Chapter 258

Alexcent came to Amethyst with his tie once more, the next morning before he opened the store.

“I can’t do it,” he said with a smirk on his face.

“If you can’t then don’t,” Amethyst replied, trying to ignore him.

“Pardon?”

“Just do this, it will be fine.” Amethyst, frustration showing on her face, undid the top three buttons of Alexcent’s shirt instead. As the top of his strong chest was revealed, Alexcent pulled the gap open more to reveal more skin.

“Like this?” he asked.

Amethyst glared at him. He had said last night that he was going to give up and now he seemed to be flirting even harder. She gave him a good smack on the side of his head.

“Again! I told you I’m not going to let this continue! I will kick you out if you keep doing this.”

“You’re too much.” Alexcent laughed, as if he didn’t believe her.

“Whatever! Go open the store.” Alexcent headed off at Amethyst’s order, surprisingly smiling from ear to ear.

***

When Amethyst came down, the next day, Alexcent was standing in the middle of the café scratching his head.

“Why is there so much stuff?” he asked, as he watched, with wonder, the procession of crates containing fruit, sugar, bottles, and a slew of other necessities being delivered through the front door.

“In a few days we will be celebrating the Empire’s founding day. There is a festival in the town. I’m thinking of selling some fruit juice from a stand closer to the centre of town. I need the extra supplies so I can prepare all the product. Take the fruit into the kitchen and give it a good wash.”

Alexcent started carting the crates of fruit to the kitchen as Amethyst checked the last box to be delivered and thanked the delivery man for his hard work.

An hour later, Alexcent came out with a box full of cleaned fruit.

“Are you done washing them?” Amethyst asked. “They still need to be dried off with a towel.”

Alexcent dried the clean fruit and Amethyst began cutting them into pieces.

“I’ll help,” Alexcent announced. He brought a cutting board and a knife out of the kitchen and set up a station next to Amethyst.

“Just follow what I do,” Amethyst instructed. “If you find seeds while cutting, don’t forget to take them out. Also, give a small piece of each fruit a taste. We need to separate the sweet from the sour.”

Alexcent bit into one of the pieces of strawberry, like she asked him to. When she looked at him, he grinned with the chunk of fruit between his lips and his front teeth, giving him a gross, dripping, red smile.

“Gray, do you know what happens when you fool around with someone that has a knife?”

“No,” Alexcent quickly swallowed the strawberry.

“Stop that nonsense and keep cutting.”

Alexcent began cutting again. He had no idea why she looked so cute when she was angry. It just made him want to tease her even more. It was fine if she didn’t look at him, inside he knew she was smiling.

***

The fruit juice they were going to sell on the Empire’s founding day was an assortment of flavours, including cherry, lemon, grape, and tangerine. Whatever they didn’t sell at the festival would just be taken back to the cafe. They loaded all of the supplies into the carriage and headed downtown to their assigned booth. Lucky for them, they had been given a prime spot on a busy street.

She decorated the booth with a pretty tablecloth, then displayed the varieties of fruit juice. She hoped she had done enough to get the attention of the people passing by. As the crowds began to gather, Amethyst started to worry. The festival was to last three days. What if she sold out on the first day? She began to think she should have prepared more.

But, as the hours passed by, she was hoping to still sell her first bottle. It wasn’t for the lack of customers; people crowded the street. It seemed like her fruit juice wasn’t very popular. She was going to be left with a multitude of juice that would probably go bad if she didn’t start selling.

“Auntie!”

Amethyst’s face brightened as she heard a familiar voice calling from the throng of people. Waving to the child who was running towards her, she cried “Erina!”

“We’re not the first customers, right?” Pauline asked, as she approached behind Erina.

Amethyst laughed. “Well, actually, you are.”

“I feel like this has happened before?” Both ladies burst out laughing.

“Are you here to enjoy the festival?” Amethyst asked

“Yes. We only had time to come today.”

“Auntie, let’s go see the festival together! Please?” Erina was jumping up in down with impatience.

“What? I’m sorry Erina, Auntie has to work,” Amethyst said, disappointed at seeing the child’s sad face.

“I can watch the booth,” Alexcent told her. Amethyst hesitated, but Alexcent continued. “You like looking around. I’m all right. It’s better than Erina looking sad here.”

“Fine. I’ll come look around for a bit.” Amethyst took hold of Erina’s hand, as the child grinned with joy. “Shall we? Erina?”

“Yes!” The child shouted, dragging Amethyst off through the crowd. Pauline smile at Alexcent and followed after her child.

It was about an hour before Erina, Pauline and Amethyst returned. Erina was holding a balloon in her hand and had a crown of flowers on her head. Her cheeks were red from all of the excitement.

“Did you have fun?” Alexcent asked.

“Erina had more fun than me. Wow, I don’t think I can do anything else today.” Amethyst collapsed in a chair behind the booth. “It’s hard to keep up with kids. Anyways, was it boring? Since you had to sit here and watch all the people go by without buying anything?”

“I sold them all,” Alexcent announced.

“What?!”

“I sold all the fruit juice we brought today,” Alexcent repeated.

“How?” Amethyst was shocked.

“I don’t know. After you went to look around, there was a swarm of customers, and everything sold.”

Amethyst felt absurd, asking the next question. “Were all the customers women, perhaps?”

“Yes.” Alexcent nodded.

Pauline doubled over in laughter as Amethyst just rolled her eyes. “Of course,” she grumbled.