5. Cassie
Cassie
I had no idea there even was a candletok, but when I uploaded a speed-progressed video of me making my cereal bowl candles, my life changed.
The video went viral—like, four million views in the first twenty-four hours kind of viral—and sales had skyrocketed. I went from a total of five sales on the day I uploaded the video to an average of twenty-five sales per day for the past few weeks.
My life was all candles, all the time. And I loved it.
Luckily, I’d added a smaller version of the cereal bowl in a glass ramekin so I could make four dozen candles per day instead of just five or ten. But even at that rate, I was exhausted, and it was getting hard to keep up.
My friends had all offered to help, but so far, I was doing it by myself.
That was how I rolled. Alone and independent and… Well, mostly alone.
But the attention on my store was…validating. I knew my candles were awesome sauce but it was even more awesome sauce that other people agreed. Strangers, even. People who worked hard and wanted to spend their money on me. It was…wow!
That’s what led me to test recipes for a new candle.
Now that I knew people loved the cereal bowls, I wanted to branch out into other snack foods.
Specifically, I was working on an apple pie.
And I didn’t mean your everyday apple scent.
Mine had buttery crust undertones that really made you imagine grandma pulling a pie straight out of the oven.
At least, that’s what I was trying to do, but I hadn’t gotten the apple flavor quite right yet. And I’d baked three different pies that week in an effort to fully engage both the emotional and olfactory excitement that happened whenever you smelled something yummy.
My candles definitely smelled good enough to eat, and if someone really wanted to, they could eat them. I tried it, and it was yucky, but the ingredients were all nontoxic, so at least they weren’t dangerous. But I wasn’t completely satisfied that I’d nailed the full apple pie scents yet.
So I kept working on it.
But now I was more careful because I was a good girl who listened to my doctor when he told me not to do dangerous things. Mostly. It was possible he meant for me not to make candles at all, but that wasn’t gonna happen.
Candles were my passion. And the flame of that passion could not be extinguished by a grumpy doctor. At least, not after just a few silly little burns.
I had just tilted the pouring pot over the jars to do another test batch when my phone rang.
Unfortunately, my muscles remembered how to answer the phone faster than my brain remembered to tell them not to move because I was holding hot wax…
I hit the button to answer with the speaker just as the candle I’d just poured tipped over and spilled out.
“Shoot. Oww.” I rubbed off the tiny drop of wax that hit my skin off and used my heavy leather glove as a barrier to keep the dripping wax from falling off the tarp.
“Hold on one sec. Hot wax situation to attend to real quick.”
A smooth and grumpy voice came out of the phone’s speaker. “Dammit, Cassie. What did I tell you about that?”
I gasped in surprise. “Grouchy doctor sir? Is that you?”
A sigh seemed to say it all, and I briefly wondered if maybe it was someone else. “Is that what you’re calling me these days?”
Yep, it was him. “Um, nooooo…”
Then he chuckled, and my heart started racing at the sound. “All right. I guess I deserve that. Are you okay, sweetheart? Did you hurt yourself again?”
“I’m fine. I was just finishing a pour when your call came in, and the jar I was filling tipped over, but I’m wearing better equipment now so only a teeny tiny little drop hit my skin. I already took it off, and there’s no problem at all.”
He grunted. “I hope it wasn’t on your healing skin.”
“Nope. All that is protected by the dressings and my big leather gloves. They go past my elbows.”
“Good girl. You need to get a full-body glove with just a tiny little hole for you to breathe out of.”
I frowned at my phone, not liking that at all. “That’s not a nice thing to say, Doctor Grouch!” And then I realized… Oh my gosh, the doctor was calling me. “And also, why are you calling?”
He chuckled, and his voice seemed a bit more relaxed. “I wanted to thank you for your gift. I’m sorry it took me so long to get back to you, but it was very thoughtful, and I appreciate it.”
“Oh, I almost forgot about that. A lot has happened in the past few weeks. My wounds are so much better. They barely hurt, but I’m still keeping them wrapped up. And one of my videos went viral, so I’m kind of a big deal on the tok.”
He groaned. “Please tell me it’s not from prancing around in your ruffle panties to strangers.”
My lower lip popped out. “You didn’t like my panties?” I still hadn’t bought a replacement set, but I planned to. I loved them.
“No, Cassie. I loved them. In fact, I have a gift for you too. I was hoping you wouldn’t mind if I stopped by to bring it to you.”
“Oh. Like, today?”
“Sure, I can come today. I’m just leaving the hospital now, so if you want to give me your address, I can bring this to you and check your new burn.”
Huffing, I rolled my eyes. He sounded like Daddy Carter. And Daddy Troy. And all the other Daddies I knew. “Okay, Daddy. Come on by.”
“Watch your tone, Little girl.” He cleared his throat. “Text me your address?”
“Yes, sir.” My candles were immediately forgotten as I completely focused on the man who wanted to come to my apartment. “But, um, my place is a little messy.” I looked around and cringed at the chaos in every corner. “I’ve been making a lot of candles lately, on account of being viral and all.”
His Daddy tone was back. “Are you sick? What do you have? Have you seen a doctor yet?”
I giggled and turned off the burner for my second pouring pot. “My video. It was really popular and went viral. I just told you that.”
“Oh, right.” He exhaled forcefully into the speaker of his phone. “I’m in my car now, so please send the address.”
Oh, oops. Already forgot about that, but he didn’t need to know everything. “Yeah, um, okay, sir.”