With her fears calmed, Violet slept much more peacefully. While the dreams she enjoyed the most tended to involve her deceased husband, Lee, that didn't mean that he was always featured in them. In fact, today was quite a bit different as she was dreaming about hosting a dinner party with her girl friends.
"Mmm! This is so good! What did you say it was called again?"
Evelyn asked. Violet smiled to appear more friendly as she answered
"That one is a pineapple-flavored melon pan. It's pretty much just a sweet bread made with pineapple juice."
Those were actually the most expensive of the breads she had prepared for their tea party. Her friend group always took turns hosting and they always did their best to come up with creative themes for the day. This was one of the first parties they had done, so trying different world cuisines was still interesting. However, later parties had taken on other themes like harvest season, winter wonderland, or an "Alice In Wonderland" mad tea party. Violet had always enjoyed Japanese cuisine, though, so she had, obviously, called dibs on that theme pretty early on.
A trip to her local Asian market and several hours of cooking had seen to it that she had a full afternoon tea spread prepared. When she wed Lee they had been gifted a beautiful tea set, including three-tiered trays for holding tea sandwiches and desserts. That paired with a cherry blossom tablecloth and red napkins made the table look quite beautiful.
While it was hardly necessary, their friend group had taken pride in setting up a proper afternoon tea. The first layer of the trays always held tea sandwiches. Today they held egg salad, pork cutlets, and fruit and cream sandwiches. The egg salad wasn't much different from the American version, but it did require cutie mayonnaise, which was made with more yolks than other kinds. The pork cutlet sandwiches were, basically, a breaded and fried pork chop put on bread with the crusts cut off. Meanwhile, strawberries, kiwis, and mandarin oranges had been layered with homemade whipped cream for the fruit sandwiches.
The second layer of the tray was usually supposed to be things like pancakes, English muffins, or biscuits with spreads like butter, clotted cream, jams, and lemon curd. However, the Japanese breads Violet had chosen for the day didn't really need anything extra, so she had skipped that step. Her local Asian market had two varieties of milk pan, one had cheese added and then there was the original. Both were rather sweet, but not quite on the level of cake. They were soft little pillows and it was easy to stack them up on the tea tray. The pineapple-flavored mellow bun was a bit more expensive and much larger, but her friends were hardly going to complain about her dividing them into quarters. It would ensure everyone got the opportunity to try them while not having to blow her whole budget on them.
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The final layer of the tray was meant for small desserts. For this, Violet had chosen to use matcha and strawberry choco rolls, grapefruit-filled earl gray cookies, chocolate-dipped puff pastry, and a variety of different blocky flavors. Most of them would go well with tea, which was perfect since she had gone out of her way to provide oolong, Japanese green tea, and jasmine tea for her friends to sample. She wasn't personally a fan of the jasmine variety, but it just seemed right to provide all three options.
"So, what game are we playing today?"
Mia asked. Violet stood up and brought a box over before explaining
"I know it's a Japanese-themed party, but I just picked out a flower-themed jigsaw puzzle. I didn't really have any time to order something online, I’ve been too busy with work lately."
Her friends all worked in different fields of work, but this was hardly something they'd fault her for. It was good enough that she had done her fair share in hosting the tea party and ensuring everyone had enough refreshments and something to do while they hung out.
"Well, I wouldn't have expected anything different from you anyway. You have always enjoyed puzzles far more than anyone else I know."
Lacey said, her laughter filling the room. Violet smiled back in return, feeling a bit awkward about the statement. She knew her friend didn't mean anything by it, but it still felt a bit like a dig. Most of her friends liked to choose things like Cashflow Clash or a digital game like the Whackbox Fun Bundle. Sometimes they would even take turns playing Prance Prance Uprising at Lacey's house, mildly teasing each other for their bad dancing skills. Violet didn't mind doing what her friends wanted to do sometimes, though, making compromises was a healthy part of any relationship, after all.
Violet usually chose to lose herself in her dreams, but it wasn't truly the same as dreaming was before she reincarnated. She couldn't change what happened in the dreams because it was mostly just her reliving her memories from her past life. However, she was very much aware of what was happening, just like if she was lucid dreaming. Oftentimes, as she relived things, she found herself making comparisons to her new life or taking inspiration for what to build next in her dungeon.
She already had plenty of jigsaw puzzles and she was hardly about to reuse the idea so soon. Maybe after she had a few more floors, she would consider adding more jigsaw puzzles with a different theme. She didn't really have use for Japanese cuisine in her dungeon right now either. She did have the milk tea powders, which she had already made, but that was a separate matter. Still, there were other things she could use.
Relaxing her mind, Violet once more became a passive participant. It was better this way, she needed to rest. It would help her feel better when she next awoke, allowing her to better tackle the day. There was a lot she needed to work on in the upcoming week, after all.