Caring Kiss

Chapter 2

1st person POV: Liltih

The alarm ringing awakened me. It rang twice and this is the second time it's going off since I hit snooze. It's now 6:30AM and I open my eyes to see my cat Mittens laying on the ledge by the window, licking her paw. Mittens likes to lay there most of the time to see people walking on the sidewalk or cars riding by, but is currently dark out and in my bedroom is dimmed. The rain is falling hard against the window and I'm surprised I could hear my clock go off.

I trip over books, clothes, and cat toys as I walk over to the lamp that's sitting on my desk at the other side of the room. It's a mess since I have too much stuff in such a small space. I turn on my light and walk to the bathroom as I rub my eyes and brush my teeth. I'm wearing a blue silk shirt along with shorts, and my wavy hair is a birds nest since I was too tired to wrap it up before I went to bed.

Last night, me and Margaret went to grab some ice cream and we ended up hanging out at her house for hours. We drove around the city listening to Mac DeMarco on repeat and when we got to her house,  I helped her finish her art painting of a beautiful sunset while planning out this week.

I brew up some hazelnut coffee and turn on a few lamps after I quickly got dressed into my Jeans, shirt, and apron. It's been busy these past few days up at the bakery since the winter pie came out. We're growing rapidly and I'm so excited to go to work everyday. Not just because I love baking pies in general, but because my two best friends in the whole world is doing it with me. It's the middle of winter and snow has been falling almost everyday.  It's my favorite time of the year.

I was of course the first one to get to the diner. Oliver probably overslept this morning after being up all night with his daughters and Margaret is pretty much always late since it takes her years to get ready and she stops at the coffee shop nearby. The sun is rising creating a perfect conclusion of colors across the sky. Patterson's Bakery is the only bakery in town and even though our town is small, it's always busy.

I turn on the lights, light a few cinnamon scented candles, and open the blinds a little. Margaret  had left the heater on before we left, so it's warm and cozy inside.  We've been doing  this ever since that one night when it was so cold inside, you could see each others breath when we spoke. After flipping the sign from the window to open, I head to the kitchen to turn on the ovens and it wasn't long after a few customers began strolling in.

There are some people who show up every morning, like one middle aged lady that shows up in business wear ordering the same drink. She's wearing a blue collar open front, black jeans with high heals and her brown hair falls down her back .She smiles and waves at me once she walks in and I smile back.

"Old fashioned coffee with 2 added sugars as usual?" I ask her. "Yes please,"

"That'll be $2.10." She grabs her wallet from her fancy leather purse, hands me 3 dollars and I give her change back. "Alrighty, I'm gonna go prepare that for you now," I say as I walk off into the kitchen.

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Oliver and Margaret are here taking  orders and serving pies. It's now the evening and a lot of friend groups are walking in. The clouds are covering up the sky creating a cold and calm overcast.  I spend the rest of the day baking  and adding them to the display at the front.  We have a full house, and the whole place smells like coffee. Voice's of laughter fill the air creating a friendly, welcome atmosphere.

When work is over, me and Margaret say goodbye to Oliver and head over to my house to hangout.

I really miss him coming over and hanging out with us, but he's been busy taking care of kids and being a husband. It was only last fall when we went to his black & gold themed wedding. Not very many people attended, so it was just me, Margaret, his parents, brothers and sisters.

I turn on the lights as we stumble through the door. "Can you cook something up? I'm starving," says Margaret as she throws herself on the couch. I open the pantry. "There's really nothing to eat but.... Mac and cheese, and noodles.

I'll take either, just warm something up," she says. I can hear the trees brushing against the window from all the wind that's blowing. I love the winter, but lord do I hate it when it's cold and windy at the same time.

While her food is in the oven, we play poker on the floor in front of the fireplace. "Alight alright, you can stop winning now, we get it," I say when she draws her last card. Margaret laughs. "Come on. I beat you 4 times in a row, you've got to be better than that", she says as she brushes the hair out of her face and yawns. "You're the one who taught me how to play."

"Whatever," I say. It's true, I did teach her how to play, but somehow she beats me every time. About 20 more minutes go by. "Alright, I'm getting sleepy," says Margaret as she yawns. "Can I borrow some pjs for the night," she asks as she stands and stretches.
"Yeah of course. There's a few sets in my closet, you can wear any," I say. "Okay, thanks."
Margaret walks off into my room and I begin picking up the cards and juice boxes.

That Friday night, we fell asleep on the living room floor watching animated films while she ate the mac and cheese I cooked for her. These are the moments  I wished lasted for eternity.