harper jones is on the run (jonesycakes) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2014-08-16 22:39:00 |
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With a day as long and as busy as the one she’d had, Harper found a small bit of therapy in the cleanup process. Technically, the bakery was still open, but a lull in business had given her enough of a break to start assessing the damage. Mixing bowls, spoons, whisks, pastry brushes, frosting tips, and a mountain of pans were what waited outside of her dishwasher; the counters were covered in all manners of sugary mixtures; and, to top it all off, she’d knocked over a bowl of dough not too long ago and was still finding splatters of the drying concoction across the floor. Even though she knew that she had every right to flip the sign and lock the door, Harper couldn’t bring herself to officially close. Her mother never closed up early unless she had to, and that was a principle she held in high regard.
Instead, Harper turned her music up loud enough that she couldn’t hear anything else. Even Crayola’s voice seemed muffled compared to the melodies being blasted out of the speakers she had mounted in the bakery. While “Sweet Child of Mine” blared above, the fire elemental sang below and began the chore of cleaning up her bakery. First came the dishes, hand scrubbing what she was forced to before throwing it all into the high powered dishwasher in the back. She considered it a good day when she could make it through her dishes without spraying herself with the silver hose; today, apparently was not a good day. At some point or another, she aimed the hose in such a way the water bounced off of the pan and ended up spraying her in the face. With hair matted to the side of her face and dark spot growing on her sweater where the water dripped off of her chin, Harper cussed her way through the rest of the dishes and she was totally unaware that someone had walked into the bakery.
Once they were done, she was back behind the counter, wiping down the ovens and the countertops until they were sparkling again. All the while, she was so focused on cleaning that she didn’t realize someone was sitting over in the corner watching her. At this point, all she could think of was finishing so that she could lock the door, count the day’s sales, and get her skinny little butt up to bed. In fact, that thought seemed to motivate her through the tasks even better than the music. It was about the time that she was reaching into the display case for the leftover goods to place on a rack and roll into the cooler that she realized she wasn’t alone anymore. She caught a distorted image through the glass of a man sitting across the bakery and she jerked up suddenly to greet the customer. Except, it was Josh and not someone who deserved the smile she wore. Which explained why it evaporated so quickly.
“Howdy stranger.” She scowled, her eyebrow quirking upward, daring him to ask why she wasn’t thrilled to see him. Well, at the very least, why she wasn’t acting thrilled to see him.