Throne Of Allure

Chapter 10

Daisy

I make my way, crossing the street to get to the best bakery in Vafra. Ms. Margret is the sweetest woman known to man and she adores me. She also makes the best treats. From her biscuits to cookies to her cake. Even the king and queen buy from her cause she makes it the best. 

The door chimes when I enter and a smile spreads Ms. Margret's face when she sees me. I grin at her, waving my hand. She motions for me to sit down while she finished giving her current customer their order. 

"Daisy!" She exclaims as I stand up to hug her. "I haven't seen you here in so long. I missed you so much."

I chuckle, hugging her tight. "I missed you too, Mrs. Margret"

"I told you to call me Margret." That she did. Probably more than hundreds of times.

Margret grabs my hands and leads me to the back kitchen so I can greet Oliver, her husband of fifty years. They got married way too young at the age of fifteen but their parents disapproved so they left and came to Vafra to be with each other. Their love story is cute and despite all the hardships and criticism they faced here, both of them loved each other unconditionally. 

"Daisy! It's been so long." Oliver dries his hands on the apron and rushes to hug me. 

"Oli, I missed you so much!" I kiss him on the cheek and hugging him one last time.

"Missed me or my blueberry pie?" Oliver looks at me with a knowing look and I laugh.

"Of course you," I reply, looking at him teasingly. "And your pie that you make only for me."

Oliver puts his hand on his heart in mock hurt. "I knew it. You love my pie more than me."

Then we both start laughing and Margret shakes her head at us as she puts her cookie tray into the oven. 

I love coming here to Margret and Oliver. They're like my second parents and they didn't have kids on their own so they treat me like theirs. My parents also adore them, always checking up on them twice weekly. I'm glad to be here after so long. 

"How's everything?" Margret asks. moving across the kitchen. "Your bar exam prep going good?"

I nod, smiling as Oli hands me a red velvet cookie. "Yeah. It's going well. Bit tired and all but I'm ready."

Oli shuffles through the fridge, trying to find the whiskey he tries to hide from Margret but she knows about it and now lets him drink it occasionally. 

"If you ever need help with your exams, just let me know." He smiles as he shows me the small whiskey hip flask in his hand.

I chuckle softly, sealing my lips and throwing the key to ensure that Margret remains unaware of our secret. I catch her eye across the room and she looks at me with a knowing look. I shake my head with a small smile.

Oli stuffs the hip flask into his pant pockets and gets back to talking to me. 

"Oh," he raises his eyebrow. "I heard Prince Louis is getting married."

Margret claps her hands in excitement. "Yes! I almost forgot. Is it true?"

I offer a slight nod, confirming the news. It's already spread across Vafra but Margret and Oli don't keep up with gossip. They might have thought it was gossip.

Oli looks at me thoughtfully. "When you and your friends came here, I almost thought he had a crush on you until he opened his mouth and insulted you."

I cringe. I remember that day. My friends and I came here so I could introduce them to Oli and Margret. I wanted to buy Molasses. Margret makes them amazing well, but then Louis opened his mouth and insulted my taste and said "Not only do you have bad taste in humans, but food too." I remember Oli looking at him with an angry expression but then calmed down after Margret slapped him on his head.

"Well," I begin, playing with my hands. "We're kinda friends now."

Both of them remain silent to the confession and I start wondering what's going through their minds.

Margret breaks the silence first, her voice gentle but curious. "How'd that happen, sweetheart?" 

I shrug. "During the past few days, I'm not sure, we've been somewhat friendly to each other and then during the ball, I comforted him when he found out he was going to get married." I pause, looking at them both. "Then I found out why we hated each other. He just annoyed me for no reason as a kid and since I did it back, we got, what? Used to it, I guess. It was childish, really but all that is in the past."

Oli and Margret exchange a glance before talking to me about how misunderstandings are normal and everyone goes through them. I felt like a kid again when my parents lectured me that it was wrong to slap my brother just because I thought he stole my cookie. He did. Stole my cookie, that is.

"Speaking of changes!" Margret brightens up, running to the fridge. "I came up with a new brownie recipe. Want to try it?" 

I grin widely. "Of course!"

Margret takes out the glass tray from the fridge and starts cutting the brownies into pieces. After she's done, she takes out a piece and handfeeds it to me. My eyes widen as I chew the desert. It's sweet with a hint of spice. Maybe a bit of tea flavour? I'm not very sure but this brownie is amazing. 

"How is it?" She asks nervously, waiting for my reaction. 

"Amazing!" I exclaim as I'm done eating it. "It's so good, Margret. What'd you put in it?"

Oli answers for her, listing the ingredients that I never tasted or had in a brownie. "Bourbon, chocolate chips and Earl Grey tea. Oh, and also a bit of lavender"

"Bourbon and Earl Grey? That's wild." I comment. "I didn't even feel the taste of lavender." 

Margret who is satisfied that I liked the brownies is now packing them and putting them in a cute pink Hello Kitty container so I can take it home. 

After chatting and catching up with them, I decided to head back home and continue writing my book or else my agent would kill me for not finishing it. 

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(A/N: school ends next week. i am thrilled. i seriously have nothing to do during summer. anyone know good things to do in dxb?)