Chapter 1
Cassie
Willa, Briana, and I were finishing up our tea party at Poppy’s Place, our private playroom underneath Briana’s apartment, when the alarm on my phone went off. It took me a minute to remember why I set an alarm, but when I did, I was super excited.
“I almost forgot to tell you both my great news.” I reached across the table for my friends’ hands and gave them each a squeeze. “I set up my candle shop.”
Briana’s eyes went wide first as she dropped her jaw in excitement for me. “Really?”
Willa was a bit less enthusiastic as she narrowed her eyes at me. “So, you’re selling candles now?”
“Yep! I’ve been telling you guys about it forever, and I finally did it. I’m gonna be selling all my yummy candles.”
“That’s so awesomely amazing, Cass. Really. So cool.” Briana got up from her chair and gave me a big hug. “I’m so proud of you. You make the best candles I’ve ever smelled.”
“Thanks, Bree.” We both turned to Willa to get her reaction.
She was usually more honest with us about these things. “Yeah, congrats. I hope you get some sales.”
The way she said it sounded like she didn’t think I’d get any sales. My lower lip jutted out in a pout. “I’ll have you know, I already did get a sale. For a cinnamon crunch cereal candle.”
“A cinnamon what?” She put some jelly on her cracker and then took a bite.
“It’s one of my new cereal bowl candles. They’re just like a bowl of cereal but smell even better.”
Briana sucked on her sippy cup of tea. “Why didn’t you bring me one of those? I thought I was your official tester of smelly smells.”
Yeah, about that. “Well, I haven’t actually made it yet. It’s only made in my head, so I need to get home and start making it for real because I’m supposed to ship it out on Monday.”
This time, Briana was the one who gave me a hard time. “Cass, you know you shouldn’t have sold it if you don’t even have one yet. That’s a bunch of pressure.”
“It’s gonna be real easy. I just know it. I’ve already figured out the smells. I just have to figure out how to get the cereal pieces to look like they’re floating in the milk bowl.” I waved my hand in front of me to erase the whole subject. “It’s complicated to say in words, but I know what I need to do in my head.” I took the last drink from my own sippy tea cup and then picked up all my dishes. “You guys keep playing. I’m gonna head home to work. I’ll send you pictures later of my beautiful candles.”
“Be careful. Candles are dangerous when you’re alone,” Willa said while munching on another jelly cracker. She was the wild one, and because of that, she was quick to remind us when things were foolish. Mostly because she did a lot of foolish things.
“I know. I’m always very careful since I’m always by myself. I even wear gloves now.”
Briana huffed her own disapproval. “I hope they cover your whole body, Cass, because wax doesn’t just stay on your hands.”
I glanced between her and Willa, and we all started giggling. We went to a demonstration of wax play at the club and then tried to do it on each other one night when we had been drinking. It was mostly fun…but very messy and a little bit painful. “I’ll be fine. And I’m gonna make extras so each of you will know how delicious my cereal candles are. You can be my promoters.”
I slipped a pair of leggings over my ruffled bottom but left my baby doll party dress on and headed home.
I had been testing different scent recipes all week and was happy with the results. But getting the colors and texture of the cereal pieces was trickier than I thought it would be. Fortunately, I had some great clay sculpting tools, so I melted a bunch of the brown wax with cinnamon into a big flat sheet and cut tiny squares for each piece. Then, to add texture, I raked criss-cross lines over each of the squares like shredded wheat.
It was a complicated process, but they were starting to look very realistic.
The presto pot I used for the milky white wax was big and heavy because I needed a lot of white to make a whole bowl of cereal. Not only that but it took a long time to finish one candle becauseI had to pour a layer of white and then manually arrange cereal pieces in the setting-wax so they looked like each piece was floating in milk. The $22 I charged for this candle was definitely not gonna be enough. So far, it had taken me almost a million hours to make it. Okay, that might’ve been an exaggeration, but I didn’t think I was very far off.
The alarm on my phone rang at ten o’clock to remind me to take my birth control pill before bed. Ugh, my eyes were feeling scratchy, and my back was sore from bending all night, but I was almost done.
After pouring the second-to-last layer of milk wax, I put the pan back on the burner and ran into my bedroom to get my pill. Most of my friends liked to use the patch or take a shot, but I liked the routine of taking my pill every night. It also reminded me not to stay up too late.
That was helpful on most nights but not tonight. Tonight, I had to finish this candle before I could go to sleep to make sure it was set and beautiful and ready to ship out on Monday. When I got back into my living room/craft room/candle factory, I grabbed a handful of cereal pieces to put in the soft wax before it was fully set.
It took a minute, but I arranged them perfectly haphazard so the tops would stick out of my final milk layer. After that, I grabbed the milk pot to make my final pour.
Unfortunately, I moved too quickly and didn’t have a solid grip on the handle, so as I swung the pot toward me, it tilted, and a bunch of wax splashed out of the pot.
