Sweet and Spicy [COMPLETED]

Pecking Order Malfunction

"Why aren't you doing your job?" Noel stormed out of the kitchen and planted her hands on her hips. 

"I was." Kaya held up the pad of paper. "Someone left a catering order for tomorrow." 

"Who was it? How did he pay?" 

"He said the card is on file." 

"Must be Tobin." 

"That's what his business card says." 

Noel tore the sheet off the pad and glanced at the details. "What's the special note?" 

Kaya nibbled at her lip. "He asked me to make something that the guy running the meeting will eat. Apparently he doesn't like sweets." 

"We run a sweets shop. Cafe Dulcis. If he wants something savory he should go to a different shop. That's how we've always dealt with him. Why ask you, of all people, to make something he'll eat? Don't do it." 

Kaya swallowed, knowing she had done something her boss wouldn't like. "He said if I managed to make something this guy likes, he'll cater all the afternoon executive meetings from this shop." 

"Do you know how much work that is?" Noel huffed. 

Kaya wrapped her arms around her torso. "I thought it would be good for business." 

"You thought? You thought? I didn't hire you to think." 

"I already told him I would." 

"Oh, did you?" Noel folded her arms over her chest. "Then let's do this. If his boss doesn't eat whatever it is you intend to make, you're fired." 

"What if he eats it?" Kaya knew she shouldn't have asked, but she couldn't do anything about it. It slipped out on its own. 

Noel's nostrils flared in annoyance. "Then you'll personally be in charge of every order they make. You brought that on yourself." 

"Do you want me to help you make the tarts? I know we have to stock up for tomorrow, as well." 

Noel shook her head. "I'll make them in the morning. You stay out of the kitchen until everything is set for the store. I don't want your little experiment messing everything up." 

Kaya wrapped her arms tighter around herself. Not allowed in the kitchen until the store was stocked? That meant Noel held her in lesser regard than everything else. Another slap to the face. Another door from her past slamming in her face. 

Her mom always encouraged Kaya to live in the kitchen. 

Noel stormed off as if Kaya ended the world. 

Kaya scratched her fingers into her hair and then released her head. She would do what she promised, despite Noel. She could do it. She could make a savory dessert. 

There's no hard fast rule about what a dessert should be. It's only definition is that it comes after the meal. 

Another of her mother's life mottos. Kaya pressed her palms to her eyes and tried to remember what her mother had taught her that day. She could replicate it. She grew up around pastries and candies. She could do this in her sleep. 

Or so Kaya told herself. In reality, she didn't know if the recipe would even gain this man's attention. 

It has to. If it didn't, Kaya didn't know what to do with her life. She wouldn't give up the sweets shop. It was all she had left.