Foodies & Muso's
Damn clients...
Foodies & Muso’s – Chapter 1
Early June 2015 – Comfy Bakes
“Ok.” Lily said as she pinned a few reference pictures to the wall of Minas Tirith from Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings. An order had come in several weeks ago, for a cake replica of the fantasy place and Lily was about to start making it as the date the customer wanted it for was approaching.
The customer wanted it to be 1m wide, high and deep so it was going to be an interesting challenge, but as a cake artist – this is what Lily loved to do, and not just through the bakery, but for her own enjoyment.
She adjusted her apron and grabbed a binder from the recipe shelf to find the vanilla cake recipe that they used for large orders, quickly finding it in the V section as she and Tori, her best friend, had organised the recipes into groups of what they were then they got alphabetical.
Lily then pinned that recipe next to the planetary mixer they used for making either frosting or large batches of cake mixture or cookie dough and began gathering ingredients after getting a drink from the minifridge they had for that reason and washing her hands after retying her shoulder-length bright blue hair out of the way.
“Hey girls! Everything good over there?” she called out to the other bakers that were working on shop products, practising decorating techniques or smaller orders. Lily and Tori took on the big ones as they had the most experience with them.
“We’re good Lil!” she heard Anna call back, Inna adding in her Russian accent, “You starting that Minas Tirith cake now?” “Yeah, I am. Yell out if you need anything, this is gonna take a while” “Sure thing” Inna said as Lily started measuring out butter and sugar into the mixer.
The next few hours saw Lily adding eggs, vanilla essence, milk, baking powder and self-raising flour into the cake mix then baking the mixture in large cake tins. Anna took over out front, letting Tori catch up on management stuff and social media things while Inna kept piping decorative details onto a wedding cake being picked up the next day.
Then the phone rang and Tori answered it. “Hi thanks for calling Comfy Bakes this is Tori” “Yeah hi whatever, this is Emma calling about the Minas Tirith cake I ordered” Tori internally groaned, nothing good usually came out of phone calls like these especially when clients spoke the way Emma did.
“Yes, what about it?” “Oh, I don’t need it anymore, we found a better cake and I want my money back” she said in her annoying nasally voice that made Tori visibly cringe. This time she did groan, but had taken the phone away so the client couldn’t hear.
Lily had been busting her butt over this cake and now that it was being cancelled… she knew it wouldn’t go down well, at least Logan wasn’t on premises to hear his mom lose it.
“Well we can cancel the cake but as you were informed upon ordering the cake and confirming said order, 70% deposits are required and are not refundable. Also, per our records no further payments beyond that upfront deposit have been made so you will not be refunded any money” Tori explained, wondering how she was going to explain this to Lily without her blowing a fuse.
Emma shrieked causing Tori to almost throw the phone away from her and she ranted about how that was hard-earned money and that she deserved to have it back and that she had made payments but that didn’t faze Tori, it only worsened the headache that reading through bills and statements gave her shortly before Emma rang.
“Look,” Tori almost snarled, she was getting sick of this person. “We take our record-keeping very seriously and if you had actually paid any of the remaining 30% we would have known and refunded that amount only. But since we have not received payment you will not be getting a refund of any kind. Good day to you! Bitch” Tori said firmly, muttering the last word as she angrily pressed the hang up button and sat the phone back on its wall cradle.
“Ugghhh” she groaned, smacking her head against the wall. “What’s wrong Tori?” Anna asked, handing her a caramel cappuccino which she knew was Tori’s favourite drink when pissed. “That snotty-nosed brat Emma rang and cancelled the Minas Tirith cake that Lily has been busting her ass on planning it out and now making it. I’m dreading telling her since I know how much she hates big orders like these being cancelled” Tori explained, sighing in relief as the caramel flavoured coffee raced down her throat.
Anna & Inna cringed, the latter having heard Tori’s explanation and brought her a chocolate cupcake. “I don’t envy you there, she isn’t gonna take it well no matter how you tell her, I remember her working so hard on the AT-AT cake three months ago, then having that cancelled” said Inna, shuddering.
“Well I’m gonna stay out front and serve customers” “I’ll do the temperature checks on the fridges and freezers” they said simultaneously as Anna darted back out the front and Inna practically sped into the back room to get started on the temperature checks as they all heard the door to the bakery opened and Lily came in with a triple cheeseburger.
“Everything ok?” Lily asked. “Yeah” “Yes” “Of course!” everyone said a little too quickly. Lily frowned but shrugged it off and went to the small room where everyone took lunch. “Hey Lil?” “Yeah” “When you’re done eating that I need to talk to you” Lily nodded, chewing a mouthful of cheeseburger as she sat down.
“Ok, so what did you want to talk to me about? And why was everyone looking at me like I was gonna explode?” said Lily, rubbing her knees that were replaced out of habit after tossing her cheeseburger wrapper. I sighed, “Well the client that wanted the Minas Tirith cake rang up a little while ago when you were out for lunch” Tori began. Lily sighed, “What did she want?” she asked, rubbing her temples, sounding exhausted.
“She cancelled and demanded her money back even though I reminded her of our deposit policy” Tori blurted out. Lily blinked a few times, her face losing colour, hands curling into fists. “Again, a whole lot slower?” she said, schooling her features into what had been dubbed her ‘resting bitch face’ with tone to match. “The person who ordered the Minas Tirith cake you’ve been working so hard on has cancelled and demanded her money back despite the reminders about our deposit policy” Tori repeated.
Lily scowled, “Fucking dammit, not again” she shouted, slamming her fist on the table. Tori knew how hard Lily had been working on that cake so she immediately had Lily sit down with an ice-cold can of coke and a chocolate bar while she raced to where Inna and Anna were, hearing Lily sniffle a bit. Even Logan knew how much she was busting her butt on it.
“Girls, can you two manage the shop for the afternoon?” “Yeah of course, Bella comes in in 20 so we’ll have her on hand to help” said Anna, Inna nodding. Tori sighed, “Good. I’m gonna take Lily out for the afternoon, she’s pissed about the order and some personal stuff that’s been coming to a head recently” “Oh crap, maybe her fiancé has something to do with it, I heard her cussing him out yesterday and a few times before that” said Inna, sending a worried look to where Lily was, rubbing her eyes and the bridge of her nose, glasses and stuff on the table.
Tori nodded, “Yeah Aiden hasn’t been making things easy for her lately. It wouldn’t surprise me if the weddings called off in the next few months. Anyway, I’ll take her out to let her cool off, she damn well needs it. The guys will probably call in at some point, help out with the orders and running the store” she said. “Ok, I’ll keep working on the cake, no sense wasting it on that brat of a client” said Inna, giving Lily a hug and mumbling something before going to where the cake was from where Lily had left it earlier.
“Don’t tell her I said this or anything like that, but I think she & Jake would make a far better match than her & Aiden ever were, even Logan loves listening to BVB’s music and trying to play along on his guitar” said Anna, going back to an order she’d been working on that morning. Tori thought over that for a second, Anna had a point there. Jake Pitts of Black Veil Brides did have more in common with Lily Potter of Comfy Bakes than Aiden did.
They both loved video games, despite playing on different platforms, I’d seen on Jake’s channel that he was an Xbox guy while Lily favoured Nintendo and PlayStation. They both enjoyed Call Of Duty even though Lily was nowhere near as into it as Jake was, and she wasn’t into the online aspect anyway.
They had pets that they adored – Jake had a tank of fishes, a Mini Pin-Bichon mix female called Trixy and a purebred Boston Terrier named Ernie. Lily had two cats, both males named Ratchet & Clank after two of the main characters in her favourite game series. Ratchet was an oriental shorthair that remined me of dobby from Harry Potter with golden colouring and Clank was a Russian Blue that had longhair genes from one of his parents as he was reaaaally fluffy which I know one of her friends Panama adored about him.
Anyway, that was only some of the things they had in common and there was also the fact BVB was Lily’s favourite band and she had a crush on Jake. Coming back to the present, I saw she was fighting back tears. “Come on girl, let’s jet for the day, get some movies and snacks, maybe hit up the range” I said, cleaning Lily’s glasses and putting them back on for her, tossing her scraps in the bin as she stood up, putting her phone in her pocket and tossing her apron in the laundry basket we had.
She nodded and allowed me to steer her out of the bakery, stopping to quickly explain to our baristas what was going on. They shooed us out as I told them what was happening, saying they’d manage this afternoon. I steered Lily towards my car since I had picked her up this morning, we often carpooled and usually the first one ready to go picked up the other person. Logan was at school for the day and was staying with Lily’s dad for a few days so we didn’t need to worry about picking him up.
Lily climbed into the front passenger seat and as soon as the doors were shut and warm air was turned on – damn cold outside today – she let out a scream of frustration. I rubbed her shoulder and handed her the CD wallet I kept in the car and let her pick out something to listen to as I started the engine and pulled out of the carpark, heading to a fuel station to fill up before heading wherever.
“Anything you feel like listening to?” “Definitely not Aiden’s voice anytime soon that’s for sure” Lily snorted humourlessly. “For that matter, I don’t really want to hear of any more custom orders for a few weeks at least” she added, picking out the Mario Kart 8 soundtrack we’d put onto a disc. I nodded, turning off the engine and hopping out long enough to fuel up and grab a small snack & drink to hold us both over long enough to grab snacks from wherever. Hopping back in I started the car and heard the track for Mario Kart stadium play.
“Not a bad track, but still a little boring but then again it is a beginning track and they usually are like that” I commented, Lily nodded and taking a bite of her potato scallop, holding my sausage roll over so I could take a bite. After a few minutes of driving we pulled up at an open range that Lily liked coming to now and again.
“Fancy blasting a few targets to bits?” I asked, turning to her as she put her jacket back on. She smirked, “Always” she grinned as we laughed and hopped out, me shrugging on my dinosaur hoodie. Lily walked in ahead of me, giving me a perfect view of the back of her jacket which said ‘mourner’ like Jake from BVB.
We spent about an hour/hour & a half at the range, trying out different guns, I like the handguns, Lily favours the rifles, especially when they have recoil, something about adding to the experience of using that piece of technology, it’s all lost on me outside some games we play together.
She tested out a few new guns and placed an order for one – she’s licensed to have them and keeps them very securely shut away, not even I know where they’re kept. After that we left the range and stopped in at a shopping centre and did a little shopping – Lily spotted the Guitar Hero Live game she was excited about and bought it for PS4 and some other games she’d been eyeing off, snagging a Pikachu beanie on sale as well.
I bought a few plushies since I couldn’t resist them and eventually we made our way to the grocery stores in the centre and left with drinks and snacks, driving back to Lily’s house and spending the arvo playing games and watching movies, also catching up on various YouTube channels we followed, before eventually crashing on the big air mattress we dug out for this reason with the cats curled in between us
EOC
Early June 2015 – Comfy Bakes
“Ok.” Lily said as she pinned a few reference pictures to the wall of Minas Tirith from Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings. An order had come in several weeks ago, for a cake replica of the fantasy place and Lily was about to start making it as the date the customer wanted it for was approaching.
The customer wanted it to be 1m wide, high and deep so it was going to be an interesting challenge, but as a cake artist – this is what Lily loved to do, and not just through the bakery, but for her own enjoyment.
She adjusted her apron and grabbed a binder from the recipe shelf to find the vanilla cake recipe that they used for large orders, quickly finding it in the V section as she and Tori, her best friend, had organised the recipes into groups of what they were then they got alphabetical.
Lily then pinned that recipe next to the planetary mixer they used for making either frosting or large batches of cake mixture or cookie dough and began gathering ingredients after getting a drink from the minifridge they had for that reason and washing her hands after retying her shoulder-length bright blue hair out of the way.
“Hey girls! Everything good over there?” she called out to the other bakers that were working on shop products, practising decorating techniques or smaller orders. Lily and Tori took on the big ones as they had the most experience with them.
“We’re good Lil!” she heard Anna call back, Inna adding in her Russian accent, “You starting that Minas Tirith cake now?” “Yeah, I am. Yell out if you need anything, this is gonna take a while” “Sure thing” Inna said as Lily started measuring out butter and sugar into the mixer.
The next few hours saw Lily adding eggs, vanilla essence, milk, baking powder and self-raising flour into the cake mix then baking the mixture in large cake tins. Anna took over out front, letting Tori catch up on management stuff and social media things while Inna kept piping decorative details onto a wedding cake being picked up the next day.
Then the phone rang and Tori answered it. “Hi thanks for calling Comfy Bakes this is Tori” “Yeah hi whatever, this is Emma calling about the Minas Tirith cake I ordered” Tori internally groaned, nothing good usually came out of phone calls like these especially when clients spoke the way Emma did.
“Yes, what about it?” “Oh, I don’t need it anymore, we found a better cake and I want my money back” she said in her annoying nasally voice that made Tori visibly cringe. This time she did groan, but had taken the phone away so the client couldn’t hear.
Lily had been busting her butt over this cake and now that it was being cancelled… she knew it wouldn’t go down well, at least Logan wasn’t on premises to hear his mom lose it.
“Well we can cancel the cake but as you were informed upon ordering the cake and confirming said order, 70% deposits are required and are not refundable. Also, per our records no further payments beyond that upfront deposit have been made so you will not be refunded any money” Tori explained, wondering how she was going to explain this to Lily without her blowing a fuse.
Emma shrieked causing Tori to almost throw the phone away from her and she ranted about how that was hard-earned money and that she deserved to have it back and that she had made payments but that didn’t faze Tori, it only worsened the headache that reading through bills and statements gave her shortly before Emma rang.
“Look,” Tori almost snarled, she was getting sick of this person. “We take our record-keeping very seriously and if you had actually paid any of the remaining 30% we would have known and refunded that amount only. But since we have not received payment you will not be getting a refund of any kind. Good day to you! Bitch” Tori said firmly, muttering the last word as she angrily pressed the hang up button and sat the phone back on its wall cradle.
“Ugghhh” she groaned, smacking her head against the wall. “What’s wrong Tori?” Anna asked, handing her a caramel cappuccino which she knew was Tori’s favourite drink when pissed. “That snotty-nosed brat Emma rang and cancelled the Minas Tirith cake that Lily has been busting her ass on planning it out and now making it. I’m dreading telling her since I know how much she hates big orders like these being cancelled” Tori explained, sighing in relief as the caramel flavoured coffee raced down her throat.
Anna & Inna cringed, the latter having heard Tori’s explanation and brought her a chocolate cupcake. “I don’t envy you there, she isn’t gonna take it well no matter how you tell her, I remember her working so hard on the AT-AT cake three months ago, then having that cancelled” said Inna, shuddering.
“Well I’m gonna stay out front and serve customers” “I’ll do the temperature checks on the fridges and freezers” they said simultaneously as Anna darted back out the front and Inna practically sped into the back room to get started on the temperature checks as they all heard the door to the bakery opened and Lily came in with a triple cheeseburger.
“Everything ok?” Lily asked. “Yeah” “Yes” “Of course!” everyone said a little too quickly. Lily frowned but shrugged it off and went to the small room where everyone took lunch. “Hey Lil?” “Yeah” “When you’re done eating that I need to talk to you” Lily nodded, chewing a mouthful of cheeseburger as she sat down.
“Ok, so what did you want to talk to me about? And why was everyone looking at me like I was gonna explode?” said Lily, rubbing her knees that were replaced out of habit after tossing her cheeseburger wrapper. I sighed, “Well the client that wanted the Minas Tirith cake rang up a little while ago when you were out for lunch” Tori began. Lily sighed, “What did she want?” she asked, rubbing her temples, sounding exhausted.
“She cancelled and demanded her money back even though I reminded her of our deposit policy” Tori blurted out. Lily blinked a few times, her face losing colour, hands curling into fists. “Again, a whole lot slower?” she said, schooling her features into what had been dubbed her ‘resting bitch face’ with tone to match. “The person who ordered the Minas Tirith cake you’ve been working so hard on has cancelled and demanded her money back despite the reminders about our deposit policy” Tori repeated.
Lily scowled, “Fucking dammit, not again” she shouted, slamming her fist on the table. Tori knew how hard Lily had been working on that cake so she immediately had Lily sit down with an ice-cold can of coke and a chocolate bar while she raced to where Inna and Anna were, hearing Lily sniffle a bit. Even Logan knew how much she was busting her butt on it.
“Girls, can you two manage the shop for the afternoon?” “Yeah of course, Bella comes in in 20 so we’ll have her on hand to help” said Anna, Inna nodding. Tori sighed, “Good. I’m gonna take Lily out for the afternoon, she’s pissed about the order and some personal stuff that’s been coming to a head recently” “Oh crap, maybe her fiancé has something to do with it, I heard her cussing him out yesterday and a few times before that” said Inna, sending a worried look to where Lily was, rubbing her eyes and the bridge of her nose, glasses and stuff on the table.
Tori nodded, “Yeah Aiden hasn’t been making things easy for her lately. It wouldn’t surprise me if the weddings called off in the next few months. Anyway, I’ll take her out to let her cool off, she damn well needs it. The guys will probably call in at some point, help out with the orders and running the store” she said. “Ok, I’ll keep working on the cake, no sense wasting it on that brat of a client” said Inna, giving Lily a hug and mumbling something before going to where the cake was from where Lily had left it earlier.
“Don’t tell her I said this or anything like that, but I think she & Jake would make a far better match than her & Aiden ever were, even Logan loves listening to BVB’s music and trying to play along on his guitar” said Anna, going back to an order she’d been working on that morning. Tori thought over that for a second, Anna had a point there. Jake Pitts of Black Veil Brides did have more in common with Lily Potter of Comfy Bakes than Aiden did.
They both loved video games, despite playing on different platforms, I’d seen on Jake’s channel that he was an Xbox guy while Lily favoured Nintendo and PlayStation. They both enjoyed Call Of Duty even though Lily was nowhere near as into it as Jake was, and she wasn’t into the online aspect anyway.
They had pets that they adored – Jake had a tank of fishes, a Mini Pin-Bichon mix female called Trixy and a purebred Boston Terrier named Ernie. Lily had two cats, both males named Ratchet & Clank after two of the main characters in her favourite game series. Ratchet was an oriental shorthair that remined me of dobby from Harry Potter with golden colouring and Clank was a Russian Blue that had longhair genes from one of his parents as he was reaaaally fluffy which I know one of her friends Panama adored about him.
Anyway, that was only some of the things they had in common and there was also the fact BVB was Lily’s favourite band and she had a crush on Jake. Coming back to the present, I saw she was fighting back tears. “Come on girl, let’s jet for the day, get some movies and snacks, maybe hit up the range” I said, cleaning Lily’s glasses and putting them back on for her, tossing her scraps in the bin as she stood up, putting her phone in her pocket and tossing her apron in the laundry basket we had.
She nodded and allowed me to steer her out of the bakery, stopping to quickly explain to our baristas what was going on. They shooed us out as I told them what was happening, saying they’d manage this afternoon. I steered Lily towards my car since I had picked her up this morning, we often carpooled and usually the first one ready to go picked up the other person. Logan was at school for the day and was staying with Lily’s dad for a few days so we didn’t need to worry about picking him up.
Lily climbed into the front passenger seat and as soon as the doors were shut and warm air was turned on – damn cold outside today – she let out a scream of frustration. I rubbed her shoulder and handed her the CD wallet I kept in the car and let her pick out something to listen to as I started the engine and pulled out of the carpark, heading to a fuel station to fill up before heading wherever.
“Anything you feel like listening to?” “Definitely not Aiden’s voice anytime soon that’s for sure” Lily snorted humourlessly. “For that matter, I don’t really want to hear of any more custom orders for a few weeks at least” she added, picking out the Mario Kart 8 soundtrack we’d put onto a disc. I nodded, turning off the engine and hopping out long enough to fuel up and grab a small snack & drink to hold us both over long enough to grab snacks from wherever. Hopping back in I started the car and heard the track for Mario Kart stadium play.
“Not a bad track, but still a little boring but then again it is a beginning track and they usually are like that” I commented, Lily nodded and taking a bite of her potato scallop, holding my sausage roll over so I could take a bite. After a few minutes of driving we pulled up at an open range that Lily liked coming to now and again.
“Fancy blasting a few targets to bits?” I asked, turning to her as she put her jacket back on. She smirked, “Always” she grinned as we laughed and hopped out, me shrugging on my dinosaur hoodie. Lily walked in ahead of me, giving me a perfect view of the back of her jacket which said ‘mourner’ like Jake from BVB.
We spent about an hour/hour & a half at the range, trying out different guns, I like the handguns, Lily favours the rifles, especially when they have recoil, something about adding to the experience of using that piece of technology, it’s all lost on me outside some games we play together.
She tested out a few new guns and placed an order for one – she’s licensed to have them and keeps them very securely shut away, not even I know where they’re kept. After that we left the range and stopped in at a shopping centre and did a little shopping – Lily spotted the Guitar Hero Live game she was excited about and bought it for PS4 and some other games she’d been eyeing off, snagging a Pikachu beanie on sale as well.
I bought a few plushies since I couldn’t resist them and eventually we made our way to the grocery stores in the centre and left with drinks and snacks, driving back to Lily’s house and spending the arvo playing games and watching movies, also catching up on various YouTube channels we followed, before eventually crashing on the big air mattress we dug out for this reason with the cats curled in between us
EOC
Notes
So here's chapter 1 of my new story Foodies & Muso's. It's Jake/OC so he won't be paired with Inna but she will be a minor character. Speaking of Jake & the guys, they'll start trickling in, starting with Jake next chapter
Enjoy!
