Sunday 16 Dec 2018

Bobbie woke early, had a coffee and decided to go for a run to clear her head. She ran for quite a while, lost in her thoughts and found herself next to Johnny’s business. Really, she understood why the old feelings for Johnny hit her and maybe she ended up here because he was on her mind. It was okay because she wanted to explore the neighbourhood more anyway. It was a nice. Years ago it had been a light industrial area but was transformed and now it had loft apartments and coffee shops. Even Johnny’s garage looked more like a 50’s diner than a garage. It was closed so she didn’t go over.

She got up and wandered around looking at shops and went into a coffee shop. She was kind of coffee’d out so she picked a bottle of kombucha. It was a little tangy and a little bubbly and very refreshing. She bought a gluten free muffin to go with it. She looked around a little more and realized they had an assortment of gluten free items. She asked the owner if they had a dedicated gluten free kitchen.

“We sure do. Everything we cook ourselves is gluten free. Other baked goods, anything made with flour, are prepared off site by another bakery. We import fair trade coffee too.”

“That is so great, do you do much business? I only avoid gluten because I want to but I have a friend that was just diagnosed with Celiac disease. Right now he is focusing on learning to cook with naturally gluten free ingredients but I’ll let him know about this place too.”

“Thanks, word of mouth is our best publicity. We are really run off our feet. My original coffee import business is operated out of a warehouse on the North end of town. I’m thinking of building a larger gluten free bakery there too.”

Bobbie was preparing to leave and said, “Well if you ever need an investor you can call me. I’m planning to open a restaurant and would love to serve fair trade coffee and some gluten free products.”

“Are you serous about investing? Maybe we could exchange business cards?”, handing her a Ben’s Fair Trade Coffee card.

“Thank you Ben, I assume, I’m sorry but I don’t have a card with me. I’ll be in touch and we can talk more.” Bobbie walked out thinking the only card I have in my wallet says I’m an IT manager in Citadel City. I really need Motel business card sooner than later. She walked further down the street and was enjoying the day, but she was not looking forward to the long walk home. She realized she was near a bus stop. She could take the bus home.

She crossed the street and glanced around for a shop to get change and noticed a consignment shop with a really pretty dress in the window. It was a dusty pink, vintage evening gown, made of silk chiffon gathered and layered to make the skirt. It had a cap sleeves and a bodice made of silk mesh with pink ribbon and silver and white glass beading. The sign said it was designed by Helen Rose, who was a mid century designer. Bobbie fell in love instantly. She went into the shop and asked about the dress. 

“That’s one of my pricey items,” said the cash girl. “It’s $340.”

Bobbie considered the price of the materials and the hand beading and what a new evening gown would cost and smiled and said, “I’ll take it if you throw in the change for bus.”

When she got home she tried on the dress. “Hey Mom what do you think of this?”, she asked walking into her mother’s room.

“The length is perfect and it just needs a little nip and tuck around the bodice. It smells musty and rather than getting it dry cleaned, we should try to clean it in the snow. That’s how Miss Sadie cleaned delicate clothes.” Miss Sadie was her mom’s house keeper, when she was a child.

They took the dress outside, there was a thick fresh layer of powdery dry snow on the back yard. They spread out the dress, opened the skirt and filled each layer with snow, did the same at the bodice end. Then they covered the whole thing with snow and patted it firmly. They flipped over to a new patch of snow and patted again. They repeated this for a while then gently shook the snow out of the whole thing. It was a sunny day so Bobbie gently hung the dress on the line with a padded hanger. She wasn’t sure if the silk bodice would get water stained around the beading so she ran in the house and got her computer duster air spray and used puffs of air to get the rest of the snow out of the beading. She left it to dry in the winter sun.

She went into the den with her laptop and looked up the information about Ben’s fair trade coffee. There wasn’t much there. She decided to call Trixie in Citadel City.

“Hi Trixie how are you? Are you home or working?”

“It’s Sunday Bobbie, you know I’m at work,” joked Trixie.

Bobbie laughed and said “All work and no play Trixie!”

“Ha ha, how are you feeling? You sold the house and Barb said she saw you and Johnny perform last night. You are one busy lady in retirement.”

“It’s going really fast Trixie. I’ll need a good talk about it all soon but I was calling you about a small company I learned about today.” She explained the fair trade coffee and gluten free cooking and the warehouse expansion and all that and gave Trixie the information from the business card.

She heard Trixie clicking her keyboard. “Well well, it looks like you brought me a bouncing baby client. They are looking for money for expansion you say? Maybe I’ll call and see if I can help.”

“I didn’t think of it that way Trixie. I’ll text him and tell him you’ll be in touch. I’ll talk to you soon.”

She thought a moment about what she would text Ben. “Hi Ben, I’m Bobbie, we spoke this morning at your shop and you gave me your card. I hope it’s OK, I shared you’re information with my financial advisor and she (Trixie McNally) will be in touch soon. Cheers, Bobbie Orlov.”

Ben texted back “Thanks Bobbie.”

Bobbie smiled, wondering what Trixie was preparing to say to him.

She brought in her dress when the sun was going down and took it up to her room. She could wear it to the University Staff Christmas party. Bobbie knew some of the math and engineering professors, and of course her Dad taught history there. Florence knew everyone. She worked with the medical department, taught there a bit and now was on their board. It was going to be very hard for her mom. Florence went to the party with Walt last year.