Solivagant

Chapter Fourteen - Robinne

If there was one thing Robinne hated more than anything first thing in the morning, was the morning itself. She'd made her hatred for the start of the day pretty clear several times before, yet they still happened. She was usually a grump until she got her first cup of tea of the day inside her. For others, its coffee but for her, tea was the only way to go.

     Dragging her pyjama-clad butt downstairs and into her kitchen, she just about filled up the mug with water to make her tea, when the front doorbell rang unexpectedly.

     It's a Monday morning! Who with an ounce of sanity in their heads would disturb someone at this ungodly hour?

     Not many people would call 8AM an ungodly hour, as often she read that Americans tended to favour getting up at the absolute ass crack of dawn, but she wasn't many people. Early on in life, people had learned the hard way not to disturb her too early, as her inner bear often tore off heads with no mercy or aesthetic, if disturbed too early. In bed or otherwise.

     It doesn't exactly come across as friendly. Despite that, she doesn't mean to offend anyone if caught in one of her early morning moods.

     With the doorbell continuing to ring, she supposed she should go and answer it, as it wasn't in her nature to be rude to anyone in any degree. If she could help it. Sometimes she did slip up, she's only human.

     Since when has that been a genuine reason for anything these days?

     Never, that's when.

     Putting her cup down on the kitchen island counter, she made her way over to the front door, where the incessant ringing didn't stop until she as calmly as she could, opened the door.

     "Hi? How can I help you?" she said, fighting back a yawn as she'd not yet fully woken up.

     The woman on the doorstep almost looked as if she was beginning to regret her showing up here so early. She must look moodier to others than she felt she did. Not what she wanted to do at all. Her hatred of mornings and her moods never deserved to be pushed onto others, including this woman. She had to change this ASAP.

        "Sorry, I don't mean to be rude. Not a morning person." She laughed, hoping to ease the tension. "I'm Robinne, it's nice to meet you...?" hoping the woman would give her name, she held out her hand for a friendly shake.

     "Elaine. Elaine Barkley. Laney to my friends." She said, shaking Robinne's hand with a surprising amount of strength coming from such a small frame. Laney had to be no more than five feet four at a guess, yet the strength coming from her hand you'd normally expect out of someone at least Robinne's height or that of an average sized man. Guess you can't totally pin down a stereotype on everyone until you truly know them.

    Laney from what Robinne could see of her as she stood before her now, looked like what people would deem 'mousey', being small with delicate features on a small form. Her hair wasn't quite blonde, nor brown. It was somewhere in the middle, what people would call strawberry blonde. From the looks if it, Laney too seemed to favour the little-to-no makeup look, as did Robinne. She liked the woman already.

     "I'm really sorry to stop by first thing in the morning. In truth, I'm not much of a morning person either. Which is odd when I own the bakery in town, it doesn't seem right to have a non-morning person have to get up early every morning to bake for the day's customers." She laughed.

     "Not at all. After all, what is normal these days?"

     "True. Anyway, I came by to give you this." Laney held up what looked to be a small paper bag with her bakery's logo on it. "I heard from Susan what went down yesterday between you and dreadful Delilah."