A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews and support! I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

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Chapter 3: Semi-Sweet Chocolate

For the next few days, Ana hadn't heard a single thing from Mia Grey or from anyone at GEH. A small part of her felt resigned to the fact that nothing was likely going to happen in terms of a new business opportunity, but her heart didn't want to give up just yet. She kept telling herself that these things took time, and it would likely be several weeks before she heard anything from anyone at GEH.

She promised herself that if she hadn't heard anything after a week, she would take the initiative and reach out to Mia Grey hersef. She hoped she wouldn't have to wait that long though.

Friday morning soon came around, and Ana headed downstairs to the bakery at around 5 AM like she always did, ready to get started for the day. She mentally planned to bake her usual batch of croissants, danishes, cookies, tarts, and cake pops – there were other pastries she liked to make in addition to those, but she typically made those around holiday seasons like Christmas or Fourth of July.

Once she had more money (and perhaps another chef in the kitchen) she hoped to expand her bakery and make it into more of a cafe, offering fancy lattes and breakfast sandwiches for her customers. That likely wouldn't be for awhile, but a girl could dream.

Ana busily worked away in the kitchen for about an hour, mixing dough in her standmixer, rolling out sheets of butter for her croissants, and mixing up the different icings for her cake pops. She was so focused on her work that she almost didn't notice what was going on outside her bakery. That was, until she walked past the kitchen door leading to the main part of the shop.

She froze.

What the…?

Ana peered out the small circular window of her kitchen door, where she had a clear view of the front door and the floor-to-ceiling windows leading outside. She saw about five or six people standing outside on the sidewalk by her front doors, clearly waiting in a line.

Ana frowned in confusion before checking her watch. It was barely six o'clock, and the bakery didn't open until eight. Why were customers here two hours early? Ana glanced back up at them: it was barely dawn so it was still a little dark out, but she could make out that these people looked like they were in their early to mid-twenties. It must have been a bit chilly out since most of them wore hats with coats or sweatshirts, and all of them were idly browsing on their phones as they waited.

Ana wasn't quite sure what to make of this. The Royal Treatment would get busy on occasion, but they had never had customers waiting outside in a line this early before.

How strange.

Shaking her head, Ana turned and headed back into the kitchen to continue baking. She'd have to text Kate about this before she came in today.

The next couple hours passed by, and Ana continued to work away in the kitchen. Whenever she glanced out toward the front doors, however, more and more people seemed to have lined up in front of her bakery. Ana knew she had to focus on her food, but she couldn't help but stop and stare in bewilderment as she saw at least forty or fifty people line up outside her bakery's front doors.

What on earth is going on?

Ana covertly snapped a couple pictures of the line of people and sent them to Kate, who only responded with a shocked face emoji. Ana implored Kate to come in early today since they would likely have a busy day ahead of them, and Kate agreed.

The oven timer dinged, and Ana hurried over to take out her croissants, feeling excited yet also a bit nervous. Hopefully the amount of pastries she made today would be enough for all these customers.

About fifteen minutes later, Kate walked in. Her eyes were practically bulging out of her head as she rushed into the kitchen. "Holy crap, Ana – I passed by like a hundred people out there!"

"I know," Ana said, feeling bemused and overwhelmed. "I have no idea what the hell is going on."

"I think I do," Kate said, taking out her phone and tapping on the screen. "I figured this wasn't a coincidence, and that we might have gotten a mention on social media or something. I searched the name of our bakery and I found this."

She turned her phone and showed Ana a website called Seattle Savoreaux. Onscreen was an article titled: "SEATTLE'S NEW CROWN JEWEL: THE ROYAL TREATMENT BAKERY" by Mia Grey

A headshot of Mia was placed to the side of the article, and Ana, in shock, roved her eyes over the contents. Mia wrote about her experience eating at The Royal Treatment, a charming little bakery that recently opened near Pike Place Market that had some of the best pastries she'd ever tasted. The tone of her writing was extremely complimentary, and she even included the picture of the croissant and cookie she had taken when she was here. There was even a picture of the exterior of the building, leaving Ana in no doubt that Mia was talking about her bakery.

"Oh my God," Ana couldn't help but eek out. The long line of people outside made a lot more sense now, but she still felt like she was in shock. "She wrote an article about us?"

"Yeah, it just came out yesterday. Mia Grey is apparently a super famous food blogger," Kate explained, bringing her phone back and scrolling down the article. "I didn't put it together before that she was Christian Grey's sister, but I've definitely seen her posts on Instagram before. She's got a massive following, and she's even made some guest appearances on The Food Network. I literally had no idea!"

Ana glanced out the window again toward the massive line of people outside her bakery. "Me neither."

"I also checked our company website," Kate went on. "Y'know, that little template site I built last year and it got like ten hits last month?"

Ana's heart pounded in her chest. "Yeah?"

"It crashed overnight, it got so much traffic," she insisted, grinning excitedly. "I got it back up, but it was insane! I checked our analytics and it got over a thousand searches in a matter of hours, as well as over a dozen contact forms for future cake and cookie orders. Isn't that amazing?"

Ana's eyes widened, shock and excitement filling her body as a huge smile broke out across her face. "Are you serious? A dozen? That's incredible! I don't think we've gotten a single contact form through that site in over six months!"

"I know – this is like a dream come true!" Kate exclaimed, and she and Ana embraced with excited squeals. "But come on, we should really get a move on. We're opening in twenty minutes and we've got a busy day ahead of us."

"Yes. Let's go."

For the next twenty minutes, Ana and Kate worked busily to get the bakery and display cases ready for the day. Ana also had to run back into her walk-in refrigerator to make sure she had enough ingredients in case she had to make more baked goods later today, which she likely would.

Finally, it was time to open. Ana stood behind the counter as Kate unlocked the doors and a flood of people swarmed in.

"Good morning," Ana smiled at the first girl in line. "What can I get for you?"

"Hi. Can I get six of those chocolate croissants, please?" she asked.

"Sure. To go?" Ana asked.

"Yes please."

Ana pulled out a bakery box and opened it, placing six croissants inside it. "Okay, that'll be $32.50."

"…Excuse me?" the guy behind the first customer piped up. He was bald with a soul patch and hipster-looking glasses. "Are any of those croissants gluten-free?"

"Oh. No, I'm sorry," Ana said apologetically to him. "The only gluten-free items I have are those chocolate chip cookies over there. Would you like one of those?"

"Sure. I'll take three of them, actually," the guy said once the croissant lady left. "And half a dozen assorted cookies, please. To go."

"Of course," Ana said, moving to grab a few more bakery boxes. "I am sorry about the croissants. If you'd ever like to special order gluten-free croissants for a future date, you can fill out a contact form on our company website and I can make them special for you."

"Thank you so much. I just might do that," the guy smiled. "My girlfriend can't eat gluten, and she and I have heard so many good things about your croissants. I'd hate for her to miss out."

"I'm happy to accommodate," Ana smiled, boxing up his cookies. "Alright – for the nine cookies, that'll be $36.40."

The guy paid before leaving with his cookies, and the woman behind him stepped forward. "Hi, could I get a dozen of those danishes?"

"Yes, of course," Ana moved to get another bakery box.

"Are any of them vegan?"

Ana stopped. "Oh. No, they're not."

"Shoot," the woman's face fell. "Are any of your baked goods vegan?"

"No, I'm sorry. Everything here is made with butter, milk, and eggs."

The woman looked even more dejected. "Seriously? Okay. Well… I'm going to have to think about this."

"What's there to think about?" the guy behind her said, sounding annoyed. "She said nothing's vegan. There's nothing here you can eat."

"Well, I've been waiting outside for hours. I want to try something," the girl said peevishly.

Other people in the line groaned, and Ana met Kate's eyes. They grimaced at each other, both of them knowing they were in for a long day.

~/~

The customers that had lined up outside the bakery seemed to respawn every hour or so, coming in waves and leaving Ana and Kate without so much as a break. The croissants were by far the most popular item, likely because Mia had specifically named them in her blog post, and by ten o'clock the bakery had nearly run out. Kate soon had to take over the cash register by herself so Ana could run back to the kitchen and start making more.

As the day wore on, all of Ana's excitement from having so many new customers had completely disappeared, morphing into anxiety and overwhelm. The bakery was so flooded with customers that Ana felt like she was drowning – her little shop, which typically only saw about a hundred customers a day, was now way over capacity with crowds of people swarming in. Not to mention, the bakery was running low on ingredients: Ana had had to rush back to the kitchen three times now to make more batches of baked goods after customers pretty much cleaned them out. Her supply of butter and eggs was almost gone at this point.

Ana couldn't help but think that this crowd would probably be more manageable for a bigger bakery that had more people on staff. However, Ana and Kate were all alone here, and handling all these people by themselves was getting to be far too much.

By some miracle, they made it to two o'clock – closing time. There were still people lined up outside the bakery, but Ana and Kate made it clear to them that the remaining treats were going to be the last ones of the day. All the croissants were gone at this point, and the slightly dejected customers who had come to try them ended up having to settle for the remaining cake pops or cookies.

The last customers finally left with their treats, and Kate closed the door, locking it and flipping the Open sign to Closed.

"Jesus fucking Christ," she heaved out a sigh, collapsing to the floor in exhaustion. "This has been the craziest day of my life!"

"I know," Ana cast her eyes around her bakery, which looked like a storm had run through it. Napkins, crumbs, and receipt paper littered the floor, and stacks of plates piled up next to the overflowing garbage cans. "I don't think Mia Grey realized what she did."

"I'll say. But I bet the money we made today was insane," Kate said, looking up at Ana. "What if it's like this again tomorrow?"

Ana felt her stomach clench in anxiety at the thought of going through all of this again. "Then we'll make a ton of money again tomorrow."

"True," Kate conceded, finally getting to her feet and surveying the bakery. "How long would we be able to keep this up, though? If today was this insane, I don't want to think about what the coming days could bring."

Ana said nothing, the overwhelmed feelings she had experienced all day today creeping up on her once again.

A/N: What a turn of events! If you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review :)

Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Amazon! I go by the author name Rae Trescott.