Raleigh Harper / Emily Watkins (
callmeemily) wrote2014-12-24 01:25 am
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Here comes santa claus!
The holiday this year is so incredibly different than the last.
Last year? Raleigh was holed up in the boarding house, no one in 300 miles but her shitty boss knew her name, and she was so poor that she was eating rice, beans, and leftovers from the Seaside bakery.
This year, everything's changed. Orchard House is chugging along astoundingly well; Raleigh puts in long hours, but it's paying off. She's been able to hire somebody else to work the register, she's getting custom orders - the whole thing. She has friends. Honest to god friends, and she's got enough money that she's actually got presents for people. For a lot of people - it's a mix of cookies and things, but there's a little something for everybody piled on the table in the back corner, and one mass-text later she's humming through the bakery, music playing from the speakers, warm cider in a carafe, and everything's warm and cozy.
She looks at it, at this business that she's made with the help of this whole town, and she can't help but smile. Tonight? Spending tonight with friends and found-family? That's what this whole thing's about.
Gathering post! Raleigh will tag everyone who tags in, but feel free to tag one another, too. :) It's up to you if they have gotten a text, or just heard the music and seen the crowd. Everyone'll get something!
Last year? Raleigh was holed up in the boarding house, no one in 300 miles but her shitty boss knew her name, and she was so poor that she was eating rice, beans, and leftovers from the Seaside bakery.
This year, everything's changed. Orchard House is chugging along astoundingly well; Raleigh puts in long hours, but it's paying off. She's been able to hire somebody else to work the register, she's getting custom orders - the whole thing. She has friends. Honest to god friends, and she's got enough money that she's actually got presents for people. For a lot of people - it's a mix of cookies and things, but there's a little something for everybody piled on the table in the back corner, and one mass-text later she's humming through the bakery, music playing from the speakers, warm cider in a carafe, and everything's warm and cozy.
She looks at it, at this business that she's made with the help of this whole town, and she can't help but smile. Tonight? Spending tonight with friends and found-family? That's what this whole thing's about.
Gathering post! Raleigh will tag everyone who tags in, but feel free to tag one another, too. :) It's up to you if they have gotten a text, or just heard the music and seen the crowd. Everyone'll get something!
no subject
"You should stop in more! I always like meeting new people, especially if we're neighbors." There's a lot of people here that she doesn't know, and she's glad for it -- one of the things she really wanted to put together here was a business that wasn't just a place that her friends came, but to be a place that people really liked meeting with friends of all sorts.
"First pastry's on the house," she says with a wider smile. "So, you said you opened up a couple of months ago? So you're a psychiatrist?" Presumably, since otherwise opening an office might be a little strange, but she didn't realise that until after she'd asked.
no subject
He always prefers it when he meets someone new, when they seem him as just another face, because he's seen what it does to people when they figure out that his family's maybe worth a little more than the average Siren Cove resident. That's when he starts to get people who had been initially uninterested in spending a lot of time with him--and there are the first impressions again--suddenly being incredibly friendly to him the next time they see him walking down the street.
If there's one thing he hates about coming from a family that doesn't want for anything material, it's having to sift through the people who are genuine and those who just want something from him. He doesn't get that sense from Raleigh, she doesn't seem like that kind of person, and he's confident in that assessment because he's seen plenty of people who are.
"I'd offer a free consult but most of the time, people just assume I'm implying there's something wrong with them," he teases with the shrug of a shoulder. "I just think that sometimes, everyone needs a good, objective ear."
no subject
But she really does like meeting new people, and that's why she smiles up at him, taking a sip from her mug, using it to warm her hands. "That's really nice," she says with a nod. "And you're not wrong - although I'd imagine you're right, that it's a little hard to get people just to talk when you've got the professional label tacked on." She knows that for her, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea for her to talk to someone like that - but she both doesn't really have the money or insurance for it, and she's got no real idea just how much anybody would believe - so she just... doesn't.
"Do you have one?" The question comes out of nowhere, and she tips her head to the side before she makes a face. "Sorry, I know we just met, I've just kind of always wondered in general about who takes care of the people who care, and... this is a weird conversation," she said as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Anyway, moving on."
She tried to think of a different topic, until-- "Do you have holiday plans?" That seemed like a safe question, at the very least.