Page 15 of Emma and the Grumpy Baker

Then she scrolled to the next one, which was a video of me giving people a tour of the bakery. I was really red in the face from how embarrassing it was to talk to the camera like it was a person while Anne and Grady watched, but I showed the viewers the store from the outside all the way to the back, and then told them that my favorite item was the chocolate chip cookie because the recipe had a special place in my heart. This video had over five million views.

“The comments are asking if you’re going to start shipping your baked goods! They want to order them!” Anne was practically bouncing on her feet as she looked at me. Her words took a few seconds to really sink in.

“This can’t be real!” I shook my head in disbelief. I had hoped that the content would bring people to my store. I’d never imagined that it could mean people from all over the country would want my baked goods.

“Well, it is! And I bet you’ll even have more customers today!”

I let out a squeal and pulled Anne in for a hug, which turned into us jumping up and down together.

“Now, you need to have Grady tell me how I can go that viral on TikTok with just three videos!” She said as she pulled away, grinning.

We laughed together as she got back to work, and I knew I probably should make more donuts this morning. Hopefully, the viral video would translate to more people coming in today. If that was even how TikTok worked.

At about 05:45 am, the business phone started ringing and I picked it up.

“The Pink Bakery, this is Emma!” I answered in a syrupy sweet voice. I wondered if it was weird that I talked differently when I answered the phone or talked to customers.

“Hi Emma! This is Nichole Adrian from News Local Seven! I noticed that you’re a local business that has gone viral on TikTok today, and I was wondering if I could stop by your store today with a crew and interview you?”

My heart probably stopped beating at her words. “Yes, of course! I would love that!”

“Okay! We’ll be in around eight this morning if that’s okay?”

“That’s perfect!” I said and then we hung up and I told Anne. Then more celebrating ensued. This was turning out to be one of the best days ever.

“So are you going to ship the goodies?” Anne asked as she decorated some cupcakes.

“I honestly have no idea how to do that,” I said, wondering how long it would take me to learn how to build a website, and also how I would keep the goods fresh until they shipped.

“Call Grady! I guarantee he knows how!” She winked at me and took the cupcakes up to the front.

So I pulled my phone out and called him before I realized it wasn’t even six in the morning. Just as I was about to hang up, he answered.

“You saw your TikTok page?” He asked as soon as the call connected.

“Yes! Oh, my ganache! Thank you so so much, Grady! I can’t believe this! The local news is coming to interview me because of it!” I couldn’t contain my excitement.

“That’s amazing!”

“Did you see how everyone was asking if I would ship? Do you know how I could set up a website to do that?” I asked, hoping he would tell me that it was super easy and that I could have it done by this afternoon.

“Already on it, Emma. I just have to finish a few things, and your website will be ready for launch. But you also have to get all of the shipping supplies necessary to take on something like this.” His words made my heart melt like cream cheese icing on a hot cinnamon roll.

“No way! You are seriously the best! Okay, so I can find shipping boxes; what do you think I need?”

And so Grady and I talked for as long as possible about what my website would offer and how I would ship things, and he found a supplier that could custom print bakery boxes with ice packs made for shipping to make sure the items wouldn’t go bad. I had to let him go after ten minutes, because it was nearly time to open the store, and Anne called me out to the front. He told me he would take care of everything and have the boxes sent out to the store on a rush order, and then we would chat about launching my website.

I could barely prevent myself from floating around like I was a cloud, but then I walked out to the front. And I saw that there was a huge line outside, at six in the morning, for my bakery. NotMidnight.Mybakery. They were waiting for the doors to open.

“Pinch me, Anne.” I held my arm out to her, covering my eyes with my hand. I just knew I was dreaming now.

“Can’t, Emma, I have to go unlock the door. But I promise, it’s all real.” Her grin reflected the joy that was threatening to make me do a happy dance.

16

Liam

I’d come up with absolutely nothing to solve the problem at hand. The problem where I was ruining Emma’s business. I’d eventually roped Jackson in on my ideas, asking him for his inputs, but still, we were stumped.

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