lauren, even. She raised an eyebrow at Lauren before turning back to Austin.
To Lauren's shock, Austin smiled.
"Hey Isla! I haven't seen you in a while, how are you doing?" And Lauren was forgotten. She knew what would happen: they'd leave together, and he'd forget that she even existed. As they chatted and- gasp!- hugged, Laurens' stomach plummeted. She almost humiliated herself just then. No wonder why she didn't talk to guys more often. They usually had girlfriends.
"I'll close up," Lauren said, trying to sound as perky as possible. Her heart was pounding even faster now, like it had expected a thrill that never came and was now getting over it.
Austin turned around as if suddenly realizing she was there. "Don't worry about it; I'll be there in a sec. I promised Isla I'd get her some truffles for her party. Is there a purple tin back there with her name on it?"
"No peanut butter!" she heard the girl yell. "I don't eat that stuff!"
"I wish you would," Lauren muttered under her breath, finding the tin and bringing it out.
"Thanks!" Austin smiled at her before turning to check Isla out. Was Lauren's mind playing tricks on her, or did he smile at her for longer than was necessary? Finally, Isla left with a flounce of her hair and Lauren released the urge to slap her.
"So, you have any plans for Thanksgiving?" Lauren asked as she began to bundle up. Who knows, maybe it would lead somewhere...though where, she wasn't sure.
"Eh, I'm not really sure...I think I'm just having dinner with the family, have some cousins come over, that sort of thing. What about you?"
Maybe one of the reasons why he was so easy to talk to was because he always kept the flowing conversation going. Too easy. She didn't want a nicety conversation. Guys stuck to niceties with her. She wanted a conversation where they could joke about things and have inside jokes about old men who came into their shop and other kitschy things like that. As if he could read her mind, Austin looked at her curiously.
Oh. Her move.
"Oh you know. Just eating dinner with the grand 'rents. Grandparents." Lauren cringed. Grand rents? Was she trying to be a cool teenager? "My grandma and grandpa are pretty cool for old people. My grandpa used to own this sports betting arena where you could come to gamble and have a drink. Now he spends his days yelling at football games."
"That's awesome. I wish my grandparents tried to come to family gatherings once in a while." He ushered her out the door as she finished slipping on her coat. She was glad it was dark, as her face was burning bright enough for her to lead Santa's sleigh. "Now I have to get home and start preparing for my aunt's arrival, though. Always brings a fruitcake that my parents still make us eat at our age. Lovely." Already turning away, he ran his fingers through his hair and Lauren's face heated up about ten degrees.
"Have a good night!" she called. Austin waved as they started walking in opposite directions.
She stepped out into the crisp air and sighed. The streets of center Bridgedale were already pretty quiet; perhaps people were still away from Thanksgiving or taking a long weekend on Cape Cod. Unfortunately, the lack of people left Lauren to her own thoughts.
One of these days, she was going to ask him out. For her, Lauren, to successfully ask out a guy would be nothing short of a Christmas miracle. But strange things happened at this time of year...and Austin was so nice and welcoming to her. As they both worked weekdays, he knew that she wasn't a school student. For once, her wide-eyed blue eyes and chubby cheeks couldn't fail her.
* * *
Lauren still remembered the day like it was yesterday.
She'd applied for the job in August after she'd seen the help wanted ad. It wasn't really her expertise, but she wouldn't even have to be baking usually- just filling and packing orders while ringing people up- but it was a good first start and she needed money. She barely had time to take in the aroma of sugar cookie dough and chocolate before Chris whisked her right back.
"Alright, so tell me," she said. "Why do you want to work for a bakery?"
Lauren swallowed. "Well, I love to bake things at home all the time. Sometimes. But what I really love about working behind the scenes is that it gives me a chance to take charge, ironically. Even organizing tins is easy for me. I'm really accurate and you'll need me during the busy seasons. And not to mention, I like making a difference in the lives of other people."
Chris frowned and looked through her paperwork. "Well, they all say that. How would you go about making a difference at a bakery? Why not choose a charity shop?"
All of a sudden, the door burst open. "Chris, we're out of chocolate chips."
He was the cutest guy Lauren had ever seen. But she had to keep composure, even as he asked, "Oh, who's this?"
"The girl I'm interviewing," said Chris. "If you don't mind."
"Ah, okay," he said, and showed himself out shyly. Lauren felt her face go red.
After a while, though Chris seemed unsure, she'd gotten the job and began training two days later. To her surprise, the guy she'd seen earlier was there. And now she'd have to focus AND work with him for three hours. Joy!
"Hey. I saw you yesterday," he said. "I guess I'm working with you?"
Lauren smiled. "I guess so. I'm Lauren."
He smiled back and Lauren was taken aback by how adorable it was. She'd pegged him to a be a few years younger, but maybe she wasn't the only one to look young at times.
"Austin. Good to meet you. Now is this your first job?"
"Well, yes. Only because it took so long to find anything. I've been out of college for...a while now." Better not mention her age in case there was an age difference.
"Not many people get such an exciting first job," he said. "You're lucky. It's not hard, I promise."
"Well, that's the problem. I can't be trusted with anything bigger yet, so I'm starting here. You don't seem like the baking type. Why are you here?" She cringed. Why would she say something like that?
He let out a watery laugh, and Lauren got goosebumps. She wasn't used to making people- especially guys- laugh. "I hear you. Mostly I'm here because my cousin used to own the place, but they didn't last long. I'm looking for something new myself."
See? This won't even go anywhere. Don't you dare get your hopes up!
Just then an old man came through the door. "Hello, guys!" he said in his thick, raspy voice.
"This is Joe," Austin said. "He's a regular. What can I get for you, Joe?"
"Well, you tell me, but I think the wife ordered a basket of sugar cookies earlier."
"I'll get that right out for you," Austin replied, leading Lauren toward the storage room where orders were kept. Lauren was in awe of the large ovens and the nicely decorated tins and baskets of treats all ready for pickup.
"This is Joe's," he said, choosing a basket of cookies. "They all have their names on them, and this one has an extra cookie for good luck in it. It's a tradition of ours. Makes his day." Lauren was touched.
Throughout the next two hours, Lauren tried her best to pay attention to how to ring up customers and fill orders. She learned that purple tins usually contained products with peanut butter or nuts (very important not to mix these two up), while other colored tins were chocolate and sparkly tins held cookies. The three hours passed quickly, and soon Lauren was taking off her blue apron and getting ready to head out the door.
"Thanks for showing me everything," she said. Wow. I rocked this conversation thing.
"Of course! Maybe we'll work together sometimes. I'd love to see you around."
Lauren's face burned. "Yeah, that'd be cool."
Oh, this should lead to something.
And hopefully it still would.