Chapter 26
Ivy
She signed out of the computer, took off her apron and hung it over the back of her chair, and pulled on the jacket which had been resting there as she worked. She dug her wallet out of her bag, and put it into one of her pockets, and her phone into the other, then headed out.
She dipped her head into the kitchen to check Nina and Ty were ok since she hadn’t had a chance to do so since arriving at eleven that morning.
“Hey, how’s all in the world of the kitchen?” She laughed as Nina somewhat delightedly sat a pile of dishes at Ty’s side for him to clean.
“Everything’s good on my end, Boss. Ty here may have to stay behind to finish all his work though.” Parts of her neon pink pixie hair poked through Nina’s hairnet, and her flushed cheeks nearly matched with the heat of standing over the oven with all the baked goods since 5 a.m. that morning.
“I swear, one more word out of you today and I’m going to put itching powder in your jacket hood one day.” Ty said, a laugh dancing desperately on his lips, which he fought hard.
Ivy laughed at the pair. “Nina, I’m heading out, and you’ll be gone by the time I get back, so enjoy your evening. Ty, good luck.” She smiled as she left the kitchen door and walked across the shop to the counter.
“I’m heading out for some air; I have my phone if you need me.” Ivy waited for Oliver to look up, before she continued. “Toni is due any minute, so you should be fine.”
“Got it, Boss.” Oliver nodded his head as he continued cleaning the counter.
Ivy pulled the door open and reached into her pocket for the earphones still there from this morning.
She switched on her favorite playlist before heading for a walk around the surrounding streets to check out some shop windows.
She hoped the fresh air would help her relax enough to get through the franchise paperwork this afternoon.
.. and not let her mind drift to the woman she’d be seeing that evening.
She curled her fingers loosely and swore she could still feel Cleo’s warm, strong hand in hers.
Her cheeks flushed at the memory of the gentle kiss on her cheek from Sunday.
She’d never experienced such tenderness in her life.
Any kiss before had been different, never with any real feeling or emotion in it.
Not even just kisses, she couldn’t remember being touched with such care either. Even as a child.
Ivy stopped that train of thought. She wasn’t going there. Not now. Not when she finally has her life where she wants it. Not when she has true reasons to be happy.
Her phone pinged in her ears and her music faded in and out to make way for the alert. She’d only been gone a few minutes, surely it wasn’t a text from work already. She knew they’d be more likely to call, but she reached in her pocket to check anyway.
Cleo: Do I get any clues about tonight? Can you at least give me an idea of what I should wear? I’m trying to impress you here, you know ;)
Ivy grinned at Cleo’s flirty message. She couldn’t believe Cleo thought Ivy was worth trying to impress. Though she was very glad she did.
Ivy: You don’t need to try, you already do! A little less casual than Sunday, but not full power suit. That’s all you’re getting out of me :)
It may have been less than a week since she gave Cleo her number, and they may have only been on one date so far, but Ivy felt like she’d known Cleo much longer.
She had spent two of the past three nights messaging her for hours.
It didn’t matter what they messaged about, it just seemed to flow so easily between them. Ivy had never known anything like it.
She had spent the night before at Lucas and Gabby’s for movie night as usual.
She found herself laughing as she remembered the amount of flack they had given her when she told them all about Sunday.
Gabby had been delighted to hear that it had gone as well, but slightly disappointed because it meant she may not get to set Ivy up with a friend that she’d been threatening to after all.
Lucas called her out over the garlic mushrooms and asked who took anything with garlic on a first date anyway, as that just lowered the chances of getting a “decent goodnight kiss” . ..even in the afternoon.
After half an hour, Ivy headed back to the coffee shop ahead of the Thursday afternoon rush.
She knew that it was the busiest time of week, and she wanted to get through to the back before the Golden Girls came in.
The three of those, plus Oliver and Toni, was more than she could handle ahead of her date with Cleo later.
She took her earphones out before entering the shop. Toni smiled at her as she arrived, and Oliver had his back turned while working through an order for a customer, so she managed to make it through to her office as she’d planned.
She got herself set back up at the computer and double-checked the staff training slots were booked correctly.
Fresh eyes caught a mistake that wouldn’t have caused any major issue, but she was glad to have taken the break and caught it anyway.
She went through the training slides and made some adjustments after speaking with Lucas about some of the designs which needed altering for the foam art section.
After sending the updated slides to the printing company they used and placing an order for a dozen updated booklets, she decided to take the next hour to look at properties before heading home.
She hadn’t realized the sheer variety of commercial spaces that were available.
She knew the layout of all their shops and had an idea of the size she would be looking for, but nothing quite seemed to fit what she was looking for.
She remembered the difficulties they had run into when opening the first shop, trying to get the aesthetic they had planned, and she wasn’t sure how easy or difficult it had been for the additional shops as Lucas had found all of those. This one would be entirely on her.
Nine property reviews later, and none of them ticked as many of the boxes as she’d hoped for. She knew there wouldn’t be one that would be walk-in-ready, but those she’d found would have taken far too much work to get right for it to be worth taking on.
Slightly more disheartened after another failed search, she shut the computer off.
Her phone pinged. Her stomach fluttered, and suddenly she wasn’t disheartened any more as she saw Cleo’s name flash on her screen.
She burst out laughing when the message opened to display a photo of Cleo’s face on a superhero, with the caption “Wait, you said NO power suit, right? ;)"
Ivy: Cute, very cute. See you in a few hours :)