Paradise Found

13

ELOISE

For the last month, Alistair has been coming into the club for nearly every single one of my shifts, and we’ve had dinner and then spent the rest of the evening working it off. I know that his frequency at the club has been noticed, but I’ve assured Sara that everything is aboveboard. That he’s having a stressful time at work and has recently had a breakup, and I’m helping him get back into the dating scene. That seems to have made Sara’s concerns disappear because I’m doing a community service for one of our guests, which is not as uncommon as you would think.

“I love you, Elle, but this is too fucking early for me to be up on a Sunday.” Lauren groans as I pack my treats into the car to take them to the local markets. For months, I’ve been applying to get into the local markets to sell my goods, but they had too many bakery stalls to accept me. Thankfully, as it turns out for me but not her, one of the stall holders broke her leg, and a spot has opened for the next eight weeks before she returns, which is fine by me because that works out well for my trip to the Caribbean.

“Would you stop moaning! I’ll buy you a coffee when we get there,” I tell her as I carefully place the last box of goodies into the car. Nerves hit me as this is the first time I’ve sold my items publicly. Yes, I have a huge following on social media because I bake and post on there, but I’d been too scared to attempt to sell my sweet treats before.

Lauren dared me to do it. She was sick of hearing me talking about it. I’ve been so scared to make a go of my dream to be a baker, something I’ve aspired to be all my life, that no matter how much I wanted to do it, I couldn’t bring myself to actually take the next step. My parents’ words have rattled around in my head over the years, telling me I’ll never be good enough, and those words have kept me from taking this leap, but when I was given the opportunity, how could I say no?

And what I need to know isam I good enough?

Yes, my friends and work friends tell me they love everything I bake when I bring in my goodies. But the general public? Now, that is scary stuff. What happens if all these years I’ve been working toward my dream, and I literally suck at it?

“Fine, you’re lucky I love you.” Lauren grins, jumping into the driver’s seat, ignoring my internal crisis that’s happening as we head out into the early Sunday morning traffic.

It takes us a while to set up my stall, put up the gazebo, and dress my stand to look pretty with bunting across the front. Then we carefully fill the display cabinets with all the treats.

Lauren starts building the treat boxes, so I don’t have to do that while serving people. I double-check I have enough change in my pink money tin and that the credit card machine is working, then I suck in a deep breath as my nerves start to kick in.

“Here, enjoy this,” Lauren says, handing me a coffee.

I thank her as I take a sip of the delicious, warm drink.

“You are going to do brilliantly. People will be looking for holiday treats because who the fuck wants to bake shit?” Lauren chuckles.

“I’m hoping a load of people don’t want to bakeshit…” I laugh, “… and I sell out.” I warm my hands against the mug of coffee.

“Sorry I can’t stay all day, but I’ll be back this afternoon to help pack up. I promise,” Lauren says, sipping her coffee.

It’s her dad’s birthday, so I can’t be upset that she isn’t right beside me helping me all day today.

“Your dad’s cake is in the fridge at home. Don’t forget it, it’s his favorite.”

“He’ll love it! Thanks, babe, for making me look like the best daughter ever,” she says, blowing the steam off her coffee. “Oh, heads up … first customer coming.” She grins as she jumps behind the counter.

“Hi, welcome to Cakeology. What can I get for you today?”