No Place Like Home - Love in Seattle

by Christina Butrum

  “Janelle Lynn!”

  “I’ll take care of it, Mom.”

  “I’m telling you that if that vase isn’t replaced by the time I get back home...”

  A shuffling sound was heard before her father’s voice muffled the sound of her mother’s cry. They were no longer on speakerphone. Probably a good thing. Her mother had said enough to piss her off. She was a grown adult—almost thirty years old and her mother treated her like an imbecile.

  “When you say promote...” her father spoke calmly. She could always count on him to keep the peace between the three of them. She had received her levelheadedness from him and she was thankful for it. “What do you mean promote?”

  “I made her assistant manager, Dad.”

  “Assistant...” her father’s deep laugh echoed loudly into the phone. She was glad he found humor in this situation, even if it was mere sarcasm. “Honey, we don’t run the coffee shop like that.”

  If her father could see her, he would have seen the shrug of her shoulders and the look of no cares to give. “Dad, things needed a change. Kelsie...”

  Her mother’s voice in the background, muffled by her father’s breathing, had calmed and she was requesting to finish the conversation with Janelle.

  “Dad, wait, don’t give Mom the phone yet,” Janelle pleaded. “She doesn’t understand. She thinks I’m an idiot.”

  A heavy sigh welcomed a heavier silence before her father said, “Elle, your mother doesn’t think that about you.”

  Before she had a chance to tell her father that he was mistaken, her mother had grabbed the phone. “Elle, you need to tell Kelsie that she’s no longer the assistant manager. That you were mistaken and didn’t know any better.”

  She couldn’t believe that this is how things were going. Was she having a nightmare that someone needed to wake her from?

  “Mom, it’s fine. Kelsie deserves something more.”

  “That’s just it. If our business ran that way, which it doesn’t, but if it did, she would definitely be promoted to assistant whatever. But, it isn’t like that. She cannot be promoted without wanting something more in terms of money. We simply cannot afford to increase the pay of one employee...”

  “Your only employee,” Janelle corrected.

  “Janelle, I’m not having this argument. You’ll need to talk to her and fix this mess, along with replacing that vase, that just so happened to be very expensive, by the way.”

  Frustrated beyond words, Janelle ended the conversation on a decent note. She was thankful she had not mentioned Colin, for the simple fact that would’ve added a heck of a lot more tension to their conversation. Her mother had always been an opinionated, strong-willed woman, but in the last few weeks, something was definitely different. Her mother seemed shorter on patience and unwilling to explain like she used to. Her father was now the one to explain and decipher the meaning behind her mother’s actions.

  The thought of telling her mother to take this business and shove it, as she made her way to the kitchen seemed pleasant. Deep down, she knew she wouldn’t back out on this place like that—no matter how rude her mother had gotten on the phone tonight. She shrugged it off as her mother being upset about the vase and not wanting a mess to come home to. Well if only she could tell her mother of the mess that she had walked into at the café, her mother would have an understanding of why Janelle had decided to do the things she had done.

  However, there would be no understanding, not tonight or possibly ever, and she wasn’t going to let this ruin her night. She had deadlines for the Enquirer to meet and needed to decide on a recipe that she was going to share with the world—including Colin Davis.

  Chapter Eight

  Deciding to take into consideration her personal favorite in the spring time, Janelle picked a dessert that would leave her readers with a watering mouth and a pang for sweetness. She and her grandmother had spent many hours during the spring baking, and one of their favorites had been lemon meringue pie. Her grandmother had been a pro at baking it, whereas it had taken Janelle quite a few attempts to have hers turn out just as good as her grandmother’s had.

  Finishing the last sentence in her article, she gathered her things and prepared for the walk to the coffee shop. The birds were quiet this morning, not nearly as loud as they had been the previous mornings. Off in the distance, the sun had just peeked out between a few gray clouds. Although she loved the rain, she hoped it would stay away today. She’d give anything for customers to venture in today, but the rain would compete against her wishes.

  After her conversation, more like argument, last night with her parents, she decided it was best to tell Kelsie exactly what her mother had told her to say. She hated the fact that it might cause friction, but it was her mother’s business after all, and she had to fix what she had messed up—according to her mother. If only her mother could actually see what good Kelsie was for the business and how much credit the girl deserved, but whatever. That was beside the point. The point now was making things right again, according to her mother.

  “Good morning,” Kelsie greeted as she walked to the door, carrying the day’s newspapers for the stand right inside the door.

  “Let me help with those,” Janelle offered, grabbing a pile and setting them down at her feet before unlocking the door. “There’s no need to carry this many in one trip. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

  Shrugging as she walked by, Kelsie said, “I do it every week.”

  Shaking her head, Janelle held the stack of papers in her arms while holding the door open with her foot. “Just because you do it all the time doesn’t make it right. Or fair.”

  Kelsie laughed and set the papers on a nearby table. “There really isn’t much of a choice.”

  Working six days a week, with one day off, and carrying more than just her weight around here, Kelsie was going to burn out quick. Even if her parents couldn’t see it, Janelle could. Making Kelsie an assistant manager had been easy. Burning her out, causing her to dislike working here would be easy, too, but it wasn’t the right thing to do.

  Placing her stack of the Seattle Times newspapers on top of Kelsie’s stack, Janelle said, “I need to take a look at applications that are sitting on the desk in the office. Are you okay with leaving these here for the time being? I’ll get to them as soon as I get through a few phone calls.”

  “Sure, I can always grab them after I get things done, too,” Kelsie said on her way to the counter.

  “I won’t be too long,” Janelle promised, unlocking the office door with a smile on her face. “If you need me, you know where I’ll be.”

  Shuffling through the stack of applications that dated back as far as a few months ago, Janelle skimmed over them as she picked a few that stuck out at her. She was sure that her mother would have something negative to say about Janelle taking it upon herself to hire some help around there, but Janelle would be ready with a comeback in her defense. The coffee shop needed extra help and if her mother wasn’t willing to pay Kelsie extra for the bull crap she had to deal with around there, then Janelle would take it into her own hands to make sure the business had the right number of people to make things run a heck of a lot smoother. Besides, didn’t her parents want her here to help manage the place while they were gone? What the heck else was she supposed to be doing?

  She had busied herself over the last hour with a number of applications. She called and left voice messages for the applicants to return her phone call. Out of ten applications, she found only a few to be worthy enough of an interview.

  Opening the office door, she found Kelsie by the front door stocking the news stand with the Seattle Times newspapers. She walked over to the rest of the stack and asked, “Want me to take over?”

  Shaking her head as she squatted down to place another good portion of the stack on the shelf, Kelsie said, “No, it’s just about done and I need something to do while waiting for people to come in.”

  Janelle couldn’t help that her focus
had landed on the front page of the newspaper. Her own image was looking back at her. Picking up the paper, she unfolded it as she read the article. “Janelle Harper’s back in Seattle,” she read aloud.

  She turned the paper so Kelsie could see what she was seeing. Kelsie nodded. “I was wondering how long it’d take you to notice.”

  “I can’t believe this,” Janelle said, skimming the article for an explanation. “Why does it matter so much that I’m back?”

  Kelsie finished placing the last of the newspapers on the shelf before she stood up. Dusting her black pants off with her hands, she shrugged. “I don’t think it does.”

  Janelle held the paper up as she read, “Now, if we can just talk her into offering some of her baked goods that she talks about in the Cincinnati Enquirer, we’d be good to go.”

  Kelsie attempted to hide her laugh behind the counter as she poured creamer into her coffee. “I don’t see anything wrong with what he wrote.”

  Janelle had a feeling Kelsie was in on this somehow. Just another way for her and Colin to work together in an attempt to persuade Janelle to open her own bakery. So, with that thought in mind, she said, “I might open a bakery in Cincinnati.”

  The look that she witnessed cross Kelsie’s face told her exactly what she wanted to know. What Kelsie said next, confirmed her suspicions of the two of them working their plan against Janelle. “Why not Seattle?”

  This was, in fact, the most comical thing she had ever witnessed. Here were two people, one who didn’t really know her and the other... well, the other had no business wanting to help her. Colin was a fool for trying to get on her good side. It wasn’t going to happen. She may have slightly forgiven him, but she would never actually forget the way he had treated her just a year ago.

  “My question is—why Seattle?”

  Kelsie leaned against the counter and kept her attention on Janelle. “My question still remains unanswered.”

  “As does mine.”

  Pushing away from the counter, Kelsie motioned for Janelle to grab a seat with her at a nearby booth. Before following, Janelle prepared a strong cup of coffee. She had a feeling this conversation was going to be deep, which only called for a strong cup of joe.

  Sliding into the booth across from Kelsie, Janelle waited for her to answer the question. It was apparent after a silent minute, that neither of them wanted to answer each other’s questions.

  “Okay, then,” Janelle said, taking a sip of her coffee. “How about I just start off by saying that Seattle really has nothing to offer.”

  Taken aback by her statement, Kelsie sat back and raised an eyebrow. “How can you say that?”

  “To be honest, it doesn’t,” Janelle said.

  The chime above the door rang and Kelsie jumped, only sitting back down when she realized who it was. Colin had entered the café with his laptop case in hand and he was headed in their direction. Great. Now the day was going to get even more interesting.

  “Good morning, ladies,” he greeted, as he picked a table near their booth. Janelle kept a watchful eye on him as he pulled his laptop from the case and set it on the table. He was wearing a light grey suit with a dark violet tie that matched his complexion nicely. She watched as he scrolled through his phone before taking a seat at his table. He held up a finger as he brought the phone to his ear. Who did he think he was? He sure as hell wasn’t as important as he was portraying himself to be.

  Janelle returned her attention to the conversation she and Kelsie had started. “Don’t get me wrong, Seattle’s a great place, but Cincinnati is where I live now.”

  “I understand that, but you were born and raised here,” Kelsie said.

  “That doesn’t mean this is the place for me,” Janelle assured not only Kelsie, but herself. The move to Cincinnati had been tough. She wouldn’t tell others that, but it had been and there was no denying how much she actually missed Seattle. She especially missed the seasonal baking contests that were sponsored every year by the local businesses.

  The conversation was diverted once again as Colin ended his conversation with whomever he had been talking to. He was now listening to what Kelsie and Janelle had been saying. “What makes you think that?”

  Janelle shook her head and looked between Kelsie and Colin. “Seriously?”

  “What?” they asked in unison with each other.

  Pointing a warning finger in Colin’s direction, Janelle said, “You have no right to ask me anything.”

  “I’m a journalist,” he said with a smirk. “It’s what I do.”

  “I know what you are,” Janelle said, pointing across the room to the newspapers. “I saw your article this morning. It was nice of you to put me on the front page, by the way.”

  Twisting back around in his chair to face her, he said, “You like that?”

  The way he said it hadn’t come across as arrogant, but rather quite charming—something that she never would’ve thought until now. Maybe Kelsie was right, aside from looking through her notebook, maybe he had changed over the last year.

  Attempting to hide her smile, she lifted her cup to her mouth.

  “See, I knew you would.”

  Shaking her head, she said, “Who said I liked it?”

  She looked between Kelsie and Colin, who were chuckling. “Come on, just admit it. You like to see yourself on the front page.”

  “Ha! That’s you, not me,” Janelle said, pointing in his direction. “I have no intention of being on the front page of any newspaper, including my own.”

  Raising an eyebrow, he questioned, “You own the Enquirer now?”

  Laughing, she said, “You know exactly what I meant.”

  He leaned forward, shoving his laptop aside. He clasped his hands and said, “Why do you say Seattle isn’t the place for you?”

  She was impressed by how quickly he had changed the subject, reverting to their previous conversation that had gone without answers to both of their questions. She didn’t want to get in too deeply with this discussion, so she avoided it until it became apparent they were unwilling to give up until she told them what they both wanted to hear.

  “There’s nothing here for me,” Janelle offered, knowing this would only lead to more questions. She was damned either way.

  “So...” Kelsie began, but Colin interrupted her and asked, “Why don’t you find something then?”

  His facial expression told her that he wasn’t just talking about owning a bakery anymore. Something else had his attention and he was wanting answers to those thoughts. The look in his eyes as they focused on hers was too much.

  Breaking away from his stare, back to Kelsie, she asked, “Are you both going to keep this up all day?”

  “Just until we get an answer,” Colin said, now typing something on his laptop.

  “There’s nothing for me to say. I’ve lived in Cincinnati for almost a year and nothing will make me move back here,” she said. Looking at Kelsie’s confused expression, she reiterated, “Nothing.”

  “Your notebook said otherwise,” Colin said, with a shit-eating grin on his face.

  On that note, she gathered her coffee cup and slid out from the booth. She had things to do, including follow-up phone calls to make for job interviews.

  There was no explanation for how she felt as she made her escape toward the office. Once she made it safely to the door, she quickly entered and shut the door behind her, in an attempt to keep out the outsiders—a.k.a. Kelsie and Colin.

  Had she not realized what he had been hinting at, she would’ve been able to think straight right now. Instead, her heart raced and thoughts swirled around inside her head as she tried to take deep breaths to calm her reaction. Maybe she was mistaken. Maybe he wasn’t implying what she thought he was.

  She could’ve possibly talked herself down from this hysterical moment, but she realized that she may have given him the impression through her notes... She needed to find her notebook. Scrambling through the pile of papers, folders and other unneeded
materials, she searched for her notebook. She had placed it here the other morning, so it had to be here somewhere in the mix of all the clutter that crowded the wooden desk.

  Shoving the last bit of scattered papers into an unorganized chaos at the other end of the desk, she found her notebook. It had been buried by the last two days of mayhem. She flipped through many pages at a time until she was where she needed to be inside the notebook—her lifeline of information and journaling.

  A page full of scribbled details about the coffee shop and her ideas of a future bakery stared back at her. She had happily doodled drawings of pies and other special treats she imagined selling if she did, perhaps, own a bakery. Her notes had been detailed, outlining every idea she had thought of, including a thorough to-do list to make sure she followed the appropriate steps.

  She spent the next half-hour reading over her notes, spending most of the time focused on her plain-as-day mention of joining her mother’s café to sell her baked goods right along with the daily coffees and cappuccinos.

  It then registered with her why Colin had been so persistent to get her to stay. Closing her notebook for the time being, she hit the answering machine button to play back the voice messages from the calls she had missed. Only one applicant had promptly returned her call, so, after writing down the applicant’s name, she circled it and drew a bright yellow star next to it with a highlighter. She would return the applicant’s phone call shortly after lunch.

  Opening the door, she peeked through the crack in the direction of Colin’s table. He was still there, working madly on his laptop as his thrummed his fingers along the keyboard. Deciding it’d be uncalled for to hang out in the office all day, avoiding whatever had transpired this week, she stepped out of the office and headed for the counter where Kelsie was preparing drinks for the line of customers over the brunch hour.

  “Did you come to your senses in the office?” Kelsie asked, giving a teasing smile.

  “I have all of my senses, thank you,” Janelle offered, standing near the cash register waiting to ring everyone up and get them on their way. In between paying customers, Janelle watched Kelsie hustle as she mixed and prepared a range of drinks. The thought of demoting her crossed her mind and it didn’t seem fair.