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 Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2022 5:34 pm
The social media’s were all abuzz with the confections from one of the local bakeries in Destiny City, and honestly, Gabby wanted to know just where she could get one of those chocolate covered eclairs that she kept seeing and just drooling over. Not just that, but the bakery had mascots, that were just too cute for words, and she wanted to get herself the keychain of the lunar new year dressed rabbit at least. It was just so friendly! And the little tiger suit it wore?
She may have died a little when she first saw it.
All of the reviews and posts said that you had to get to the bakery early because things sold out quickly, and like….obviously. That much was easy to see why. So, just after opening, Gabby made her way to the bakery, so eager to get her hands on an éclair and one of the bunny keychains, and yes, through the crowd of people, she saw the éclair, shining like a beautiful masterpiece in the bakery case, and her eyes lit up as she saw that there was one rabbit keychain left.
Today couldn’t go any more perfectly!
Well. It couldn’t go any more perfectly until the customer who was three in front of her took her fantastic éclair, and the excited chattering girl who wore the uniform of Crystal Academy got the last rabbit keychain.
When Gabby finally reached the counter, she looked at the long haired blonde boy who stood behind it and nearly burst into tears.
“...Please. In the name of all things sweet and cute and wonderful…tell me you have more éclairs…or…or more of the rabbit keychains…in the little tiger outfit…I…I mean, I knew that this place sold out quickly…but you just opened half an hour ago!”
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Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2022 6:31 pm
Caius looked like he might have been ready to burst into tears too. He was clearly overwhelmed and trying to juggle everything. “We have more,” he answered, and then seemed to realize that he’d forgotten to say Hi, welcome, what can I get for you-all the standard greetings.
He tried to smile, and he was happy, and trying to be friendly.
“Sorry, I haven’t had time to restock the charms yet. I’ve got a whole box of them over here, they’re not unwrapped yet. We’re going to have more éclairs in–” he looked over his shoulder.
“Any minute now. I can ring you up if you want, it won’t be more than five minutes. I can throw in a few extra stickers for your patience, if that’s okay? I just got them in this morning, I haven’t even had time to upload the pictures. It’s been–I don’t know what happened, it’s been super busy today. Which is good! But I’m so behind!”
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 6:49 am
Gabby hesitated and glanced behind her, pleased that nobody else had yet come in, and she nodded. “Yeah, I’m so glad. I…I knew I should have gotten here at opening…but my bed was just so warm, you know?”
She offered the boy a small smile. “You’d think with as popular this place is…they’d have more than one person working the counter? Sheesh, you shouldn’t have had to face that avalanche of people alone!”
Gabby reached out and picked up a normal bunny charm, fingering it gently. “These are really what pulled me in, I won’t lie. Whoever does this art is amazing. I wish that there were plushes of the mascots. That would be fantastic…and oh my god! You could have them smell like chocolate or bread or something! I’d fund that. You should tell the owners to look into a go fund me or something. I want a chocolate rabbit!”
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 7:58 am
Caius was immediately flustered by this, and it seemed to only just now register that there was a lull in customers. He didn’t seem like he could give himself the luxury of relaxation, he was too afraid to try and settle into any sort of calm.
“Oh, um. Thank you. I’ll pass that along, I really like that idea. We’re not usually this busy, but um–Arias, the owner? He’s got somebody he’s working with right now, he’s teaching them how to bake everything like he does, so we’ll have some extra hands working. Maybe we won’t sell out so fast. I told him he should think about getting a bigger place but he seems to still think that he’s a small business. He’s a good guy! I’m not saying anything bad about him, I love him. He just likes to stay in back and bake though, so sometimes I think he doesn’t get to see all of, you know. This. But maybe he’ll buy next door, I think it’s going up for sale? We’ll see. But I hope so.”
He was getting chatty, but quickly worked the register so he could at least be productive. “It’s usually busy in the mornings, but not this busy. It was wild. I mean, I like it, that means business is good! But I’m so tired already, I want a nap.”
He was chewing on his lip and reached to pull out one of the unwrapped charms from behind the counter; he might have some free time to hang them up if no one else came in, but he really wasn’t holding his breath. He placed it on the counter, and afterwards he pulled out a sticker sheet with a few different images and poses. “I think plush production can be a little expensive but I’ll look into it. I think that would be really cute.”
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 10:29 am
“Oh! Good! I hope that helps! It’s neat that you’re busy though, it’s nice to see that mom and pop shops are still plugging along! And, I know that it’s expensive to start plush production, but like I said! Do a kickstarter or something, crowd funding. I’d donate a crap ton to you, just for the chance of having a chocolate rabbit, just saying.”
Gabby’s eyes lit up with the treasures he plunked down in front of her and squealed softly. “Ah, they’re so cute! Who even designed these? I love them…do you have any horses? I swear if you made a marshmallow horse, I’d be all over that. Completely and totally. Horses are my jam.”
She grinned as she drew out her credit card. “Also, where’s your tip jar?”
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 2:09 pm
Caius was still visibly surprised, but her enthusiasm was contagious and he managed to push through the nervousness to offer a genuine smile.
“They, um. It’s here,” he said, and had to fumble to pull the tip jar out from where it had been elbowed off to the side in the early morning bustle. “It’s–I do. The art. I don’t have any horses. I have a pegasus, uhm.”
He dipped below the counter for a moment and fished through the boxes so he could pull out two different pegasus charms, one white with warm, sunrise colors, and the other black with twilight colors. “But I can try to make horses next! I might try to doodle a few things, um. I post sketches and teasers on our social media sometimes, and sometimes we have polls for limited edition things. If you’re interested in that sort of thing! Maybe if we get someone else up here at the register I’ll have more time to draw!” he laughed, but it was clear that he didn’t mind being here–not when his cheeks turned so pink at her praise.
Just that alone made up for the troubles of the large group earlier, and he hadn’t really stopped smiling yet.
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 3:32 pm
“Oh! Can I buy these two? Please? Yes, I want to have a poll, and I want all of the limited edition things…do you have an online store too?” The charms were stunning, and the thought of hooking them to Meadow’s bridle was…one that caused her a lot of joy. Even if she didn’t end up with her éclair…today was surely worth waking up so early.
“So…you make these? Your art style is so cute! I wish I could color this well! They look so happy! I am so weak for anything shiny…”
Gabby was pleased to see the boy looking more relaxed and less like crying too. That was nice. “If you have a business card, I’ll check out your social media and seriously, think about doing the kickstarter, yeah?” If he ever put one up, she’d fund the whole damn thing for the chance of a chocolate bunny.
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 4:02 pm
Caius nodded. “Yeah, absolutely,” he said, and brightened again as he reached for a business card. He got a bag for her and put the charms, stickers, and card in–just as the door behind him opened and a brunette in an apron walked out carrying two trays.
Arias looked like he could use a break, but he seemed like he was in a good mood. “Sorry that took so long. Thank you for holding everything together.”
“Can I have an eclair? Did you bring any?” Caius blurted.
“I’ve only got six,” he said, tilting one of the trays.
“That’s perfect, thank you,” he said, and before Arias could even start refilling the display case, he’d reached out to grab it. He was careful with the tongs, and put it in a piece of wax paper before depositing that into a bag of its own.
He was smiling when he turned to Gabby again. “We do have an online store! I haven’t updated all of the charms, but if you’ve seen one you like, you can email! The limited time charms might get a rerun if we have enough people request them, so if you’ve missed out there’s still a chance! You can order anything there, there are even some things we don’t have on the menu here. So you don’t have to wake up super early to get here at the crack of dawn next time! You just have to place your order before midnight and you can schedule a pickup time.”
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Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 4:09 pm
She nearly launched herself across the counter to hug him, but restraining herself to a simple face splitting grin, Gabby nodded eagerly. “That all sounds fantastic. Thank you for all of this, seriously. You have the best customer service ever. Like, most places I would have been told too bad deal with it come back later…but. Damn!” Her eyes sparkled and she felt her mouth beginning to water as she looked at the éclair and nodded.
“I will email. I’ll be back, that’s fur sure.”
Taking the bag and putting a nice twenty dollar tip on the bill, Gabby waved. “Good luck with the rest of the day! And thank you for everything!”
She would email about the kickstarter and then…who knew what would happen.
But. That éclair was going into her mouth within the next ten minutes, that was all that she really knew for certain.
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