Kindle's POV
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"A baker's dozen of chocolate paradise. Let's go girls!"

Cameron's booming voice is the only thing that snaps me out of my daydreaming. Banished am I from the fantasy world I dreamed up to the steel kitchen.

A little dysfunctional, I scurry about the kitchen like a squirrel in the street.

"She said chocolate Valentines?" I said to Catherine who's already bringing out the baking pans.

"No," She replies still pulling out baking utensils. "Chocolate Paradise. "

"Chocolate- chocolate paradise, right!" I hurry over to the walk-in pantry to search for the needed ingredients.

"Let's see here...what do we need?" I say to myself while observing the shelves. Behind me, Sara dashes in grabbing a few ingredients off the shelves.

"Hey, how many are we making? Cupcakes that is," I ask her.

She responds distracted by a missing ingredient she's looking for. "A baker's dozen. Ah!" She spots what she was looking for and quickly exits the pantry.

A baker's dozen. Now that changes things. I search for the ingredients for the amount we're making until I hear my name being called.

"Kindle. Kindle. I need your help over here with the eggs." Catherine called.

"Okay." Leaving the pantry I go over to the sink where she waits with a bowl and cartridge of eggs.

"What were you doing in the pantry?" She asks.

"Oh, I was getting the ingredients for the cupcakes."

"We have that already. Okay, I need you to crack the rest of these eggs into the bowl. When you're done with that could you give them me and we'll get started on the batter?"

"Yeah." Starting on my task, I being to focus again.

But I can't help but think about my pleasant daydreaming fantasy. It was so bizarre but yet so me. From the places, to the characters, even the animals and plants everything was as I dreamt it to be. It felt so real.

"Here ya go." I handed the cracked eggs to Cat who then began to mix her measured dry ingredients to the wet ones.

"Let's get started on this batter and then we can scope it into the pan."

The four of us- Cameron joining us in the kitchen, with Lindsay is manning the front- work together in an organized fashion to work on the cupcakes. Cameron and Sara working on the decorations and frosting, me and Cat handling the batter and scooping it into the baking pans. The process goes fast and by the time the cupcakes are the done, we start an assembly line for the decorations, frosting, and packaging. By the time we finish, we're all covered in flour and frosting.

"Meeting girls!" Cameron sings.

Grabbing water bottles and stools, we settle around the kitchen island and wait for Cameron to announce what she called a meeting for.

"First off, great job on the cupcakes today, girls. I hope we proved today to everyone we served that our cupcakes are the best around." She shares our smiles and continues. "I've called this meeting to order because I have exciting news to share with you. After our success here, I've finally found a new storefront for a second Clique Cupcakes store."

She pauses for us to applause and congratulate her on the accomplishment. It's always been Cameron's dream to open a chain of successful cupcake stores- I'm so happy for her. Her dreams are finally coming true and it couldn't have happened to any one more deserving.

"Since I'm going to be spending most of my time devoted to the new bakery, I need someone here to watch and manage this one. I need someone who I know works well with the costumers here and the employees, someone who knows their way around the store, someone who will care for it like I do."

I suddenly get giddy all over. 

It would be the most amazing feeling in my life if Cameron handed that honor to me. I love Clique Cupcakes like it's my own. From the time Cameron has opened it, I've worked here with most of these girls and costumers. I know the store like it's the back of my hand. Even in high school, when I was further from the store than now, I still enjoyed and looked forward to coming here every day. I have a vision where I want Clique to go. I would perfect for this.

"This someone is Jennifer Sullen. Give her a round of applause ladies, she is going to be your new manager and the co-owner of Clique Cupcakes."

My heart crashes as the room fills with a roaring applause for Jennifer.

"Jennifer?" I really thought I had this. I like Jenny, she's great, but she really just recently joined the team. All the time and energy that the rest of us added to the store seemed like it didn't matter. Jenny is really close to Cameron, they're practically best friends now; going shopping, getting their hair done together, talking on the phone for hours. But maybe Jenny will be what we need, I should be happier for her.

"Sara, go get the glasses and champagne. We'll have a toast for Jen." Cameron orders.

As soon as the bubbly is out, everyone gathers around and toast to Jenny's new position. I put a smile on my face and try to genuinely be happy for her.

We all continue our work except Cameron and Jennifer- who must've been told ahead of time she was getting a promotion, because today was her day off- the two of them have a friendly, lively talk in the corner until they both head up front.

I move a bit slower than usual and the day feels longer today, but finally it's time to close down and head out. I sigh as I gather my stuff. As I'm exiting the front door Cat catches up to me.

"Hey." She sounds happy.

"Hey."

She peers curiously at me and puts a hand on my shoulder to stop me. "What's eating you? You seemed a little off your game today."

"Oh really? I didn't mean to this morning, I just had this awesome dream last night and I wanted to continue it, so I was daydreaming about it all this morning. Honesty I don't know how I got to work without crashing into anyone or thing. But then when Cameron made her announcement this afternoon- I don't know."

I looked down at the ground. I trusted Cat, we worked best together and she's a pretty good friend. I usually tell her how I felt about certain things at work and vice versa.

"I was just surprised at Cameron's choice for manager is all. I mean I like Jennifer, she's nice to everyone, but I feel like we were all looked over. I mean we were all here long before Jenny joined the team and I thought that Cameron might pick based on certain things like that. But Cameron has her ways."

Cat sighed. "I know, I was kinda feeling the same at the time, but I realized that Jenny may be more qualified than the rest of us anyway."

I was relieved that I wasn't the only one feeling that way, but I was confused by what the last part meant. "What do you mean?"

She chuckles to herself, shaking her head. "I mean the rest of us can't really handle that much responsibility and pressure, we're more bakers and followers. Jenny gets along nicely with all of us and since she hasn't been here long enough, she doesn't have any favorites. Don't get me wrong, Cameron is nice and all but she has her preferences. Sara is a little cold and doesn't really have traits of a leader, Lindsay could never keep a date, Alli would forget about all her responsibilities, I would be too lazy, and you would well...you're not the most grounded person, but no offense."

"None taken," I lie.

"Anyway, I'm okay with her being manager. I just hope our pay and days off will stay the same." She turns and looks back at the door of the store. I look there too and see the rest of the girls come laughing out of the store. Cat turns back to me. "I gotta go. The girls and I are going to celebrate with Jenny out at a restaurant. I would invite you but..." She bites her lip and glances back at the group. "You understand right, Kindle? I mean we're okay friends at work but out here it's kinda different. Besides, the restaurant we're going to serves drinks and we're all probably going to order something and I know you don't drink. It would be kinda awkward for you."

"Oh yeah," I say quickly. "That's cool, I hope you have a good time and tell Jenny I'm happy for her. I actually have some errands to run before I have to go home so I probably couldn't come anyway."

Cat brightens up. "Oh, okay. I hope you get your errands done. I'll tell Jenny your message and I guess I'll see you at work tomorrow."

Waving goodbye as she catches up to the group of celebrating girls, I turn away and head to my car. I lied about the errands and I felt bad about lying to her, but I didn't want her to feel bad about not inviting me.

I start my hand-me-down Carolla and drive to the nearest fast food restaurant. Picking up drive thru, I head towards my apartment.

My apartment is on the third floor which counts as my workout for the day. Once I get into my apartment I set my unhealthy dinner on the table and wash up. Deciding against the traditional dining table, I get settled in front of my TV and wonder whether I should binge watch My Strange Addiction or My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding. I go with the latter.

Watching TV and eating fast food automatically lifts my mood and soon I'm completely invested in the episode I'm currently watching. The phone rings suddenly, which startles me at first. I decide to be lazy and not answer instead I turn up the volume on the TV even more.

*****

I'm woken by the sound of my plate hitting the floor and the craving for strawberry ice cream. The TV is still on and pretty loud, I'm actually surprised I fell asleep to it being so loud. I turn it off and clean up my mess. The apartment is pitch black and when I look at the microwave it reads, 1:51 am.

"Wow! It's that early!?"

I would have to push that craving feeling away for the time being since I have work later today. But as I head to my bathroom I just couldn't ignore the feeling. It must be fed! "This craving must be satisfied. Besides I probably couldn't get back to sleep if I tried and I'm already dressed. Might as well go out and get some."

This was definitely one of the benefits of living on my own and being old enough to go out and buy ice cream at 1:51 in the morning.

I get in my car and leave my apartment complex community. My gas light goes on and joins my oil light. "I need to get gas. I need to get gas money." But the first and foremost thing on my mind was get me some fresh strawberry ice cream. I'm sure I have a spoon in here somewhere.

The roads are deserted and I wonder how easy it might be to drive home in these conditions every day. Must be pleasant.

I'm able to fly pretty fast down these roads, but I have to be careful the cops don't think I'm a drunk driver. My favorite Janet Jackson album plays softly in the car and as I hum along I think of the crazy looks I'll be getting from the workers in the supermarket. I smile when I picture some of them. But they'll probably be more agitated than bewildered. That must be an awful shift to have, the late night, early morning one. Drunk, scary people are probably coming in all the time. I would hate to have that job, thank God for Clique.

I'm going so fast and my headlights are a little too dim, but I make out a dark figure stopped in the middle of the street. Quickly snapping out of my thoughts, I slam the breaks and honk my horn at the figure. I nearly miss the person by an inch and swivel around stopping on the grass.
All I can do is throw my hands in the air and give a silent scream with the word ice cream.