InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "you shine brighter then anyone"

harper jones is on the run (jonesycakes) wrote in light_of_may,
@ 2015-01-26 23:09:00

Entry tags:

2009-10-13, emilia, harper

watch out, she's got fire in her veins
WHO | Harper and Emilia -- Open to Josh and Daveigh later!
WHERE | Sherry's bakery
WHEN | Afternoon

Over the course of the past couple of days, Harper had come to a very simple conclusion: she was awesome. She had the coolest wardrobe of anyone she had seen, she owned a bakery, and she had landed a guy as amazing as Josh Flynn. Oh, she wasn’t the least little bit smug or arrogant about the whole thing. Not even a little bit. Which was totally not why she was prancing around the bakery as if she owned the place (wait a second, she did!) and making Kahlan laugh when she could. How cool was it to work with her best friend on top of everything? Harper didn’t remember meeting the Australian or even hiring her, but it didn’t matter. Clearly, Kahlan had been there a while because she was always doing extra things to help out Harper.

Except today. Harper had insisted that Kahlan take the day for herself to get some rest. She was an expectant mother, after all. She wondered where the father of the baby was, but she didn’t judge the older woman not one bit. Marriage was a thing that adults did and it was meant to be done out of love, not because a kid was suddenly thrown into the mix. Never had Harper thought that being married was a condition to being a parent. Which was probably why she wanted to make sure that Kahlan was taking care of herself and her baby.

There was a lull in the afternoon business and Harper was concentrating on setting up her macaron display when the bell chimed over the door. She looked up and smiled jovially at the brunette who walked into the bakery. She recognized her as someone she had seen around town, but not someone she had seen very often or even knew by name. “Hey, how are you?” She greeted and placed the last macaron onto the bottom tier of the stand.

“So, what is it you’re in the mood for today?”

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

jonesycakes
2015-02-08 10:10 pm UTC (link)

Harper felt a little flare of her temper, but she swallowed it down. It was easy for her to lose patience with someone when they had a particularly difficult order, but it was worse whenever they were trying to express something that wasn’t executed quite as they thought it could be. She wracked her brain for any recipe that sounded remotely like the one Emilia was mentioning. Strawberry flavored cake with fresh strawberries sliced and featured. Yet, the cake had to be orange and not pink. And only one layer. That did not leave very much room for error.

“The fresh strawberries won’t do so well, not like you’re wanting them it sounds like. If I mix them up with the batter, they’ll be really tiny chunks and flecked throughout, not at all pretty slices that you can see. And mixed up like that, they’ll taint the color of the batter so it’ll be more red than orange and not just around the actual strawberries. The only way that I can make sure that the strawberries are sliced and still presentable would be to try to layer some batter in the bottom of the pan and make a layer of strawberries on top and then I could try to sandwich them between layers of the batter.”

She took down Emilia’s number and turned so she could see the list of orders she had lined up for the day. “I do have a couple of orders before yours,” Plus she was looking to close up shop a little early so she could be there for dinner with her sister. “So it’ll be tomorrow before I can get it completely done. It’ll be early tomorrow, though.”

“Oh, you know what? I can probably get away with doing candied strawberries? If you think Nysa would like that.” It didn’t matter how complicated an order was, the customer knew what they wanted and Harper would do the best she could to deliver. The only problem was when she couldn’t and this order was increasingly seeming like one of those. “Or, unless your heart is settled on a single layer, I can layer fresh strawberries with some cream.”

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

becauseimwrong
2015-02-09 12:10 am UTC (link)

Emilia was not trying to read the woman's mind. She had a feeling that she never actually tried to do it, but nor was she really able to make herself stop. It was like an irritating radio station that you did not want to listen to, but had no choice because the radio in the car was broken and you could only turn it down so much but not off entirely. Which was why she was hearing almost an echo of how impossible it was to do what she wanted. Which was why she was starting to get irritated. Because she could hear the tinge in the thoughts and she did not, even a little bit, appreciate it. The only thing that kept her from actually saying anything was that this woman was going to be making her cake for Nysa and she did not need for it to get ruined. "Well, then I suppose that you should do whatever you think will be best." Her smile had turned tight, but at least she still managed to give it. "So long as strawberries are involved and nothing is pink." That was important. That was a sticking point for her and she was not going to let it go no matter what she heard come out of her head or mouth.

"No, if it's going to be tomorrow then I'd rather it be later. I don't want to just leave it sitting and I don't get out of work until four or five. No point to having it before I go home." If Nysa did choose that day to arrive home before her then the surprise would just be ruined. She was a little disappointed that it could not happen today, but she supposed that she could not expect much else with such short notice. She was ready to call that done and go before she heard something else that made her eye feel like it was going to twitch - or worse. Emilia knew what happened if her emotions got the better of her and there was far too much glass in here for her to let that happen. She did not think she could afford paying for a new display case on top of a divorce. She couldn't prove I did it... No, it was still a bad idea. "I've never had candied strawberries, I don't know if Nysa would like them. May I try one?" If she was neutral on the taste then she would go back to her stance of 'do whatever you want so long as it's not pink.'

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

jonesycakes
2015-02-09 03:56 am UTC (link)

Not once had Harper ever meant to lose her temper with someone, especially not a customer, but she found it was difficult to keep it reeled in with this particular customer. The woman seemed to have this idea of a cake and thought it could magically be whipped up just the way she thought of it, except she didn’t have a working knowledge of what was necessary to do just that. If anything, the labor fees on this particular confection was going to be a little higher than normal just for the trouble she was going to have to do to get everything perfect. Harper was not perfect, she didn’t do perfect. In fact, she found perfection in the imperfections, and that was a major philosophy of hers while baking. There was too many things that could go wrong for her not to live that way.

And she just knew that tone and that tight-lipped smile. The one that was meant to placate her as the creator. She could sense that the brunette, Emilia, was getting irritated with the way things were going. She didn’t know if it was the number of questions she was throwing at her or if it was simply that she was offering up answers that didn’t please her, but she didn’t really appreciate the vibes rolling off of her. Still, she let it slide for a moment as Emilia expressed that she’d prefer the cake to be ready in the afternoon.

“I can do that.” Might be easier that way in case something goes wrong with this one. She could tell that Emilia really wasn’t pleased with the way this was going, so tried to make peace. Harper tried to inhale deeply, to quell the flames of her agitation and she brought her hands up as she explained things to Emilia.

“Look, I’m only trying to make sure you get something you and your girlfriend will like. I know it’s tedious going through everything, but sometimes the ideas people have need to be tweaked or adjusted in order to come out looking and tasting right.” As she spoke, she gestured a bit with her hands, nothing big or over the top, but just a little wave to emphasize her meaning. “You seem very particular about the color of the cake and I don’t want to end up with any pink in there either, which is why I’m suggesting alternatives. If I do exactly what you’re telling me to do, then the chemistry of the cake will come out wrong and look like a train wreck and you’ll end up blaming me and wanting a refund.” The last sentence came out with a little more passion to them to express her point (because she really hated it when people tried to placate her) and one last little roll of her hand surprised her completely when an actual flame shot out over the counter.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

becauseimwrong
2015-04-02 01:46 pm UTC (link)

The possibility of something going wrong was always going to be there, Emilia knew that. But knowing it in the back of her head and hearing it in the forefront of the woman who was going to bake it? Two very different things. Her neck gave an involuntary twitch and she had to close her eyes and count to five as she listened to the baker explain why she was asking all the questions. Yes, I know that, I've already heard it from you. Not that she new it and it was irrational to get irritated because she was hearing it again, but Emilia had always had a problem with rationality. She was going to point out that she had asked to taste whatever a candied strawberry was, not told her off. But that was when the flame come shooting over the counter. Emilia jerked back out of sheer reflex even though it was not that close to her.

What she could not control was what happened next.

"What is wrong with you?" she snapped, eyes blazing. "You get someone who knows what they want and you shoot flames at them because they don't agree with every suggestion??" And that was when the display window began to shake, just for a moment, before the glass shattered into hundreds of sparkling, glittering pieces. Emilia's mouth dropped and she lifted her foot, a piece sliding off and tinkling to join the others. "...how about I just go now and come back tomorrow when we're calmer and the cake is done and you're not going to shoot fire at me and I'm not going to break everything in your store on accident?"

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(Read comments) -