Morning all and happy Friday. Ready to see what the last prompt of the week brings? Excellent. Timers set for fifteen minutes and off we go.
That is so not where I thought this would go. I am going to be noodling with the details of this set up for the rest of the day, I can tell.
Friday, August 21st: She added the last swirl of icing to the cake.
She added the last swirl of icing to the cake. Finally, it was done. The last item needed for the party. The other baked goods were created, filled iced or decorated as need be. They were a mix of sweet and savory items and they were all boxed up and loaded. With this final swirl, she could step back and let this cake too be loaded into the refrigerated truck and taken across town. She took a deep breath and signaled the waiting others.
Never had she worked down to the wire like this.
She was always prepared, always did the planning that would allow the cake to sit in the walk in over night so there would be only the loading the morning of the event. However, this week had not gone to plan. Yesterday had been especially brutal.
The others took the cake as she backed away. Normally it would be a two person job but today it was all hands on deck. Given yesterday’s incident extra people were sent to guard the cake and other edibles as they left her shop and went off to their event.
Up until yesterday morning everything was on track. They came in early and got the front counter filled. They dealt with the morning rush and when it died down, she took the cash deposit over to the bank. As though her leaving was some sort of signal, the attackers arrived. Her business and thankfully her people weren’t hurt. They were herded into the corner and made to watch as every baked good in the place was destroyed. The message was clear.
It was the event that was the target.
The guns weren’t real, they were toys designed to look like the real thing. But the fists were real as were the bruises that were incurred by the few staff members who tried to fight back. They didn’t find out they were fake until they were gone and one of them left his toy behind. The police had not been amused.
Neither has her staff.
Her business partner had a black eye and a split lip. She saw him watch the progression of the final cake out of the door with a stone face. His lip was still slightly swollen which gave him a slightly pouty look but she knew he was simply mad. She could see it radiating from his eyes as though they were heated laser beams.
She realized she was holding her breath and let it out slowly. Dan and John would be driving the van to the event followed by a veritable army of protection. If she weren’t so exhausted she would have laughed at such protection for a bakery.
She returned from the bank and while they cleaned up what needed to be cleaned up, they also got to work. The event was still going to happen and they still needed to provide the food. She wasn’t certain if the attack was solely one aimed at the event and those putting it on or if someone was trying to make her renege on a contract. She had never failed to deliver before and she wasn’t going to start now. She didn’t want to accept this contract but against her Beter judgement and the advice of her business partner, she had.
She wasn’t going to let anyone stop her now.
As soon as the police left, she rolled up her sleeves and got back to work. She worked through the night and could feel exhaustion tug at her. She would not let herself rest until the call came telling her that everything arrived safely. With the last cake out of the door, she began the clean up.
Ten til Midnight 