London Harmony: The Pike (12 page)

I shot all the giggling masses around me a playful glare.  They knew me too well at times.

Natasha piped up, signing clumsily as she spoke, “Even I know that you never tell June that she can't do something.”

This got another round of laughter to my embarrassment.

With all the dignity in the world, I cranked the air in front of me with one hand, as my middle finger rose up on the other.  Which only caused the laughter to increase.  I smirked at them all and admitted, “I got this shit.”

Eve arrived just as I opened the Pike for the breakfast crowd.  Within minutes she was calling out to me through the kitchen door, “Zo, three more breakfast bowls.”

I nodded to myself as I flopped the dough onto the flour covered counter to knead.  I took a moment to thank the great spaghetti monster in the sky for Ashley, I was able to mix full batches again, which alleviated some of the hectic pressure since the Kok Stjarna broke down.  The girl was a godsend and could hack together fixes for the equipment that other technicians never even thought to attempt.

I wiped my forehead with the back of my sleeve and moved over to one of the ovens and slid three more metal platters with dough to bake for the bread bowls for the order.  I had run out of the ones we pre-baked earlier.  The place was busier than ever.

I gave silent thanks for Eve's arrival too.  The twins were off with Harrison today, Crystal and Jane were giving them aerial tours of the Sound in their planes.  Without their help, I couldn't keep up.  Enter my ever too perky sis.

I paused a moment and looked around, I had to admit that I thrived under pressure.  It made me feel like I was accomplishing something.  My chest swelled with pride as I looked at the Pike through different eyes today.  I loved the place before, but something was different now.  It wasn't just the Pike anymore, it was my Pike.  The sense of pride swelled bigger in me as I warmed at the thought.

I would make the Pike better than ever, I wouldn't let Mrs. Z down.  I thought of what Ashley had said yesterday... I was Mrs. Z now.  I had a tradition to uphold.  I nodded to myself and looked over to the wall where I already had two photos of me with some of the people I loved on the wall of photos.

I wiped a tear away on the back of my sleeve then smiled and redoubled my efforts in the kitchen.  If this new influx of customers didn't ebb in the coming days, I was going to need to hire a helper.  I glanced at the door, wondering what Eve would say if I asked.

I grinned and assembled an order on a tray, arranging it exactly the way Mrs. Zatta always did.  I marched out of the kitchen with it and smiled at table three.  Reese and Sarah were there.

I shot Eve an accusing look, and she just responded with a toothy grin.  The little stinker didn't tell me some family friends were here.  I placed the platter down for the girls as I greeted them, “Hey ladies, what are you doing here?”

Reese furrowed her brow as she moved her wheelchair closer to the table, sliding a breakfast bread bowl to her girl.  “What do you mean?  This is the only place that serves breakfast fit to orgasm over.”

I grinned at her and stood there expectantly.  She looked sheepishly at me as she and Sarah took bites of the offerings.  I thought for a moment Sarah had found a new love as she moaned almost seductively and Reese closed her eyes savoring her bite, saying around the fork still in her mouth, “As sinfully delicious as ever.  My compliments to the chef.”

I beamed at them then scurried off to the kitchen to leave them to eat.  Now I knew how Emily must have felt, waiting for the validation of the first bite each time.  It was gratifying and made me happy to have made them happy.

My bliss was interrupted by my sis calling back, “We're out of croissants in the front case.”

Drat.  I went to check on the next batch and called out, “Two minutes.”  Why was I having so much fun?

I went about quelling the appetites of the morning rush.  I had to growl at Reese and Sarah when they tried to pay for their meal.  I was raised by my dad by the rule that family never paid at his diner, and Emily was the same here at the Pike with 'her girls', well they were my girls now, and dad's rule applied, family eats free.  The only toll I collected from them was a photo of us for my wall.

By the mid-morning quell, the slow time an hour just before the lunch rush, I had restocked the front display cases and had started baking items for the upcoming madness of lunch at Market.  If yesterday is any indicator, customer counts would be up about fifty percent.

Emily never spent a penny on advertising, and tucked back in the Post Street Alley buildings, traffic of this part of the market was much lighter.  She relied solely on word of mouth to bring people in.  The news of her passing and the award-winning food of the Pike had shone a spotlight on the bakery, and now the entire city knew about the hidden gem that was the Pike.

I had tried to convince her to advertise, because when she hired me to help her one-woman business, that sucked most of the profit from the bakery and we were just barely afloat.  She refused, saying she was happy with the business that flowed in naturally.  That once I was a partner we could revisit it.

I sighed knowing I'd never have that talk now, and I knew McKenzie would refuse to talk about it.  She was quite adamant that I would be the one running the Pike, that Emily trusted me so she would too.  She took this whole silent partner thing seriously.  I looked out at the few tables inside the bakery, still half full in the quell, Eve chirpily and cheerfully seeing to the customers drink refills.

I silently made the decision and nodded to myself, I was going to speak with little Miss Dynamo about seriously moving up here or commuting every day to work here full time, and then I was going to use some of the increased cash flow of these busier times to advertise the hell out of the Pike.  Make it a destination, make Emily proud whenever she looks down upon us.

This made me smile for reasons I can't quite understand.  I checked the hoagie rolls and flatbreads in the oven that were warming for lunch, then glanced over at the mixer.  I doubt I would have survived another day without it. The smaller mixer is fine but I have to mix multiple batches to get the same output, and that just slowed me down enough to make things manic.  Ashley was my hero, getting that old beast running.

Once we were profitable I'd tuck away a little each week to purchase a new industrial mixer to replace the backup mixer, then the old Kok Stjarna could become the backup.

Which reminded me.  I went to the little computer desk tucked into the corner that served as the Pike's 'office' and pulled up our online payment system.  I thought for a moment.  That evil pixie girl always leaves the payment to us.  Her bill was always whatever we thought her repairs were worth.  Grrr...

Ok, what was four hours of her and her erstwhile assistant's time worth to me?  The answer after being able to use the big unit again, one beeelion dollars.  But as I don't have a billion dollars at my disposal, how does six hundred sound?

The other repairmen would charge one hundred and fifty an hour if they weren't sent by Crystal, owing her a favor.  Which reminds me, we still owe her a couple markers here at the Pike.  Ash's time was just as valuable as theirs, and she actually fixed the mixer when they couldn't.  I grinned at myself and entered six hundred and selected her PayPal account as the recipient.  I added a smiley face in the comments and hit send.

This was more than Emily could generally afford to pay but Ash was worth every penny.  It was disappointing that we could only use her genius when she was home from college on breaks.

That effectively drained the cash reserves but with the way business had picked up, it wouldn't surprise me if we had double that in a week.  I wasn't worried even if it put us in the red.  I had my trust account that Aunt Mandy had set up for me when I was little.

The royalties from ‘Oceans of Blue’ were still rolling in, and I had more money in the account than I could ever hope to spend.  If I needed to dip into it for the first time since business college, the Pike was a great investment and something that I could pass down to the twins.

My cell buzzed before I could return to the ovens, I glanced down and snorted.  It was from Ashley, “The hell woman?”

I grinned maniacally as I texted back, “Shut up brat.”  I was glad I shocked her like that.  People should get paid to scale in my book.

This made me happy, and I almost skipped to the ovens with a big grin on my face, uttering under my breath, “Zoom.”  What a fantastically awesome day!

Ash and I had just returned to the stables after guiding a group of kids from Crystal's iFork outreach program that offered unique experiences for underprivileged children in the Seattle metro area.  It was an extension of her iFork Festival that she held every year in the big city.  I was sort of embarrassed when I had asked Ash what iFork stood for and she blinked at me and just signed, “It's for kids.”  It still took me a few seconds after that to realize that was the acronym.

Valentine's offers free horseback tours once a week for children in the program.  Steve and Francesca had assigned me, and my amber eyed obsession to it.  I'm not really good around people, but I simply love kids.  Maybe it is because they are not adults who I feel are staring at me and judging my every move.  But I feel relaxed around them, and the people who work for Bobbie know that, so I always get to deal with the children of any group we get sent out with.

I loved, loved, loved horses.  You'd think that being from a farming community in the outbacks of Washington, that I'd had a lot of exposure to them and rode them before Ash brought me here.  Sure most of the farms around us had horses, but we had never owned one, and I had never ridden one unless you count to ponies at the Spokane County Fair.

It was almost magical the first time I rode, I gained so much confidence when I was in the saddle.  My anxiety was just a shadow of itself when I had a strong horse beneath me, responding to my direction with no effort.  I was beginning to think that this was the life and job for me.  I cringed thinking about how that would be a waste of my college, but the outdoors, riding, dealing with children?  It made me happy, especially with my Amber at my side.

We dismounted and were leading Spirit and Starfire's Girl to the horse walker for their cooldown when I heard Ash's cell buzz.   She paused to look at it.  She signed with one hand, “Email notification.”  Then she stopped walking and stared at the screen, her brow furrowing.  She signed, “The hell?”

Then she looked up at me, dropping the reigns so she could sign properly, “That crazy Zoey just sent us six hundred dollars for the mixer fix!”

I blinked, that was a week's pay.  Mrs. Z never paid that much because she never had that much cash.  Ash squinted an eye with a smirk as she texted something.  I saw “The hell woman?” on the screen as she hit send.  I couldn't stop my own grin.

A moment later Zoey responded with, “Shut up brat.”

I couldn't help it.  I giggled.  I know, grown women shouldn't giggle, but I did.  I said, “She told you now didn't she?”

She pocketed her cell with a shrug and grin on her expressive face.  She stole a kiss from me before I knew what was happening.  Then I blushed profusely as my toes bunched up into little balls as I followed her with a silly smile on my face.  Starfire's Girl lazily following behind since Ash forgot to pick up the reins again.  The horse was one of the smartest I have had the occasion to meet, she was trained by McKenzie Meyers herself.  She was the daughter of McKenzie's own horse Starfire before she passed.

I hooked the horses up to the walker as Ash checked the water in the troughs.  She made a chuffing sound and I turned to look at her.  She had a mischievous look on her face as she asked, her hands moving lithely, “Date night?  We can afford it.”

I blushed and bit my bottom lip as I nodded my assent.  I felt sort of guilty.  Date night for us meant staying in and ordering pizza and watching movies on pay per view.  She gave up so much being with me.  I avoided crowded places like the plague, and she accommodates me, though she forced me out of my comfort zone frequently, date nights she reserved for my neurosis.

It was all I could do at school to avoid panic attacks in the crowded lecture halls and halls of the Academy.  It always felt like everyone was looking at me, using up all the air.  Rationally I know it wasn't true, but that doesn't stop me from feeling it.  I hate it and wish it would stop, but I'm resigned to the fact that I'm just broken inside.

Ash brightened a bit then smiled slyly.  I was about to ask what that was about when I made a glorping sound as someone hugged me from behind, rocking me side to side in a familiar silly manner.  I was already smiling before a voice I knew like my own said, “Surprise!”  My best friend forever was here?

She released me, and I spun around, smiling and blurting out, “Katy!  What are you doing here?”

She grinned as she stepped over to hug my grinning girl.  She said to us and signed like a drunk kangaroo, “I was getting bored at home without you on summer break, so I thought I'd come see you two in the big city.”

Ash snorted, and I said for us both, “Issaquah is hardly a big city, K-bot.”

She rolled her eyes playfully and retorted, “Seattle, you know what I mean, Short Stack.”

I couldn't stop grinning.  My two favorite people in the world were here.  I had know Katy since forever.  We shared our playpens together as she was from the next farm over.  She, for some reason glommed onto me as her best friend even though I was the poster-child for introverts and had mini panic attacks even in grade school.

Katy was the bold and brave one, my exact polar opposite.  Popular and outgoing, she got along with everyone... as long as they didn't even look at me crossways, then she would unleash brimstone and hellfire on them.

I never ever would have gone to the art academy had she not gone with me.  And I owe her so much more than just my friendship.  If she hadn't always pushed me to go outside of my box, to go out in the world and experience new things, I never would have met Ashley.

Katy had been learning to sign the past couple years by proxy, and it was funny to watch her try.  It reminded me of when I was learning, and Ash tried hard not to chuckle when I stumbled my way through it.  But the key thing here is that she did honestly try.

She never judged me for my anxiety as we grew up, she never even reacted when I admitted to her that I was gay in our freshman year of college, and she was thrilled that I had found someone who loved me for who I was, someone who didn't try to change me.  She loved both Ash, and me like sisters.

THAT is how awesome Katy was.

Ash teased her, “Oh, sorry, but this is Date Night so you'll just have to come back another day.”  She wiggled her eyebrows.

Katy rolled her eyes and just put her in a headlock and ruffled her hair, “Wench.”  She released her, and they chuckled together.

It was my turn to roll my eyes at the girls as I said in the tone of a mother chastising her misbehaving children, “There is always time for Date Night.  Katy is welcome to visit whenever.”

Ash crinkled her nose at me cutely, and Katy raised her chin imperiously and said, “See?  Take that.”

We all laughed together and then we let Katy tag along for the rest of the day to see what we did here at Valentine's.  She even tagged along when we took out another group of people, I was in charge of the children and showing them how to handle the horses as Ash led the adults with Steve.  Katy hung back with me, and she had this odd look on her face as she watched me with the kids.

When we returned to the stables after that, and we were cooling down and grooming the horses, Katy cocked her head at me and said, “You know that when you were instructing those kids back there, all of your anxiety seemed to melt away, and you're a natural on that horse.  The only times I ever see you so relaxed is either when you are with Babbling McDuck...”  She swung her chin toward Ash. “Or when you are singing.”

Ashley nodded vigorously and added with graceful hand motions. “I agree, and she should sing more often, have you seen her smile and the way she lights up when she sings?”

Katy chuckled and gave the sign for slow down.  “I caught most of that.  Yes, she should sing more.”

I was blushing as I looked down at the brush in my hands as I worked on Starfire's Girl.  I said meekly, “Only when I'm with Ash.  Scary things happen when we sing.  I think we got J8 mad at us.”  I looked up at my girl and asked, “Did you see the way she was trying to get to us at the Pike?”

She nodded thoughtfully and signed, “I think I'll ask Zoey what was going on there.  June seemed pretty adamant, but Zoey looked like she was trying to protect you, judging by the concerned look on her face.”

I shrugged and scowled, “What did I do?”

This got a shrug from her too as she turned back to grooming another horse.

Katy growled like some sort of rabid badger and said in the tone that scared a lot of my tormentors in high school, “We'll she'll have to come through me to get to you.  I don't care if she is one of my favorite singers.”

I grinned, just like always, Katy to the rescue.  I changed the subject. “So how are things at home?  How are you faring without your Franklin on your arm?”  I grinned like a loony bird at her.  Franklin was her latest conquest at the Academy.

She was sort of fickle about who she dated, but Franklin had kept her interest for longer than anyone else had I was starting to think she was serious about the carrot top guy.  He had a pale complexion and was covered with about thirty-two trillion freckles.  He was sort of tall and gangly, but in a cute way and his smile was dazzling.  I think it was that smile and the puppy dog eyes that landed Katy.

I loved that she was an equal opportunity dater, she had dated some GQ looking guys as well as some like Franklin that would never make the cover of a magazine, but were genuinely nice and funny guys.  She preferred substance over wrapper.  In friends and boyfriends.  Hell, she's hung around my neurotic ass all my life and hasn't discarded me yet.

She gave me a smirk, and I handed her a brush and pointed her toward a horse.  She said, “I miss him, but just three more weeks, and we are back to New York.”  She started brushing the mane of the chestnut filly and said, “Things back home are, well same as always, sooooo boring.  It is good to see mom and dad and all, but you can only watch the chickens in the field for so long before you go stir crazy.  I think I was born for the city.”

I grinned, where the crowded streets of New York scared the hell out of me, she took to them like a fish to water.  She had always been so extroverted and courageous.  Hell, type A personalities followed her.

Then she added, “Your mom was over asking about how you were handling things at the Academy.  She misses you, and I think she is surprised just how well you are doing.  You're a lot more durable than both of you think.”

She smirked toward Ash. “I think Jabberjaw over there is a good influence on you.”

I snorted when Ashley didn't bother turning as she shot the middle finger behind her as she checked the hooves on the horse.  I could hear the wheezing chuffing of the giggle that she tried to hold off, and I knew she was grinning like a cat with a mouse, without needing to see it.  I can't tell you how relieved I am at how well my two favorite ladies get along with each other.

Katy squeaked a little in startled surprise when she turned toward me.  I followed her gaze to Vernon, who was a few feet behind me, working on the gate that had started sagging in the exercise pen.  I chuckled and said, “Hi Vernon.”

He smiled up at me and grunted a greeting.  I no longer got startled by the big mountain man's sudden appearances and disappearances.  He was like family now.  I had no clue how someone so large could move so quickly and silently.  He was always fixing something around the compound, and I always wondered when he had time to sleep with all that he did.

I said as I started leading Starfire's Girl toward the stables.  “Katy, this is Vernon, the Valentine's Handyman.  He shares the caretaker's cabin with us.  Vernon, my best friend, Katy.”

He grunted a greeting, and she just grinned at the man. “Pleased to meet you.  You're a sneaky one, I didn't even hear you arrive.”

I chuckled. “He does that.”

The girls followed with the other horses in tow.  Katy called back, “Nice to meet... where did he go?”

Ash signed with one hand as she led two horses, “It was a quick fix, he just needed to adjust the tensioner.”  She chuffed as I giggled while my friend just shook her head, scanning behind her trying to find the big man.

We checked the time after setting up the feed bags for the horses, Ash signed with a grin and a wiggle of her eyebrows, “Quitting time.”  She grabbed both of our hands and dragged us through the stables.

She nudged her eyes from me to Francesca, who was doing a final check of the stalls, I said for her, “Night Francesca, see you in the morning.”

She waved us off with a grin and said to Katy, “It was nice to meet the mysterious Katy that Leigh is always talking about.”

Katy gave her a little wave and then we were outside, heading to the cabin.  Ash released us and was on her cell.  My statuesque friend cocked an eyebrow in question at me when Ash started signing toward the phone.

I said, “She's ordering pizza for us, looks like Date Night just became Girl's Night.  Giuseppe's has a girl on staff, Peggy, who can sign, so Ash FaceTimes her to order.”

Katy nodded. “Handy.”

Ash hung up and signed with a grin, “It is.”

We invaded the cabin and decompressed from the day.  Katy was tired from her four-hour drive, and I was emotionally exhausted.  I know I am more relaxed around children, but my anxiety still eats at me around the edges, and it always feels like a chore to keep it at bay.