Cathy was preparing pizzas while Kevin and Sandra were cooking them. Dan stood at the door of the back kitchen watching the three of them at work. Sandra was doing a pretty good job of getting the pizzas off and on the paddle. He figured that in another night or two, she'd be ready to handle the pizza oven all by herself.
He went back into the kitchen and looked over the recipe for blueberry muffins that he had downloaded from the web. It was time for him to try an experiment. He glanced over at the clock and wrote down the time. Reaching over to the small oven, he turned it on and set the temperature.
The recipe said that it would take fifteen minutes of preparation time and between twenty and twenty five minutes of cooking time. That was forty minutes; ten minutes too long. He thought that he could get the preparation time down to five minutes by having all of the dry ingredients premixed and preparing the topping the night before. That would get the time to prepare the muffins down to thirty minutes at most. It would still be tight to get the muffins out in time for the morning rush.
With quick confident moves he started to pull together the ingredients for blueberry muffins. He measured out the premixed dry ingredients dropping them into the mixing bowl. He added the oil, eggs, and milk. While the mixer was doing its business, he pulled down the muffin bins and placed the little paper cups inside them. He grabbed the mixing bowl and poured the contents into a pitcher. He folded in the blueberries. It took him a minute to fill all of the little cups with the batter. He put the topping on the muffins.
Dan stepped back and looked up at the clock. Frowning, he said, "Seven minutes."
He put the muffin bins into the oven and closed the door. He stepped back and considered the situation. The timing was going to be too tight and the muffins would be too hot to sell. He didn't want to come to work ten minutes earlier every day just to sell a dozen hot muffins in the morning.
Dan went over to the mixer and took it apart to wash it. That was another thing that worked against selling muffins in the morning. It would set back getting the dough together for the lunch rush almost twenty minutes. Shaking his head, he said, "It is just looking worse and worse."
Dan had put the mixer back together in time for the muffins to finish cooking. He looked in the oven and saw that they looked done. He tested them with a toothpick and pulled out the two bins from the oven. He set the bins aside to cool for a minute. The muffins looked delicious. He dumped them out of the bins and arranged them on a tray. They were almost too hot to handle.
He looked up at the clock and swore. Thirty-five minutes had passed since he had started. Depressed, he picked up one of the muffins and removed the paper. He cut it in half and added a pat of butter to each half. The hot muffin melted the butter. He took a bite and groaned, "Oh, that's so good."
After finishing the muffin, he carried the tray into the dining area of the pizzeria. More than one person watched him walk past. The smell of hot muffins had filled the air. One of the customers held up a hand and asked, "Is that a new dessert item?"
Dan smiled and answered, "I'm just trying out the idea. Here, have one."
The customer looked over the muffin and took a bite out of it. With an expression of ecstasy on his face, he said, "This is so good."
"I'm glad you like it," Dan said.
"I love it," the man said even as he went to take another bite of his muffin.
Dan went around the room handing out muffins to the customers as they finished their meals. Everyone seemed to like them a lot. One customer told him that he could substitute chocolate chips for the blueberries and they'd be perfect. Dan hadn't even considered doing that.
When he had handed out the last muffin, Dan went over to the pizza station. Kevin said, "It looks like your muffins are a hit."
"Yeah," Dan said with a sigh. It was too bad that he couldn't do them for the morning.
"You don't seem that excited," Kevin said.
"They take too long to prepare," Dan said with a shrug of his shoulders. It was a good idea, but nothing was going to come of it.
Kevin said, "So cook them the night before."
"There's a lot of difference between a cold muffin and a hot muffin. I could buy cold muffins and sell them," Dan said.
"That's true. Make the batter the night before and cook them in the morning," Kevin said.
Dan shook his head and said, "I thought about that, but I don't think the batter would be good after spending ten hours in the refrigerator."
"You're probably right. I'd still give it a try," Kevin said. He'd seen how people had reacted to the muffins.
Not expecting much, Dan said, "I'll try it out."
"Good," Kevin said.
Diana came back for a delivery and went over to the pizza station. She counted out the money for the pizza and handed it over to Dan. Frowning, she said, "She didn't give me a tip."
"Sorry to hear that," Dan said. It happened to all of the delivery people on occasion.
"It happens," Diana said shrugging her shoulders.
Dan was pleased to see that she wasn't complaining like she normally did when she was stiffed on a tip.
It was later than usual when Diana returned home from work. She had stayed behind to help clean up the pizzeria. Although he didn't say anything, she knew that her actions had surprised Dan. Almost as soon as she entered the house, her mother greeted her, "How was work?"
"It was okay," Diana answered with a negligent shrug of her shoulders. She had been stiffed with no tip from one person and no one had given her a decent tip that night.
"You're late."
"I stayed late to help Dan clean up the store," Diana replied.
"You have school tomorrow," her mother said.
Diana shook her head and said, "I'm going to stay home from school tomorrow."
"Again? You missed school today," her mother said. She had given Diana permission to stay at home that morning knowing that Diana's grades were good. She figured her daughter was suffering a bad case of senioritis.
Diana said, "My grades are good enough that I'd have to make a C on the last tests of the year to drop below an A."
"I know your grades are good and that you can miss school. I just don't think it is a good idea to miss school like that. You aren't sick," her mother said.
Diana nodded her head and said, "I know. I just have a personal problem that I have to work on tomorrow."
"What's the matter?" her mother asked sitting up straighter in her chair. She wondered what kind of personal problem would keep her daughter from going to school.
Diana sat down on the couch and said, "The other night I discovered that Dan didn't think I was reliable."
"Oh," her mother said rather surprised. She wondered if she needed to have a long talk with Dan. Diana was a straight A student. To consider her unreliable was a little misleading. She asked, "Did he tell you that?"
"No, he didn't. It was Granny Parker. She told me that I was taking advantage of my relationship with Dan. The next day Dad told me the same thing," Diana said slumping down into the seat. It wasn't exactly a pleasant thing to think about.
Ignoring for the moment any involvement of her husband, her mother was more concerned about the other person feeding her daughter that kind of nonsense. She asked, "Who is Granny Parker?"
Diana laughed at the expression on her mother's face and said, "She's an old lady that comes into the pizzeria every afternoon when the teenagers are there. She hangs around with them offering advice and a friendly shoulder to cry on."
"Why do you call her Granny Parker?"
Diana answered, "That's her name. Her granddaughter is Kim Parker."
"I hope she's nicer than Kim," her mother said finding that just the mention of that girl's name was enough to make her angry.
"Kim visited the pizzeria and spouted off her normal trash. Granny Parker hauled her out of there by the ear. According to Dan, it was really something to watch," Diana said.
"So Granny Parker accused you of taking advantage of Dan," her mother said arching an eyebrow. She didn't exactly approve of strangers telling her daughter that she wasn't a good kid.
"She was right," Diana said with a sigh.
"You aren't serious," her mother said.
Diana looked at the floor. She said, "I am serious. I've been a terrible spoiled brat when it comes to him. I've treated his pizzeria as a sometimes job where I can pick up some spending money. Did you know that the other night was the first night off that he's taken since Sue's art show?"
"You're kidding," her mother said thinking that Dan had to be exhausted. This was beginning to explain why her husband was so upset with Diana.
"No. He's been working all day every day since then. He's dragging around half dead and I'm working when I want. The fact is that I'm not helping him," Diana said.
Her mother frowned and said, "You knew that he was working so much and you didn't say anything about it?"
"I didn't think anything of it," Diana said. With tears forming in her eyes, she said, "I wasn't thinking about him. I was so concerned about myself that I didn't think about him."
"I don't know what to say," her mother said. She knew that Diana was occasionally selfish and didn't always take Dan's feelings into account, but he believed the Diana did care about him. It didn't sound like she was acting all the concerned about him in light of this new information.
Ashamed, Diana looked down at the floor and said, "I started thinking about how I was treating everyone around me. I realized that my life is a little out of control. My priorities are all screwed up."
"You need to take control of your life," her mother said.
Diana couldn't look at her mother. In a soft voice, she said, "I started thinking about a lot of things since talking to Granny Parker. I was so sure that winning the scholarship had confirmed that I knew what I was doing. I realized that I had only been talking the right story. I haven't been living it like Dan has been."
"Okay," her mother said.
"I need to finish my personal definition of happiness. I need to identify my goals. That's the only way that I can take control of my life."
"You could start by helping your brother," her mother said pointedly.
"No, I have to do things in the right order. First, I have to be in control of myself. To do that, I have to know what will make me happy. I'm working on my personal definition of happiness," Diana said. She had been pursuing the pleasure of the moment thinking that pleasure was the same as happiness.
"How is it going?"
"I was all hung up on the physical environment part of it. I kept thinking that I had to identify a single physical environment that would last me for the rest of my life. This morning I finally got through that part. I realized that I wanted my physical environment to change as I grew as a person," Diana said. She had also let it hold her back from addressing the other aspects of her personal definition of happiness.
"That's reasonable," her mother said wondering what the physical environment had to do with happiness. Maybe Diana was right and she did need to read those articles. At least she would know enough to warn Dan and Diana when they were doing something stupid.
After two years of her daughter sounding a lot like Dan it seemed to her that Diana was finally starting to act like him. She decided that it was a good thing and that she should support her daughter. She said, "I think that you might be right. It might be much more important for you to get your act together than to go to school tomorrow. I'll call the school in the morning and let him know that you won't be in."
"Thank you," Diana said. She sighed and said, "I'm going to bed."
Diana's mom said, "Before you go, could you get me the first article to read?"
"Sure mom," Diana said.
Dan came to work fifteen minutes early and started a batch of muffins from the batter that he had prepared the night before. The last step was to add the blueberries. The batter seemed a lot thicker this morning than when he had made it the previous night. He filled the muffin tins and put the topping on the muffins. He had to wait a few minutes for the oven to warm up to the desired temperature before he could put them into the oven to cook.
As the muffins cooked, he started the pizza dough. Arriving early allowed him to start the pizza dough on time. He wasn't going to come in early every day though. At ten minutes before ten, the muffins were finished. He pulled out the tray and looked up at the clock. Shaking his head, he said, "It still takes too long to prepare them."
He carefully dumped the muffins out on a tray. He took the paper off the muffin and cut it in half. A pat of butter was put on each half. The butter melted almost as soon as it made contact. He tasted one and decided that it tasted better than the night before. He carried the tray out to the pizza station. Vicki looked at the muffins and said, "They smell great. I've been sitting here thinking about them ever since I got here."
Dan smiled and examined the pizza station. Everything was set up for opening. He put the tray on the countertop before he handed her a muffin. He said, "Try one."
Vicki didn't bother to cut the muffin in half. She just took a bite out the top of it and then groaned in pleasure. As far as Vicki was concerned, this was the best muffin that she had ever eaten. She asked, "Are you going to serve these every day?"
Dan shook his head and said, "No. They take too long to prepare. I came in fifteen minutes early and they are ready just in time to open the store."
"That's a shame," Vicki said.
"Yes," Dan said. He hadn't counted on the amount of time it had taken the oven to get up to the proper temperature. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Too bad we don't open fifteen minutes later."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Vicki said eyeing the muffins. He had filled the muffin cup to the top and the muffin had grown well above the paper cup. It was a very large muffin, but she had polished it off in minutes.
"Well, I'll give these out today," Dan said looking at the tray. He had priced out the ingredients and would make a profit if he sold them at fifty cents each. He knew that he could sell them for two dollars each.
At ten o'clock, the opening crowd swarmed into the pizzeria for their mid-morning coffee. All of them left with a coffee and a muffin. Fifteen minutes later, half of them were back to ask if the muffins were going to be a regular item.
After everything had calmed down, Vicki went over to where Dan was working on the books. She sat down and said, "You know that you could put up a sign on the counter letting them know when the muffins will be ready. I bet a lot of them would come back to buy one."
"That's not a bad idea," Dan said looking up from the computer. It had never dawned on him to ask the customers to adjust their behavior so that he could sell his product.
"Give it a try," Vicki said.
"I'll try that tomorrow morning," Dan said. A dozen muffins a day during the work week would add five hundred dollars a month to his sales. That wasn't a bad little boost to business.
In a coffee shop located across the street from the University of Texas campus, Tom watched the young woman shake a little cinnamon on the whipped cream that topped her coffee. She looked up at him and said, "Don't watch me like that. You make me feel like I've got whipped cream on my nose."
Tom laughed and said, "If you had whipped cream on your nose, I wouldn't be looking at you like this."
"What would you be doing?" she asked.
"I'd be licking it off," Tom answered. He winked at her and took a sip out of the plastic bottle he had brought with him.
"He's going to throw you out again," she said smiling at him.
Tom shook his head and said, "He's a barbarian and doesn't serve the only beverage worth drinking."
"You and your root beer," she said. The last time they had been there the owner of the coffee shop had gotten irritated at Tom because he didn't buy anything. Tom had been given the bum's rush.
"So are you going to ride home with me, Amanda?" Tom asked. Although she lived less than a thirty minute drive across town from where he had grown up, Tom had never met her until coming to Austin. She had gone to the neighboring high school and their paths had never crossed.
Amanda had known that question was coming. She nodded her head and answered, "Sure. It'll be nice not having to fly home. I'm sure my dad will appreciate saving the airfare, but I'm not sure he'll like the fact that you're a man."
"Ah, you're Daddy's Princess?" Tom asked with a smile. From the way that she described her father, he had to be ten feet tall and mean as a badger.
"No. I'm Daddy's Nun," Amanda replied with a grin.
Wiggling his eyebrows, Tom said, "I've always wondered what Nuns wore under their habits."
"You already know that," she said grinning over at him.
Tom smiled at the reference to what they had been doing before coming over to the coffee shop. He said, "I'm going to have to double check that. My memory plays tricks on me."
"Wait until we get back to the dorm," Amanda said winking at him. Tom was fun to talk with. He wasn't like most of the science geeks. Somehow he seemed so much more confident than the other students she met. He knew what he wanted and he worked at getting it with a dedication that was almost frightening.
Terry entered the coffee shop and looked around. It was only when she stepped up to the counter that she spotted Tom and Amanda seated near the back of the store. Tom held up his root beer earning a shake of her head. She called over, "I'm going to get a cup of Chiai and then I'll join you."
"Okay," Tom called back.
If her father was going to get upset over Tom, Amanda couldn't imagine what he was going to do when he learned about Terry. A boyfriend was one thing, but a girlfriend was a completely different kettle of fish. She asked, "Do you think Terry will go with us?"
"I don't know," Tom answered looking over at where Terry was paying for her order. He said, "I called to ask Ellen if she would let Terry stay with her, but Ellen told me that she moved out of her house. At least she told me that before I could ask about letting Terry stay there. My parents don't have a problem with her staying with us, but I don't know how Terry will feel about it."
"How I will feel about what?" Terry asked as she approached the table. She eyed Tom with suspicion.
"About staying with me at my parent's house," Tom answered.
"Oh," Terry said sinking into her seat. She looked at Tom and asked, "Your ex-girlfriend said no?"
"She moved in with another guy," Tom answered shrugging his shoulders. He wasn't going to say that it hurt a little to say that.
"Oh," Terry said. She didn't want to live with a guy at his parent's home. There were just too many things wrong with that. She glanced over at the hopeful expression on Amanda's face. Relenting, she said, "I guess it will be okay."
"You don't seem all that pleased," Tom said looking over at Terry. He knew that she believed this summer was going to be difficult for her. There wasn't too much that he could do to convince her otherwise.
Shrugging her shoulders, Terry said, "If that is the only way I'll get to spend the summer with Amanda, then I guess that is what I'll have to do."
"I'm so glad to hear that," Amanda said.
Tom said, "I have some more news."
Excited, Amanda asked, "Did you get it?"
"Yes, I did," Dan answered with a grin.
"That's so great!" Amada said. She knew that Tom had been hoping to get an internship at one of the chemical labs back in their hometown. Not very many of the students were able to select where they wanted an internship just out of their sophomore year like that.
Terry knew that his news meant that he had gotten an internship and wouldn't be home during the day. She really didn't like the idea of being stuck in his parents' house all day without him around. Trying to sound supportive, she said, "That's great."
Tom looked at Terry knowing that she wasn't all that enthused about living with his parents. He understood why she felt like that, but he didn't know what to say to convince her that everything would work out all right. He said, "My parents are very understanding. I'm sure that you won't have a problem living there with us."
Terry looked over at Amanda and said, "It is just going to be tough for us to get together."
"No it won't," Tom said. Gesturing to Amanda, he said, "My being at work will be a great excuse for Amanda to come over and visit with you."
"You parents will kick me out," Terry said. She knew that once they figured out that she was there to be with Amanda rather than Tom that his parents wouldn't be too happy. She wondered how she had gotten into such a strange triangle.
Shaking his head, Tom said, "No they won't. They are very understanding about things. You worry too much."
"Of course I worry," Terry said with a trace of anger in her voice. The way that Tom treated the relationship so casually bothered her. He wasn't good enough for Amanda.
"Wait until you meet Dan. You'll understand what I've been talking about," Tom said with a smile.
"You and your friend Dan. You talk about him like you talk about root beer," Amanda said rolling her eyes. She figured the guy had to walk on water or something from the way that Tom described him.
Tom smiled and said, "The first thing we'll do when we get home is visit Dan at his pizzeria. You'll have the best pizza of your life and a frosty mug of root beer. After talking to him for ten minutes, he'll convince you that you don't have anything to worry about. He's got three girlfriends and their relationship is almost as complicated as ours."
"That's impossible," Terry said crossing her arms. She looked at Amanda wondering how she had allowed the relationship to get so twisted.
Amanda frowned at the slightly hostile look from Terry and said, "Terry, we've talked about this."
"I know," the other woman answered staring at her Chiai. She loved Amanda with every fiber of her being. She liked Tom, but there was nothing romantic between them. She didn't like men that way. Amanda loved both of them and wouldn't choose between them. Tom accepted the relationship between Amanda and her without reservation. He never pressured her to sleep with him. In fact, he often helped her have time alone with Amanda. The fact was that Tom confused her.
Hoping to head off another argument, Tom asked, "Have you read those articles that I gave you?"
"No," Terry answered. That was another thing that she didn't understand about Tom. He was always pushing her to read those three articles. She hadn't even read one of them.
Tom shook his head and said, "You'll never understand what I've been trying to tell you until you read them."
"Why do you even care? I don't love you," Terry said. Her voice was a little sharper and angrier than she had intended. She wished that he would go away.
Tom looked across the table at Terry with a frown. Shaking his head, he said, "I'm not expecting you to love me. I know that you can't love me. You love Amanda and she loves you. What is so hard to accept about me wanting the best for both of you?"
"Because the best for Amanda and me requires you to leave," Terry answered.
Amanda shook her head and said, "I love him too."
"This sucks," Terry said grabbing her Chiai.
Lazlo Zalezac