Daisy had claimed Gigi was doing her a favour. All five of her adult children having boomeranged back home recently. And if Daisy wasn’t home, then they’d have do their own cleaning, laundry and cooking.
Within three weeks Darcy had been able to afford to pay Daisy much closer to what she was worth. Easily done, as with Daisy there, Darcy had been able to spend more time baking and creating. More goods had translated to more money coming in, who knew?
Before long Great-Uncle Henry had come looking for a job in the kitchen. Retired, and bored, a few years ago Henry had turned his attention to artisanal bread making. Going on to win awards at craft fairs around the country. Selling his recipes to a bakery in Sydney had left him at a loose end. Better still, he actually enjoyed getting up before dawn.
Soon after two more relatives had joined the party. Second-Cousin Bee, who helped Daisy out in the shop. And Heraldo, an Italian, former brick layer, who’d married Uncle Klaus some fifty years ago and was looking for a new career path that meant he didn’t have to work outdoors and was kinder on his aching back.And funnily enough, all those years of mixing cement translated extraordinarily well to following Gigi’s recipes.
The shop had only been half the equation in transforming her dream into a reality. Gigi had determinedly made over herself as well. Being a business owner wasn’t just about bricks and mortar. It was about setting a high standard of customer service and delivering on that promise each and every day.
Which meant Gigi had to take a long hard look at herself.
Almost two years ago, four days before the grand opening, she’d marched into her mother’s hair salon. An hour later she’d walked out a brand new woman. She’d instructed Gwen to give her low maintenance professional hair. Of course her mother had delivered that and a whole lot more. Gigi’s fine white blonde hair had been cut into a sassy sleek do, overlong on top, without getting in her eyes, and razored back around her ears.
Gigi had also chosen to adopt a kind of daily uniform, which cut way down on the stress of trying to figure out what to wear each day and hopefully promoted the professional look she was aiming for. Most days she wore a boat neck collared white blouse, pairing it with a grey fitted skirt that fell just below her knees. Tying the whole thing together with a wide purple belt cinching in her waist. Purple mary-janes went on her feet when she was out on a consult. Swapping them for comfy sneakers when she was back in the shop.
Though the look was only part of the equation.
The final part of the puzzle was the new rules that Gigi was determined to live by. Always promote a cheerful and can-do attitude. Confirm consults twenty-four hours prior. Be five minutes early for the actual consult. Don’t get side-tracked by the weird and wacky (this was her family after all, just roll with it or ignore it.) Get a deposit. Don’t agree to impossible demands. And always, always bring treats.
With all that in mind, Gigi doubled-checked that she had everything in hand, pausing before the Transportal located in the cloak closet at the bottom of the stairs leading up to her personal apartment. Uniform in place. Shoes polished. Treats in a purple and white striped box in one hand. Canary, snug in his wicker travel case snapped to her belt. Work tablet tucked under her other arm. Cheerful smile in place.
She was ready. She was not thinking about the two dead bodies in her freezer. She was not thinking that the last six days things had been too quiet. No intruders. No briefing packet appearing out of the blue on her pillow stamped with the words Top Secret. And no mysterious partner.
Gigi would take the win; maybe the plot to take over the Earth had already fizzled out. One could only hope.
Watch buzzing. It was time. To be professional. To be early. To wow her prospective client.
Stepping out of the Portal, having magically transported to her cousin Hadleigh’s kitchen, Gigi ignored the thunderous battle war cry that rent the air, seeming to make the entire old farmhouse shudder. It helped that two seconds later a high-pitched baby giggle of delight followed.
“Gunther. GUNTHER. You’re supposed to be putting Asher down for his nap, not winding him up.” Lucy Valhalla rolled her eyes, though there was a smile on her face as she turned, her smile growing wider as she noted her niece had arrived. “Gigi, darling. Come on in. I was just about to pour everyone a cup of tea.”
Everyone?
“Hi, Aunt Lucy, Nico.” She didn’t allow her smile to slip. What was Nico Yanez, owner of the Five Alarm Bar, doing here? Was he her competition for this job? Huh, well good luck outshining her presentation. Moving over to the large kitchen island, where her Aunt had the tea steeping and several china cups waiting,Gigi plonked the purple striped box down and with three quick twists transformed it into a tray. One laden with truffles, chocolate treats and several cookies, cut out in shapes of high-heeled shoes, handbags and lipsticks. She may be vying for an opportunity to cater a family party, but Aunt Lucy would be the one making all the decisions and paying the bill.
Glancing Nico’s way, hoping to catch him looking a little out of his depth, Gigi was annoyed to find he was looking not just sullen, but kind of grumpy. Perhaps he wasn’t a fan of tea.
Lucy picked up the large pot and began pouring, glancing at the tray. “Oh, doesn’t everything look wonderful? You are so talented, Gi. I, um, don’t suppose you brought—”
Honestly, when were her relatives going to relax already? Her treats were all perfectly safe to eat. It was annoying that no one seemed to be able to forgive a few stupid mistakes she’d made when she was coming into her powers at thirteen. Or forget that incident when she was sixteen. Or cease dwelling on the Christmas party mishap when she was twenty-two.
“Oh, there he is.” Lucy cooed as Gigi released Canary from his tiny travelling cage that she’d had attached to her belt. No bigger than her hand, bright dark purple, with large floppy ears, and a cotton ball of a tail. Sporting a glittering amethyst choker today. Because nothing said business meeting for her magical construct than a bit of bling.
Everyone thought Gigi was the one who’d started dressing the bunny up in odd bits of bling soon after Hadleigh’s melding to Maat Warrior, Vaughn. Nope. Not Gigi. She suspected her bridesmaid dress. Weird ass thing. All Gaia’s other bridesmaids reported their dresses were highly territorial and made great guard dogs. What did Gigi get? One that liked to clean up spills and treated her bunny construct like a dress up doll.
Picking up her cup, Gigi took a sip. Watching as her aunt selected a caramel choc square from the tray, breaking off acorner and feeding it to Canary. Five seconds passed, the bunny remaining a solid dark purple colour. Lucy promptly popped the rest of the treat into her mouth, making hmmm noises of appreciation as she chewed. Lucy pushed the tray towards Nico. “You should try one. They’re delicious.”
Grumpy expression unchanging, Nico reached out, snagging a caramel choc square as well. Freezing with it inches from his mouth, as Aunt Lucy suddenly waved her hands in protest.
“No. No. You have to feed a bit of it to Canary first.” Lucy determinedly ignoring a loud thump from overhead and the sound of something breaking.
Biting back a sigh, Gigi fought to keep her smile in place. There was no need to make a production out of this. The squares all came from the same batch. If Canary hadn’t reacted when Lucy fed it some, then Nico was in no danger.
Still, Nico appeared resigned to placating his potential client, breaking off a piece and shoving it into Canary’s tiny mouth, all but bopping the rabbit on the nose in his haste, already tossing the rest of the square into his own mouth before Canary had finished swallowing.
There was absolutely no reason for Gigi to double-check Canary’s reaction. Yet out of habit she glanced his way, her insides clenching in sudden dread as Canary’s cotton-ball tail for a nanosecond glowed fire-engine red. If you had blinked, you would have missed it.
No one else seeming to notice the brief anomaly. No, no. NO! Not just any colour but bold crimson red. Why did it have to be crimson? And so bright? But it had only been for a brief nano-second, right? A barely there blip.
