Stressed Spelled Backwards |Lesbian Story|

Chapter 18

I racked my brains all day yesterday trying to figure out how to pay off the rest of the deli refurbishing, plus our rent. Elise suggested she should just go to the ATM and withdraw from our parents' account, but I strongly protested the idea.

"We're not gonna depend on our parents' help, remember?" I said. "We have to make it on our own."

Karmen and I realized we were going to have to do this a different way to make our entrance into the business world.

I figured we could just create flyers and put them in every mailbox in our neighborhood. All we needed was some cool description and graphic art to get us started. I did some math, and it would cost us at least a couple hundred bucks to make enough flyers for the whole block alone. But we had no choice.

"Think of it as an investment, Azra," said Karmen. "You can't catch the big fish if you don't have good bait."

I guessed she was right, so I told Elise to write something refreshing and different to attract people's attention. So she came up with this.

GRAND OPENING

Experience the elusive taste from your childhood

Balance your diet with our special ice cream cakes in each hand

Our authentic European-ish cafe's the best offers:

Queen of Tarts, Game of Scones, Cafe au Late-Anyway

OPEN 10:00 A.M to 9:00.PM

Ms. McHugh and I loved it. We laughed and thought it was very clever, but Karmen wasn't so impressed.

"I could write better," she said with a cool shrug.

"Oh, yeah?" Elise challenged.

"Well, if only you knew what I wrote to Clarice every night, you'd be green like a pea!"

"You meant green with envy?" Elise said, and Karmen looked caught on then she just shrugged.

"Whatever, but if you don't believe me, here's my love poem to Clarice," she said and pulled out a piece of paper.

I snatched it from her hand and read.

'You're beauty,

You're grace,

When will you sit on my face?'

"Oh, Kaaarmeeeen!" I groaned. Elise came to my side and read it, too. Then she took the paper from my hand and ripped it into a million pieces. I was expecting Elise to jump all over Karmen in ten directions. Instead she just hissed and turned on her heels before going into her room.

I glared at Karmen, who was giggling to herself like an idiot.

"What?" she said to me.

I rolled my eyes and got back to work.

Now, the deli was dotted with tiny wooden tables, and seated well over a hundred that all the booths were gone, so were all the old fashion decorations. Everything was painted white, and from the ceiling hung a dozen lush green plants. On the walls were framed posters of any European city whose consulate was giving them out for free.

The menu, written in fluorescent chalk on a large black slate over the counter, was much more visible. My dessert had turned into some forty different dishes, depending on what combination of ice cream, cookies, fruit, and the topping was used. They were all packed with loads of bright and tangy flavor, all traditionally made with sweet goodness.