Do You Know the Muffin Man? {Ben}

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Venus had spent a ton of time in New Rome since the weather warmed up. It was a simple enough reason. When it was warmer out people mingled more and love was created. Which just happened to be Venus's specialty. Tons of stuff had happened already. Granted not all of it being amazing. Take for instance her revenge on a certain pestering Underworld god. Which in her defense, since he was the person who went after those who broke oaths and she happened to be the one who enticed men and women to break maybe a sacred oath of marriage, well a lot of people she had been with ended up in trouble because of her. Oops. It was still annoying though hence her revenge. And boy had it just evolved swimmingly.

But all this work on helping couples get to better or watching over new mothers she had exhausted herself. Which was why she was walking along the streets of New Rome. She had heard through the grapevine, no, that did not mean Bacchus had told her, that there was a baker in a certain cafe who was very skilled. Apparently pretty new to the area. And from what she had heard from the rumor mill was that this guy had a crush on a girl, or something like that. Either way she knew a girl was the one who brought him there and that was always a way to form a crush. Psychologist would say it had something to do with the brain chemicals or whatever. That was so annoying. Whatever happened to just falling in love and trusting your gut and taking a chance with love? Nope, modern day has nitpicked the definition of love to even make some people despise the idea of ever falling in love, much to her dismay. But oh well, the poor thoughts were diminished as soon as she walked into the cafe and smelled the wonderful bakery items there. It truly was amazing and she eagerly looked forward to meeting the baker as she looked around the cafe for the talented boy.

words: 363
notes: Sorry!! It's been awhile since I've used Venus T_T

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Ben loved his job. He was really getting the hang of things at this camp and here especially was where he felt at home. He was a chef by design, especially pastries. All that fighting stuff was so not him. Plus, the cooking distracted him when he needed it, which usually involved one word: Eve. He hadn’t spoken to her in so long, hadn’t even seen her, that he was almost giving up. Sure, she’d kissed him that once. But then she’d gone on to freak out. Honestly, it kind of freaked him out too considering she’d separated his soul from his body. She’d put it back, of course, but then she seemed reluctant to talk to him. Maybe she was just scared.

Whatever it was, part of him was telling him he couldn’t wait forever. If she was scared to even talk to him, then things obviously could not work out even as friends. Ben took a moment to just breathe before going back to work. He couldn’t be off his game. He had to do a good job. This was a job, not a hobby. Plus it was a true passion of his. He owed it to himself to do it right.

He opened the oven door and peeked inside at the tray of brownies in there. They were coming along. May be another five minutes. So he turned his attention to his new treat: chocolate covered pretzel sticks. They were halfway cooled now, so he got his rainbow sprinkle shaker out and started applying sprinkles. A couple others he made white chocolate zig zags. When that was finished, he pulled the brownies out of the oven and started cutting them up into squares. Once that was all finished, he placed both the brownies and the sticks on their own special decorated plates, then picked them up and headed for the front to put them in the display case at the counter.

Words: 324
Tag: Venus
Notes:

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The place smelled amazing, there was absolutely no denying that. The guy must really have a gift with the baked goods. Also, as she had recalled, the boy was from France, one of her favorite countries. l'amore. She loved everything about the French, the language, the carefree attitude and the way the loved. She had met plenty of French and yes, she knew just how well they were when it came to love.

She wasn't sure if the boy was indeed French of not but gods, he was good looking. If she wasn't trying to figure out the rumor mill she might have tried to bag the boy herself. Actually, please, she was the love goddess, she could do whatever she want. But what she really wanted to do was walk up and greet him. Which is what any person would want to do but she wanted to do it in French, so that she could hear those delicate words like flower petals sweep off his tongue and feel her ears with sweet sound. She really did love the language, that was one of the reasons all her descendants were fluent in it.

So, with a breath the goddess approached the counter where the boy had placed the treats and smiled at him. '"Bonjour Monsieur. Ceux semblent delicieuses. Combien sont-ils?" ("hello sir. Those look delicious. How much are they?"). The goddess asked as she admired him, and the treats he had laid out. This had to be the guy she had heard so much about. Really, though in her opinion she felt bad that he would fall for such a girl as Eve, he could have her, the goddess of love if he desired. Alas, she needed to keep her head in the game. She did not come her in hopes of swooning over yet another mortal man, no matter how scrumptious he looked and yes, that pun was intended.

words: 329
notes: ouch ouch ouch sorry, so short

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Ben whistled softly as he worked, seeing as he wasn’t an especially good whistler, but he did rather enjoy having a happy little working song (good land, that sounded foofy even in his head). Either way, he liked it. So he did it. So much so that as he came out from the back, he hardly noticed the limited number of people sitting or standing around the coffee shop. It was an odd hour, so no surprise that it wasn’t an every seat taken sort of deal. Which was great by him. It gave him time to catch up on baking, plus he could pause to make conversation with the customers without holding people up.

Speaking of which, his attention was grabbed by something he never thought he’d hear again now that he was here. Sure, he was fluent in English, he’d learned it in grade school, but French was the one he had learned as a toddler. His attention snapped up to the speaker of his native tongue, and not in some phony second language accent, but an authentic French accent. There were other French people here?

His breath caught in his throat when he saw her. Imagine the most attractive celebrity in the movies, then make her French and bring her to this café and have her talk to him directly. That was about what this was like. She was stunning. Perfect hair, perfect shape, perfect eyes, plus she spoke French and that immediately made him like her because she was a piece of home to him. He couldn’t help but smile back and answered in French, “Good day, madam. Well, I would be honored if you would try these for me to see if they indeed are delicious, so how about if, between yourself and I, I pay half for you? I recommend the brownies most, though, and they would be, for you, simply one denarius. Just let’s keep this between the two of us, yes?” Okay, so even the great Benjamin Penington could be sucker for a pretty face. Did he mention she spoke French?

Words: 350
Tag: Venus
Notes: Because AB doesn’t actually know French…

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Venus smiled at the young man as he spoke back in fluent French. Gods, that language, even if she herself was fluent in it, when a man spoke it, it made her heart flutter all the same. It was a perk that the boy happened to be good looking himself. How on Earth did he manage to like Eve, he could probably have anyone, even Venus, depending on how good those treats were. Though from the rumors, it was apparently a local delicacy now.

"How kind of you! Okay, I'll take you up on your offer, so as long as you share one with me." Venus replied back in French. Honestly, so as long as the boy liked she would continue speaking his native language, it was her favorite after all. Yes, Latin was great too but English was just too dry for her taste, at least with an American accent. Though, down south the long drawl of a proper southern accent could swoon her too. She loved that era when it was prominent with the rich southern gentleman. Good gods, what a time to be around. Plenty of descendants in that era.

She couldn't help but shoot him one of her cute smirks with her reply too, waiting to see how he would respond. From the look of the shop it didn't seem as though he would be too busy to decline her invitation. She would be a tad disappointed if he did. She had a felling he would make great company to be around. Besides, it would flatter her more if he took at as a particular type of invitation, like perhaps, a date?

words: 283
notes: really short... me sorry!!

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Ben was beside himself. It was probably horrible obvious seeing as it happened so infrequently. When he was little, he’d be excited about everything. Mom comes to visit: bouncing little boy. Getting to try his hand at icing for the first time: bouncing little boy. Seeing a butterfly on the flower bush outside: bouncy little boy. And all of those things happened before he was ten, not to be confused with more recent things. These days he was more… lost. Just trying to keep his head above water.

Until this moment.

Someone who understood him. Okay, so she didn’t know his background, his parentage, his beliefs, anything like that, but she literally understood him. He could speak his native tongue anytime he liked here, but no one but her picked up on it, it seemed. If he wanted people to understand him, he had to speak in his own broken, accented form of English, which got a bit embarrassing when he had to say the round-about description because he didn’t know the exact word. He knew the basics, of course, but back in Colmar, only international businessmen and women spoke English regularly (and that was only at work). Everyone else? French. It was just the way of things.

Which brought him here, getting a funny look from one of the patrons, but he didn’t care, he just kept talking away in French with this (okay, attractive) woman here. “Don’t mention it.” He had to smile at her conditions though. “I’m due for my break anyway. Let me tell my boss I’m taking it now and we can have a seat for fifteen. Hold on.”

With that, he headed for the back room to find Terry and let him know that everything up front was in order and he was going to take his break out in the sitting area. With permission granted, he headed back out front to the woman. “How about if I buy you a drink too? Anything you like.” He pulled his money baggie out of his pocket and fished out the money for the sweets and drinks and put it in the register before pocketing the bag again.

Words: 362
Tag: Venus
Notes: Sorry so late!!!