Sugar & Spice

Chapter 10

A/N: Dedicated to the little ray of sunshine, LoveThirsty xoxo

Crissy tried really hard to not regret sending Amy home and giving her a break but...a small part of her still did anyway. Especially when the coffee shop picked up between breakfast and lunch. She was used to working the kitchen and only the kitchen. She liked it that way. People were confusing. Food was not.

But now that Amy wasn't there to work the register and handle the customers, it was up to Crissy to manage the kitchen as well as the register and she was feeling more than a little frazzled. She'd already burned two trays of buttermilk scones, and crushed an entire platter of fresh cinnamon rolls, putting her well behind the demand of the customers.

Crissy wasn't going to say one word to Amy about any of this. It was just one day. Amy would be back on track in no time. She never stayed down for long. She deserved the rest anyway. But she might put the bug in her boss' ear to hire somebody else to ease up on their work load. That was the problem with being so devoted to her job – the boss didn't see the need to hire anyone else to help out.

The bell by the register went into a rapid fire assault of high-pitched ringing. Crissy fumbled the tray of blueberry muffins and slid it onto the counter right before she lost control and saved it just in time.

"Be there in a minute!" she called.

She wiped her hands on a dish towel, checked the new batch of buttermilk warming on the stove and fiddled with the heat to keep it from burning. The bell continued to ping wildly.

"Coming, coming," Crissy chanted, hurrying out of the kitchen and doing her best to not look as harried as she felt.

A woman stood at the counter with two boys zipping around her. She held out her to-go bag with a frown.

"You got my order wrong," she said.

Crissy blinked, surprised. She was always so careful with orders, double, even triple checking to make sure she got it right.

"I'm...sorry? What did you...?"

"I ordered two white chocolate raspberry muffins, a strawberry twist doughnut, and a cappuccino," she said, ripping the bag open. "Instead, I got three peanut butter cookies and sweet almond bread and no coffee at all." She unloaded each item with so much venom that crumbs scattered across the countertop like sand.

"Oh, well then if you could just show me your receipt..."

"I don't have the receipt because you didn't give me one," the woman snapped.

The two boys were now trampling behind the counter, chasing each other around Crissy's feet and trying to pry the glass display case open to get at the food inside. Crissy unpeeled their sticky, pudgy little fingers from the handle and shut the door.

"Excuse me," the woman growled. "You have no right to manhandle my children like that. They're trying to get the food they wanted in the first place."

Crissy took a deep breath and cast her gaze towards the ceiling. Amy would have had this resolved in no time but Crissy was floundering. Drowning, actually.

After a moment, she returned her gaze to the woman at the counter. The two boys were still plastering their fingers and faces against the display case.

"Since you are sure," Crissy said in a forcibly measured tone, "that wasn't what you ordered, I'll..."

"Of course it's not what I ordered," the woman cut in. "My sons are allergic to nuts. I wouldn't let them touch any of this!"