I pinned the phone between my shoulder and my ear as I listened to the music on hold. It was one thing to say yes to a clan of dragons coming to visit. It was a whole other thing to get all the preparation done. And everyone in the building knew I was not the person to cook for this. Not at all.
Instead, I had a pleasant lunch of sandwiches catered. Cookie dough, brownies, and other sweet things were ordered. The last thing was charcuterie boards. Given that they were dragons, having meat as a snacking option seemed prudent. I wanted to make sure that no one got hangry at any point during this meeting. When I asked the Cat how long we should plan to host the dragons, he’d said only one day. Any longer than that and they would never leave.
“Hello, this is Boards and Meats. How can I help you?” asked a female voice on the phone, finally.
“Hi, I need to order 5 of your largest boards available, with an emphasis on meat.” I crossed a line through the next item on my list.
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“Yes, it's a big crowd we’re hosting.” I knew this was going to be a hassle, especially since I didn’t want to explain what was really going on.
“I’m mean, our largest are grazing tables. Is that what you mean?” she asked.
“Wait, grazing tables?” I frantically clicked around on their website. “Sorry, I’m on your site right now. You can do whole freaking tables? Can I get two?”
“Sure!” The voice suddenly sounded very excited. “They are eight feet long, by 3 feet wide.” I tried to imagine how big that was and repeated it to myself. Measurements were not my strong suit.
Suddenly the table in the center of the bookstore stretched. The books on top of it shook as the wooden table kept moving. One side got shorter while the other got longer before it stopped. Then I nodded.
“Betty, you are amazing,” I whispered. I needed more than that. It would be at least twenty dragons, plus Indigo and the Cat.
“Let’s make that three, I’ll have two other tables covered in sweets already,” I said into the phone. “How much time do you need to prepare? Like, how does this work?” I wasn’t used to having people in the shop.
“So, I show up the day of and set everything up. It will just be me. I’m just getting started at doing large events .”
“Okay, so I can get you into the bookshop beforehand, and I’ll have the three tables set up.” I took a deep breath. “Am I crazy if I ask you to do that tomorrow?”
The woman went quiet. “Tomorrow, as in Sunday?”
“Yeah, I’m so sorry for the late booking. I didn’t know I was hosting until today. Last-minute events, right?” I crossed my fingers.
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“No, no, I can do that. I need to head to the store immediately, though. Can I send you an invoice? Please make sure you pay it online, I usually require a 50% fee upfront, but since it's tomorrow, I’ll send the whole thing.”
“That’s perfect. It’s the Meow Bookstore. I’ll send over the address and get that paid ASAP. Thank you again.”
Then the phone beeped and I set it down. “Okay, Betty, I hope you can keep the grazing tables in stasis. I don’t want someone here the same day the dragons are showing up.” The lights flicked once in agreement in the shop. “You are the best.”
“Did I hear Stasis?” asked the Cat. He jumped onto the counter, eyeing the notebook I had my list on. “That looks long.”
“Well, I have sweets showing up later today, meat and cheese plates tomorrow, plus the lunch catering.” I motioned to the list. “That means I need our lovely shop to stop time on the food like they do with the fridge.”
“Oh, that’s smart,” said the Cat. “Making sure there is enough food for them. I didn’t even think about providing food.”
I blinked, twice. “You wouldn’t have provided food?”
The Cat shook his head.
“Well, too late, they’re getting snack foods, and lunch.” I set my pencil down. “I want to be an excellent hostess, and show that I’m a good person to look after Indigo.” Speaking of the dragon, she was passed out on a pillow at the end of the counter. The non-stop excitement of yesterday had worn her out big time.
“Have you checked out the space yet?” asked the Cat.
“Not yet, the cookie stuff should show up at any moment. After that delivery is done, I’ll check out the space.” I scratched the back of the Cat’s head. “Sandra should be showing up, from Cookie Master. She recently expanded into brownies.”
The cat purred, but said nothing. The door jingled and then popped open as Sandra walked in. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, but this time her apron was clean. The logo for the Cookie Master was on the front, a cookie in a chef's hat.
“Ah, Sable! My favorite customer.” She carried several plastic tubs in. “You need to give me all the feedback on the brownies. You’re the first one to try them.” She set down the tubs on the counter. “I have one more stack, be right back.”
I looked at the pile of plastic tubs. About half were already cooked, which was what I’d ordered. I had called her this morning, and she brought over a good amount of what she had.
Sandra popped back into the shop with several tubs.
“You know, you could have just given me dough,” I said with a smile.
“There is no way you would have had enough time for the event to bake that many cookies.” She shook her head with a smile. “Plus, I didn’t mind. My niece is helping at the shop now, so she is replacing all of what I brought." Sandra motioned to the cookies. “Not to mention, we didn’t have any major orders pending, so you’re letting me clean out my freezer.”
“Whatever you say, Cookie Master.” I joked with her.
“Oh, look at this beautiful cat!” She reached over to pet the cat, who suddenly became super friendly with her. “I just love cats. If the shop could have one, we would.” She gave him several more pets. “But I gotta get going. Thanks for the order. I hope the event goes well, I’ll pick up the tubs later this week.” Sandra headed toward the door. “Remember, feedback on the brownies!”
“Feedback?” The cat sat down on the counter, glancing at the giant containers.
“We have three types of brownies to try: deep chocolate, smores, and peanut butter.” I grabbed three of the containers off the top of the baked cookies. The rest sunk into the counter, like magic. I smirked and headed toward the kitchen. “I need to get to baking some cookies, and maybe testing some brownies.”
“I can give you some input as well,” said the Cat.
I paused on my way into the kitchen and glanced towards where Indigo was sleeping on the counter, right next to where Sandra had set the plastic cookie tubs. Should I wake her?