Sprinkled with Love

Hello Cupcakes was busy as usual. 

Violet sat in her small office, looking at the documents sprawled on her desk, and her phone rang. Seeing the name on her phone screen made her smile. Swiftly, she slid her finger on the screen before cradling her phone between her ear and her shoulder.

"Violet!"

Sarah's cheerful voice was heard as soon as the phone was connected.

Violet winced. She had to distance her phone from her ear as Sarah's voice was too loud. "Wow, you sound like you're in a very good mood. What happened?"

Sarah laughed happily. "Good news. I passed the audition and will be appearing on a show."

The light in Violet's eyes lit up. "Really?"

The girls chatted for a while before Sarah needed to go as her mentor was calling for her.

Violet sat in her office for a while before she went out to look for Evan to share the news.

When she walked into the kitchen, Evan was busy piping the buttercream on the cupcakes lined on the tray.

He raised his head when he heard the sound of footsteps and saw Violet smiling happily at him. Then, his eyes fell on the phone in Violet's hand. Naturally, he noticed the phone strap attached to the phone.

Evan raised a brow.

Violet was the kind of person who would leave her phone in her office whenever she was at the bakery. Seeing her walking over with the phone in her hand was indeed strange. 

And that phone strap on her phone seemed quite new.

"That phone strap looked nice," Evan commented. "Where did you get that?"

Violet followed his line of gaze and recalled that the phone strap was something that Ryan had given her. 

She did not care about accessories but the cupcake phone strap that Ryan gave her was quite cute.

Of course, Violet was not going to tell Evan that it was Ryan who gave her the phone strap.

"That's not important," Violet said. "Sarah called just now."

The light in Evan's eyes flickered when he heard the name.

"She passed the audition!"

"Really?" Evan put down the piping bag in his hand. He was happy for Sarah as well when he heard the news. Evan knew that Sarah had been working hard to get the chance to do something she liked. 

Her hard work paid off.

"Mhm…" Violet nodded. "She said she's going to appear in a show. If she wins… Well, if she would get her chance to debut."

The two friends were discussing Sarah's new project happily when Risa entered the kitchen.

"Violet, someone is here for you."

Violet excused herself and went out, wondering if Ryan had come to look for her again. Unexpectedly, it was Ryan's sister, Hannah.

The last time Violet met Hannah was at the hospital.

"Hannah?" Violet called when she saw her standing behind the cupcake counter. "This is a surprise! What are you doing here?"

Hannah looked up from the cupcakes and smiled. "Oh, I just thought that I should visit your bakery. I've never been to your bakery, anyway. It looks really nice. Lots of pretty cupcakes, right, Lily?"

Violet pushed the swing door that separated the serving area and the small dining area. Then, she noticed a small girl in her blue dress standing beside her. "Hi!" She said as she bent down to Lily. "Would you like a cupcake?" She grabbed a vanilla cupcake from the nearest tray and offered it to the little girl.

"Lily, what do you say?"

The little girl stared at Violet. "Thank you, aunt."

"Are you busy?" Hannah asked.

Violet scanned her surroundings. The bakery wasn't packed with customers, but the crowd was still there. "Not really. I'm almost done," she said with a smile. "What's up?"

"That's great!" Hannah exclaimed as she clapped her hands together. "I was wondering if you would like to grab something to eat with me. And maybe we could go shopping after that."

"You mean, right now?"

"Yeah," Hannah nodded with a smile on her face. "It's almost lunchtime. I thought the three of us could hang out together and have some sisterly bonding."

xxx

Violet spooned some of her shrimp macaroni and fed it to Lily. She watched Lily munch her food happily and pulled a napkin to wipe the stains on the little girl's mouth.

"So," Hannah started. "How is it going between you and my little brother? He didn't treat you poorly, did he?"

Violet took a spoonful of pasta and paused midair. "He's okay, I guess."

"You're not trying to back up for him or anything, are you? I know that he can be a real jerk sometimes."

Violet laughed. "No. Of course not. I think he's a lot nicer these days. Don't worry."

"Really?" Hannah took a sip from her orange juice and continued. "That's good to hear. I really like you. I didn't want him to treat you badly as a protest because our mom forced him to date you. And I know for a fact that he only complied with Mother's idea to date you because he didn't want to upset her again."

"Again?" Violet echoed. She bit her lips when she realized that she shouldn't be so nosy about Ryan and his affair.

"Mother was really disappointed when he decided to study medicine instead of business management and take over our family business," Hannah explained and leaned forward. "Ryan won't ever say it, but we all knew that he wanted Katie to manage the business after her divorce."

Violet raised an eyebrow. She was curious about the Chen family but wasn't sure if she should say anything at all.

"Katie went through so much after her divorce. And managing the company helped her so much to forget about her ex-husband." She gave Violet a small smile. "I'm sorry. I've bored you with the family's affair. I've been told that I tend to talk too much."

Violet smiled politely. "No, not at all."

"I hope you can be very patient with him. He's a real sweetheart when you get to know him a little bit more." Hannah said as she fished through her purse searching for her ringing cell phone. She looked at the screen, stood up, and signaled to Violet that she was going to take the call. "Yes, Mom?"

Violet watched Hannah disappear behind the glass door and turned her attention to Lily. "Your uncle seems like a really nice person. He is nice when I get to know him. He's not as bad as I think he is."

Violet heaved a sigh. 

She wondered if this was the reason her father wanted her to get to know Ryan first and the reason her mother was not against the whole thing. 

Ryan is really a good guy. She came to realize that once she got to know him a bit better. But still, that reason was not good enough for her to comply with her parents' wishes to marry him.

"Good news!" Hannah announced as she approached the table. "I told my mother that I was having lunch with you. And guess what? She wants you to come over for dinner."