Easy Bake Coven: Book One of the Vivienne Finch Magical Mysteries (6 page)

“I
was just thinking about you, actually.” Kathy smiled.

“We
must have some weird psychic connection, like identical twins?” Vivienne admired
the
Caprese
salad on the Mediterranean olive bar. The
succulent red tomatoes and creamy pieces of fresh buffalo mozzarella tossed
together in olive oil with fresh basil certainly looked tempting, but the ten
dollar a pound sign next to it curbed her appetite quickly.

“How
did the date with Deputy Dashing go?” Kathy guided her cart over to the
international cheese case and added a small wheel of brie to her collection of
groceries.

“His
name is Joshua
Arkins
.” Vivienne corrected. “It was
actually better than I could have hoped.”

“That’s
so good to hear.” Kathy motioned for them to move down to the bakery section
where one of the workers was putting out some freshly baked bread.

Vivienne
followed her, careful to not run over one of the hyper children who was now
sprawled on his back and spinning in a circle on the polished floor as his
clueless Mother picked out luncheon meat to be sliced for sandwiches. “He was
thoughtful and had none of that macho male attitude that you’d think would come
with a cop.”

“Nora
actually snagged someone good this time?” Kathy picked up a small loaf of
multi-grain bread and examined it for flaws. Satisfied with her choice, she
tossed it into her cart and moved on to the meat department with efficient
speed.

“I’m
as surprised as you.” Vivienne hurried to keep up behind her. She paused to
pick up a package of boneless chicken breasts.

“You’re
better off getting the club pack of a dozen breasts rather than a four pack.”
Kathy pointed to the price per pound information.

“But
I don’t need that much. It’s just me for dinner most nights.” Vivienne
reasoned.

“Divide
them into bags and store them in your deep freeze for later.” Kathy picked up a
rib eye steak and placed it in her cart. “I’m sure you’ll find all sorts of
recipes to use with your slow cooker when you’re at work. That’s what I do.”

“You’re
amazing.” Vivienne shook her head. “You squeeze a nickel until the buffalo
poops at the grocery, but don’t bat an eyelash at dropping a hundred dollars on
a makeup consultation.”

“You
can’t put a price on beauty.” Kathy grinned. “Well, actually, I guess you can.”

Vivienne
mentally did the math and decided to go with the club pack. She could very well
be cooking dinner for two if more dates with Joshua followed and she sincerely
hoped they would. “I need to visit the toothpaste aisle.”

Kathy
led them to the health and beauty section where a plethora of personal care
products beckoned with flashy packaging promising more quantity or better
performance for the same low, low price. She stopped at the shower gels and
flipped the tops to sniff some of the scents. “So when is the next date?”

Tossing
her usual brand of whitening toothpaste into the cart, she pulled out a
crumpled sheet of notebook paper from her pants pocket and went over her grocery
list. “Probably not until after the store opens.”

Kathy
pulled out her smart phone and pulled up her grocery list from one of the many
apps installed. She shook her head at her friend’s lack of interest in
technology as she updated her items and glanced at the latest status messages
on her social network site. “Maybe we should check his
Social Butterfly
page?”

Vivienne
scooted over to Kathy and tried to peek at what was on the screen. “Can you do
that?”

“Sure.”
She tapped her slender fingers across the digital keyboard on her phone.
“Hardly anyone uses smart phones as phones anymore.”

Vivienne
marveled at how adept her friend was with electronics. “I don’t get how people
are so into reading other people’s everyday thoughts. What’s so exciting about
what they’re cooking for dinner tonight?”

“I
think I found his profile.” Kathy smiled and then frowned. “Damn.”

“What
is it?” Vivienne suddenly became very interested in whatever everyday thoughts
Joshua was having. Had he blabbed she was a bad date who spit green tea all
over the table?

“He’s
cocooned.”

Vivienne
just stared at her friend. “What does that mean?”

“He
doesn’t post anything public. You have to friend him to see anything other than
his profile picture.” She held the phone closer and nodded. “But he takes a
great picture.”

“Let
me see.” Vivienne reached for the phone.

Kathy
handed it to her. “If you were more connected with the technological world,
you’d have been on his friends list by now.”

Vivienne
had to admit that her friend was indeed right about the photo on Joshua’s
profile. He was handsome and masculine, showing off his smile that she so
enjoyed on their date the previous evening. “Do you think you could setup
Social Butterfly
on my computer at
home?”

“I’ve
only been offering to do that for like two years now.” Kathy took her phone
back. “When’s good for you?”

She
thought of the remaining tasks to get accomplished and felt guilty pushing it
all aside for her fascination with the new deputy. “I probably should wait
until after the store opens.”

“Oh
my God, live a little.” Kathy scolded her. “Let’s do a quick dinner at your
place and I’ll set it up while you toss together a chef salad.”

“What
do you think he has on there?” Vivienne wondered aloud. “Do you think he said
anything about our date?”

“If
he did, I’d dump him.” Kathy’s voice dropped a bit. “You don’t want a boyfriend
blabbing every intimate detail.”

“A
lesson learned from past experience?”

“I
need some cooking spray.” Kathy changed the subject and pushed her cart toward
the end of the aisle. “I also forgot my shopper’s club card and I need to
borrow yours, so don’t sneak off to the checkout without me.”

Vivienne
shook her head and followed. “I’m right behind you.”

Back
at her home, Vivienne couldn’t help but feel like a school girl playing hooky
as she tossed together a simple chef salad to share with Kathy. There were so
many little things to finish. She really should have been eating dinner at her
bakery.

Kathy
was hard at work on the desktop computer that was tucked into a corner in the
living room and almost forgotten under piles of junk mail that threatened to
bury it. “This thing is a dinosaur.” Kathy complained in front of the boxy
monitor that flickered every now and then from age.

“I’ve
got better things to spend money on.” Vivienne brought the salad bowl over to
the dining room table and placed it in the center. She had chopped up some left
over deli meat from the fridge, thrown in some cherry tomatoes and cucumber
slices, and even mixed up one of those Italian dressing packets in one of those
cheap glass cruets from the grocery store.

“If
you had a modern computer this would have been done an hour ago.” She leaned
back in the chair. “I didn’t know dial up was still around anymore.”

Vivienne
rolled her eyes and placed the salad tongs in the bowl. “Dinner’s ready.”

“I’m
starved.” Kathy rushed over from the computer and took a seat. “Hey, this looks
pretty good for one of those pre-packaged salad kits.” She eagerly placed some
salad in her bowl.

“I
always jazz them up a bit.” Vivienne said as she sat down to enjoy her dinner.
“So how’s it going over there?”

“It’s
going.” Kathy drizzled her greens with some dressing and passed the cruet to
Vivienne. “Give it another five or ten minutes.”

As
she speared some salad with her fork, she thought about what she had seen this
morning in front of her store. “Did I tell you I saw Joshua giving Mona a
ticket this morning?”

“No.”
Kathy was intrigued. “Do tell.”

“I
couldn’t hear everything from inside the store, but she had parked in front of
a fire hydrant and kept insisting she was on some sort of official city
business.” Vivienne explained as she drizzled a little more dressing on her
salad.

“That
woman has no shame.” Kathy agreed. “So did she put up a fight?”

“She
was loud and even made kind of a threat about him living in a small town and
rubbing people the wrong way.” Vivienne thought back to the ugly incident and
hoped Joshua wouldn’t judge everyone on the bad temper of a spoiled woman like
Mona Clarke.

“Get
out.” Kathy nearly spit out her salad in shock. “She threatened him?”

Suddenly
aware that this dinner conversation could spiral into town gossip emanating
directly from the
Trade Winds Clothier
store, she worked quickly to downplay it. The last thing she needed when
opening a new business was to get on Mona Clarke’s bad side. “It wasn’t really
a threat. It was something stupid she said in the heat of anger.”

Kathy
shook her head in amazement. “Still, that’s quite an aggressive move on her
part. I swear, starting this Historic Commission has gone right to her head.”

“It
certainly has lit a fire under her.” Vivienne agreed.

“I’ll
bet there are plenty of people who’d love to see her get burned.” Kathy
laughed.

After
finishing their salads, they moved back to the computer where Kathy sat
Vivienne down in the basic office chair she had found at a yard sale and forced
her to learn the fine art of social networking.

Kathy
used her smart phone to capture a good picture of Vivienne in just the right
pose with the most flattering lighting they could provide. Using some basic
photo editing software, she softened the image and it was soon uploaded to the
new
Social Butterfly
account. “We’ve
got a great picture and all your basic information on there.”

“What’s
the next step?” Vivienne glanced at the computer screen.

“You
need to start sending friend requests. After they approve it, you’ll be able to
follow their status messages and look at any photos they have added.

“Wow.”
Vivienne couldn’t help but be impressed.

“You
can even make ad for your business and use it for all sorts of free marketing.”
Kathy explained. “I often put little one day specials on the Trade Winds page
and it can drum up business on a slow day.”

“Now
that’s something useful.”

“But
let’s get that friend request to Joshua.” Kathy reached over her and typed his
name in the search box. A few clicks of the mouse later his picture was smiling
on Vivienne’s monitor. “It’s sent. Now you’ll have to wait until he logs on and
approves it.”

Vivienne
scanned the main page and pointed to the icon that looked like a patch of
little flowers. A red number one was highlighting it. “What’s that?”

“Click
and see.” Kathy instructed.

She
did just that and Kathy’s picture appeared. “Kathy Saunders wants to join my
friend garden?”

“Congratulations.
I hear she’s fabulous.”

Vivienne
accepted the request and Kathy explained the basics of reading the profile and
how to post status messages and share links to interesting web pages. Nearly an
hour and half later, she was shocked to see how it consumed her free time at an
alarming rate. “I have to go back to the store and get that register
programmed.”

“Is
it really after eight?” Kathy checked the designer watch on her wrist. “Let me
help you load the dishwasher.”

“No
need to do that. I’ll just deal with them when I get home.” Vivienne shut the
computer down. “Thanks for all your help.”

“Welcome
to the twenty-first century, darling.” Kathy smiled. “We’ve been expecting
you.”

It
had taken four snooze button presses before she was able to part herself from
the warm covers of her bed the next morning. She had returned to her store
after dinner and managed to not only program the cash register, but she had
finished the kitchen setup for the morning baking. It was nearly three in the
morning when she briefly considered pulling an all night session like a twenty
year old college student. But her thirty-six year old body refused to allow
that and she went home to get a few hours of shut eye.

As
she swung her legs over the edge of her queen bed, she shoved her feet into a pair
of comfortable white bunny slippers that Nora had given her as a Christmas
present last year. The sunlight was streaming in through the lavender curtains
of her bedroom. As usual, she walked over to greet the morning from her second
floor window. It made her happy to see that the big sugar maple next to the
sidewalk was starting to display its peak foliage. The green leaves were now a
fiery red and yellow mix that just begged to be collected and waxed for her
window display at the store. Mother Nature always provided the best decorations
for this time of year.

After
retrieving the newspaper from her front steps, she inhaled the air that was
crisp and a bit colder than the day before. There hadn’t been a heavy frost
yet, but she was certain one was on the way. Cayuga Lake provided a
micro-climate that allowed for temperature fluctuations that were especially
productive for grapes. As such, wineries had sprung up all along the shoreline,
with more opening each year. The tour buses made regular visits along the wine
route, but lacking a winery in the town area they never stopped in town. She
began to wonder if perhaps Mona Clarke had the right idea but was just going
about it the wrong way.