Possibilities

・☆《Part Twenty-One》☆・

A pink swirl. Yellow petals. Light and dark green leaves here and there. Renna filled the top of the cupcakes, ignoring her mistakes as best as she could. Red to make a rose. Tiny purple flowers. White dots. She enjoyed it. Forced the negative thoughts from her mind.

It's fun, she told herself. It doesn't matter if I mess up. People will still eat it.

Marnie gave her some tips and tricks when she noticed Renna struggle. Renna took all her advice on board, but still didn't see much of an improvement in her work. I'll keep practicing until I'm as good as Marnie.

"How's that boyfriend of yours doing?" Marnie asked.

"Good. I'm seeing him tonight." Renna smiled. "We're going to hang out at his place."

"Do you have anything planned?" She placed her colourful cupcake down and picked up another.

"I'm not too sure. I think we're just going to watch some movies and eat dinner."

"That sounds fun. Calvin and I used to enjoy simple dates like that. We didn't need anything too fancy or expensive." Holding up the hand holding the icing bag, she showed her sparkling silver ring above her plain silver band. "I mean, look at this. This engagement ring costed us a hundred and fifty dollars. It's perfect to me. I never needed anything more expensive. He could have given me a plastic ring and I still would have said yes. Because I loved him with everything I had."

Renna's heart warmed like toast in a toaster. "That's so sweet. I hope I get to experience love like that one day."

"You will, honey. You will. It sounds like you've got yourself a keeper right now. Someone who wants to be with you rather than impress you with money."

The cruise dinner popped into Renna's mind. That night would have been expensive. With the reservations, meals, and the necklace. Was that to impress me? Or to be with me?

Deciding to keep that date private knowledge, she replied, "Yeah. I like being with him."

"Does he show he enjoys your company?"

"Yeah." Renna didn't have to think hard to know he wanted more of her company. "He keeps asking me to spend the night because he want to hang out for longer."

Marnie stopped with the cupcake and looked Renna in the eye. "But you don't want to? Is that it?"

"No. Well, yeah. No. I don't know."

Marnie chuckled and returned to decorating.

Renna sighed. "I'm just worried about the relationship moving too fast."

"That's understandable." Renna watched Marnie work, and listened to the advice. "You need to go at your speed. If he's moving faster than you, just communicate it with him. Tell him you need to slow down for the time being, and he should understand."

Would he? Sometimes I really thing Levi doesn't understand what it means to be asexual, even though I've explained it to him. "What if he doesn't understand?"

"You have to help him understand. Talk to him, and explain it from your side. Dating should be fun. Enjoy yourselves. Don't put unnecessary pressure on the relationship. Go to his place tonight, and just enjoy each other's company."

That's what I want. Fun. Fun but calm. Comfortable love. Enjoyment. No pressure or tension. We're going to have fun tonight. It's going to be a good night, I can feel it. Movies and dinner. It's going to be great. I won't—What's burning?

As Marnie started sniffing the air, Renna remembered the cupcakes in the oven.

"Oh no!" Renna exclaimed as she dropped the icing bag and cupcake, and raced into the back. She yanked open the oven door and a billow of smoke hit her in the face. It surged up her nostrils and swirled in her lungs, forcing her to cough.

Marnie walked in behind her and Renna turned to her to say, "I'm so sorry. I thought I put the timer on. I should have—"

"It's alright, dear," Marnie said, holding her hand up to cut Renna off. "Could you open the window before the smoke alarm goes off?"

"Yes." Renna raced to the window and fiddled with the latch. Right before she could get it open, a high-pitched beep echoed throughout the small shop. She ran back, grabbed a tea-towel, and fanned the smoke alarm above her head.

With all the smoke gone and the beeping stopped, Renna put down the towel and stood over the tray of burnt cupcakes after Marnie pulled them out of the oven and sat them on a wire rack on the counter. Vanilla cupcakes that look like charcoal. Black all around.

They both pulled the hot cupcakes out of the tray, and pulled the papers away to show the blackened outside. As they ripped them in half, they found the middles to be decent. A burnt flavour had seeped through them but Renna and Marnie didn't mind. They picked at them as they made more batter, eating the tiny good pieces.

Marnie left Renna to finish the batter as customers began to come in, looking for a delicious treat or to set a future order.

Renna remembered to set the timer without a doubt and joined Marnie out the front as she finished taking an order for a birthday cake for the next week.

They filled the display case with baked goods and chilled deserts from the fridge made yesterday.

When Renna heard the timer go off, she couldn't leave the customer, but noticed Marnie leave to save the new batch.

The customer took their order, thanked Renna with a smile, and left. Renna joined Marnie again to help decorate. With new icing they decorated with a mixture of blues, purple, and black for a galaxy themed design. They sprinkled edible silver glitter and tiny white stars over the top of them.

Renna held pride for herself and her designs. Her cupcakes didn't look too bad. With happiness and excitement for this wonderful day—aside from burning cupcakes—she decided to purchase four of the space cupcakes. She put them into a white square take away box and stored them in the fridge for later. The rest got placed into the display case for customers to buy.

Halfway through the day, another girl—Julie—arrived for her shift. The three of them baked and served. Decorated, cleaned, and mixed. Had fun. Danced to songs until a customer walked in.

By the end of the day, they had sold almost all of the goodies in the display box. As closing time neared, the three girls prepared a few treats that could be placed in the fridge overnight for tomorrow.

They said their goodbyes, and parted ways at the locked shop door.

Renna drove home, singing happy songs all the way. She got out of her car, taking her cupcake box with her, and began walking towards her apartment. Before she reached the elevator, she remembered the beach bag and turned back to get it out of the back of her car. As she reached her car, her phone rang. She pulled it out to see Briella's name for a second before the phone call ended.

"Renna!" she heard from behind her, and turned to see Briella getting out of her car. "I was just calling you to tell you I'm here. You good to go?"

"No," Renna said, opening her car and grabbing her beach bag. "I just got home. I want to change and take some things with me."

Briella stood beside her. "Alright. I'll come up with you."As they began to walk, Briella eyed her beach bag and laughed. "Trust you to only get that out now."

☆