Maybe there was still a chance of it, if Charlotte could talk him around.
As she walked back to Keir’s house after closing up the bakery, she glanced at Julian’s shop. She could go talk to him tonight. There were a few customers inside, but he’d likely close up shop soon. Maybe she could ask him if he wanted to get a drink at the inn.
But then what would she say? “Hey Julian, nice to see you again. By the way, why did you move back to town and open a competing shop directly across the street from one of the only people that was nice to us when we were little hellions? Are you an arsehole now?”
No, she’d need to workshop it a bit more. Hopefully Mrs. Knox could manage one more day before Charlotte brought him to his senses.
Back at Keir’s house, Charlotte bathed off the flour and sweat in the frigid waters of the nearby stream. She thought about swimming down to see Nolwynn for advice; the korrigan wasn’t the most diplomatic creature, but she had managed to leave the king’s castle with her head intact, so she must have had some talent for negotiating.
But Charlotte was too tired to make the journey. All that kneading and rolling still wore her out. She had no idea how Mrs. Knox had managed it alone all those years, or how Julian could manage it now.
Not that his arms looked weak. In fact, they’d look plenty strong enough. He had a lot of muscle straining against his rolled-up sleeves…
Was it bad to think of him this way? It certainly was unexpected. Charlotte never thought she’d see Julian again. She had no idea where he had gone or any way to contact him. She wasn’t sure she would have even if she had known how, for his sake. But when she had seen him last, they were children. And now? Would it be so bad if things changed between them? They were different people now. Would it be terrible to explore whatever spark they seemed to share?
Charlotte decided that it wouldn’t be terrible at all. But she also wasn’t going to be making the first move. She’d get him to cross out the “And Baked Goods” somehow, and then, if he proposed spending time together, she wouldn’t say no.
It was sorted. The plan was flawless.
The plan failed.
Everything had been going so well. Charlotte had come in to Mrs. Knox’s early to check the croissants. They looked nearly perfect: the almond-filled batch had risen just a tiny bit less than the plain and chocolate-filled, but if she put them at the end of the counter, no one would notice the difference.
They baked beautifully. She could see a couple of drops of chocolate coming out of a few of them, but they were still her best effort yet. The pastry was light and impossibly flaky and perfectly golden brown.
Mrs. Knox had been so impressed with them, she’d nearly cried. “That’s the way to save us,” she’d said. “If we can’t join him, we’ll beat him.”
That hadn’t been Charlotte’s intention; she still thought she could get Julian to stop competing with them. But she had been inspired to try her best to show that she could bake as well as he could. Nothing competitive about it. She just wanted to see if she could rise to the challenge, and she had.
The line outside of Julian’s door wasn’t quite as long today, and some of the usual customers had made their way back into Mrs. Knox’s shop. Perhaps he’d stopped selling the croissants without Charlotte needing to ask.
Still, it would be nice to see him again. After the morning rush had gone, Charlotte headed across the street. There was no one in Julian’s shop when she entered. No one except Julian, who paced anxiously behind the counter.
“Everything alright?” asked Charlotte. It didn’t seem he’d heard the doorbell chime.
“Mm?” he asked without looking up. Then he spotted her. It stopped him in his tracks. “Charlotte. You’re back.”
“I am,” said Charlotte. “There was something else I wanted to talk about.”
“Please, sit,” said Julian. Whatever had been bothering him earlier seemed to vanish from his thoughts in Charlotte’s presence. “What did you need?”
You can do this,she told herself. He seemed like a reasonable man. Never mind that he said no to Mrs. Knox. Maybe she offended him somehow. By…being aggressively nice. That must have been it…
“Charlotte?”
“Sorry.” He was looking at her quite intently from across the table. He looked exhausted—there were large bags under his eyes where there hadn’t been any yesterday. “Julian, I wanted to ask you. Why the baked goods?”
“Oh, that,” he said, relaxing back into his chair. “It’s simple, really. Cheese and wine smell wonderful, but the aroma doesn’t carry far. You can smell the baking out in the street. It brings in foot traffic. It’s important for business.”
That was what he’d told Mrs. Knox. “But Julian, there’s already a bakery on this street. I know you knew that because you once lived next door. We spent so many days in Mrs. Knox’s shop.”
“Of course,” said Julian. “I remember it well. I’m still very fond of it.”
He didn’t seem to see the connection in what Charlotte was saying. Could he have not realized his business could hurt Mrs. Knox’s?
“But what is Mrs. Knox to do if you take all her customers?”
Julian smiled and shook his head. “Oh, that seems unlikely. I don’t primarily sell baked goods, not yet at least.”
