Jessica's Fate

Chapter 90

Four Months Later...

I couldn't help but be happy. Everything was going according to plan. I had about a month left in my summer before my last term of culinary school started. And when I say started, I mean hit the ground running like I'm being chased by a pack of rabid dogs. There was so much that needed to be completed before the end of the term and my flight to Paris on December 30th.

Paris.

Finally.

I was very excited about that chapter of my life.

I'd bounced back from my break up with Pete with brand new pink streaks in my hair and Gabriel had given in to my request for blue, green and purple ombre mermaid hair on the underside of my hair. I knew it would all be put back to normal before I went to Paris because he'd have heart palpitations at the thought of unleashing me on an unsuspecting Parisian society with punk rocker hair.

But for now, it worked quite well with my new nose piercing. He had tried to tell me it was a bad idea but that, of course, just made me do it anyway.

Raven was supportive about it.

Then again, the man was practically a walking pincushion. However, he didn't have a nose piercing, so he got one in support of mine. But he didn't keep it long, choosing to get a new tattoo shortly after it to make up for the fact that he wimped out about it.

I'd been working at the diner all summer, again, filling their dessert menu with new creations, balanced with my catering jobs. It was really cool, to be honest. I was growing a business and a client base, and I was being very careful to let them know I could only book weddings and events until December 19th before I'd be away for two years. And all of them were okay with it, I was certain to be back home from Paris with most of my clients still ready to book events with me.

One of the coolest things ever was a new friendship that I'd made through this entire process. Gina had booked one of my first weddings the summer after high school. She had been the maid of honor who garnered me the last-minute wedding that I'd ended up having Tony help me out with when my usual waitress broke her ankle. I'd given her a great discount on her own wedding cake later that year and she also ended up making sure that her bridal shower and bachelorette party desserts AND the after-wedding brunch for her family and wedding party were all booked with me as well.

So, it was totally breaking my heart that I was doing her baby shower. I mean, it was great, and I loved the fact that we were friends, but I was going to end up missing out on making the first birthday cake and smash cake for her baby because I'd be in Paris.

I wasn't sure if I believed her when she said she was going to do a fruit cake made of watermelon for the baby's first birthday instead of regular cake. But when she promised I'd have the bookings for any and all other notable parties she had after I was back, well, I suppose I would just have to believe her.

Or figure out how to get an assistant really quick and teach them everything they needed to know before I left so that a few catering gigs could still be taken care of.

I hadn't thought much about that yet.

I suppose my eventual return would give me plenty of time to figure it out since I didn't assume that my bakery location would be ready for me to open right away after my return. I fully expected to start the catering up again, based out of the diner, while my business location was built to my wishes and that would give me a chance to hire and train staff. At least Sang was already on board as my bookkeeper.

I turned my eyes and thoughts to the trays of cupcakes in front of me. I had a lot to get done before the event tomorrow.

I'd told Luke and Uncle my impressions after that Academy event I went to with Tony and told them that I thought we could do so much better than the caterer they had hired for that event. They took me seriously and we were going to be catering the event tomorrow night from start to finish, soup to nuts. We were doing a variety of appetizers, including mini piroshky and Rueben sandwich sliders on mini rye buns along with other standard party fare, crab rangoons and mini shrimp cocktails and other bite sized goodies. Luke and Uncle were handling dinner and I was impressed with the options they'd created for offering steak, chicken, fish and a vegetarian option. Well, the vegetarian option was my veggie lasagna so that was fun to come up with. And then we'd blow their minds with a dessert bar. Tons of cupcakes, many different varieties of my dessert bars and churro cheesecakes. I'd been baking for days. All I had left was the frosting and decorating of the cupcakes and dipping the rice krispy treats into chocolate before final decorations of sprinkles and candies. Sang had been recruited to scoop all the cookies for me and baked them so that I could concentrate on the lemon bars and cupcakes that needed to be perfect.