The Spice of Life

Hunger, the Best Sauce

Hunger, the Best Sauce

It didn't take long for Brynn to realize that she had done or said something wrong. Grace being mad at her was expected, Leo being mad at her was not. It seemed, to her, to come out of nowhere and for no reason at all. Which only made her mad at him. What right did he have to be mad for no reason?

So, she ignored both of them. If they were going to be mad at her, she certainly wasn't going to stop them. Unfortunately, that left her with very few people to talk to.

She told herself that she wasn't lonely. She was used to being by herself. Her friends in New York would leave her for weeks at a time to do their own thing. It didn't bother her, she would do the same thing to them. So there was no way the aching longing she felt was loneliness.

If there was an emotion she felt when Grace only said what was necessary to her at The Spice of Life it was thankfulness. Who wanted to hear Perfect Grace talk all the time anyway? And if she felt anything about Leo backing away from her slightly it was only relief. She was the one who insisted there be little to no romance in their relationship. If he wanted to back off from her a bit then she could only be grateful that he was finally giving her what she wanted.

If she was feeling a longing, it was for New York. If she missed something, it was her friends.

That was what she told herself and that was what she was going to believe.

So when Leo walked into The Spice of Life to pick up some of the mini-cakes that Grace had made for his grand opening tomorrow, Brynn ignored him. She gave all of her attention to rearranging the cupcake display, a task she had taken on without Grace's permission or knowledge.

Grace, who had seen her start working on it that morning, had just shaken her head and left her to it. There were many things Grace didn't understand about her cousin, she was just going to try to ignore it if she could and live with it if she couldn't.

“Here are the first half of them.” Grace said to Leo, putting the boxes of mini-cakes on the counter one at a time. They were to be a sort of thank you for attending gift at the end of the meal tomorrow night. There were enough for everyone who had reserved their place and a few extra of each flavor in case of accident or complaint.

“Thanks for this, Grace.” Leo smiled at her. She had provided the cakes at cost to him.

“Don't worry about it.” she smiled back. “I want this to succeed as much as you do.”

“Still, thank you for everything.” he repeated sincerely. “You can consider me your personal chef for this. Anything you want, anytime, just ask.”

Behind them, Brynn make some loud thud. She didn't want them to talk to her, she just wanted to remind them that she was there and ignoring them.

Leo shook his head and Grace frowned a bit.

“I'll take these over to the restaurant and come back for the rest.” he said, looking over the small mountain of cakes. “Do you need anything on my way back.”

“No, thank you.” Grace smiled as they heard another thud.

They both looked over at Brynn who was purposefully making the noises as loud as she could. She kept her back to them.

Leo sighed and grabbed a few of the boxes. With Grace's help and a few trips, they managed to get them into his car, secured and stable for the trip over. There was no room for the second half of them at the moment.

“You think she'll get over it?” Leo asked her as she situated the boxes inside. His gaze was into the window of the bakery where he could just make out the shape of Brynn arranging the display.