“I doubt anyone will venture out in this weather for coffee this morning,” Kelsie said, wringing the mop out in the bucket.
“Good, that means there will be more for me,” Janelle said, placing filters in the coffee pots and filling them with their own special coffee grounds. The smell of coffee alone awakened her senses and brightened her morning—something she was thankful for.
“Did you have another rough start?” Kelsie asked, filling each of the coffee pots with water and clicking the power buttons on each of them.
“What gives you that impression?” Janelle asked, laughing like a mad woman while holding her arms out. It was undeniable that these first few days had taken a toll on her. She was ready for the curse of bad days to be over. She was more than ready to enjoy her time here in Seattle.
“Considering you’re empty handed, without treats, and standing at the coffee machine begging for it to hurry tells me that you either had a rough morning or you’ve completely lost your marbles.”
The fact that she had fallen asleep last night with Safe Haven propped open in her lap was disheartening. She had planned to bake several more goodies to bring to the café today, along with a well-balanced lunch. But because she had fallen asleep too soon, she had not accomplished anything and she would have to settle on whatever snacks the café had in the drawer in the office.
“I think I lost those when I let my parents talk me into coming out here in the first place,” she admitted, half-heartedly. She loved Seattle. She had more than missed Seattle while away in Cincinnati over the last several months, but this week was proving to be a bit more than she could handle at the moment.
“It’s just a rough start,” Kelsie said, offering her a cup of freshly made Columbian coffee with French Vanilla creamer mixed in—just the way she liked it. “You won’t be able to leave once the end of the summer comes.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” she said, accepting the drink. “By the time summer ends, I think I’ll be more than ready to board that plane back home.”
She had taken her time throughout the day to make sure that nothing else went wrong. She was thankful only a few small crowds had come in. Kelsie had hammered through the crowds like a boss and had been determined to prove to Janelle that she was more than willing to pull the extra weight. Janelle felt bad for slacking when it was only day four, but the office called her name, along with her other job, which left her no choice but to isolate herself behind the closed door.
Opening her laptop as she sat in the office, she read through the emails that had bombarded her inbox in the last couple of days. Emails from women who requested she write an article for certain desserts, emails from co-workers at the Enquirer asking how she’s doing, with most of the emails telling her how much she was missed around Cincinnati and requesting that she come back home soon.
Exiting out of her emails, she rubbed her temples as a knock sounded on the other side of the office door. “Come in.”
Kelsie peeked her head inside. “Just checking to make sure you’re still alive.”
“Barely,” Janelle responded, rubbing her face in an attempt to wake up. “I feel like I’ve been hit by a train and visited by death.”
Grimacing at the thought, Kelsie said, “How about we close early. Put a sign on the door and call it good?”
It was a nice thought, but not one that her mother would allow. Every minute the tiny coffee shop was open, was another dollar made—or so her mother would say.
“Come on, what do you say?” Kelsie asked, propping the door open. “The rain stopped over an hour ago and there hasn’t been a single customer in the last two. I’m dying to get out of here.”
Thinking twice, ignoring the thought of regretting her mother’s wrath later if she ever found out, Janelle stood from her chair and smiled. “Okay.”
“Okay?” Kelsie said, jumping with excitement.
Rushing out of the office, Kelsie managed to get the floor swept, the counters cleaned, and the garbage dumped within fifteen minutes. No other customers would be coming in today—at least not with the door locked and the closed sign hanging on the door.
“What do you say we take a night out in Seattle?”
Raising an eyebrow, Janelle looked at Kelsie like she had lost her mind. “I’m what? Ten years your senior?”
Responding only to the look on Kelsie’s face, Janelle added, “See, you have no idea what I just asked you.”
Still puzzled, Kelsie laughed.
“I’m almost ten years older than you,” Janelle clarified.
“So... What does that have to do with anything?” Kelsie asked, finishing with the register drawer count.
Janelle had no choice but to shrug. She was too tired to care. If she were to be honest, all she wanted to do was call it a day and go home. Whether or not she would get sleep tonight was to be determined.
“So, do you want to or not?”
“Can I take a raincheck?”
“A raincheck?” Kelsie mimicked. “How old are you?”
“I tried to tell you, but you ignored me.”
“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Kelsie said, dragging Janelle out of the coffee shop. “There’s a lot you’ve missed out on since you’ve been gone.”
***
Kelsie hadn’t lied when she told her she had missed out on a lot in the last several months of being gone. Seattle was a large city, with a lot of characteristics to get used to. Something she had never realized until now. Being raised here was one thing, but leaving and coming back was another. People passed by them on the street, without so much as a greeting. She was lucky to get a smile in return for her kindness. Even when she felt like crap, she was able to be kind, and here were all these people, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and they still couldn’t take a second to offer a quick hello or friendly wave.
“You weren’t kidding. This place has changed quite a bit since I’ve been in Cincinnati.”
“I feel the same way when I venture back to Arizona for the winter.”
It hadn’t meant too much the first time Kelsie had said it, but now, it had circled around and hit Janelle right upside the head. “Wait,” Janelle said, grabbing hold of Kelsie’s arm in an attempt to stop her as they walked along North 45th. “You leave for the winter?”
“Yeah, I leave every year around late fall,” Kelsie said, shrugging as if it meant nothing.
It wasn’t her problem to worry about it since it’d be late fall when Kelsie left, but the thought nagged at her enough to wonder who would be around to help her parents with the coffee shop. Not that her parents would be too concerned about it right now, they were enjoying themselves on the beach in the Florida Keys—soaking up the rays of the warm sun and watching the waves roll in.
“Who usually fills in for you while you’re gone?”
She watched Kelsie as she looked off into the distance. She could tell the girl was debating on whether or not to tell her the answer to her question. Whether or not she was here, it was still important to have this figured out before the time came.
“Josh, I guess,” Kelsie offered. “Your parents were going to figure it out.”
With that, they dropped the topic and continued on their way towards the highlight of their night. A free stage-concert was set up at the corner park, offering all the beer you could drink—free will donation. With the week she’d had and the months left ahead of her, she decided it’d be okay to let loose and have some fun for a change.
A small group of singers were positioned front and center on the stage, singing songs Janelle had never heard before. Kelsie tugged on her shirt sleeve, willing Janelle to follow her in the direction of the beer stand with a highlighted sign hanging near the counter announcing it was college night. She didn’t like the idea of encouraging college kids to get drunk the night before their final exams, but she was there once and knew how rough college could be. As her father would say, to each their own, she shrugged and reached for the Bud Light the guy in t
he beer tent handed her.
“This band is great!” Kelsie announced, once again dragging Janelle through the crowd of people.
Kelsie found the perfect spot by the stage. They had full view of the band that continued to sing their versions of the latest hit songs on the radio. It must have been apparent that she was not fully enjoying herself, because Kelsie nudged her with an elbow and asked, “You’re not having fun, are you?”
If she had to be honest, it wasn’t her idea of fun. No matter how much fun it had been made out to be, with the local advertising and Kelsie’s excitement for it, Janelle had a long list of things that proved to be more fun than this.
“I’m sorry, Kels,” she said, trying her best to sound sincere. She didn’t want to ruin this new-found friendship as she kept Kelsie’s feelings in mind. She enjoyed Kelsie’s company, but she couldn’t bring herself to enjoy the screeching singers on the stage in front of her.
Waving a forgiving hand, Kelsie said, “No worries.”
Kelsie ditched her drink in a nearby trash can, motioning for Janelle to do the same. “Let’s get out of here. There’s more to see than this.”
Not wanting to waste the beer, Janelle chugged what she had left in the can. She would regret it in less than a minute’s time, but for right now, she enjoyed it. It had been a while since she’d had alcohol, and she had almost forgotten how good it tasted—crisp, chilled, and almost too bitter, but refreshing, nonetheless.
Janelle tossed the empty can and followed Kelsie’s lead as they zigzagged through the crowd of college students. “Some of these kids don’t even look old enough to drive a car, let alone old enough to be drinking,” Janelle said, keeping her voice to a low whisper.
“There used to be a bakery over there on the corner,” Janelle said, pointing in the direction of another crowded intersection. The bakery that had once been there had been replaced by a music place. Guitars lined the front window, displayed with lights that blinked to the beat of the music played inside.
“That bakery closed just a couple of months ago,” Kelsie said, stopping once they were in front of the guitar shop.
“I remember them having some of the best sugar cookies,” Janelle said. Her mouth watered at the thought of the soft and gooey, lightly sprinkled cookies she had enjoyed every morning on her way to class.
“Did they top yours?” Kelsie asked, chuckling as though she already knew the answer to her ridiculous question.
Janelle furrowed her eyebrows and said, “You’re joking, right? I mean, they were good, but not that good.”
Thinking back to the days when she had just learned to bake, her grandmother had brought her into the small bakery. She always had a hunch that her grandmother’s main reason for bringing her there had been to show her the competition she’d face if she ever chose to open her own bakery. Her grandmother had been standing in her corner, fighting in her defense—behind her the whole way, when her mother would suggest she was focusing too much on something that wouldn’t turn out to be anything at all.
Looking at the guitars in place of the early morning delights of the small bakery, Janelle felt a pinch of her mother’s words as she recalled the memories of their arguments. As many times as her mother had told her that baking wouldn’t carry her through life, Janelle was compelled to believe differently, but now...
“Hey, are you all right?” Kelsie asked, gently nudging Janelle’s shoulder.
Snapping back to reality, shaking the random memories and upsetting thoughts from her head, she said, “Yeah, I’m fine.”
In an attempt to keep Kelsie from thinking she was crazy, she said, “There were a lot of memories associated with that bakery.”
“I’m sorry,” Kelsie offered, placing a hand on Janelle’s shoulder. “Do you want to talk about them?”
Continuing on their way down the side streets of Seattle, they walked through crowds without worrying about a destination. The night was young and even though she had to be up bright and early to open the coffee shop, she was enjoying this walk more than anything else at the moment.
“My grandmother was quite the baker,” Janelle explained. “She taught me to bake at a young age, and made it a point to make me love it just as much as she did.”
“She sounds sweet,” Kelsie said.
“She was,” Janelle said, feeling a pang of emotion. “She passed away last year, right before I graduated from college.”
Abruptly stopping in order to offer her condolences, Kelsie turned to Janelle. “I’m so sorry. That had to be rough. I can’t imagine...”
Rough was an understatement. Losing her grandmother was the equivalent to someone ripping her insides out as she watched them stomp on her heart. There was nothing she had ever felt so weak from, than the loss of her grandmother. It had been sudden, unexpected, and had left a gaping hole in her grandmother’s place—only memories were left to stitch the damage.
“She was the one who insisted I open my own bakery,” Janelle said, smiling from the thought of her grandmother—eager and unstoppable during a debate with her mother. “My mother refused to allow me to believe that it’d ever happen. She was realistic and I was a dreamer. She had told me repeatedly that she knew I loved baking, knew that I was an excellent baker, but I had more potential than I was giving myself credit for.”
“Wow,” Kelsie said, shaking her head. “It sounds like your mother might have been wrong.”
“There are times, still to this day that I blame her,” Janelle said, carefully choosing the right words to say. The last thing she wanted to do was make her mother sound like an evil witch. “If she would’ve just given me a chance to prove to her...”
“Why not prove it to her now?” Kelsie said.
“I don’t know...” Because over the last year, doubt had created an instant knot in her stomach at the thought of where, or how, she’d be able to start her own business.
“You’re obviously on somewhat good terms with your mom, right?” Kelsie asked, waiting for Janelle to get on board with where this train was headed.
“Yes, of course. She’s my best friend,” Janelle said, making sure to add emphasis on best friend. “But I’m not sure I really want to prove anything to her. I’ve done that my whole life.”
Kelsie shook her head, holding up a hand, she said, “Okay, stop. Enough about your mom. This is about you.”
She had no idea where this was going, nor did she really care to find out, because that would mean only one thing—change—and she wasn’t good with change. She was content with how her life had turned out. To be honest, her life was better than she had ever imagined it would be.
“The other day, you scribbled something down after talking about your own bakery,” Kelsie said, pointing a knowing finger at Janelle. “I couldn’t help but think of what your idea was that you had written down that day...”
What was she saying? Was she saying that she... Janelle’s eyes widened at the thought of Kelsie doing the unthinkable. “You looked in my notebook?”
Holding her hands up in defense, Kelsie took a step back. “I didn’t read anything more than what you wrote that day, I swear.”
Tossing her hands up, Janelle said, “Figures.”
With the thought of walking home—or wherever—Janelle took off in a hurried pace, leaving Kelsie short of breath as she struggled to keep up. “Where are you going?”
“I can’t believe you looked through my notebook!”
Hollering over her shoulder, she could see the horrified look on Kelsie’s face. Ignoring it, she continued huffing along the sidewalk in an attempt to make it home before Kelsie could stop her. The thought of anyone reading anything she had written in that notebook was absurd—completely off limits. No one had the respect and decency to leave another person’s belongings alone, and then they wondered why she had trust issues.
“Technically, I didn’t look through it,” Kelsie called out breathlessly, as she desperately tried to catch up with Janelle.
�
��I imagine you had to have at least skimmed through enough of it to stumble upon what you were looking for!”
She was less than two blocks from her parents’ house. If she could make it there, she would rush to the door and barricade herself inside, away from this ridiculous plan of actually making friends while she was here.
That plan backfired as Kelsie grabbed hold of her arm and yanked, sending Janelle stumbling backwards. “Will you just stop and let me explain?”
Deciding to give her less than two minutes to explain, Janelle turned to face Kelsie as she crossed her arms.
Doubled over, trying to catch her breath, Kelsie held up a finger to keep Janelle there—focused and waiting for an answer.
“It wasn’t my idea,” Kelsie said, after getting her breathing under control.
Unfolding her arms and feeling defeated, she asked, “Then whose idea was it?”
The expression on Kelsie’s face told her she wasn’t lying. Someone else had joined her. But who?
That’s when it hit her. It was proof that this person had their own agenda and would do anything to sabotage her life. “Are you kidding me, right now?!”
Arms flailing like a mad woman, Janelle refused to believe this was happening to her. The thought of running to her parents’ house, slamming the door, and calling her parents to tell them she was done and heading back home, was prominent. If it would guarantee that this whole thing hadn’t happened and that she’d forget about it as soon as she boarded the plane, she wouldn’t have thought twice. Instead, she knew there wasn’t an option to leave, because her parents needed her there. It would be selfish to ruin their vacation because of this childish incident—the way her mother would see it.
“Janelle,” Kelsie said, reaching out in an attempt to regain control of the situation. “I... He...”
With a hand raised, Janelle interrupted her, “Don’t.”
“Let me explain, dammit.”
This situation could be deemed childish and ridiculous by most of the people walking by on the overcrowded streets, but to her it wasn’t. To her, it had been an invasion of privacy. She had kept personal thoughts in that notebook. She never had to think twice about keeping it out of the reach of others, because she had thought others would respect her enough to not snoop. Boy, had she been wrong.
No Place Like Home - Love in Seattle Page 5
