All's Fair in Love and Chocolate (Marietta Chocolate Wars #1) - Amy Andrews Page 0,16
“And vice versa.” There was nothing worse than craving a particular kind of chocolate and not being able to find it. If a customer couldn’t find what they were after in Delish, Viv was more than happy to recommend they try the Copper Mountain chocolate shop.
“Here.” Sage reached into her back pocket and pulled out a card, handing it over to Viv. “If there’s anything I can do for you, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
Pocketing the card, Viv said, “Thanks. And back at you.” She grabbed a glossy flyer off the counter with the shop number on it and handed it over.
“Now.” Sage turned her back on Viv, looking around once more. “What would you recommend? What’s your favorite chocolate in the range?”
Viv laughed. “Thanks, Sage, but I don’t need a pity sale.”
“Nonsense,” she dismissed, as she set forth, wandering around the shelves, picking up different bags of chocolate and checking them out. “What kind of a businesswoman would I be if I didn’t know what my competitor was up to? You came into my shop a little while back didn’t you?”
“Yep.”
“Right…you bought the boxed assorted selection if I remember correctly.”
“Yes.” Educated guess or actual memory?
“And you had a cup of the chili hot chocolate. You sat by the window and wrote in a notebook for about half an hour and you left a twenty on the table as a tip.”
Viv laughed. So. Actual memory then. “Good chocolate deserves such reward.”
The assorted box had been divine. The hot chocolate had been good, too, but not as good as the one made and sold in all Delish stores during the entire month of December.
Sage grinned. “It does.” She put down a block in the area where the citrus selection was shelved. “Do you ever get tired of chocolate?”
“Me?” Viv blinked. “Nope.” That was like asking her if she ever got tired of breathing. Or sex. The question almost didn’t compute.
“Neither do I.” Picking up another block she said, “This herbaceous blend any good?”
“It has an almost licorice flavor if that’s your thing. My favorite is the honeycomb smash.”
She came out from behind the counter and crossed to the shelves where she knew it was housed and grabbed a block. Sage joined her, accepting the offering, examining it like the true connoisseur she was. “Nice packaging.”
The golden wrapper shimmered under the lights, the matte finish was tactile and sophisticated. “Thanks.”
“I’ll take it.”
Reaching into her back pocket, Sage pulled out a fifty but Viv waved her away. “On the house.”
Sage laughed. “I don’t mean to tell you how to run your business but giving stuff away for free is a surefire way to go out of business.”
She was teasing and Viv took it the good-natured way it had been meant. “Ah but this way the Sage O’Dell will try it and fall in love with it and be singing its praises to all her customers and before you know it everyone will be beating my door down.” Sage grinned as Viv tapped the side of her nose playfully twice. “There’s a method to my madness.”
“Well thank you, I’m sure I’ll love it.”
Viv smiled as she made her way back to the counter. “Feel free to take out an ad in the local newspaper and let everyone know.”
“Sure thing.” Sage laughed again. “But for now…I really should get back. People will be wondering where I am.”
“Yes.” Viv nodded as a passerby stopped and peered in the window at them, looking confused as to why Sage was in the house of the enemy. “I’m surprised they haven’t sent out the search squad to check I haven’t done away with you.”
Sage grinned as she hugged the chocolate to her chest. “They will come round.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Viv also grinned as she waved her out the door. “I’ll see you around.”
“Yeah.” Sage nodded. “I’m looking forward to it.”
The bell dinged as Sage left the shop and Viv had to admit she was looking forward to it, too.
*
It was another hour before the bell dinged again and this time it was Reuben. The man was a sight for sore eyes and not just because he filled out a deputy uniform in a display of overt masculinity that had to be illegal in all fifty states. But because his support meant a lot even if he did have a Copper Mountain Chocolates box in hand.
She looked at the rival chocolate and tsked. “Eu tu, Reuben?”
He grinned clearly unconcerned by such dramatic accusations. “I’m just picking it up for my boss.