It takes a lot to match a generic hi-vis jacket with any item of clothing. At some point, Valerie just had to walk out of her car with undeserved confidence.
With the disguise out of the way, she strutted with all the authority she could muster. Into the storm. Or rather, into the “Cookie Cove Café”.
A jingle came from above as chimes were rung and Valerie was hit with sickening sweetness radiating throughout the café. All around here was branding for the shop “You get a slice of life when you come to Cookie Cove”.
There wasn’t a line and there weren’t too many people in the café. Just the right amount of ambiance and aromatics, if you could call the smell of baked goods aromatic. Before she fell into that spiral, Valerie moved to the till and waited by it as a very furry man came hovering over the till.
“What can I get you?” Said the man Valerie already knew as Peter.
“Nothing for me.” Valerie scribbled on a clipboard she brought in “I’m simply here as part of the Health and Safety Commission. We sent out a letter two weeks ago detailing that I’d be here.”.
“I had no-”
“No, neither did I but we get sent out to these appointments on a ‘need-to-know’ basis. Now if I could take a look at the back rooms to make sure the correct signage and fire suppression equipment is in place, that’d be great.”
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“I’m not quite sure about this. Would it be alright if you came back another time? My wife is away delivering some produce at the moment and she didn’t make me aware of any health and safety checkers.” A little bit of venom in his voice.
Valerie was losing ground but all she had to do was throw the ball back in his court.
“Mr… Peter, was it? These things need to be checked out at the earliest convenience. I’ll happily wait for both of you but it does need to be done today. Otherwise, I’ll have to write that there were mitigating factors in stopping my health and safety checks today which may lead to fines, and neither of us want that paperwork, right?”
Appealing to people's desire to avoid paperwork was a tactic Valerie used to get out of many a parking fine but never to get away with something like this.
Eventually Peter relented and said “I’ll call Katie,” he unlocked a latch and invited Valerie behind the counter “we have a staff room around the corner.”
“Lovely” Valerie couldn’t help but smile. The audacity, pushing herself out of her comfort zone. And she was rewarded for it. Now, she still had a lot of work to do and this was in no way the most productive way to see her sisters but at least Valerie went ahead with the plan. Nothing like a good plan coming together to bring the spirit up.
As she was being navigated through the tight corridors to the staff room, she could hear the sounds of Swedish pop music.
“Oh! Someone’s a fan of ABBA then.” Valerie said in delight.
Peter opened the door to reveal someone huddled up in the staff room watching Pierce Brosnan sing his poor heart out to Meryl Streep.
“Yeah, that’s our little girl Erin. Can’t get enough of it.”
The dimples, the hair, the smile. Valerie couldn’t believe it. The spitting image of not just Cassandra but of Erin herself. Cassandra’s late mother, Hector’s late step-mother and Valerie’s late adopted mother.
She whispered “Of course.”