Page 4 of Ten Kisses

"Yes," I agreed, sounding certain.

Salem opened the door. "Thanks again for the chocolates," he said.

"You're welcome. I hope you like them. Thanks for helping me with the counter. Like I said, I don't need that display case. Just the one little counter, four or five feet across, that would be amazing."

"I got you," he said with a smile.

Chapter 2

A week later

It was Friday afternoon, and I went to lunch and to run a few errands with my sister, Sara. I had an appointment with a paper and packaging store to pick out some new boxes and labels, and she was going with me to do that.

I had my branding worked out with a logo design that I loved. It was just the words Molly's Chocolates, but the lettering was designed where the the S in chocolates was used in a decorative way, underlining the words with a shape that morphed into a few chocolate squares under the M.

Most of my chocolates were square-shaped. I had several molds that I liked, but I used the square ones most. In my opinion, a small, flat-ish square with rounded edges was the perfect shape to deliver a bite of delicious chocolatey goodness. I loved that the shape of the chocolates on my logo looked like some I actually made. I could not wait to see the samples today.

Sara went with me to the appointment. It was all very official. The lady at the packaging store was approximately my mother's age with expensive taste in clothing and jewelry. She had big hair that was sprayed in place, and she looked and smelled like she should be working the perfume counter at Neiman Marcus. She introduced herself to us and showed us to an oversized desk in the corner of the store.

"These are some of the cutest little samples," she said, opening a box that she had set on the desk. "We have five different sticker samples to show you, and of course, we can make custom boxes and bags with your logo right on the packaging if you don't want to use stickers."

She was a professional, and she set out five stickers in a neat row. Behind those, she placed five different pieces of cardboard, examples of boxes, all of which had my name and logo professionally printed and embossed. Everything was gorgeous, and my excitement was obvious. I nudged my sister's leg, and she nudged me back under the table.

"They are all so pretty," I said.

The lady nodded proudly. "They came out great. Stickers will be the most cost-efficient route. I sent you the PDF with pricing, so you probably know that already. Both options are quite nice. You're welcome to pick them up and take a look. I think they came out really cute. I like it in gold, but the black and white one is cute, too."

"I know. I like them all. The brown is good."

"That one's great," the lady agreed.

"I like the gold and brown," Sara added. "And I like that brown sticker with the white words."

"I like it printed on the parchment as well," the lady said, nodding.

I glanced at my sister with wide eyes.

"Are you doing stickers, or printing directly on the box?" Sara asked.

"I'm going to start with stickers," I said, looking at the lady. "But will you have all of these other ones on file if I want to place an order in the future?"

"Yes, we will, and you can take these samples with you today. I'll just need the reference number from the back when you call to order more in the future."

I nodded since that sounded great. I was still staring at all of them when she spoke again. I wanted them all.

"I was looking at your following on social media. Congratulations. What made you get started making chocolates?"

"Oh, I… I just love it. I enjoy eating good chocolate. I always have. I love to use premium ingredients to make fresh, delicious chocolate for myself. So, that's what drives me. I actually love perfecting recipes and eating chocolate. But I also like the packaging aspect of it, too, now that I'm doing that."

"I saw that on your site. You do a great job with the presentation. We're honored to make your new packaging. We were all hoping you'd bring us some chocolate today."

"Aw, I should have," I said smiling. "Thank you for getting this together. These are beautiful."

"We have a lot of other options for you to look at… boxes, bags, parchment paper, tissue paper… foil. I know you were asking about foil. I have a few samples here, and others I can show you. We had also talked about cardboard boxes versus clear plastic. We have several options."

"Yeah, I am happy with the foil I'm using now, but I would like to see if you guys have other colors."

"Yes, plenty. We can get that same foil for you, and others, if you ever want to look at that."

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