“Only if you say please.” Bennett corrects him.
Liam sighs. “Please.”
“How about two chocolate donuts.” Tabitha reaches into the glass display and pulls out two of our oversized chocolate éclairs with cream filling, putting both on one dainty little plate. The ends hang off the edge.
Bennett shakes his head stepping toward the door. “I’ll pay for whatever he eats at the end of the day. Just keep track and if you need me call me. I’ll check in after a couple of hours.”
I wave his concern away. “Don’t worry about us. You go do your thing.”
Tabitha walks the little plate to the table where Bennett dropped Liam’s backpack and sits down to help him get arranged into his chair. She pulls out a single napkin from the dispenser placed in the windowsill because Pearl doesn’t like it taking up her tabletop. It’s a good thought, but I’m pretty sure we’ll need a lot more napkins by the time he’s done. I have nightmares about the last time he ate chocolate around me and cleaning it off with sea water.
It takes him longer than I expected to finish off both of his sweets. Twenty minutes later he finishes the second, his body pumped full of sugar as he scribbles frantically in his coloring book. Tabitha took him to the back to color on my prep table to contain the jitters when we worried he’d knock over his chair from all the bouncing. His lifetime supply of cookies may be regulated to one a day from here on out.
I will forever look at doughnuts in a completely new way from this point on. They are no longer chocolatey goodness, but sugar death traps of erratic behavior.
Two minutes after eleven, right on time to start a lunch rush, Katy walks in from the kitchen. Tabitha and Liam follow behind her. Tabitha’s eyes are wide and she shakes her head a tiny amount.
“Okay, Anessa, I heard all about your adventure last night. Tabitha filled me in. I’ve got a plan to get us out of this mess.”
“No!” Tabitha and I both yell the same time.
Liam stops and looks back at us like he thinks we’ve lost our minds. Without asking, he turns and goes right back to the kitchen.
Smart kid.
“That is absolutely definitely most assuredly not happening.”
“But you haven’t even heard my plan yet,” Katy says leaning up against the counter.
“No. I don’t need to hear your plan. I know it is not going to happen. Not in a million years.”
She has lost her mind if she thinks I’ll ever do something like that again. Bennett is right. It’s time to sit back and let him handle this one.
Katy whines. “It was a good plan.”
“You think all your plans are good plans.” Tabitha wipes down the front of the glass, finally getting rid of Liam’s fingerprints.
“Well they are.” She stops, her eyes laser focused on something outside. “Well, crap. Look who’s here to brighten our day?”
“Be nice,” I warn Katy. Pierce may not be her favorite person, but he is my landlord.
I plaster a smile on my face before he walks through the door, but Katy scowls watching his every step. I’m half ready for her to throw a pastry at him.
“Did you come to collect the rent?” Katy asks finally, wearing the biggest fake smile possible. Bold.
Pierce stops in front of the deli case. “No, Anessa pays hers on time.”
“I heard your family bought another boat. I’m sure you have to squeeze the pennies out of the town folk somehow,” she replies.
“Yes, because I couldn’t be here on a social visit. I have to be your evil villain and walk around taking the last piece of coal for everyone’s fireplace. Right, Katy?”
“Okay guys, that’s enough. What can I help you with, Pierce?” I busy myself with wiping down the counter making it easier to pretend I don’t see Katy shift her eyes in my direction.
“Actually I came with a proposition for you, Miss Curtis. Every year the city council provides special treats for the people who attend our Christmas Eve parade. We’d like to pre-purchase a bulk order of your special sugar cookies.”
“You’re making her part of the Christmas Eve tradition?” Katy asks, heavy with disbelief.
Pierce shrugs.
