Chapter 1
New Beginnings
Camille Kennedy
I felt like taking a stroll down memory lane while I busily churned a mixing bowl full of brownie batter.
I cranked up the volume on the kitchen stereo—but not tooloud, or the pot-bellied guy that lives upstairs will turn bright-red with anger and march down to yell at me. Today I felt like revisiting thePixies, a band I was obsessed with in high school. And now, whenever I play their albums, a flash of high school memories come rushing back.
I sang along and bopped about to the music, laughing aloud when I suddenly remembered some silly inside joke that me and my friends spent all of senior year repeating. Or cringing with never-ending embarrassment when I recalled the time I relentlessly pursued that hot nerdy guy who clearly was never into me …
I always get a little lost in my own head-space when I'm working at the bakery. That's one of the reasons it's so hard to get awa—
“Camille!”
The sudden shout scared me so bad, my head nearly rocketed through the ceiling. I almost dropped my mixing bowl, too, fumbling it from hand to hand before I managed to catch it and safely set it down.
I let out a sigh of relief. With a hand over my racing heart, I turned thePixiesdown to a whisper. Then I turned around to face Piper, the other half here at Velvet Bakery.
“I'm so sorry Camille! I didn't mean to scare you.” Piper covered her mouth with her hand to politely hide her smile. “But you got some sweetvertical on that jump, dude.”
I laughed too. “It's my fault. I couldn't hear the door over the music.”
Piper put her apron on. “But um. I have to ask:whyare you here? You're supposed to be taking the day off, no?”
“Well,” I stalled. “I just wanted to make sure everything went smoothly.”
Piper stared right through me as she tied the apron strings into a knot behind her back. “Uh huh.”
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer: she wasn't buying what I was selling.
“I'm just wondering. Does this have something to do with the fact that I went out to the club last night?”
“Partly?” I sheepishly admitted. “It's just that, you know, our shop is still so new. We're still trying to making a name for ourselves, and first impressions mean a lot. So we have to be consistent, or—”
Piper cut me off. “And you'vegotto trust me, Camille. You're not the only one who's put some serious skin in the game, you know? I'm your business partner! And I shouldn't have to remind you that Ialsoquit a pretty decent job to open this shop.”
“I know, I know. I'm sorry. I really didn't mean anything by it.”
“And that also means you've got to take some time off, Camille. I can't have you burn out on me. You've got to have a life outside the bakery. I mean, shit, what doesMattthink of you working all the time?”
Saying his name made the wheels in Piper's head turn. I knew what the expression on her face meant: she'd begun to piece therealstory together. I flinched, knowing what was coming.
“Waaaait a minute. Weren't you and Matt supposed to go to Rockaway Beach today? Wasn't that the whole point of you taking the day off in the first place?”
I toed at a smudge on the hardwood floor. “Yeah, it was.”
“Did you guys break up?”
“I wouldn't even say we were serious enough to call it a break-up in the first place. But yeah, we won't be seeing each other anymore.”
“But why?”
“Um.” I turned my back to Piper and resumed my prep cooking. “He had this crazy idea that I spend too much time at work and we never saw each other.”
“Wow, thatiscrazy,” Piper giggled.
“Okay, sure, I work too much. But I'm trying to follow my dreams andcarve out an honest living here! And what about him? He's content living the life of a 'freelance audio engineer,' whatever the hell that means. I guess it means living at bars and only making enough money to barely pay your rent.”
