Little Bake Shop on Main.
It didn't exactly sound imposing, but then again, Ronnie didn't want it to.
"You don't get it, Penny!" the big brunette had said what seemed like forever ago, during the design of the awning, "I don't want it to sound like anything else. I just want it to be a cute little bakery. You don't get customers—or friends—by being mean, Penny. You get them by being nice, friendly, and humble!"
This little nook carved out into an old brick building wasn't much. Unless you thought "overdoing it on the white and pink" counted as much. Ronnie had been involved pretty heavily in the design and, even though Penny had okayed it, she couldn't help but feel like she was getting involved in a huge disaster.
This part of town, this atmosphere, this economy, this fucking shade of pink, none of it made Penny Simon feel like she was making a sound business investment. Or better yet, playing with her inheritance wisely. How many businesses failed within their first year of opening? Like, 80% or something, right? Those numbers didn't exactly play into Penny's chintzy senses well, and she had been up all night... well, all week in anticipation for their first day of business.
And lo and behold, despite all the ads she had put in the paper, the flyers she had literally thrown into the wind across town, and begging all of her friends to like their page on Social Media, they had seen a very modest success.
It hurt her to see Ronnie so glum.
But it hurt her wallet more.
"I told you this was a dumb idea." Penny said, her hands on her hips, "We shouldn't have made it a big deal to be like we're open! We should have just always acted like we were open. Y'know, like we've always been here."
"How is that helpful?" the normally cheerful Chernobyl of energy rolled her eyes from behind her glasses, "Maybe if you hadn't have scared those kids off—"
"They were, like, sixteen." Penny cut in, "They should have been in school, and were skipping. What 16 year old walks into a bakery at noon on a Monday?"
"Me." Ronnie struck defiantly against her childhood friend.
Penny didn't doubt that. She had known Ronnie since they were kids, and she'd always been big. Her time at that Academy up in Virginia had done a number on her figure for sure, but Penny couldn't remember a time when Ronnie was under at least two hundred pounds. At twenty five, Ronnie weighed more than two hundred and seventy pounds. So it wasn't hard for Penny to believe that Buttercombe Academy had been nothing but bakeries.
"You could have let them buy something." Ronnie almost whined, "Now we're those two mean old ladies who scared off a bunch of kids."
"Like two kids."
"We scared two kids!"
"And we're not old."
She wasn't! Despite what those kids had called her as she (quite literally) chased them out of the store. Penny looked even younger than Ronnie, despite being a year or so older than her. It helped that she was shorter. Her stylist said that the bob made her look older, but even Penny didn't buy that. Though at this rate, with all this stress, Penny was going to wrinkle up like a prune with worry lines. There just had to be something that they could do to help pick up business!
"Just... ugh..." Penny let out a steady stream of air, "I'm gonna take a walk. Clear my head."
"You... you sure?" Ronnie asked, sounding petrified by being left alone in what was so far a failing dream, "I mean..."
Ronnie seemed to shrink into her meaty shoulders, twiddling her fat fingers over the swell of her big belly.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Penny smiled tensely, "Maybe I'll get the chance to pound the pavement. You know, get the word out there..."
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