Sugar and Spice

Chapter 10: Honey and Lavender

"Oui, c'est ça." Jennie peered over Irene's shoulder, and smiled encouragingly before handing her a sharp knife. "En rectangles."

Irene carefully took the knife and copying what she had seen Jennie do so many times before, lightly marked out even notches on the side of the large, square tray of pastry to indicate where she would cut. She had first expressed an interest in learning the craft of pâtisserie a couple of months ago, and Jennie had been delighted that the young woman, who had just left school last year, was so enthusiastic. It had just been too busy to organise anything in the way of teaching, but, now that things had quietened down a bit, Jennie had decided to make it a priority. And so she had asked if Irene would come in on a Thursday, not one of her normal days, in order to help make some of the pastries for the latter part of the week. Jennie was keeping it simple to start with. Individual almond and raspberry tarts. A chocolate and coffee mousse cake. A batch of macarons. Basics, but essentials in the pâtisserie. And the more of those basics that Irene could eventually take off her hands, the easier life would be.

It might also mean that, finally, she could start taking some more time off.

Jennie had never thought that the pâtisserie would become an imposition. It was not just her work. It was her passion. It was - and she felt a little pathetic admitting to this - her life. She had poured everything into it, heart and soul, and had been rewarded with a successful business that, up until now, she had found totally fulfilling. She had never really felt the need for anything else...and, she thought wryly, that was maybe just as well, since living above the shop made it very difficult to leave work at the bottom of the stairs even if she had wanted to. But now, she was starting to feel torn. She was starting to feel like she wanted some time that didn't involve making pastries, selling pastries, or tending to the administration side of running a pastry business.

She had something - or rather, someone - else in her life now that she wanted to start making a lot more room for.

That someone, of course, was Lisa, and the distance had not dampened Jennie's desire to spend as much time with her as she possibly could. They already talked a lot online and on the phone, and it always made her incredibly happy to hear Lisa's voice, despite the one horrendous phone bill that she had already had, and the second one that she was expecting any day now. But, however long they had to talk, it was never long enough, and the joyful buzz was beginning to be tinged with a sadness, a kind of despondency as it finally sunk in that Lisa really was four thousand miles and an ocean away.

Jennie had known that the initial, constant euphoria would wear off. She had known that it couldn't last forever. But what she hadn't been prepared for was the sudden, gripping sensation of pure loneliness that had struck her one night as she had climbed into bed. She had just signed off a Zoom call, and without Lisa's voice filling the void, her apartment had seemed empty. It had always been her haven, but then it had felt bare and cold. Suddenly, she had missed Lisa so badly that it was like a physical pain, and for the first time since the day Lisa had left Paris, she had felt like crying.