In The Lab - I
1190 Words
Chapter 4A
“Um, I’m sorry what?” She must have heard him wrong. She stuck her finger in her ear and wiggled it and then tilted her head to one side wondering if maybe she didn’t get water in her ear while in the shower this morning. Did he say they were making buckets of c*m? She looked around the room again waiting for someone to jump out and scream she was being pranked.
She trailed after him close at his heels in awe. There was no way, Nick The Scrooge Santos was grinning like a devious madman rubbing his hands together and walking towards the lab kitchens with the intent and purpose of making candy c*m. He was positively boisterous.
He paused his footsteps so abruptly she almost crashed into his backside, “we need the little tins.”
“What little tins?” Confused didn’t begin to describe how she was feeling.
“The ones we use for the soda candy. The fizzy candy we put in little mini soda tins when we were trialing the alternate flavors, we did a bunch here in the kitchens,” he held his fingers a few inches apart. “I know we have some around here.” He started rifling through a cabinet and then pulled out a cardboard box. “Yes.” He fist-pumped into the air. Little silver food safe plastic bins with no labels on them rattled in the box on the counter.
She was in an alternate universe. Maybe she was still sleeping, and this was a dream. He was whistling now as he dug for ingredients. She pinched her thigh. Nope. Grier was definitely, very much awake. She rubbed the spot she pinched and watched him.
“I haven’t been inspired like this in a while,” he winked at her, “since the time my father grounded me for adding ground up star anise to my mother’s bin of cinnamon. All of her little gingerbread men were a little extra spicy.”
“Your mother has a bin of cinnamon?”
“She takes her gingerbread very seriously. She made over two thousand little gingerbread men, and they were all the flavor of licorice. She was furious and she cried,” he paused in his frantic movements, “man my ass hurt for a week for making her cry. I did feel bad because she’s my mom and I didn’t intend to make her cry. On the plus “side, since I love licorice so much, I got all the cookies to myself. I pretended they were horrible, but my mother could bake a dog’s s**t, and it would come out tasty. I ate those things in under a month.” He gave a contented little sigh and then went back to digging through the cupboards for ingredients.
“Why did you put star anise in your mother’s gingerbread?”
“I guess I wanted her to see me and pay attention. I got their attention all right. Dad’s size twelve up the ass.” He froze momentarily as he considered his words were the truth and then he reached for a giant pot before sighing, “you ever feel left out as a kid?”
“Yeah. I guess when my cousin Candy was born but it didn’t last long. Usually we were the center of everyone’s world back home.”
“You have a cousin named Candy?” He interrupted her story with a hand on her forearm.
“Yup. Believe it or not, her name is Candilicious, but we call her Candy for short.”
“Why?” his mouth was wide open as he stared at her in disbelief.
“My Dad owns a few businesses in our hometown, all passed down from generation to generation. Our last name is Bush. He runs the Christmas tree farm, and he has a ranch, so growing up we all got teased because our last name was Bush and we grow trees, which are just tall bushes apparently.” She grumbled. “Mom runs the bakery which is called Bush’s Bakery. They also run a bed and breakfast which the bakery is attached to called Big Bush B&B. We got mocked mercilessly for our last name but because it’s so popular in the town, my aunt, who is my dad’s sister was immensely proud of her name. She gave up her last name when she got married and so decided she wanted her kids to have standout names in the community since they weren’t Bushes anymore.”
“She gave her daughter a stripper name. I mean if it was Candace sure, but Candilicious?”
“My uncle’s last name is Sugarloaf.”
“f**k off. You’re f*****g with me. Candilicious Sugarloaf?”
“Her older brother is Cain Sugarloaf.”
“No.” he dropped a large metal spoon onto the counter. “I don’t believe you.”
She pulled her phone from the pocket of her trousers and pulled up her social media. “Here you go. My aunt, uncle, and their two kids standing in front of their restaurant back home in Coldreach.”
He grabbed her phone and zoomed in on the photo, looking at the marquee over the store, “what is this place? Sugar and Loaf?”
“Yeah. It’s um,” she scratched the back of her neck, “a diner which specializes in meatloaf.”
“Meat loaf?”
“Yes. Their signature meat loaf is a sweet and sour meatloaf with a pineapple and tomato sauce. She wanted something to match their name.” Grier knew how weird it was.
“They make a sweet meatloaf?”
“Its not my thing but a lot of people love it.”
“Do you have a favorite meatloaf?” he was laughing now as he asked mumbling under his breath about sweet meats.
“She does a turkey meatloaf which is stuffed with a bread stuffing in the middle, and it’s smothered in a rich gravy. It’s surprisingly good. My aunt isn’t a bad cook but of all the things to use for a gimmick, meatloaf seems weird to me. Anyway, when they were starting the business, she wanted names which went with the Sugar of Sugar and Loaf of Loaf and voila. She kept the tradition going with Cain and Candy.” She was in awe of his suddenly happy demeanor. She kept wondering if she was going to wake up from this dream and find herself asleep at her desk with him standing over it spewing fire and brimstone.
“Her children are named Candy Cane.” He threw his head back and laughed, “my father would get such a kick out of it. It’s so stupid it’s funny.”
“Hey now.” She frowned at him.
“Sorry.” She could see from his smirk he was not remotely apologetic.
“What are your sister’s names?” Grier changed the topic.
“They are twins. Noelle and Star.”
“Nick, Noelle, and Star. Do your parents like Christmas?”
- Writer
