In many moments of weakness, Valerie had finished the bag of jalebi. She couldn’t deny her sweet tooth after the day she’d had. Upon arriving at her flat, she dropped her keys, phone, bag and masala on the kitchen table. She headed to the shower.

While in the shower, Valerie had time to contemplate. She had come back from a lavish lifestyle in Montreal only for things she wanted to avoid actually happening. What annoyed her the most was how little thought she had put into it. Almost an impulse. In order to leave and get back to it, she was going to have to stop tiptoeing around the idea of breaking it easy to her sister that they also needed to bring her back from her happy life.

Dried and refreshed, Valerie put a saucepan on the stove and poured water and milk in. She then sprinkled the star anise, the cloves and the cinnamon powder. While waiting for the tea to simmer, Valerie sat at the kitchen table going through her bag. After some searching she found what she was looking for. a battered looking business card with the words “A slice of life - By Katie”.

“Cassandra, what are you up to then?” Valerie murmured.

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She got up, phone in hand and card in the other to go over to check the state of the chai. It was simmering pleasantly with a faint aroma of cloves and anise. Not as much cinnamon as she would have liked. Absent-mindedly, she sprinkles more cinnamon in. She added some black tea leaves into it also.

Doing a quick search online, she finds the bakeries social media. Scrolling down, she looked at the first picture taken on the account. It’s a photo of Cassandra with a young child and her boyfriend. On clicking the tag next to him, she got sent to his account.

Private. However, she did get something. His full name. Peter Kowal… cyke? zick?

Valerie just wanted things to go as smoothly as possible. While straining the tea from the leaves and whole spices, she got a whiff of the chai. It warmed her entire body. Finally adding a bit of honey to sweeten the drink up.

Dropping down onto the sofa, she wondered. Just silently sat there. Left with her thoughts. She didn’t want to be left alone with them again. She took a sip of the chai. Valerie just remembered her childhood when she was here. How awful she thought it was then and how much worse she knew it was now.

Something started to well up in her. This felt different. She felt warm inside. Not emotionally but then it spiked and she started to choke on her tea. A bout of coughing followed. Too much cinnamon.