Easy Bake Coven: Book One of the Vivienne Finch Magical Mysteries by J.D. Shaw

mother as a
friend seemed rather harsh and she was sure it would lead to more arguments
than she really cared for in the future. With a click of the mouse she and her mother
were now officially friends, at least according to Social Butterfly .
    As
she scrolled the status page, she found a link that Kathy had posted sometime
last night. It led to the page of the Cayuga Cove Historic Commission and an
artist rendering of Main Street after all the proposed improvements. Vivienne
navigated to the ‘What’s New’ button and clicked on it. She found that the
first meeting to discuss the Main Street Renovation Project was going to be
held in the library at seven tonight. In tiny text at the bottom, there was
mention that it was open to the public.
    She
wasn’t sure she’d have to time to attend given all the baking that needed to
get done to fill her cases, but she was going to try her best to be there. The
future of her business could be at stake and she probably should be as
proactive as possible to make sure it remained her livelihood.
    As
she parked her red Toyota Matrix near the dumpsters behind the bakery, she was
happy to see that no wayward trash had been deposited from careless trash
pickup. The sun was shining strong and bright on another fine morning. It
warmed her face as she walked to the back door. She felt energized to start the
non-stop baking fest and fill her store with tempting goodies.
    An
hour later, she had her four commercial grade convection ovens filled with
batches of peanut butter, sugar, ginger, and oatmeal raisin cookies. Thanks to
the dual industrial mixers, she was able to churn out batches in record time
but still, she was running a little behind schedule and it made her just a
little nervous. Did she need to hire an assistant? It was the one question she
couldn’t really answer at the moment. Only time would reveal that.
    There
had been no argument outside her store this morning, and the space where the
bright yellow fire hydrant reflected the sunlight had remained open. As the
smell of cookies filled the air, she walked over to the display window and looked
out at Main Street.
      Despite nothing being open, the road was
filled with cars from all the tenants who rented the apartments above the
businesses. Mona Clarke had been right about the lack of parking for customers
and once more she felt she had a good point. True, some of the spaces opened up
as the tenants left for their jobs, but most remained full for the day and it
could be a challenge to find parking for some of the businesses.
      Just how far was one of her customers willing
to walk a cake back to their car? What about rain or snow? She doubted people
would trudge very far through puddles or dirty snow banks to buy some cookies.
    Another
hour of baking passed. Now that the first batches were cooled, she began to
fill the glass display cases with some of the goods. She placed paper doilies
down on the trays, arranging the cookies in neat rows that would look
attractive from the customer side of the case. Thanks to hours as a child spent
learning cursive in grade school, she was able to hand script little price and
product identification cards that perched on spiral place card holders above
each product. It gave the store a special homemade touch that felt nothing like
the impersonal corporate coffee shops and bookstores that spread like weeds
across America’s retail landscape.
    The
air was now perfumed with the scent of decadent chocolate mocha brownies. Some
plain, others swirled with cheesecake and peanut butter. As she continued to
write up little signs perched on one of her bistro tables, she was startled by
a knock on the front door. She looked up and saw the smiling face of Mona
Clarke standing outside.
    “I’m
afraid I’m not officially open until tomorrow morning at ten.” Vivienne said as
she opened the door.
    Mona
Clarke smiled at her, dressed in a royal purple jacket that probably cost as
much as one of the