Sweet Treasures

by Debra Ullrick

  His gaze went around the room. “You have a really nice shop here. Very festive. Very cozy. Very homey.”

  Cozy. Homey. Two things she had worked so hard for when she designed and decorated her store. “Thank you. I want people to feel at home when they come here. You know, I want it to be a place where they can visit without feeling rushed. Where they can eat cookies and drink hot chocolate in front of the fireplace.” Her attention drifted over to the fireplace before returning to him. “Too bad it wasn’t a wood stove. But that would be way too dangerous and time consuming to keep up with.”

  “Well, I think the gas fireplace is very nice. With the way you have the chairs and sofa arranged around it, it is very welcoming.” He smiled over at her, picked up his cup of cocoa, and swirled the drink with the swizzle stick. The instant he laid the swizzle stick on his napkin, Anna knew he saw one of her treasures. He picked up the plastic stir stick with her logo on it and wiped it off. “Matthew 6:20. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” His gaze came up to hers as interest sparked in his blue eyes. “Are you a Christian?”

  “Yes, I am.” And she was proud of it too. Make that proud to be a part of God’s family. Proud of her Lord and Savior Jesus and the price He paid for her sins.

  “I am too.”

  Hearing that exciting news, Anna’s insides did several back flips that even an Olympic gymnast would approve of. “That’s awesome. There is nothing better than to live for Christ.” She smiled and mentally check-marked another attribute he possessed on her list. In fact, being a Christian was number one on her list. Without it, none of the other things mattered.

  “I agree.” Nicholas took a sip of his hot chocolate. “This is really good.”

  “Thank you.” It made her heart do a little dance that he liked it.

  His focus shifted to the swizzle stick still in his hand. “I think it’s great that you have a scripture on this.” His gaze came up to hers. “Do you ever catch any flak from people about it?”

  “At first I did, but not anymore.” Anna took a sip of her own drink. Chocolate and cherry melted sweetly in her mouth.

  “What do you mean, ‘not anymore’?” he asked as he adjusted his tie.

  “Well,” Anna clasped her hands on the tabletop. “When I first opened, there was a woman who threatened me with a lawsuit. She said if I didn’t remove the scripture off of them, she would take the matter to court if she had to because Sweet Treasures was a public place and she was offended by religion being a part of a business establishment.”

  “What did you do?” He leaned forward as if her answer was very important to him.

  “I told her very kindly that it was my store’s logo and that if she was offended that I was sorry, but the logo was here to stay. I informed her that there were other shops in town, even named a few, where she could get a hot beverage.”

  “That’s your store logo?” His eyebrows rose slightly.

  “Yes. The name of my store Sweet Treasures is a double entendre. It is in a way a metaphor for my shop. Sweet Treasures not only refers to the sweet treasures I sell but an even sweeter treasure which is ministering salvation to people through those sticks. One side has my logo with Matthew 6: 20 on it, and the other side has an encouraging message with John 3:16 on it.”

  Nicholas turned the plastic stick over. ”Jesus loves you. Do they all say that?”

  “They all have John 3:16 on them, but mine says…” She picked hers up and read the message on it. “Love never fails.”

  “What a great ministry tool. Very impressive.”

  “The idea was all the Lord’s. He’s so good. A lot of times people will ask what the message means. It opens the door for me to talk about Christ with them. At first, several people thought it was wrong, especially the woman I mentioned, but after a while they just accepted that if they came in here to eat cookies and have hot chocolate or coffee or tea or whatever that the ministry swizzle sticks and such comes with it. I can’t tell you how many people we’ve prayed with over the years.”

  “That’s great.” Nicholas took another drink and set it back down. “What happened with the woman who wanted to shut you down?”

  Anna’s eyes went over to Cailyn. “Well, now she works for me, and she’s my best friend.”

  Nicholas’s gaze shot over to Cailyn who ducked her head, acting as if she were busy scrubbing the already clean glass on the cookie display counters and not watching them at all, but Anna knew otherwise. Her friend had been caught red-handed spying on them. Anna hid her smile even as the care her friend had for her touched her heart.

  “Are you talking about her?” He discreetly hiked a thumb Cailyn’s direction.

  “Yes. Cailyn.”

  “Cailyn? Really? So how’d that come about?” Nicholas picked up his cookie and took a bite.

  Anna watched his reaction to the cookie as he chewed.

  “This is really delicious. I’m going to have to take some of these home with me.” He brushed the crumbs from his hands.

  “Glad you like them.” That too meant a lot to her.

  “So tell me how she ended up working for you.”

  “Well.” Anna brushed a strand of hair off of her face. “Cailyn kept coming in harassing me, and every time she did, I would give her free cookies and drinks, minus the swizzle sticks. At first she left them on the counter and would storm off. But every time she came in and harassed me, I was nice to her. I would tell her how much I liked her makeup that day or her outfit or purse or earrings. Whatever I saw that I truly liked. After a few months of this, when I was by myself in the shop, she came in. I waited for her to let me know of her latest efforts to close me down and her reasons why, but this time, she came in and accepted my drink and cookies. I waited for her to leave with them, but she didn’t.

  “Instead, she took them over to one of the tables, this table actually. “Anna pointed a finger down at the table they were at. “She just sat here not eating or drinking. Just sitting looking rather forlorn. I went about cleaning and praying the whole time. I felt the Lord lay it on my heart to go over to her and to sit down. Boy, did I fight that one.” Anna chuckled.

  “I bet.” He laughed.

  Obviously Nicholas was on to Cailyn’s wiles too. That thought brought a grin out of Anna. “Anyway, Cailyn asked me how come I was so nice to her when she’d obviously been harassing me and trying to get the place closed down or at very best the Christian aspect of it stopped.” Anna’s heart warmed at how engrossed Nicholas seemed to be with every word she spoke. Not once did his eyes leave her face even as he ate his cookie and drank his cocoa.

  “I told her because she was special,” Anna continued. “That got her attention. To make a long story short… I know, too late, right?” Anna chuckled again, and Nicholas smiled at her. “She said no one had ever told her she was special or made her feel special like I did every time I complimented her. Her whole life she said she’d been criticized and told how worthless she was to her parents, her foster parents, and to God.” Anna’s heart still ached over that one. “No one should ever be told they’re worthless.”

  “Oh man, how awful.” His gaze went over to Cailyn. This time Cailyn didn’t duck. Instead, she smiled. The story had been told so many times either by her or Cailyn that neither one of them thought a thing about sharing it. Not if it blessed someone or led them to the Lord.

  To this day, it truly blessed Anna to think that Cailyn had led hundreds of people to the Lord with her testimony. Especially young girls who struggle with low self-esteem or who try to measure up to the world’s stand and image of what a girl should look and act like. Anna always wondered just after that thought, what if she hadn’t been nice to Cailyn at first? What if she had been just as mean and cruel back to her? It would’ve been so much easier, and that thought always twisted her heart with painful understanding.

  “Here’s the truly amazing part. To show you just how good God is, that evening, Cailyn was planning on taking her own life. She was
a drug addict who hated herself and her life. She was miserable and wanted me to be as miserable as she was. At the time, she didn’t know that’s what she was doing. Only later she learned that hurt people, hurt people. That was why she was trying so hard to shut me down. But when she saw that nothing she said or did robbed me of my joy, she had to find out why.

  “So, before she took her life, she came here first to find out why I was so happy and she wasn’t. I told her that my happiness wasn’t based on my circumstances no matter how hard things got, but instead, it was based on Who Christ was and what He had done for me and for her. I told her that happiness was a choice I had to make. She said that was easy for me because I had a business and money. I told her none of those things mattered. What mattered was how much Jesus loved me.

  “That’s when she told me what others had said to her about being worthless and that she was so awful even God couldn’t love her. I assured her He did. I even shared how bad I was before giving my life to Christ. She was shocked to find out the things I had done.” Things Anna wasn’t proud of to this day, but also things she knew she had been forgiven for and chose to let go of because God already had. “We talked a little bit more and with tears in her eyes she asked if she could have what I had. She asked the Lord to come into her life and now here she is, working for me and sharing the gospel right alongside me.”

  Nicholas looked over at Cailyn standing only a few feet away from them now with her hand rested on top of the mop handle, smiling over at them. “She told you about me, didn’t she?” Cailyn asked.

  “She did.” Nicholas smiled. “What an amazing testimony.”

  “Sure is. God is so good.” Cailyn looked at Anna. “Thank God for Anna. If it wasn’t for her, I would be dead.” Love and admiration flowed from Cailyn to Anna. The feeling was mutual. Anna loved and admired her too.

  “Well thank God Anna was here.” Nicholas switched his attention from Cailyn to Anna. Warm approval not only occupied his gentle smile, but his blue eyes, as well.

  Not wanting the glory to go to anyone except the Lord, Anna tore her gaze away and quickly interjected, “The glory belongs to the Lord, and Him alone. ‘No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him’.” Anna knew as well as anyone that those were Jesus’s words, not hers.

  “John 6: 44,” Nicholas whispered, his voice full of reverence.

  “That’s right.” Anna’s eyes jumped up to him, her heart skipped that Nicholas knew scripture.

  From the corner of her eye, Anna saw Cailyn disappear into the back room, leaving her alone with Nicholas in the quiet store.

  Nicholas noticed her leaving too, and he fell wordless for a long minute. “Anna, I know we’ve just met and all, but my uncle’s law firm is having their annual masquerade Christmas party, and I was wondering if you would go with me.”

  Shock hit her, dropping her mouth open. Even so, without much debate, she knew her answer. Of course, she would love to go with him. Anything to spend more time with Nicholas so she could get to know him better. “When is it?”

  “This Saturday evening.”

  Saturday. Three days away. “I’m sure I can work something out with Cailyn so that I can get away.”

  “I’ll take care of things,” Cailyn hollered from the back. Ah hah. So she hadn’t completely disappeared. She was still close enough to overhear their conversation.

  Anna couldn’t have stopped the smile even if she wanted to. Her friend was a character and a half and Anna loved her. Every day since giving her life to Christ more and more of Cailyn’s personality and who she truly was when she wasn’t trying to please people was coming out. She was like a spring flower blossoming in to what they were created to be. “Well, I guess that means I can go.”

  “Great. I’ll pick you up around seven-thirty, if that’s okay?”

  “That’s fine,” Cailyn hollered again. “We’re usually closed by then anyway, and I can clean up and take care of anything else that comes up.”

  Anna shook her head and laughed. “You heard the woman. That’s fine.” And it was fine too. Saturday night couldn’t come soon enough for Anna.

  Chapter Two

  Saturday evening, in the apartment above her shop that she and Cailyn stayed at often when they were too tired to drive home, Anna got ready for the party. One glance in the mirror and she wanted to pick up the phone and call Nicholas to tell him she couldn’t go after all. Bad part was, she didn’t have his phone number. Besides, it was already ten minutes after seven, and it would be really rude of her to back out at the last minute. Truth be known, she really didn’t want to because she was infatuated with him. They both were Christians, they both had an Italian heritage and strong family values, and they both loved spumoni ice cream. “Now that last one is something to base a relationship on,” she said with a chuckle in to the mirror.

  “Aren’t you ready yet?” Cailyn asked with a light knock at Anna’s bedroom door.

  “No.” Anna swung her gaze away from the vanity mirror and rolled her eyes at Cailyn. “I should have never trusted you to pick out my costume.”

  When Cailyn had offered to do it, Anna was so busy she knew she wouldn’t have time, so reluctantly she’d agreed. That turned out to be a huge mistake.

  Cailyn swept into her room and sat on the bed. “Well, I for one, think you look amazing, and that costume is to die for. Nicholas is so going to love it.”

  “Yeah right, and bears have wings. Fairies with magic wands are real. Not! You mean to tell me that the only costume they had left was a Cinderella? Sorry, not buying it, especially after your comment about our coaches turning into pumpkins and our glass slippers into tennis shoes. Speaking of which…” Anna stuck her foot out and twisted it back and forth, studying the high heels on her feet that looked as if they really were made of glass. They weren’t of course. “I can’t even begin to think where you found these.”

  “Don’t you just love them?” Cailyn’s eyes sparkled as brightly as the high heels that certainly weren’t slippers.

  “Yes and no.” Resting her arm on the back of the vanity chair, Anna’s demeanor took a serious turn. “What is he going to think when he sees this get up?” Even though she had to admit the light blue dress was beautiful, going as Cinderella to a ball…? Okay, it was a Christmas party, but it was the same difference as far as Anna was concerned. Either way it was very cliché and overly dramatic.

  “He’s going to think you look amazing.” Cailyn’s voice broke through Anna thoughts as she waved off Anna’s concern. “Trust me, that’s all he’s going to think.”

  Anna turned back to the mirror and surveyed herself. She could only hope Cailyn was right. The light blue dress brought out the blue in her smoky gray eyes, and the high neck with the imitation fur collar brought out the blonde highlights in her long brown hair. She loved the long sleeves. They were puffy at the top and tapered down her arms with fur cuffs. A ring of fur went over the top of her shoulders and looped just above her chest. Three hoops of blue material went from a point below the middle of her small waist that looked even smaller with the corset-like top. They too were lined with the same fur. Silver and gold beads in the shape of a heart with wings on top covered her chest and ended at a point at her waist. The rest of the floor length dress had a sheer lace covering over the light blue material.

  While she thought the dress was absolutely gorgeous, she still wanted to yank it off and go as a hobo or something. Anything but Cinderella. But, knowing it was too late to do anything about it now, with a sigh, she turned toward her friend once again. “I just hope he’s doesn’t think I dressed like Cinderella in hopes of him becoming my Prince Charming.”

  “Well? Aren’t you?” Cailyn smiled and crossed her legs Indian style on the bed.

  “Cailyn! No. Come on. I barely met the guy.”

  “So. There’s something about him, don’t you think?” Cailyn uncrossed her legs and shoved herself off the bed. She walked over and stood behind Anna and began to gather
up Anna’s long hair.

  “What are you doing?” Anna squirmed, looking at Cailyn’s reflection in the mirror.

  “Hold still. I’m going to re-do your hair so you can wear your beauty pageant crown tonight.”

  “What?” Anna’s hand shot up. “Oh no you’re not. I’m not wearing that thing.”

  However, it was if her friend didn’t hear a word of the protest as Cailyn went over to the shelf, lifted the lid on the glass case, removed the crown, and came back to Anna. “Oh, c’mon you have to. It’ll complete your costume.”

  Knowing she was going to regret this, Anna let Cailyn turn her from the mirror, pin her hair on top of her head, and secure the crown.

  “There,” Cailyn said with a satisfied nod. Taking hold of Anna’s arms, she turned her back to face the mirror.

  One look and Anna blinked at her reflection. As much as she hated to admit it, she really did look like a princess. She just hoped that Nicholas didn’t turn out to be a frog in disguise.

  ♥ ♥ ♥

  Nicholas tapped on the front door of Sweet Treasure’s. The lights were on in back, but nobody was coming and the door was definitely locked. Had he been stood up?

  He tampered that fear down and tapped again.

  A moment and Cailyn came hurrying to the door where she turned the key to let him in. “Hi. Anna will be out in a minute.” Her gaze raked over him, and she did a pitiful job of suppressing the giggle.

  Wrinkling his face into a frown, Nicholas glanced down at himself “What’s so funny?”

  She held up her hand. “Oh. Nothing. Nothing at all. I love your costume.” Again with the giggle, except this one wasn’t suppressed nor disguised at all. What was up with that?

  His eyes roamed over his costume once again before coming back up to Cailyn. Maybe he shouldn’t have worn this costume after all. He had debated between it and the gladiator costume. Truthfully, the gladiator only lost because of the leotards. Nicholas wouldn’t be caught dead in leotards for more reasons than one, and that is what he would have had to wear with knee high sandals in order to keep his legs warm on this freezing cold evening.