Rose

17

What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
- William Shakespeare

"Rose!" Ellen yelled out my name from across the field. "Where does this tray go?" She was holding a tray of chocolate strawberry dip cupcakes. I bit the bottom of my lips as I surveyed the venue. Unfortunately, holding an outdoor event during Spring season where rain is unpredictable, it puts a lot of stress on catering. The venue was moved to an indoor banquet which was smaller than taking up the entire garden like it was originally planned. And since the clients ordered two hundred cupcakes for an outdoor event, it is nearly impossible to fit it indoor considering the amount of guests that's coming.

With the sudden change of the venue, everyone was rushing around to finish the last minute touches before guests arrived. To be honest, it was very dangerous to be placing cupcakes in this chaos but we were short on time.

"Leave it over there for now!" I pointed to a long table off to the corner. "I'll double check with the client to see where we can set up!"

"Okay," She called back. "I'll bring the others in because the rain is starting to come down harder now." I nodded and turned back to my tiers of cupcakes.

"This is ridiculous." Mia cursed on the other side of the table, stacking the cupcakes as fast as we could but yet still presentable. "If only they decided to check the weather forecast this morning, we wouldn't be in such a rush!"

"Give them a break, it said there were only twenty percent of showers today." I defended.

"That's twenty more percent! Besides you and I both know how accurate weather forecasts are." She rolled her eyes with a sarcastic humour and I chuckled.

We may be tight on time but we were professionals and managed to fit all two hundred cupcakes in the small venue. The first guests began to arrive just as we started packing our trays into the back of our van. The rain was coming down harder now and there was no time to waste, I surely didn't want to get soaked. Ellen climbed into the driver's seat while I occupied the passenger and Mia had the entire back all to herself. She spread her legs out in front of her and began massaging them.

We headed back to the bakery and the business was blooming like ever. Rosemary, my bakery...is no longer mine. Even though Jason decided that the contract was no longer in effect and that we didn't have to pay that cancellation fee for voiding the contract, the bankruptcy to my parents company was inevitable. There were a lot of financial settlements that needed to be handled even after selling the company at a low price, it wasn't enough to pay for all the employees. Lily of course helped as much as she could and even stopped the production of her clothing line. She's managing but it's a difficult battle to get back to where she was six months ago. And I had to help as much as I could as well so I ended up selling the bakery. Plus there was no way I would let Jason help with it either.

The announcement to the break up affected Lily the most of all of us because she was the woman involved. Her business plummeted but when Jason stepped out into the open, he defended her as a mutual agreement so that the media could step down. Even if Jason controls the media more than any businessman in the market, there was only so much he can control during such explosive news. 

Luckily, I've gotten a good price for it because Rosemary has such a good reputation. I was thankful for Mr. Greene, the man who purchased my bakery as an investment decided to let me stay because according to him, Rosemary is nothing with Rose. Aside from that, he hired extra staffs to help out around the bakery which I was surprised but really, it was necessary because there were more customers than there were six months ago. I barely had time to rest before I start on another project for clients. He told me to continue working as if I still owe the bakery and have the authorizes to do whatever seems fit so the only differences is that the bakery is no longer under my name...and the extra four employees: Judy, Taylor, who were college students a few blocks down. Denise, another baker to help out with the baking because I cannot possible catch up with all the orders and baking for the bakery for the customers. And Patrick, who was also another baker.