A Very Stormy Holiday

Chapter 5

Pai follows Phan into Sky's shop. He has never been so grateful for his sister's hobby as he is today.

Sky barely glances up from his drawing pad. "Phan just got a new shipment of manhwa you might find interesting. Second row." He doesn't greet Pai at all.

Phan squeals and heads in that direction.

Pai moves behind the counter uninvited and looks down over Sky's shoulder. "What are you working on, my Sky?"

Sky sighs and says, "not yours." Pai doesn't miss the way his lips twitch. "Rain asked me to help design Lys's birthday cake. He wanted something nerdy as he put it."

"Oh is it Lys's birthday?" Pai asks. Then mutters that he probably owes her a pony.

Phan comes to the counter with a big stack of books and cranes her neck to see the drawing. "Oh Sky, it's gorgeous. Lys will love this."

"So what show is this character from?" Pai asks.

Both Sky and Phan roll their eyes at this. "It's obviously Luffy from the One Piece anime. Sky are you sure you like my brother? He is such an idiot. You would be better off with me." Phan says.

"Excuse me, I'm right here." Pai says, "Besides, wouldn't that make the pretty owner of the bed and breakfast that you spend half your time flirting with sad?"

Phan sticks out her tongue at her brother. "So, when is Lys's birthday? I'll get her a new comic if you let me know one she doesn't have."

"It's next Saturday, and she gave me a list." Sky laughs at this and pulls out what looks to be a small book of loose-leaf paper. Pai grabs a page at random, "We'll get her these."

"P'Pai there are almost 7000 baht worth of books on that page, you can't get them all for an eight, well nine-year-old." Sky says.

"Why not?" Phan and Pai ask in unison.

Sky looks at them like they have both gone insane.

Rain runs his hand along the shiny new equipment dreamingly. Everything is top of the line and he couldn't afford a single piece of it if he devoted an entire year's worth of his bakery's profit towards it.

P'Phayu is watching him closely. "Pai would make you manager of this branch if you wanted."

Rain shakes his head; he knows it's a kind offer but one reason he was so happy with having his own business was that he could work and have Lys with him. He could close the bakery in an emergency like when Lys got the flu last year. It wasn't ideal because he lost income, but it could be done. He wouldn't be able to do any of that if he took this job. He would have to put Lys into daycare, and he already feels like he misses too much with his sister as is.

"Have you decided what you will do then?" P'Phayu asks.

"Not really," Rain says. "I'll try to keep the bakery going and if that doesn't work out, I guess I will take P'Pai up on his offer to buy the building." He doesn't want to, that bakery has been almost like part of his family. "That will give me enough to put back for Lys's education anyway. How long before you open it looks almost ready?" Rain asks.

"Three weeks," P'Phayu says, "the second week of November. Do you have plans for today, since it's your day off?"

"I was going to borrow Ple's car and go shopping for Lys's birthday." Rain says.

"I was going to see if you wanted to go on a bike ride since it's pretty nice today, but there isn't much storage room, just the saddlebags I use for luggage. I will call Pai and see if I can borrow his car instead." P'Phayu says.