A/N: Thank you all for your reviews and support! I hope you enjoy this next chapter.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 4: Easy as Apple Pie
If Ana and Kate felt that they could relax after the crazy hectic day at the bakery, they were both sorely mistaken. After spending over an hour cleaning up the lobby area, sweeping the floors, wiping down tables, and taking out the garbage, they both then had to go into the back kitchen and take inventory of all their ingredients. They had to see what needed to be ordered before tomorrow, which was a lot: they were pretty much out of eggs and butter, and chocolate and sugar were both running low too. There was still a decent amount of flour, but Ana had ended up blowing through a third of their entire supply today, so she would likely need to order more within the next few days.
The kitchen was a mess too, so after taking inventory, Ana and Kate had to spend the next few hours doing even more cleaning: they washed all the dishes, mopped the floors, and cleaned the standmixers. They finally finished up around six o'clock, and both of them practically collapsed at the work table in the back, feeling both exhausted and starving.
"Let's do UberEats tonight," Kate declared, pulling out her phone and tapping on the screen. "It'll be my treat – we can celebrate our most profitable day ever. How do burgers sound?"
"Anything sounds good right now," Ana said, burying her face in her arms on the tabletop so her voice sounded muffled. Despite how hungry she was, she felt like she could fall asleep right then and there. "Thank you."
"No problem. Did you want to head upstairs to your apartment while we wait for our food? We can check the website and see if any more contact forms came in," Kate suggested.
Ana brought her head up again. "Oh God, I totally forgot about the website. If our store was this crazy today, I don't want to imagine how insane our website traffic is."
"I know it's a lot, but this is only temporary," Kate said placatingly. "I'm sure we'll go back to a more reasonable amount of customers soon."
"I know," Ana sighed. "This all just feels so overwhelming right now. So much has been thrown at us all at once, and I'm just trying to juggle it all. There's the low inventory and the online orders and the special customer requests… it's all happening so fast. And it's not like we can bring on new staff tomorrow to help us with it all."
"I know," Kate grimaced. "Maybe in the future we can hire and train some new people, but for right now I think we have to power through this ourselves."
"Maybe Ethan can come home from college early to help us out," Ana joked, referencing Kate's younger brother who had helped them move all the appliances into the bakery when they first opened. Ethan currently attended NYU on the other side of the country, however, and Kate laughed.
"Maybe. Or maybe you could give Jose a call? I'm sure he'd love to help."
Ana let out a snort, rolling her eyes. Jose Rodriguez was Ana's ex-boyfriend, and their relationship had begun falling apart once Ana started throwing all her time and energy into The Royal Treatment. According to Jose, Ana never had time for him anymore, which had caused many fights and late-night arguments between them. One particular fight led him to go out and sleep with one of his coworkers, which Ana found out about the next day when he confessed. This resulted in a huge fight that led to her breaking up with him once and for all – a fact that felt devastating at the time, but she now knew was for the best. Ana had had no contact with Jose for over six months now, and she really wasn't eager to reach out anytime soon.
"Yeah right. We're not that desperate yet," she said derisively, and Kate snickered.
"Or ever."
"It almost feels like with all this extra publicity we got through Mia Grey's blog, we don't really need a contract with GEH anymore," Ana admitted, though she felt her heart sink slightly at the thought. She wasn't entirely sure why.
"Don't talk like that. We'll get through this busy time, and we'll also get to work with GEH," Kate reassured her, and Ana felt slightly better. "Christian Grey himself told you he liked our treats, so we have to believe it's going to happen."
"Maybe Christian Grey can help us find some more staff. And a bigger kitchen," Ana said, only half-joking, but Kate smiled regardless.
"Or better yet, he can marry one of us so we'll never have to work another day in our lives," she suggested, smiling dreamily off into space. "And we can take a plane to the Bahamas every weekend while knocking back Mai Tais."
"Kate," Ana couldn't help but laugh, shaking her head at such an absurd idea.
"What? If we're daydreaming about impossible scenarios, I figured I could have a little fun with it," she shrugged, grinning.
"You are absolutely ridiculous."
"I know I am. But it's all for nothing, anyway," Kate shook her head. "Christian Grey is apparently engaged to some bougie architect lady, so she's gonna be the one jetting off to the Bahamas every weekend."
Ana felt an odd clench in her stomach at that information. She didn't know why, since she'd only met Christian Grey briefly at that expo, but the thought of him being engaged felt almost strange. "Really? I didn't know he was engaged."
"Yeah. To Gia Matteo, I think her name is," Kate said, looking thoughtful. "I've read a few articles about them, and they've had some public appearances at charity events and stuff. It's usually the Seattle Times that covers them."
"Ah," Ana said knowingly. Jose was one of the head photographers for the Seattle Times, and she avoided that newspaper like the plague since the two of them broke up. "That's why I haven't heard anything about their relationship."
"Probably," Kate smirked, and she finally stood up from the table. "C'mon – let's wait for our food upstairs. We can check the contact forms on our website and make sure we haven't crashed again."
"Okay," Ana sighed before also getting to her feet. No rest for the wicked, she couldn't help but think wearily as she followed Kate upstairs.
~The next day~
"…Her bakery should be just a few blocks from here."
"I know, Mimi. I actually know this neighborhood pretty well… having run my business in it for nearly nine years now, it's become pretty familiar to me."
Christian spoke with an amused tone, glancing over at his sister in the passenger seat, and Mia rolled her eyes with a smirk. It was a surprisingly beautiful day out today, and the warm weather brought out a lot of people to Pike Place Market for lunch this Saturday afternoon. Christian was wearing aviator sunglasses, and he had taken off his tie so the collar of his button-down shirt hung open.
"I know you do. And I appreciate you giving me a ride," Mia smiled. She really did love her brother, especially when he did kind gestures like this for her. A lot of people only ever saw him as a cold, heartless businessman, but Mia was one of the few lucky people who saw the sweet guy underneath. "And thanks again for lunch. I really do love that new chef you got at the Mile High Club – that roasted duck he made was absolutely divine."
"I'm glad you approve," Christian smiled. "You did find him for me, after all."
"No I didn't. I just gave you his name and a few others as suggestions," Mia said airily. "Other than that, I left the choice entirely up to you."
"Right," Christian said, his voice humored.
"I hope Ana doesn't mind that I'm popping by her bakery again, especially after the article I wrote about her food," Mia said, gazing out the window again. "Have you been to The Royal Treatment yet?"
"No," Christian said simply, keeping his eyes forward. He didn't elaborate.
"Oh," Mia said. "Well, it's a very cute place. Are you sure you don't want to come in with me? You might get a free croissant out of it."
Christian gave a small, amused smile. "No thanks. I think Claude would kill me if I undid all the cardio he's been having me do lately."
Mia laughed. "You don't have to eat anything if you don't want to. You could just come in and say hi."
Christian's smile faded, and he cleared his throat, looking a bit off. "Thanks, but I need to get back to Escala soon. Gia's coming by with the wedding planner."
Mia felt a bit surprised by that, but didn't comment on it. She liked Gia well enough, but Christian seemed to be moving this wedding along with her rather quickly. Her brother's relationship with Gia wasn't really any of Mia's business, however, so she didn't say anything. "Okay. I understand."
Christian turned the corner, and they were met with a huge crowd of people milling around on the sidewalk outside of a large brick building. There were several businesses around this area, and Mia recognized The Royal Treatment logo over the doorway where people were lining up outside.
"Oh my God," Mia exclaimed, her eyes wide as she stared at the crowds of people gathered around. "Are those all customers for the bakery?"
"Looks like it," Christian said, staring at the doorway with a frown on his face. "Is it usually this busy?"
"It wasn't when I was here the other day," Mia said. She couldn't help but vaguely wonder if she had caused this with her article, but brushed that thought aside. "It's probably busy since it's the weekend."
"Right," Christian said, still gazing at the front entrance of the bakery with an odd intense look on his face.
"Thanks for the ride," Mia said, moving to open the car door. "Have fun with the wedding planner."
"Do you need me to give you a ride back?" Christian asked, still frowning over at the bakery.
"No, that's okay," Mia waved off. "You're gonna be busy. I'll just get an Uber."
Christian still looked concerned as he glanced over at her. "Are you sure? I don't mind."
"I'm sure," Mia said assuredly, and she stepped out of the car. "Bye Christian. Thanks again."
"No problem, Mia."
She shut the car door, and she watched Christian drive away, navigating slowly past the crowd of people before disappearing around the corner. Mia then made her way into the bakery, pushing past the crowd of people so she could get inside.
The crowds were almost worse inside; there didn't seem to be any semblance of a line or proper conduct as people shouted their orders over one another, pushing toward the front counter. Mia couldn't help but feel stunned by this amount of foot traffic: it seemed almost unbelievable that this bakery could see this amount of people on a regular basis.
"Everyone! Please come forward one at a time!" the blonde woman Mia remembered as Kate shouted from behind the counter. "We promise we'll get to everyone! Just please line up one-by-one!"
She looked exhausted, as if she had been putting up with this unruly crowd for hours now, and the discouragement showed on her face when people basically ignored her request to line up in an orderly fashion. They kept pushing past each other, shouting things to Kate:
"…I ordered two dozen danishes on the website last night, I just need to pick them up. Can I speak to someone about that?"
"Where's the manager? I want to order a sheet cake and two dozen cupcakes for my nephew's birthday…"
"…Are you guys out of the croissants? When is a new batch coming out?"
"Does your chocolate have nuts in it? My daughter's very allergic…"
Mia watched the people in the crowd shouting over each other before glancing at Kate, feeling perplexed: was she the only worker here? Where were the other employees?
"Mia?"
Mia turned to see Ana step out of the kitchen, looking just as haggard as Kate, and she walked over.
"Hi Ana!" Mia moved toward the other woman, stepping past a group of people. "I just wanted to see how you guys were doing. Sorry to come when you're so slammed with customers."
Ana gave a tired but appreciative smile, glancing at the crowd. "Thanks, but we've kind of been like this since your article came out the other day."
Mia stared at her, stunned. "What?"
"You gave the bakery a lot of positive exposure in your article," Ana explained. "Which we really appreciated, but it has come with some… unintended consequences."
More people in the crowd shouted their orders at Kate and Ana, and Mia glanced at them. "Where are the other employees?"
"Kate and I are it," Ana said. "I've never needed another employee before, and we haven't been able to find anyone to help us last-minute."
Mia felt guilt clench her stomach, realizing this pandemonium really was all her fault. "There's no one else?"
"No, and what's worse is that our truck can't come until tomorrow, and we're nearly out of everything," Ana said, looking completely worn down. "I need to run out and buy more ingredients, but I can't leave Kate to deal with this pandemonium all by herself."
Feeling resolved on what she should do, Mia stepped behind the counter. "Where's an apron? I'll help you guys."
Ana's eyes widened as she stared at Mia. "What?"
"You both are clearly overwhelmed right now, and it is technically my fault," Mia said firmly. "I've worked in pastry kitchens before, so I can help you. I'll work the kitchens while you run out to buy ingredients, and Kate can deal with the customers."
"Oh my God, you're a lifesaver," Kate said gratefully, quickly handing Mia an extra apron. Mia took it and slipped it on, tying it around her waist.
"Are you sure you want to do this, Mia?" Ana asked skeptically. "I could never ask you to give up your afternoon like this."
"It's no problem," Mia insisted. "Now go – we have customers to serve."
Ana stared at her for a moment before smiling, giving a short nod. "Thank you."
Ana then hurried to grab her keys and coat, and Mia rolled up her sleeves, ready to get started. "Let's do this."
A/N: And it's Mia to the rescue :) To all the food service workers who know the pain of being both understaffed and slammed with customers, I feel you lol.
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