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 Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2013 10:48 am
For two months, A&H Bakeries had been settling into the area. There had been bumps in the road, as there were with opening any new business, but for now, things were good. They'd had a steady flow of customers and were hopeful for the future. It wasn't a large building, but it was all that they needed; the outside was of homely appearance, with slightly faded red bricks and a carefully hand painted sign hanging over the door. Potted plants and a single table served as the outdoor decoration. By sight alone, it might not have drawn much attention. But by smell?
Today had been a cool day, so they'd settled for keeping the door open. They'd been baking all day, so there was no shortage of aromas wafting to the streetcorner. Arias had his hair tied back and, while he hadn't baked anything since this morning, he was manning the front counter. For a brief time the rush of people had stopped—and he was making himself busy by sweeping behind the counter.
litian I am so sorry about the wait on getting this up!
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Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 4:57 pm
To those who knew him Arian's sweet tooth was pretty well known and the smell of the delicious aromas that had been too much for him to ignore. The smells had led him to a homely looking shop - one A&H Bakeries based on the hand painted sign over the door. It wasn't a bakery that the dark-haired teen had been too (and he'd been to a fair few), but the smells were enough to tempt Arian into deciding that he was going to rectify the 'not having visited before' part. Stepping into the shop Arian walked over to admire the baked goods on display and then noticed the brown-haired man sweeping behind the counter and decided instead to call out a quiet "Good Afternoon" instead. Kyuseisha no Hikari no worries, sorry for taking so long to tag back
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Posted: Sun Sep 22, 2013 11:42 pm
A smile immediately planted itself on Arias' face and he looked up from his task. "Hey," he waved, "Welcome, come right in."
He wasn't as quiet as Arian, though neither was he any sort of boisterous. He seemed a bit tentative, as though he was afraid of being too intrusive or overwhelming, though he was just a friendly person, and couldn't resist a break from monotonous chores.
While he appreciated the silence, he wasn't quite keen on an awkward silence, so to make sure they could avoid one, he started right up; "Menu and pricing are back there," he gestured to a sign hanging above him, "But if you're looking for something a little more customized we do take orders, and we do deliver. Oh—and if you can't make up your mind or have no idea what you've got a taste for, we do have samples of everything you see here." He gestured again, this time to the baked goods on display nearby. "Specialty drinks and coffees included. So! Let me know if anything catches your eye and I'll be more than happy to get you all sorted out."
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Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 6:40 am
"Thank you" Arian said, finding his eyes drawn to the baked goods as the brown-haired man behind the counter pointed them out. "These look really, really good. Do you do all the baking yourself?" He looked thoughtfully at some muffins on display and decided regretfully that it would come across as rude if he asked to sample everything on display, much as his sweet tooth wanted to and then his eyes landed on a batch of prettily iced mini cupcakes. Prettily iced mini cupcakes complete with sprinkles. He had a weakness for mini cupcakes - particularly mini cupcakes with sprinkles. "What flavours do they come in?" he asked curiously as he indicated the cupcake minis, waiting on the answer before asking to try a sample. Not that he needed a sample - these looked so good that Arian knew that he'd definitely be buying a few.
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Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 1:30 am
"All by myself?" Arias laughed warmly and shook his head. He seemed flattered by the assessment of the baked goods, he couldn’t take all the credit. "No, not by a long shot. Some, though. Those," he nodded towards the cupcakes, "Are currently in four flavors—but we are taking suggestions. We're just still setting up so haven't really made a good gauge of what…sells."
He seemed all too eager to share, even if Arian hadn't asked for samples. He pulled a fresh glove out from a box hidden behind the counter and reached into the display, carefully withdrawing four cupcakes. Each had a slightly different appearance, and he introduced them accordingly, setting each one down as he identified it. "Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry and Lemon. The ones on display all have buttercream icing, but if you're willing to wait a few minutes we can get some of the un-iced ones with a different flavor. If you'd like, go ahead and try them! It's been a sort of slow day today and I don't want them to go to waste. If you want a cup of water to wash them down with, I can grab one, no charge."
litian It's no problem! I apologize for my own delay ;;
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Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 5:33 pm
"I like buttercream" Arian admitted. Well he did as long as it wasn't something extreme like 60 or 70 per cent buttercream to 40 or 30 per cent cake since then it became more like glorified buttercream and he liked the cake part of cupcakes too. "I'd love some water and thank you" Arian said quietly. He'd hadn't been expecting to be offered a sample of each flavour, although he wasn't going to say no to trying them all either. "And as for flavour suggestions, mayhaps something like a limited flavour at holiday times would be nice, like a chocolate orange one for Halloween or a gingerbread one for Christmas." Arian wasn't a salesperson so wasn't sure if how well something like that would sell, but he personally like eating themed flavoured cupcakes. He studied the four cupcakes that the brown-haired man had set out, in a dilemma as to which to try first since all of them looked so nice. In the end however he settled on the vanilla one. It was as good as it looked and was finished all too quickly, although he promised himself that he’d definitely buy a few to take home as he tried to decide on which flavour to try next.
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Posted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 12:27 pm
Arias couldn't help but smile when Arian finished the cupcake quickly; he seemed a bit prideful of it, but had to take a moment away from Arian while he fetched some water. There was a water cooler hidden behind the counter; he produced a paper cup, filled it up, and then set it next to the remaining cupcakes.
"Those sound like good suggestions. I'll have to try to whip something up. Though, if I do you'll have to promise to drop by again to give them a try."
Arias was not set on the business aspect of the shop; there were people far better for the job. He just liked to bake, and he was lucky to have a job where he got to do what he liked and make enough to put food on the table.
Or cupcakes. If those weren't selling, he could always eat them himself.
He'd try any recipe, and he enjoyed whipping up his own; if a customer had a suggestion—sure, he'd give it a whirl. Especially when it sounded good.
Plus, if it would keep him coming back…
What more could Arias ask for?
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Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2013 1:37 pm
Arian had planned to wait, he really had but the three remaining cupcakes had looked so tempting that that he already picked up the lemon cupcake by the time that the brown-haired man returned with the water. "Thank you," smiling ruefully he placed the cupcake down and drank a few sips of the water, feeling he should do his best to give his honest opinion on what he thought of them since the other was being nice enough to let him taste them. "And I’d be happy to stop by and taste any new flavour that you decide to try out," he thought on it, before adding as he once again reached for the lemon cupcake. "Well not savoury cupcakes" he’d seen some of those on tv, but it hadn’t something that he’d really managed to get, firmly being of the opinion that cakes should be sweet. "But anything sweet I’d be happy to try - I have something of a sweet tooth." Something of an understatement - he had an extremely sweet tooth. Despite his best intentions, Arian ended up finishing the lemon and strawberry cupcakes almost as quickly as he had the vanilla. And then finally the chocolate one was the only one remaining. Biting into it, it took the single bite - the single rich chocolaty bite to decide that he was pretty much in love. "Oh wow," he breathed and then his face reddened as he realised that he’d said it out loud, adding awkwardly. "I mean it’s good, really really good."
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Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 12:03 am
While Arias had been in a good mood just to have a customer, his face just seemed to light up more with every word Arian spoke. "That's good!" he said enthusiastically, resting his elbows on the counter. "I'd rather you like it than dislike it! We work hard on the cupcakes here, so it's good to get feedback. Good or bad. Can't improve if we don't know what people like! Though, if you're interested in trying out new flavors, we have a mailing list. We're still sort of setting up and getting comfortable with things around here but we're always looking for customers to keep coming back. It comes with some perks," he said, reaching to draw a small pad closer. It displayed the logo of the café and had two lines—one for first name and one for email. "If you want to leave your email, we can shoot you a message when we've got promotions, and you get coupons for free samples. Typically when we're testing out a new recipe we send something out to invite people for a freebie in exchange for their feedback. Doesn't cost anything but a moment of your time."
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Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2013 9:10 am
"Well I really like your chocolate cupcakes" Arian admitted as he glanced over at the indicated notepad. "In fact I'd like to buy some to take away with me, I wouldn't mind getting a couple of the vanilla ones too whilst I'm at it." He could munch on them later whilst working on some new pendants that he'd been planning to do so that his cousin could update the Etsy shop with them. "And I'd be happy to sign up for your mailing list" he added as he glanced around for a pen. "I'm Arian by the way, Arian Laith." They'd been chatting for long enough that Arian felt that he should introduce himself and it would be nice to have a name to put to the face of the brown-haired man - although Arian acknowledged that he'd probably managed to overlook a name tag or something - since he'd been kind of distracted by tasting cupcakes.
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Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 1:23 am
Arias brightened when Arian expressed interest in the mailing list; he seemed to realize only a second later that he hadn't pulled out a pen—or introduced himself. "Oh! Arian! It's a pleasure," he said, snaking his hand between the cash register and a display case to retrieve a pen. He hastily offered it to the male in front of him before lifting a small name tag from a further corner of the counter.
"Arias," he introduced, lifting the pin. It was in the shape of a bright pink cupcake with curly lettering and glitter sprinkles. "I should be wearing it, but…" He laughed sheepishly. "Well. Not quite my color, you know? The girls like them, but I just," he fumbled to attach it to his shirt, "Just can't quite seem to get used to it."
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Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 7:28 pm
"It's nice to meet you also Arias" Arian said as he took the offered pen and used it to write down first his name and then his email address on the pad that the other had indicated earlier, his handwriting messy despite the fact that he took care to print both name and email, the words were readable enough though. It seemed rude to laugh at the cupcake badge and so Arian kept his comment to quiet but simple "It's very pink." Pink was a little bit of an understatement - it was was sparkly too from the glitter adorning it and Arian could understand why Arias was loathe to wear to it given that he wouldn't particularly want to wear it either - after all it wasn't exactly something that could be overlooked.
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Posted: Mon Dec 02, 2013 9:24 am
Arias bore no shame in laughing; he chuckled and nodded in agreement. "It is, but I guess the best I can do is try to wear it well. I probably won't last for more than a few minutes, though."
When Arian was done writing, he slid the pad back and smiled. "So! Terrible nametags aside, new members to our mailing list get cupcakes for fifteen dollars a dozen for the first month, so if that sounds good to you I can pack you up with whatever flavors you want. I can do a quarter vanilla and the rest chocolate, split it fifty-fifty—whatever your heart desires, I'm more than happy to oblige."
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Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2013 11:01 am
Arian didn't have to think it over for too long - okay so he didn't really think it over at all. Fifteen dollars for a dozen cupcakes was a great deal and as it happened he had fifteen dollars on him. "Can I have" he thought over the numbers, "8 chocolate, 2 vanilla and 2 strawberry please" he said as he pulled out the wallet and counted out the fifteen dollars. Somewhere his cousin was most likely despairing of him, he'd only had the fifteen dollars that morning and was already spending it. although Arian thought the cupcakes were totally worth it and he was planning to share - well make that he was planning to let her have the strawberry and vanilla ones at least - the chocolate ones would depend on just how long it took Saffy to get back from work.
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Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2013 8:26 am
"Absolutely, can do," Arias said brightly; it didn't take him long to coutn out the cupcakes and carefully place them in the holder before he snapped the case closed and slid them towards Arian. "Is there anything else I can get you, or will that do it for today?"
He seemed in a more pleasant mood than before; there was something just delightful about not only having someone to chat with, but about making a sale—for a new customer, no less. Selling cupcakes was making him hungry enough to want to eat some, himself, but the professional in him was telling him to wait.
Except his stomach was sort of demanding now, so it wasn't exactly an easy decision to either chat Arian up or let him leave so he could discretely indulge in some of the older cupcakes.
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