Almond flour, Fabian needs almond flour. Abigail does so love macarons, though, Fabian is unsure he’ll be capable of making them, he decides he should take a crack at it. However, he’s been staring at a bag of almond flour for the past few minutes, unflinching as he thinks on his little girl growing up, on how it had been seven years since he’d lost Charlotte. Eventually, hearing footsteps, he snaps out of it and grabs the bag of flour, almost dropping it, he hisses and manages to capture it, “Oh, that, wow,” he says, placing it away and trying to laugh at himself, “That could have been quite a, um, disaster.”

Claire’s whole attention was focused on the corridors, trying to find what she was looking for. The brunette was running a couple of errands for a friend, who seemed to once again be stuck in the kitchen and with no time to get out as usual, and she didn’t mind going to the store to get what the other needed. What she hadn’t expected though was to startle the man who seemed to stare intently at the bag of almond flour – whether because he was trying to figure out if that was really what he needed or because he was lost in thought, she couldn’t tell. “I’m so sorry!” She immediately apologized, eyes widened at the sight. “Did I startle you? I didn’t mean to. Thankfully you have good reflexes.”

“I mean, I can’t really play if I don’t have it down so it doesn’t bother me. A lot of people don’t, I wouldn’t feel embarrassed. At least this way you have a slighter chance of it not going too badly.”

“I guess you have a point.” Claire agreed with a small nod of her head. Plus, if she had company, it wouldn’t feel so humiliating. “I suppose it’s also a good way to learn. You got to start somewhere, right? So, are you up for a match?”

“That’s good, we’d have a falling out otherwise,” She teased. She let out a laugh too, looking through her phone to find a picture of the moment Alex had lost. “Here’s the proof. Just look at his little pouty face. He didn’t speak to me for a while.”

“Oh my God.” Claire breathed out as she gazed at the picture, unable to control her laughter by now. She knew Alex’s pout was mostly for show, but it was still a pretty funny image nonetheless. “That doesn’t surprise me. He doesn’t like having her skills tested and threatened.”

“Exactly And good for the soul wins every time” Evie mued with a little laugh. “At least if we work out, then we hopefully will only get good benefits from pizza” And she got a good work out in her bakery, so hopefully it would even out.

“that’s what I thought. And the business is pretty successful now, so I’m kinda pretty confident a second premise would work out well” And she brought in a good amount of money in her current bakery, so she was pretty hopeful that it would work out. “Oh… I hadn’t actually….” She mused with a smile. She hadn’t thought of that before, but thinking about it, it would be a good idea. She knew quite a lot of people who might want to invest, so it would be pretty good. And she knew eventually she would probably want to expand further one day. It would probably be a good idea. “I’ll have to think about it…. but getting an investor might work out well”

“Pretty much.” Claire chuckled, nodding along as Evie spoke; Claire’s work outs consisted more of morning yoga and intense dance training which was intense enough that required her to ingest a large amount of caloric food that would give her enough energy to continue throughout the day, so it worked perfectly in her book.

“Pizza is never a bad idea” Evie mused with a smile. She loved pizza, though she wasn’t too good at making it. Yes she was good at baking, but cooking wasn’t really her thing. She did need to get better though. She couldn’t live on fast food, or take out for the rest of her life. Or well, she could. But then she probably wouldn’t be very healthy. “Those people are just silly” She mused with a laugh. “Pizza is amazing” She didn’t get why people didn’t like pizza. It just didn’t make sense. Though she didn’t like some food, so maybe she could kind of understand. 

“I think so yeah” The brunette murmured with a smile. Her bakery business was doing quite well, and she wanted to expand, and make sure it kept going well. She hoped that opening a second premise would do well. “I haven’t really looked yet” She explained with a nod. “I’m just seeing if I an afford it yet….then I’ll start having a look around”

“Agreed. I don’t know how they can resist it, it’s so good. I mean, bad for your body, but good for the soul.” The ballerina joked letting out a laugh. It wasn’t something as absurd as the pair made it seem, but still.

“I mean. I was pretty devastated about not making the olympics, but I still had my gold medals. So it couldn’t take that away from me” And that was what she kept thinking. She still had her medals in her boxes at her apartment. She liked looking at them. Her injury couldn’t take away her wins, even if it had prevented her getting  any olympics medals. But she had come to terms with that now. “I am a sports physical therapist. I’m hoping to work back within gymnastics eventually”

“Yeah, you’re right about that. Nothing will ever take those good moments away from you.” She agreed, giving her a smile. At least the blonde was able to look at the bright side of things, Claire guesses that made things a little easier for her and she was glad. She was well aware of how devastating it was to have something so important ripped away from one’s arms just like that. “So you help people, that’s awesome! I bet you’re going to do it, you just have to keep trying.”

Upon hearing Claire’s words about how they would go through the petite brunette, caused Poppy to hold back a laugh. Claire was the complete opposite of her, but it’s why they got along so well. Claire was Poppy’s voice of reason, and Poppy was there to push Claire – to cut down her boundaries. “I bet you mean mugged the assistant she’d cry.” Her voice barely above a whisper to make sure only Clarie would hear her mean-ish yet funny comment.

“Food sounds amazing right now.” Without unlinking their arms, Poppy continued to say as she started to make her way towards the double doors with the exit sigh above it, “- I have a few shirts for you, and no this time I did not steal them. They designer gave me a shit ton of outfits.” Probably the best part of her job, besides the traveling and the free passes into clubs, was all the free clothes Poppy got.

“It does….” Evangeline murmured with a pouty. They didn’t have a friendship which  required constant contact, but it did make Evie sad when she didn’t get to see her friend that often. Claire was one of her closest friends, even if they didn’t seen each other that often, and that just said everything about their friendship. She did wish she could see Claire more, but she wasn’t about to moan about not seeing her that much. Maybe it would be possible if she didn’t work so often, but hse knew Claire appreciated how she felt about her bakery, and didn’t mind having a workaholic as a friend.

“Pizza sounds great” She murmured with a beam. Honestly Evie loved pizza, and she really didn’t mind what the girl had ordered for them to eat. Evie loved food, and wouldn’t say no to any good. “Exactly. Pizza is great in any situation” If she could eat pizza all the time she really would. The girl started to get changed into her more comfy pajamas. “It’s good” She murmured with a smile. “I’m thinking of buying a second property”

Claire grinned at the other’s eager response, glad that their night was off to a great start. “You’re right about that, that’s why, whenever I’m not sure what to cook or order, pizza is always the answer.” She mused, her forehead creasing a second later. “Although, I’ve been wrong in the past before. Did you know some people don’t really like pizza?” It wasn’t often that she had encountered them, but sometimes it did happen that she messed up a dinner party by ordering pizza for someone who refused to eat it.

It had been pretty awful. But Thea was over it now. It had taken a long time, and some counselling, but she had gotten through it. She didn’t want to let it ruin the rest of her life, and so she hadn’t. “I did coach for a few years, but I do love my job.” Thea murmured with a smile. “Being able to rehab people back into the sport is pretty great” And it was something that she was glad that she could do now. “It was horrible.. but I don’t regret not carrying on”

Claire nodded her head in understanding; she was one of the lucky ones if she really thought about it – while her injury had forced her to resign the position it had taken her years to achieve, she could still go back to the active and perhaps, who knows, work her way up again. “Nor should you ever regret it. As long as you’re happy, that’s what matters.” She smiled at the blonde, knowing fully well it wouldn’t do them any good to hold on to the past, they could only move forward. “What exactly do you do now?”

( &&. @masondaniels )

Flashes from the camera, the huge fan, and the makeup artist were driving Poppy crazy. As the last picture was taken and the photographer gave Poppy the okay to take off her heels, the brunette ripped the metal studded heels off her red feet and rushed over to Claire. There was a small knot in the pit of Poppy’s stomach due to the little fact that Claire had to wait even if it was ten minutes.

A laugh escaped through Poppy’s lips as Claire hugged her. “Please kidnap me,” The model playfully joked as she hugged her dear friend back. “ – But I’m done for the day, and thank you for the coffee.” Letting go of Claire and glancing around the room, to see that she was indeed free to leave, Poppy smile. “I just have to change, and we can go.”

Evangeline wasn’t sure what Claire was intending to do about food. Whilst she was a great baker, she wasn’t the best cook in the world, and knew that her friend wasn’t the best either. So Evie had decided to bake a few treats for them. It was what she was good at, and she’d wanted to try a few new things. She knew Claire would be a good taste tester, and just hoped she didn’t mind. She hoped her friend liked them, since she had wanted to sell them at the bakery eventually.

The brunette beamed as Claire opened the door. It really had been too long, and she said it all the time, but they really needed to hang out more. Their friendship didn’t need them to see each other every day, but she still wanted to see her friend more. “Hi!”  She beamed, hugging her friend. She loved Claire so much, and was glad that however much time spent apart, they were still great friends. “I’m glad to be here! I feel like I haven’t seen you for ages”

“Yeah.” Thea murmured, with a little sigh. She did miss her gymnastics so much. But it was over now, and she tried to not let it make her too sad. “I had to retire from gymnastics. It sucked cause I was all set for the Olympics” But she hadn’t. Luckily she’d had a lot of time to get over it now. “Oh. That’s good!I was sad that I had to retire. But it was that, or completely ruin my knee”

“Aw, that’s awful.” Claire let out, the crease on her forehead deepening at the information. She could only imagine how hard it was for the blonde, knowing she couldn’t go back to doing something she loved so dearly. “Did you find something else that you’re passionate about, at least?” The ballerina had found that teaching loved teaching almost as much as she loved dancing, even if it wasn’t quite the same thing and wasn’t as fulfilling. “No, yeah, that was totally the right call, albeit a difficult choice. I can’t even imagine it.”