Bitter Sweet - Ch 11 - Finshing Touches

Getting to the spa, Kelly booked herself in for a rejuvenating selection of spa activities.

She had no idea how much she’d needed a deep tissue massage, twice the masseuse mentioned that her shoulder felt like a bag of rocks.

Her yoga session for rejuvenation she found very rewarding as she felt herself beginning to feel calmer and more focused.

The final test of the day was the last thing, meditation. Kelly felt a bit nervous recalling the last time she had tried to meditate with her grandmother, but she settled down and closed her eyes emptying her mind of everything.
After a while, she felt as light as air, then she realised she was confidently floating, just like her grandmother said she would when she was ready. Feeling much more like her old self again, Kelly finished up her session, changed and went back home.

Back home, Kelly showered and changed, then rushed down to the kitchen to start her cooking for the grandmothers’ party that was starting in four hours.

She made sure everything was perfect for the prashudo wrapped asparagus horderves, then as a treat she decided to make some cookies.

“Oh, what a great idea Kelly dear, since this is a ‘gathering’ this evening, those will go down a treat. Speaking of this evening, we should both go and get ready.” Eliza finished off her drink then went upstairs.

Once she was ready and dressed up for the party, Kelly came back into the kitchen and whipped up a crevice dip, as she was adding the last of her herbs and spices, Eliza came over to her.

“Have you seen Kurtis dear? I’ve been looking for him all day and can’t seem to find him anywhere, could you go upstairs and see if you can find him, I’ll set the food out on the table.”

Wiping her hands on a tea towel, Kelly smiled at her grandmother.

“Sure thing, I’ll go check his room first then I check the work lab. I know he helps Reese sometimes.”

“Alright dear, be back as quickly as you can. Everyone is so excited to meet you this evening.”

Going up to Kurtis’ room, Kelly knocked on his door then gingerly opened it and walked in.

“Hello, are you in here Kurtis. Grandma wanted to kno...”

Kelly stopped seeing that Kurtis had carefully placed a large chest strategically in front of a large bag of money, and up on the far wall he had two ‘cupid potions’ alongside several heirloom items that she knew were from her family.

What took her breath away the most was a pile of gold bullion in the farthest corner, Kelly realised that Kurtis had been stealing from her grandmother, for how long she couldn’t tell but the dust around a few of the items showed that he had been doing it for longer than the month and a half she’d been there.

The door suddenly opened behind her, Kelly turned to see Kurtis walking in, he didn’t look very impressed to see Kelly intruding in his room seeing his ‘secret stash’. She steadied herself as she saw his expression change and she knew he was going to yell at her.

To Kelly’s shock, her grandmother followed right him into the room not realising the situation she had walked in on. But it didn’t take her long to notice either.

“How dare you intrude in the one place I have to myself in this sad excuse for a mansion, you sneaky little tramp! I’ll...”

Eliza cut him off sharply. “You’ll stop talking to my granddaughter in such a rude manner this instant, Mr Conner.” Eliza’s eyes quickly scanned over the shelves and her family’s heirlooms passed down over the generations past. “I think you’ll be taking you’re leave from my site and this property before I call the police and have you arrested for possession of stolen goods!”

The room went so quiet it was deafening, Kelly could see that Kurtis was trying to think quickly of a way to worm his way of the situation he had found himself in.

“Ms Eliza, I was honestly only holding on to these precious things because I’d found them in Reese’s room and was just waiting to get enough proof that he was the one stealing from you...”

“Enough.” Eliza snapped cutting him off. “Kurtis Conner, after taking you in and looking after you like my own son for all these years, only to have you repay me by... by stealing my families’ heirlooms for yourself! You leave this house immediately, and if I so much as hear someone has seen you near any of my family ever again, you won’t just have the police to worry about, deary.” Eliza’s voice was a tone Kelly had never heard before, she didn’t yell, she spoke so calmly, which more terrifying than her yelling. “Don’t worry about your personal things, I’ll send them on to you in due course, but right now, leave.”

Without another word, Kurtis turned sharply on his heel and stormed out of the room slamming the door behind him.

Eliza turned to Kelly and hugged her tightly breathing out a sigh of relief and speaking into her hair. “Oh, my dear girl, I’ve been suspicious for weeks about things going missing and I was so worried it was you. I’m so glad I was wrong.”

Kelly pulled back from her grandmother and out of the hug. “So what do we do about the party?”

Eliza smiled and nodded. “We’re still having this party, just because their one spoiled apple in the fruit bowl doesn’t mean the rest of the fruit aren’t good you know.”

Kelly laughed slightly at her grandmothers’ little piece of oddly profound wisdom. “Good point.”

The door bell rang signalling that people had started to arrive downstairs.

“Well, come one, I’ll lock this room up and we can take care of it later. Right now, I think there’s also someone special here to see you.” Eliza gave Kelly a knowing smile as Kelly’s eyes widening with excitement and she rushed off ahead downstairs.

Kelly came downstairs and walked into the kitchen when she noticed someone looking inside one of the fridges.

“Why is it that you can cook such amazing food, but never have snacks?” Her father teasingly complained as he turned around, smiling as he shut the fridge door.

“Dad!” Kelly half squealed with excitement going over to him and throwing her arms about his neck hugging him tightly.

“You came, you came. I’ve missed you so much.”

He laughed softly hugging her back. “It’s only been a month and two weeks’ sweetheart, you’d think you hadn’t seen me for years.”

Kelly breathed in her father’s cologne and smiled to herself. “I know, but so much has happened, it feels like years. I want to tell you everything.”

As they parted from the hug, Devon smiled laughing softly again and nodding.

“Alright, I’ll reserve dessert just for you and we can chat on the patio. Have Reese join us too, he’s a nice young man.” He winked at her and then wandered off to get himself a seat at the dining table with the rest of the guests that were beginning to get seated.

Kelly found a seat herself, then realised she was sitting across from Reese, her father took a seat next to him.  She felt her heart jump into her throat slightly, her Dad seemed to sense that something was going on between her and Reese and they’d only just started, whatever it was that had started between them.

She felt a foot touch hers under the table, and jumped slightly. Reese smiled at her from across the table and gave her a quick wink, she felt herself blush and found it impossible not to smile back at him. She gave a small wave and then had to change her concentration to the guests as everyone began to compliment her food and asking about how the bakery was going.

Finally, everybody was ready for the dessert course, Kelly followed her father, Reese and a friend of her fathers out to the dining rooms alfresco patio. Devon’s plus one informed them that she was not Devons' girlfriend.

Putting her father’s personal life aside, Kelly found herself speechless and he started to ask Reese questions about ‘their relationship’.

“So, how long have you two been dating?” He ate some of his chosen dessert, leaving Reese to answer.

Reese was suddenly nervous, Kelly had never seen him act nervous and he spoke quite fast. “Oh, uh well you see, I owed Kelly an apology dinner from being rude to her just over a week ago, so we had dinner last night at the White Lilly in town, and at the end of the night before making our separate ways home, uh yes, we um…”

Devon laughed slightly shaking his head. “It’s fine Reese, I’m not here to give you the third degree. Kelly likes you, that is obvious, and if she likes you then that’s enough for me. Relax.”

Reese ate his desert and gave a small sigh, Kelly had been listening and not even touched her dessert, she had been slightly worried herself that her Dad would give him ‘the third degree'.

The end of the night came all to quickly, Kelly had been whisked around to each guest by her grandmother, she’d lost count of how many times she’d reintroduced herself and recounted how the bakery was doing. 

Devon finally got a quick picture with Kelly before giving her a hug goodnight and promising to catch up for dinner sooner, rather than later.

It seemed that everybody had left as fast as they had arrived, including Eliza.

Kelly sighed starting to clean up the leftover food on the dining table, she felt slightly sad that so much had been left over, and then on top of that, most of it was ruined because people had stuck fingers in or mixed up spoons from one dish to another, so she couldn’t even save anything for later.

Turning to take her first pile of dishes to the dishwasher, Kelly was surprised as Reese suddenly showed up and without a word began picking up dirty plates and helping her clear off the table.

“Thanks.” Kelly smiled at him as she then went and put her pile of plates in the dishwasher.

“You’re welcome, need help with anything else?” Reese called back to her as he finished off clearing the last of the plates and took them into the kitchen to stack in the dishwasher.

“No that’s all that had to be done, I’m going to head to bed now, see you in the morning.”

Kelly kissed his cheek then went up to bed.

She was still nervous about where their relationship was heading as it was so fresh, but she was feeling so happy and content that the worry didn’t last for long.

Around ten the next morning, Reese and Kelly had enjoyed breakfast together and were both leaving the kitchen to both get a few things tidied up that they had to get done before they met again later to go out for drinks.

A beautiful moment pausing embrace with a lingering, soft kiss had happened between them just as Eliza had come down for her morning coffee.

Because Eliza was wearing a hat, for a moment Eliza was smiling at Reese, happy he had found a ‘nice girl’ to date.

But as they had both turned to her when she had let out a small sigh, Eliza’s expression changed to anger and she wasted no time in reprimanding him.

“Reese! What do you think you’re doing man-handling­ my grand-daughter at this hour of the morning, for that matter, at all after the conversation we had about this? You’re as bad as your thieving, conniving brother. After everything I’ve done for you, get out of this house, immediately!”

Kelly couldn’t help but giggle slightly at the situation, Reese seemed to be ready for this confrontation and turned to Eliza as he snapped right back at her.

“With pleasure Mrs Andrews, my job pays me enough to be able to afford a place of my own now, and with all the ‘help’ I’ve given you over the past few years, I think I’ll buy a fixer-upper.” He then turned to Kelly. “I’ll be by in the evenings to pick you up for dinner outings, and on the weekends, we will go out for the day so that we can get to know each other better. Sound good?”

Kelly smiled nodding at Reese, she realised he had already thought out this plan and had no reservations at all about packing up his things and going out on his own.

It was apparent that Eliza had not thought that Reese would react in the way that he was and her attitude switched as Reese stood tall looking right at Kelly, seeming to be studying her to see if she was hiding any doubts about what he had chosen to do.

“Well, I mean… possibly I’ve acted a little hasty in my reaction to seeing you and Kelly and well, if you’re going to be looking for a place, I suppose you could stay for a while longer until you get yourself set up.” She seemed to be apologizing and was fumbling over herself.

Kelly and Reese didn’t stop looking at each other as they smiled.

“And, Reese and I can see each other.” Kelly added not looking away from Reese, her smile growing as she spoke.

“Well, I’m still going to keep to ‘my house, my rules’, after all, I can see that we all deserve a decent amount of respect with what is going on.”

Kelly and Reese both nodded. “Agreed. Now, if I may, I was on my way out to finish up a few of my microscope research for work tomorrow. Ladies.” He winked at Kelly as he walked out the front door leaving Kelly to make some coffee for her and Eliza so they could sit and talk about the new predicament that had now come into play that was going to affect all of them, again.

A Year Later…

The bakery had taken off since the party and they had become one of the main suppliers for the monthly Romance festival in San Myshuno. Kelly’s Heart Cookies and Berry Macarons were ordered in bulk the size increasing by a hundred more each time.

Eliza had even had to hire another staff member to help her and Kelly with the main floor of the bakery, so that Kelly could focus on baking rather than having to dash between serving customers and cooking.

On a somewhat busy Friday afternoon, Kelly was preparing a fresh batch of vanilla and white chocolate cake batter for a trial wedding cake that was being picked up that afternoon from a customer Eliza had taken the order from.

As she was just about ready to put the mixture into a fresh pan and into the oven when Eliza, Reese and Melissa all came into he kitchen together surprising her.

“Look who popped by to say hello.” Eliza exclaimed at Kelly, Reese was smiling warmly at her and Melissa was looking at Reese as if expecting something.

“Hi sweetheart, I’m kind of on a deadline here with this cake batter, can you give me a few minutes and I’ll come out to the main floor?”

“No worries, come on ladies, lets let Kelly finish up in here.” Reese led Eliza and Melissa back out of the kitchen into the store, Kelly shook her head feeling slightly confused at everyone crowding in then leaving just as fast. She poured the batter into its baking tin, then placed it in the preheated oven, washed her hands, then went out to see what Reese had dropped by for.

It wasn’t uncommon for Reese to stop by during the day, sometimes he changed their dinner plans to another place or bought her lunch and they would eat together in the kitchen.

“Alright, I’m here. Sorry, that cake is being picked up…”

“In a few hours, I know.” Reese smiled taking Kelly’s hands and kissed them gently. “I ordered it.”

For a moment, Kelly looked at Reese frowning slightly with confusion. “Huh? Why would you order a trail wedding… Oh… OH!”

Reese laughed as Kelly realised what was going on, she hugged and kissed him, not caring if customers came into the store or not.

“I’ll take it that’s a yes then?” He laughed at her slightly as Kelly smiled back at him, tears of joy brimming in her eyes as she nodded.

“Yes, yes, very much so, yes.”

Eliza came over from the counter and hugged them both, giving them each a kiss on the cheek, she beamed proudly.

“You know this means an engagement party, wedding rehearsal dinner, bachelor and bachelorette parties…”

“Grandma, stop.” Kelly laughed. “I think I’ll just enjoy this moment for now, with no parties.” Kelly untied her apron and took off her head cap giving them to Eliza. “But I will have the rest of the day off thank you, the cake is on a timer so just take it out when it’s done and put it in the fridge when it’s cooled.”

Kelly took Reese by his hand and they walked out of the bakery the warmth of the day was perfect and neither of them could wipe the smiles off their faces.

Authors note:

I do hope that everyone enjoyed this story, I do apologise for the short length, technical difficulties have cut me short with this story.

I’d love to read any comments you have and thank you again for following me :D