* * *
"These came out beautifully!"she crowed several hours later.
"I love how the yellow and pink mix and that you can still see the bits of raspberry," Josie said.
"There's a splash of vodka in these here," Hazel said.
"The booze makes them a little glossy," Josie said, holding one up and marveling at it. "Looks like a work of art. This is going on Instagram. I'm helping Chloe with some of her marketing. As much as I like Mace's brothers, it's a little dry doing engineering marketing. Bakeries are so much more fun!"
She found a large white plate and arranged sprigs of mint and slices of lemon on it along with the popsicles. Then she snapped several pictures. "Posted!"
"Now that you have a bit of leisure time," I said to Hazel, "while you and Chloe figure out the restaurant—" I stuffed a Popsicle in my mouth and kissed her. "What are you going to do?"
"I don't know. Hang out. Do some art committee work. Make sandwiches. Maybe next week Chloe will have some time to meet."
"I don't know," Josie said, holding out her phone. "I think you're about to be busy."
71
Hazel
"I'm so sorry, but we sold out of the popsicles already," I told the Instagram influencer who was pouting in front of my shop. The past week the popsicles went viral. It was suddenly the new It food.
Chloe immediately told me I couldn't waste the moment. I had spent the rest of that evening developing several new flavors. The next morning, there was a line of people. The popsicles sold out by that afternoon.
"It's like a pop-up shop," Chloe said a few days later. "We'll just tell people you're open for a limited number of popsicles."
They sold out in a few hours the next day. Though they were supposed to be limited edition, visitors were saying they were coming in from states away. It wasn't in my nature not to feed people, especially if they had been traveling. The crowd waited around while I made several more batches of popsicles. They were sold as soon as they were done.
The next morning, people began standing in line at three a.m.
"This is nuts," I said to Chloe.
"Did Archer's little brothers even help you?" she asked.
"They did a little bit, but Peyton says he's tired of popsicles and he's going to start a bike repair business. Thankfully Jemma's helping!" I bumped hips with my friend.
"Between the popsicles and the art walk, Harrogate is trending on Instagram," Jemma said. "It will probably die down in a couple weeks. That's the nature of these things."
"We need to sell other viral foods," Chloe said. "So think of some other good ones."
"I'll have a brainstorming session later, but I can't think right now. I'm cooking!" I was frazzled. I wanted to go to sleep, Archer's strong arms wrapped around me, but we had the final show for the art retreat that evening.
I finally closed up after lunch.
"That's the last popsicle," I said to the crowd.
Ida knocked on the door after they dispersed. She was wearing an elaborate painter's costume. "I'm ready for my big moment! I want the hulk to have a special place, front and center."
"We'll have to see about that, Ida." I did not want the dildo to have the star spot in the gallery, even if it did help us win the Art Zurich conference.
Archer showed up shortly after with a bag of tools and supplies. He kissed me, and Ida whistled.
"You've hooked a fine male, Hazel!" she said.
Archer smirked and started to hang up the paintings. "I love how all of them are of me."
"This dildo was inspired by you," Ida said, lovingly stroking the sparkly green-and-purple monstrosity.
