11) Icicles

It was freezing out, but that didn’t mean Madeira couldn’t be open for business. She had done her best to bundle up for the weather, even putting on pants under her usual skirts. She’d take them off in the kitchen, where the stove and ovens would keep her all too toasty, but for now they felt like a necessity for the chill. Sure, lockettes couldn’t really get frostbite or hypothermia, but that didn’t mean they liked the cold.

Or maybe that was just a her problem, she thought, as she passed by a lockette wearing a bikini and flip flops despite the ten inches of snow on the ground.

(Seriously- what the fuck?)

She did her best to shake the stranger from her mind as she reached her business and saw all the work she would need to do to get it open. At least her summons were helpful here…

Her first task was to clear the snow in front of each of the doors. It was honestly the easier task - one of her summons, a mug, could pour scalding liquid that would dissipate not long after being poured. With it, she was able to easily melt away the snow from in front of the door to the sidewalk beneath. A layer of ice formed after, but that was easy enough to then smash under her shoes and toss into the ice.

The icicles encrusting the eaves were more difficult. She had planned on just knocking them down with her platter summon, but found she couldn’t reach them. But she couldn’t just leave them - they’d be a hazard to any tall customers…

She spotted a broom in the kitchen though, as she went in to take a brief rest. Maybe the broom could reach them…?

Taking it back out, she found it did indeed help - it was just tall enough to reach the icicles, and to her surprise and delight, she found it was fun to smack them and break them with it. It wasn’t long before she was actually laughing as she broke them and watched them fall to shatter or embed themselves in the snow.

Maybe it was just because it got out a lot of the frustration and fear that had come with making this big leap into owning a restaurant, but she was nevertheless thrilled by it. She’d have to make sure she did this every morning, and not just the ones where her one employee was going to be a bit late to work… Somehow, she didn’t think her employee would mind not having to deal with the icicles anymore, not with how often he had complained about it. Why had she thought this was a miserable task?