The food order from dimensional space was a smashing success. Everything she had written down on the flyer was delivered into her kitchen in exactly the locations Susannah would have put them up in. Even better, since her ink faded after she wrote it in, the flyer could be reused. She pasted it to the wall next to the doorway on the inside of the kitchen.

The only thing she needed to worry about was how it was charging her for the deliveries. In fact, Susannah went to sleep that Sunday night fretting about it, and having slight amounts of buyer’s remorse.

Then she woke up and forgot all about it.

Monday was decent. Susannah had never been one of those people who catastrophized a certain day of the week, though that may change in the advent of the upcoming Tuesday. She preferred to measure time by the seasons. It was practical.

With Charmony working the register and making the coffee, new sorts of coffee drinks, even, Susannah figured it was high time she made new recipes herself, to celebrate being in the city. She did have access to something that could bring her exotic ingredients quickly, after all...

Susannah stood over her oven, most of her baking for the café finished for the day. The only thing still in the oven was a pudding, which needed to set overnight.

“Hey, uh...”

She used fruits when they were in season. Some people claimed that there was no difference between fresh and canned. Some people were wrong. Chocolate was amazing, and could be used on anything. She didn’t have many things with caramel in them.

“Boss?”

Susannah hummed to herself. Cookies, pastries, cupcakes, muffins, and breads. Perhaps she could make some kind of donut? Those paired with coffee. But then, places that made donuts had a large variety of them. Frostings and doughs and toppings. She wasn’t converting everything into donuts. That would be absurd.

“You okay?”

She blinked. Charmony was peering into the kitchen, wide eyed.

“Do you need something?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Yes, maybe? Some guy’s at the counter, said his name is Karulk, wants to chat? With you.”

“Oh. Alright then.” She had ideas to use later, which was enough for now.

Karulk was standing at the counter, wearing exactly the clothes she had forst seen him in, now with an added flower crown.

He stared at her for a moment, frowning, before clearly remembering that she changed appearences. Which, come to think of it, she had never explained to Charmony.

“Hello Susannah. Things have been busy, I hope?”

“Yup. I’m firmly in the black. Mostly because the rent is almost free.”

He nodded. “BonJaeveson doesn’t need money, he needs a place to launder it.”

There was an awkward second where Susannah completely forgot that BonJaeveson was the name of her landlord, and that Karulk thought he was mafia. “That sounds incorrect to me. Why are you here?” She winced as she said that. Bluntness. It was always the bluntness.

“To try something! Do you have any recommendations?”

“Depends on personal taste. Since you asked for me, I assumed you wanted something that Charmony couldn’t do.” Susannah tried not to be a little annoyed about having her dessert planning time cut into for no reason.

“Is being social not reason enough?”

No. “I suppose so. Anyway.” She gestured to the display case, which was looking a little empty. It was an hour until closing, so this was a win. “You like plants, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say you like fruit stuff. Razz pastries are good. So are the blossom blondies.” They were cut into the shapes of full bloomed roses and had a vaguely floral flavor. Susannah hated them, but they sold. Somehow.

“I’ll try a blossom blondie then, no drink. And I did come here for a reason. I wanted to do you a favor, since it’s so rare to have a longterm neighbour and all.”

“Oh?” Susannah pulled a blondie out of the case, put it on a plate, added a fork, and handed it to him. She was tempted to just use a napkin out of underhanded pettines, but ingrained The Customer is ALWAYS Right won out.

“Yes. Ya’ see, recently there have been some strange folks skulking about the building next to yours. An unsecret society of some sort. And they’ve been askin’ about catering, and I dropped your name, and it turns out one of them had already been here.”

Susannah stared at him. “I have never done any catering before, at all, in my life.”

“Really? My apologies then. I’ll bet it’ll be some good advertising for you, which I know you were worry’n about.” Karulk poked the blondie with the fork.

“I’m sure it will be...” Susannah did not want advertising. She wanted to make things, eat them, then sell the parts she could not eat. But she did want to make more money. Money was important. Money was very important. If there was nothing left in life, there was money, and human greed.

“Thank you for the opportunity.”

“You’re welcome, and may I say, this is excellent.”

“Thank you,” Susannah repeated, already trying to come up with a plan for how she might cater for something she barely knew about.

At least she had a way to get a lot of food, fast.