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Tweak says, "I forgot what I was gunna say"

Melinda Bobbin (_melinda_) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2015-01-31 22:35:00

Entry tags:

character: bryn cadwallader, character: cho chang, character: genie de la lune, character: gregory goyle, character: lavender brown, character: marietta edgecombe, character: melinda bobbin, character: viktor krum

Who: Melinda and OPEN
What: Sweet Nothings’ pre-open pre-taste party
Where: The rooftop above Sweet Nothings
When: Saturday January 31, 2005 - Evening
Rating: SFW, will update if/as needed

Being back in Sweet Nothings’ kitchen this week had felt like coming home. Mark, the baker she had hired to make up for the workload her mother would no longer be doing, had fit right in. Sure, he wasn’t much of a decorator, but he could bake and even better; he could adapt and spar verbally when it came to recipes and procedures. Between the two of them, getting everything ready for tonight’s party had gone smoother than she had planned for.

So now, the buffet tables were laden with cakes, pastries and dessert. Layer cakes had become the perfect backdrop for the cupcakes, rather than forego the breakfast pastries as she had first planned, she had now piled them onto trays at angles that lead the eyes to the tarts and cakes. Finally, on the table by the wall, with the London lights as a backdrop, they had set up the table with what would be this year’s Valentine’s menu. Strawberry & Champagne and Chocolate Heaven Cupcakes with champagne truffles, surrounded the Raspberry Kisses and the Red Velvet Heart Layer Cake, and though she still hadn’t decided whether to go with them or not, Melinda had also filled a couple of stands with chocolate covered strawberries and cheese cake stuffed raspberries. Even if they didn’t make it onto the Valentine’s Day menu, they still went perfectly with the champagne served from the make-shift bar right by the door.

With the wards in place, the rooftop was nice and warm, the music at a volume where you could talk – except on the area assigned as the dancefloor – and the fairy lights made it all seem, well, magical.

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Melinda and OPEN

_melinda_
2015-01-31 09:50 pm UTC (link)

Melinda smoothed down her dress as she moved along from the latest to congratulate her on a job well done. She loved what she had done, she loved that people had shown up, and she really wanted to meet and talk to all of them, though right now she would really, really like something to drink. After all, it was half an hour since she had set her course towards the bar. At least now, it was within sight.

Weaving past a couple of guests, she once again stopped and smiled at the next in line, genuinely pleased that they were there.

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Melinda and Bryn

nowinaminute
2015-02-01 04:07 pm UTC (link)

Bryn pushed his glasses up, smiling. "Hiya. Looks like you don't have a drink," he noted, glancing at her hands. "Champagne?" Bryn offered her the glass he had just poured for himself - it was always a good idea to get the boss a drink first, in his opinion.

"Looks like you're trying to feed a small army tonight," he said with a grin. Tonight he'd dressed for the occasion in a shirt he didn't wear often but seemed good for a party. "I don't even know where to start."

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Melinda and Bryn

_melinda_
2015-02-01 04:51 pm UTC (link)

“Oh, Bryn Cadwallader, you are a lifesaver,” Melinda gushed as she accepted the glass from him, hoping that he would help himself to another to replace the one he had just given her.

Taking a sip from the champagne – which still tasted as good as she remembered it – she looked to the tables and shrugged slightly. “A small army or Monument Alley,” she chuckled and looked back to Bryn. “The new baker had to learn the recipes, and with it being a party to present the new cakes, well, one of each was the least we could make. Cho, then, had the idea that using the cakes as decoration would work, and… it did.” Pointing over to the Valentine’s Table. “Now, I’m not saying that that’s where you should start, but the cheese cake stuffed raspberries is a personal favourite.” Making a small gesture with the glass towards him, she continued; “Love your shirt, by the way.”

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Melinda and Bryn

nowinaminute
2015-02-01 05:51 pm UTC (link)

He plucked another glass from the bar and began to fill it. Champagne, admittedly, wasn't his usual drink, but parties like this called for it, Bryn thought. He was quite proud of Melinda for all the work she'd done over the last month in making Sweet Nothings truly her own.

"I should've spotted that was Cho's handiwork. You're both too talented for your own good." Bryn sipped his drink. "I'll have to give them a try." Food stuffed into other food was usually worth experiencing. "Thanks." He tried to straighten his posture a little, though it seemed that a couple of wrinkles had already started to form.

"So are you looking forward to reopening?"

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Melinda and Bryn

_melinda_
2015-02-01 10:17 pm UTC (link)

“We really are,” Melinda sighed, before she grinned and winked at Bryn to show that she was teasing. That she and Cho were both running successful businesses, she figured, came down to both of them being fortunate enough to do and specialise in something they loved. Melinda knew that she worked a lot, but most of the time it didn’t feel like work, and maybe that had something to do with it, too. On top of that, she’d been fortunate to have her mother help her get Sweet Nothings up and running, and now she was working with people she genuinely cared about and trusted, like Bryn.

“Oh, I can’t wait to open again,” she smiled dreamily. “This past week, being back in the kitchen was like coming home, but I still missed the customers and you guys. “How about you? You ready to get back behind the counter?”

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Melinda and Bryn

nowinaminute
2015-02-02 03:53 pm UTC (link)

"Yeah," Bryn said nodding. He'd missed Sweet Nothings over the past month; it had a totally different vibe than Finnigan's and he liked to switch things up. "Don't tell Seamus, but the bakery smells a lot nicer," he joked. Going home smelling of vanilla and chocolate was preferable to the scent of beer.

He cast an approving glance at the Valentine's table. "Looks like I need to familiarise myself with all the new lush cakes."

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Melinda and Bryn

_melinda_
2015-02-03 03:00 pm UTC (link)

Almost instantly, Melinda’s smile brightened; it was good to hear that Bryn was ready to start up on his hours at Sweet Nothings again. She liked working with him too, his relaxed approach to things a nice influence on her own near-constant efficiency. Melinda made a small twist of her fingers near the corner of her mouth. “Your secret’s safe with me,” she assured him with a chuckle and looked in the direction he was glancing.

“Eventually, yeah, I think you might need to do that,” she said and gestured for him to follow along; he might as well try out the treats she had just recommended while they were talking. “But there’ll be signs by the cakes so you know their names and what’s in them, and…” she paused as she thought of the best way to put it the most politely; “the customers won’t know the names either, and these?” She gestured to the Valentine’s table. “Well, they’ll only be there for the week up until Valentine’s Day…”

For a moment she fell quiet as she looked over all the red and the pink and the sweet and the chocolate. It looked great, and she knew that it would be admitting defeat if she had Sweet Nothings follow her own current attitude towards Valentine’s Day and just not acknowledge it, but there was still something missing. She just needed to find the right recipe for the anti-Valentine’s Day that some people were bound to call for as well. Something with grapefruit, to really emphasise the whole bitter-sweet thing. Then again, maybe she shouldn’t ignore it completely. “I should make extra,” she mused, not just to herself, but to Bryn as well. “And have a Clean Out Valentine’s get-together after closing time that evening.” She looked up at Bryn. “Roger’s probably got some sort of fluffy date with M-someone, but the rest of us?” As far as she knew, none of the people in the group of friends were involved with anyone, though she couldn’t really figure out what was going on with Cho and that tall Beater with the ex-wife.

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Melinda and Bryn

nowinaminute
2015-02-03 09:27 pm UTC (link)

Bryn picked up one of the cheesecake stuffed raspberries, inspecting it for a moment before popping it in his mouth, the perfect bite-sized morsel. He washed it down with a sip of champagne. "Yeah? Could do. I know I don't have anything better to do." It was hard to picture any dates suddenly appearing in the next couple of weeks. His life didn't ever really work like that, to be honest.

"Tell you what," he said, casting an eye over the Valentine's selection with the bartender part of his brain engaged, "I'll see if I can figure out the right dessert wine to go with this lot. Maybe a couple of cocktails?"

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Melinda and Bryn

_melinda_
2015-02-03 11:13 pm UTC (link)

She couldn’t help it, but she watched Bryn carefully to see how he liked the raspberries. After all, she had to know, because this was a potential special menu item, right? “I think there are quite a few who don’t,” Melinda chuckled. “It’s a Saturday, so perfect timing. Spread the word and I’ll do the same?”

Looking first to the treats and then back to Bryn, Melinda considered his suggestion. “Cocktails,” she agreed with a smirk and leaned in a little to keep it between the two of them. “I prefer mine on the bitter side.”

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Melinda and Bryn

nowinaminute
2015-02-05 05:26 pm UTC (link)

"Will do. Ben and Chris are first on the list." Funny, but now they lived together they didn't necessarily go out together quite as much. Assuming that neither of them had any other plans, this could be fun. Ben probably wouldn't mind helping to put together some music for the night, either, providing he didn't have a date.

A small, amused smirk tugged at his lips as he picked up another raspberry. "Yeah? Something bitter it is. And maybe something sour too?" Something to really drive home the sentiment.

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Melinda and Bryn

_melinda_
2015-02-05 11:08 pm UTC (link)

“I’ll start with Cho, Mari, and Roger,” Melinda supplied with a nod, though she really hadn’t a clue if either of them could make it. Cho and Roger might have dates and Mari? Well, Mari had never been big on things like that, and she seemed to have work at the most inopportune times, but Melinda still hoped that she would be there.

“Eh!” Melinda laughed. “I’m not bitter, I just like my drinks that way, and I like, you know, balance.” It was a basic principle of tasting; salt to counter the sour and bitter to counter the sweet. “There’s already 6 proposals booked in the shop that day, 2 of which includes the full wedding cake tasting, and the first orders for rings baked into cakes started trickling in around Christmas, every single one of them with the note that he wanted to do something special for his girlfriend…” Tilting her glass, she hinted a small toast at Bryn and took a sip. “Which reminds me; are you free to work on the fourteenth?”

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Melinda and Bryn

nowinaminute
2015-02-06 03:00 pm UTC (link)

Bryn flashed a grin. "Of course you're not bitter." Then again, Melinda had been dating Oliver Wood, something which had been all over the press, and then suddenly she wasn't. Bryn didn't know all the details, and while he did love a bit of gossip, he wasn't about to pry. But if Valentine's Day was a little bittersweet for her, so to speak, Bryn could understand. "You know, I'm kind of envisioning a lot of tequila."

Mulling over the logistics of it all, Bryn grimaced slightly. "Possibly? I'll need to see if I've got any hours at the pub. So I can't make any promises yet."

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Melinda and Bryn

_melinda_
2015-02-07 03:34 pm UTC (link)

No, Melinda wasn’t bitter. Well, except when Cormac was asking advice on how to deal with having declared his love to Lavender and then asking Melinda to supply the best possible Valentine’s Day basket possible. Even Melinda couldn’t deny the bitterness that that provoked, but Cormac was Cormac and she had long ago accepted that he simply lacked the ability to… no, strike that. Cormac was a git, though fortunately he was mostly an alright git. He just sometimes got on her nerves.

“Tequila?” Melinda chuckled, her small smirk slowly spreading into an approving smile as she nodded. “Versatile, unromantic, I think you’re right on that one. And some Bourbon, if Chris shows up. Has he always been like that?”

She picked out one of the raspberries for herself while Bryn considered whether he could work or not. “It’s no rush,” she assured him. “If you have the time and are interested in the extra hours, just come in, yeah?”

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Melinda and Bryn

nowinaminute
2015-02-10 12:27 pm UTC (link)

"Unromantic! Yes, that's exactly it. We need unromantic drinks." Bryn took another raspberry because, well, why not? He chuckled, pausing only to eat the sweet treat. "Yeah, Chris has always been... like Chris." He shrugged.

Bryn nodded. "Yeah, okay. But I'll try and let you know sooner rather than later. Sounds like you'll need the extra pair of hands." With so many people trying to propose in the shop, they would need to keep things running smoothly to avoid overlaps which might make the special moment that little bit less special. Plus, there would be all the regular customers, not to mention extra foot traffic who wanted to pick up a nice dessert.

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