by A. E. Radley
That was what the Sugar Plum Bakery was known for and the day Abbott’s Grocery could rival Serenity’s presence in the community would be the day she hung up her apron.
“Hey, Ted,” she said as a middle-aged man in a Santa suit sidled up to the counter. “On your way to the mall?”
“Nah, I’ve just been playing Santa for so many years that I’ve grown fond of the uniform,” he said with a belly laugh that rang through the small shop. Then he put his finger on the side of his nose and winked at her, saying, “I need to pick up that order of cookies I placed last week – gonna surprise the elves with a little Black Friday treat.”
“That’s sweet of you,” Serenity said. She went back to the kitchen, where there was a rack full of purple boxes ready to go out to waiting customers. There were less orders this year than last – they’d been dwindling ever since Abbott’s opened its doors, but Serenity couldn’t afford to dwell on that. Being on her own again, she had more than she could handle even if the volume of her business was declining.
She was just on her way back to the counter when the oven timer started going off. She’d forgotten all about the gingerbread she’d been baking when Ashley dropped her bomb.
Serenity set down Ted’s order and jogged over to the oven, pulling out five baking trays full of gingerbread men and the pieces of a gingerbread castle that would become part of her customary Christmas window display. She laid them out to cool and took a deep breath.
She’d get through this holiday season somehow. Maybe not easily, and maybe not gracefully, but she’d survived worse.
DECEMBER 1
Serenity arrived at her parents’ Christmas party after it was already in full swing. The entire first floor of the brick colonial where she grew up was alive with revelers and there were candles and wreaths hanging in every window.
Serenity wished she could have been there to help her mother and sister decorate earlier in the day. It was a tradition for them – they’d play their favorite Christmas music and spend the whole afternoon decorating for their biggest party of the year. They would trim the tree as a family and Serenity looked forward to that tradition almost as much as the party itself.
But this year, she couldn’t get away from the bakery in time to help, so instead, she arrived to a full house, with several bakery boxes under her arms and a bit of snow dampening her stockings. Her sister met her at the door and took one of the boxes out of her hands.
“Hey, Faith,” Serenity said, a little breathless from rushing. “Sorry I’m late – the cookies took longer to ice than I expected, then I had to go home and change.”
“You look good,” Faith assured her.
Serenity had put on a red velvet dress and she’d taken the time to curl her blonde hair into locks that hung down over her shoulders. It seemed worth the trouble, especially since it felt like she’d been disheveled and covered in flour for most of the last few weeks. It was nice to forget the problems of her bakery, dress up and enjoy her favorite holiday for one night.
“So do you,” Serenity said. Her sister went to college in Granville, about an hour away, and they’d never been very close when they were kids thanks to their ten-year age gap. Whenever Faith came back to town, Serenity was reminded of what a shame it was that they weren’t closer. “You grow up more every time I see you.”
“Come on, Mom’s waiting to set up the dessert table,” Faith said.
Serenity followed her through the living room, where party guests were talking with drinks and hors d’oeuvres in hand. She waved to a few and asked her sister, “So you’re home for the holidays now?”
“Yeah,” Faith said. “I took my final exams on Friday and I’m done with class until the New Year.”
“How’d you like to work in a bakery over your winter break?” Serenity asked. She winked at her sister to show it was a joke, but she would have been relieved if Faith had taken her up on the offer.
Instead, she just laughed, rolled her eyes, and said, “Mom wants the cookies on that silver platter. I’ll help you transfer them.”
“Thanks,” Serenity said. She opened one of the boxes and started working, then asked, “Where are Mom and Dad?”
“Mingling, I’m sure,” Faith said. “Last time I saw them, Dad was making himself useful behind the bar and Mom was talking to that girl who just moved back in with her parents down the street. I think she was in your class in high school.”
Serenity furrowed her brow and stopped working. A party guest passing through the kitchen reached over her to take a cookie - they were a staple at the Ryan family Christmas party and most years, they didn’t last more than an hour.
“Olivia?” she asked.
“I think that’s her name,” Faith said as she collapsed her empty bakery box. “Did you know her?”
“Not really,” Serenity said, finishing with her box of cookies. In a small town where the graduating class could fit comfortably inside a single school bus, it was pretty hard not to know everyone, but Olivia had always managed to stand apart. Or maybe it was just the fact that Serenity found her so intimidatingly attractive that she’d always averted her eyes whenever Olivia came near.
In any case, one thing Serenity never expected was to find Olivia back in Angel Valley. She’d always been bigger than this town.
“Are these your world-famous cookies?”
Serenity looked over her shoulder. One of her mother’s friends, Nancy, was reaching for a Christmas tree-shaped sugar cookie. Serenity smiled and said, “I wouldn’t call them world-famous, but I’d be happy if you spread that rumor – I can use all the publicity I can get with an Abbott’s Grocery opening down the street from my shop.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Nancy said. “We support our own around here.”
Serenity smiled while Nancy took a couple more cookies, then weaved her way back into the crowded living room. Serenity took Faith’s empty cake box and said, “Thanks for the help. I’m going to go find Mom and Dad, then take a lap around the party.”
“Have fun,” Faith said. “Promise to rescue me if you see any of Dad’s boring orthodontist friends cornering me.”
Serenity laughed and promised she would, then went into the kitchen to dispose of the bakery boxes. She put them in the recycling, rolling her eyes when she noticed a few Abbott’s Grocery bags stuffed into the bottom of the bin. Then she circled back to the front of the house, where a jazzy, instrumental version of Jingle Bells played on the stereo and put her in a mood to be cheerful and social.
She swung by the long oak bar in the corner of the living room, greeting her father and taking a martini from him. She kept her eyes open for Ashley and her husband - Serenity really did want to hear what it was like to work in a corporate-owned bakery, and part of her hoped that Ashley would be ready to come back to the Sugar Plum by now.
“Serenity!”
She followed the sound of her name and saw her mom waving from the other side of the room. Serenity smiled and waved back, then picked her way through the crowd, her heels sinking slightly into the carpet with every step.
“Hi, honey,” her mom called when she got a little closer, and then Serenity noticed Olivia standing beside her.
Her first thought was, Poor Olivia, I wonder how long Mom’s been talking her ear off? And then as she got a little closer, the second was, Wow… she hasn’t changed since high school.
Olivia was still breathtaking, standing there with perfect posture and her silky black hair swept back in a prim ponytail. She wore black slacks that accentuated her long legs, making them seem to go on for days, and her neatly manicured, unpainted nails wrapped around a tumbler containing some kind of amber-colored liquor on the rocks. If the teenaged Serenity had to guess what a grown-up version of Olivia would look like, this would be exactly right – powerful, meticulous, and as beautiful as ever.
Although Serenity had to admit, the somewhat masculine cut of Olivia’s clothes surprised her slightly.
Serenity’
s pulse quickened and she smiled out of embarrassment. Was she still intimidated by this girl, who she hadn’t seen in ten years and who was apparently living with her parents at the age of thirty? Serenity’s rapidly beating heart told her to take an abrupt right turn into the dining room and check on her cookie display, but her feet kept marching forward. She had nothing to be fearful of – she was successful, and far more confident than she’d been in high school.
“Hi, Mom,” Serenity said, leaning in to give her mother a quick hug. “The house looks so festive.”
“Thanks – your sister was a lot of help,” her mom said. Then she motioned to Olivia and said, “I was just catching up with Olivia Winters. She moved back to town recently and if I’m not mistaken, you two were schoolmates. Do you remember her?”
How could I forget?
Olivia had always been larger than life and she’d certainly been good at capturing Serenity’s attention when they were younger. Serenity extended her hand, thinking that even with a graduating class of under fifty, she wouldn’t be surprised if Olivia didn’t remember her. What was there to remember? Serenity had never managed to speak more than a dozen words to Olivia back then.
“I do,” Serenity said to her mother, her brown eyes locking onto Olivia’s emerald ones. Still just as breathtaking as ever. Olivia took her hand, her long fingers enveloping Serenity’s plump ones. Then she said stupidly, “I’m Serenity.”
Olivia laughed, her perfectly white teeth appearing in a flash, and her lips curled into a smile as she said, “I know. I remember you, too.”
Serenity wondered just how red her face was in that moment. At least it was the season for rosy cheeks.
“Oh, excuse me, ladies,” her mom said, putting her hand on Serenity’s shoulder. It was an interruption Serenity was grateful for so that she could compose herself like the perfectly reasonable adult that she was. She didn’t like feeling like an insecure, confused teenager all over again, an effect that Olivia was apparently still capable of producing in her. Serenity’s mother was looking anxiously toward the bar and she said, “I better go see how your father’s doing – it looks like he’s enjoying his bartending duties a bit too much.”
Serenity laughed, then watched her mom go to her slightly intoxicated father. When she turned back to Olivia, she found those green eyes studying her and it sent a flutter into her belly. She took a long sip from her martini glass.
“So,” Olivia said, her gaze fixed on Serenity, “I missed the ten-year reunion. Catch me up – what have you been up to since high school?”
Serenity smiled. This was a topic she could talk about at length, to the attractive and intimidating Olivia Winters or anyone else.
“I stayed close to home,” she said. “Got a degree in culinary arts from Granville State and then opened a bakery in town about five years ago. We do a lot of wedding cakes in the summer and Christmas is our other busy time – well, I should say my busy time. I had an assistant, but she just took a job at the new grocery store.”
No, no, no, Serenity thought as she heard herself veering away from ‘successful business owner’ into ‘struggling solopreneur’ territory. Why had she said that?
“Umm, what about you?” she asked quickly, shifting the conversation to Olivia.
“I’ve been all over,” she said. “I went to New York City for college and grad school. I thought I’d want to stay there long-term, but I was done with big city living by the time my six years was up. I guess that old saying about taking the girl out of the country is true, because I ended up in Westbrook, which is a couple of hours from here and not a whole lot bigger than Angel Valley. I guess I prefer to commute into the city than live in it.”
“What do you do?” Serenity asked.
“I worked for the county prosecutor as a junior attorney,” Olivia said. She turned her head, her long ponytail swishing over one shoulder, and Serenity caught a subtle wave of citrus in the air. Then Olivia added, “The goal was to work my way up to judge.”
“Past tense?” Serenity asked, wondering if it was an impolite question as soon as she’d asked it.
“Yeah,” Olivia said. “I’m taking a little break – doctor’s orders.”
She laughed, but this time her lips stayed tightly pressed together. Serenity averted her gaze, feeling bad for making Olivia uncomfortable, and took another sip of her martini. Dad did make them strong.
“So, are you married?” Olivia asked, taking Serenity by surprise. “Got a thousand rug rats running around by now?”
“Far from it,” Serenity said. “Now that I’m on my own at the bakery, I barely have time to eat, let alone date. And even before that, I can’t say that I was the greatest at juggling work and romance.”
The alcohol must have been working because she found the boldness to let her eyes trace Olivia’s figure – covertly – from her tight slacks up to the neatly pressed button-up shirt that hugged the curves of her waist and small breasts, and then up to her full lips. The lower one had a slight dimple right in the center that Serenity remembered well. She’d spent hours – days, even – staring at it all through elementary school and middle school, wondering just what was so fascinating about it.
It wasn’t until high school that she figured out the reason she’d had such trouble tearing her eyes off Olivia, and by then Olivia was locked into a cliché, obviously superficial romance with the most popular boy in school.
“I had a girlfriend a few years ago and things were getting serious,” Serenity blurted, horrified at her own lack of a verbal filter. “But the bakery was only a couple years old and I was putting in a lot of hours to establish myself in the community. She wanted a life outside the bakery and I couldn’t give it to her, so we broke up.”
“I’m sorry,” Olivia said. Serenity looked at her, ready to melt into her mother’s shag carpet from embarrassment, but then she said, “My last girlfriend had similar opinions. Well, I think her exact words were, ‘Do I have to get booked into the county jail for you to notice me?’ but the sentiment was the same. I guess you could call me a workaholic.”
She laughed, then emptied her tumbler, and Serenity had to struggle to keep her jaw from falling open. Had she heard that right?
“Serenity!”
She looked toward the door and saw Ashley coming into the house, her son on one hip and her husband following behind her. Serenity waved her over. There were very few things in the world she wanted more than to pry further into Olivia’s personal life, but nothing productive would come of it so she was grateful for Ashley’s arrival.
She made the introductions, and when Olivia put out her hand to shake with Ashley and her husband, she was looking at Serenity as she said, “Actually, I go by Liv now.”
DECEMBER 3
Early mornings in the bakery were Serenity’s favorite times.
There were lots of other good moments in the bakery - the feeling of handing over an important order and seeing her clients’ faces light up, and saying hello to her regulars when they came in for their morning cup of coffee and a donut fresh from the case. But it was also nice to be alone in the bakery, her hands in the dough and the smell of fresh-baked donuts permeating the air.
This close to Christmas and without help, though, she wouldn’t have any mornings quite so peaceful. There was too much to do and no one to help her do it.
On the Monday after her parents’ Christmas party, Serenity was elbow deep in holiday orders by the time the shop opened and people started coming in. She was doing her best to keep the orders organized, spreading them across the prep table in an attempt to sort them by date. Ashley always used to handle details like that, and from what she’d told Serenity at the Christmas party, she was using those skills to great effect at Abbott’s and taking their fledgling bakery department by storm.
The Sugar Plum Bakery, on the other hand, looked like a storm had blown through it.
Serenity was at her best when she was baking, or beading delicate strings of icing onto a
wedding cake, or filling donuts with her signature Bavarian cream. She didn’t have a mind for all the administrative details that went along with running a business, and for a long time she’d been lucky to have her girlfriend and Ashley to help her.
Now that she was on her own, she realized the magnitude of the challenge ahead. She’d put up a Help Wanted sign in the widow, but she doubted she’d even have time to conduct interviews if she had any applicants.
The bell above the door jingled and a familiar voice called from the front of the shop, “Hello?”
Serenity wiped her hand on a towel and blew a stray tendril of hair out of her face, then went through the doorway with a smile. Olivia was standing with her back to Serenity, peeking over the cardboard that she’d set up to hide her Christmas window display from public view while it was under construction. Olivia wore a long wool coat and her hair was pulled back into the same prim ponytail she’d worn at the party.
“Olivia,” Serenity said.
“Liv,” she corrected as she turned around. “Good morning.”
“Good morning,” Serenity said. “What brings you to the Sugar Plum?”
Morbid curiosity, probably, she thought before Olivia – Liv – had a chance to answer. Serenity had drunk three more martinis before the end of the night and gin had a way of loosening her tongue. She talked more about Abbott’s than a sober Serenity would have, and she had a vague memory of telling Olivia she wasn’t sure her business would survive the holiday season. A bit of drunken hyperbole, but still embarrassing.
She resisted the urge to apologize for the state of the window display – Serenity was running behind on it, but it wouldn’t be unveiled until the town’s annual holiday parade two days before Christmas. She’d covered it up for a reason.
“I was getting dangerously close to succumbing to cabin fever cooped up at my parents’ house all week,” Olivia said, wandering over to the display case to look at Serenity’s products. “I told my mom I had to get out of the house and she asked me to pick up something for dessert tonight.”