Encouragement on the Rise

The aroma of warm sugar and melting butter usually filled Anya with a sense of calm, a comforting blanket woven from years of practice and passion. But today, a nervous flutter danced in her stomach, a wholly unwelcome guest. It was the kind of flutter that had nothing to do with an under-proofed brioche or a collapsing soufflé, and everything to do with the man who now occupied the apartment directly above her little bakery. Liam.

He’d been nothing but kind, really, ever since the Great Coffee Catastrophe of Chapter Two. He’d even managed to charm her mother, which was a feat in itself, usually reserved for the most patient of diplomats or the most strategically deployed platitudes. Elena, Anya’s mother, was currently on a mission of her own, a mission that involved a certain Mr. Boris from the local book club, and a rather unfortunate incident involving a misplaced schnitzel at last week’s bake sale. Anya shuddered at the memory.

“Anya, darling, have you seen my good pearls? Boris mentioned he adores pearls,” Elena’s voice, a melodic chime laced with an undercurrent of urgent importance, drifted through the open doorway of the bakery.