With Dylan's ending comment of last night buzzing in her ears, Adelaide awoke to her alarm screaming for her to open her eyes. It took every cell of her aching and seemingly sleep-deprived body to lunge her arm forward and switch off her alarm. Adelaide then went on to drag herself away from her cloud-like bed and get ready for the final event day.
Unlike yesterday, Adelaide directly wore her black-on-black shirt and skirt combination, keeping in mind her personal experience with heels and Dylan's advice, she completed her outfit with a pair of white desert boots and left her apartment.
Walking down the streets of Amalfi, Adelaide took in her dull surroundings that were recovering from sunrise. Not many people were out on the streets since it was only but six-thirty a.m, on a Sunday Morning at that. The few that were on and about were the bakery, meat and vegetable shop owners, and as always, they had the brightest expressions on their faces as they went on with their business on this warm, dull morning. Having had reached the cafe, Adelaide noticed that it was locked and thus, she decided to sit by the cafe step and wait for Mr Riccardo's arrival. She was about to doze off after about thirty minutes of waiting when she heard what sounded like Mr Riccardo cursing.
Mr Riccardo, quite unlike himself, was late. He had arrived at seven-fifteen a.m. which was fifteen minutes before Dylan and his team would arrive at their shop and BARELY forty-five minutes until their initial opening time. It seemed that Mrs Riccardo had baked a lot more cupcakes than required hence, making Mr Riccardo late. With a sense of urgency, Mr Riccardo and Adelaide hastily mopped the shop, wiped its counters and tables and set them up.
As Adelaide was rushing to set the outdoor tables she noticed Dylan by the gate of the shop. Stepping out she stopped in her tracks, with her arms stretched out and holding the table firm in her grasp. Holding each other's gaze for a fleeting second, Adelaide looked away and went on to set the table down near the picture windows, while on the other hand, Dylan walked towards her.
"Let them be." -he said looking at her set the table.
"And why is that?"- Adelaide replied heading towards the door to get another table.
"My team will set it up." -came Dylan's response almost spontaneously.
"That wouldn't be necessary in this case." -Adelaide looked at him with a puzzled expression.
Understanding the expression she held, Dylan went on to explain the situation to Adelaide.
"Today's event will be conducted outdoors. Let my team set up the place. Changing the table positions would just be extra work."
Nodding her head to Dylan's words, Adelaide replied with an "okay then." and went back inside to help Mr Riccardo set the counter.
With hurried steps and unstoppable hands, Tackles was all set to launch for Day Two of its event sales. It was only but eight-fifteen a.m when it received its first customers of the day, who to their surprise and delight, were someone who had visited them yesterday. The tourist couple entered the cafe and were greeted by Adelaide. She attended to them brightly as she remembered them from yesterday. Slowly yet carefully a few more people came and left the shop in intervals.
Time flew by for everyone at Tackles. Even Carson, who had decided to help out and joined them around ten a.m was given tasks to take care of almost instantly. It was funny to have everyone sprawled around when they weren't even that many customers. But, what they very frantically got ready for wasn't just their present customers but for the event to start soon. The last, biggest, actual, activity event.
'Decorate your Cupcake', was the event Adelaide came up with after taking in Sofia's suggestion and Mrs Riccardo's feedback, as she was in charge of baking the huge number of cakes that they would require. Having taken Dylan's word for having participants on the main day, Mrs Riccardo ended up baking about two hundred and fifty cupcakes. A hundred and thirty of which were vanilla based and the remaining hundred and twenty being chocolate-based.
The event was set to start at noon, but a few children accompanied by their parents had arrived at the shop by around eleven-thirty a.m. The shop was to be kept free and accept only take-away orders during the twelve to two p.m. time slot, which was the designated hours for the activity, and thus, Carson and Adelaide were busy lining the remaining chairs outdoors on the small pavement inside the gate. While Dylan on the other hand guided the parents towards the already arranged seats set outside for them so that they could view their children in action.
Although hardly big enough, Dylan's team had done a noteworthy job at utilizing the space that existed between the gate and door to Tackles. A long, rectangular table covered with a white satin cloth, holding two five-tier dessert stands filled with cupcakes, bowls of freshly whipped cream of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry flavours lined beside each other and some already converted into small cones and various small bowls containing decorative items such as choco chips, sprinkles, tutty fruity's and even M&M's; stood by the picture windows and covered by food covers made of mesh. Keeping the items table as the centre, smaller tables with chairs were set around the pavement. A few families had already settled in and unable to contain their excitement, some of the children had started claiming their items and decorating their cupcakes with their parents offering them some help now and then.
As time passed by, more and more children from ages seven to roughly twelve came and left with their cupcakes, much to the surprise of the Tackles staff, even Mrs Riccardo had come to watch the kids at work. Although many of the children had used up and even wasted more than two cupcakes, there was still plenty more stored in the kitchen indoors.
Midway through the event, when Tackles was not busy with customers, a small group of five teenage girls, aged roughly around fourteen had entered the shop. Much to their disappointment, the shop didn't have all that they thought it would, and thus, they sent away poor Carson to shop for their exclusive ingredients which consisted of Oreos, wafers and even Ferrero Rocher.
All Adelaide could think of when they demanded these items was- "Damn, they're a serious bunch of kids. I hope you get the right brand Benjie, they seem like the ones to snap if you don't." And saying so, she went on ahead to pack her customers take-away.
Undoubtedly, the group of girls were an oddly dedicated bunch. They took things so seriously that they started mixing the different flavours of whipped cream that were available and decorated a set of three to four cupcakes carefully and with utmost caution. Mrs Riccardo who was overjoyed previously upon seeing young, small hands at work, now admired the vigour with which the bunch of girls worked. The lot even attracted a few passersby as they were intrigued to pay attention to their work. The smaller set of younger kids that had occupied the other half of the area was now getting competitive and creating quite a big mess in the process.
Adelaide, Carson, Dylan and Giselle, who had joined them in case things were hard to manage, split into two groups to overlook and provide help to the kids wherever needed. While Adelaide and Carson looked over the younger kids, Dylan and his secretary Giselle, watched the teenage girls from a distance. As Carson was indulged in helping a young boy decorate his share of cupcakes, Adelaide stood slightly afar from the table occupied by the friendly kids. As she was about to go and fill the empty cones with cream, a young, timid, little girl wearing a pink frock and her golden-brown hair put together in two tiny pigtails approached her. The girl held onto Adelaide's skirt and slightly tugged on it with her tiny palm, catching her attention. Upon seeing the person who tugged her skirt, Adelaide smiled and bent down to level herself with the adorable child before her.
"Did you need something?" -Adelaide asked her with a smile. In response to her question, the girl nodded and frantically looked around her.
"What's your name?" -Questioned Adelaide grabbing the attention of the girl. Adelaide knew the girl's parents were inside having tea so she didn't worry about the girl being lost.
"M-Maya. My name is Maya." -the girl replied hesitantly still holding onto Adelaide's skirt.
"Nice to meet you, Maya. I'm Adelaide. Do you want something from me?" -Adelaide replied keeping her smile on to not intimidate the child before her. Maya nodded and then motioned for Adelaide to lend her ear to her. Understanding her actions, Adelaide brought her ear closer to Maya's face, while Maya covered her mouth with her hands and leaned closer to Adelaide.
"Can I get some blueberries?" -Maya whispered. Adelaide almost giggled with her whisper. Now facing each other, Maya held her probable trump card, her puppy face and Adelaide couldn't help but be in awe with her expression. This time around, Adelaide leaned forward and whispered in Maya's ear.
"Why do you need them?"
Maya again looked around her and then went ahead with whispering her answer to Adelaide.
"The baby likes blueberries." -Maya's reply took Adelaide by a surprise. She whispered back.
"Baby?"
To which Maya nodded her head with a big smile plastered on her face. She then motioned Adelaide to lend her ear again, which she gladly did.
"The baby inside mommy." -Maya giggled as she finished her words. Understanding what she now meant, Adelaide held Maya's tiny, delicate palms in hers and asked her in a low voice.
"How many do you need?" -hearing Adelaide's words, Maya started jumping in joy and stated how many blueberries she'd need.
"Two! two will do!"
Looking at the now elated Maya, Adelaide couldn't help but giggle at how adorable she was. She told Maya to wait at the table and that she'd bring her berries but Maya stopped her before she could go.
"Don't tell momma. Please." -she whispered with pleading eyes.
"Is it a secret?" -Adelaide asked her, recalling how she kept looking around her before making the request. Maya replied to her question with a negative side-to-side nod and then went on to respond to her in a whisper.
"It's a surprise!" -she squealed in her ears causing Adelaide to smile.
To Maya's luck, Tackles had mini berry tarts on their menu, so, getting berries for her wasn't any trouble. But, the task didn't end with handing her the berries. Maya didn't let go of Adelaide even after she handed her the berries. While she worked on her cupcakes with immense attention, she made sure Adelaide was there to watch her and help her make 'perfect cupcakes'. The result of the cupcakes was simply adorable. Maya had made five cupcakes, a strawberry tutty fruity one for herself, a chocolate cupcake decorated with a heart made of vanilla cream for her father, a chocolate and vanilla combination cupcake with choco chips for her mother and a vanilla-based cupcake covered sloppily with chocolate cream decorated with a smiley face made of the two blueberries serving as the eyes and a line of M&M's acting as its mouth. Lastly, she had decorated a chocolate-based cupcake with strawberry cream and added sprinkles on top of them. This she had made for Adelaide as a 'thank you' gift.
Adelaide was very touched to see all the precious, slightly messy, but over the top pleasing group of cupcakes on Maya's plate. She couldn't help herself and took a picture of the cupcakes made by Maya. Maya's mother had teared up when she saw all her hard work. Her dad too was very proud of her as they all ate their cupcakes. Adelaide having taken Maya's parents' permission, took a picture with Maya and the cupcake that she had received from her and bid her goodbye as she left with her family.
As she turned around to wrap up the mess the younger kids had made, she heard Carson and Mrs Riccardo calling out to her. Following their calls, Adelaide went inside and found everyone including Dylan and Giselle by the counter. Adelaide went ahead and stood beside Carson.
"Why'd you call?" -Adelaide questioned him silently.
"Those girls, who I went shopping for, they decorated a few cupcakes for us." -Carson replied while smiling.
"Seems like they weren't that arrogant after all." -she replied with a laugh.
"Yeah."
Looking over at the counter, Adelaide noticed a long rectangular tray holding six beautifully decorated cupcakes. The cupcakes were all decorated differently and delicately. Unlike the childrens' ones, the cream on these was perfectly shaped and some even had all three flavours of cream placed carefully on the cupcake surface. One cupcake was topped with Oreos, two others with the Ferrero rocher and wafers individually, and the last three had combinations of those with M&M's and choco chips. The cupcakes, on one hand, made Mrs Riccardo determined to experiment and design her own and on the other, they made Adelaide and Carson recall their outrightly horrific baking attempts. As the break with the deliciously made cupcakes came to an end, the cycle of serving their customers had started again. And just like that, in the blink of an eye, an eventful, long, fleeting day had soon come to an end.