Disclaimer: The characters used in this story belong to Janet Evanovich and are used here without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.
Characters: Stephanie Plum, Ellen Plum, Mary Alice
Challenge: 100-prompts tabel 100-B number 074. Spatula
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Chocolate Temptation
By TT

The sound of her mother’s voice faded from her conscious thought. She allowed a small portion of her brain to acknowledge the familiar cadence of her mother’s ramble so she would be able to make the appropriate answers in the appropriate places.

For several months she and her mother had maintained their bargain – Stephanie would give up sugar and her mom would give up tippling.

Given the fact that sugar was one of the bases of her food pyramid, it had not been an easy struggle for Stephanie these past months, but she had managed. Only once had she slipped up, but even her mother agreed it was justified.

The memory of sugary goodness had begun to fade from her mind over the months. She could now walk into the bonds office and not even glance at the pastry box that seemed to always be sitting in a place of prominence on Connie’s desk. A bowl of fruit had become a sweet treat to be savored after dinner or in the morning.

It was only very rarely that she craved a slice of cake or a pastry.

Unfortunately, today was one of those days.

It had started well enough. She’d woken up, showered and gotten herself moving early enough to meet her mother and sister to go strawberry picking. Her nieces had joined them and they had actually all gotten along.

Coming back to her mother’s house, she had helped Val clean the strawberries while her mother prepared a cake for the church bake sale.

The cake preparation hadn’t bothered her in the least and even the smell of the cooking chocolate cake didn’t tempt her.

As she and her sister finished cleaning the berried, Stephanie’s phone rang.

Drying her hands and answering it, she was surprised to hear Lula’s voice. She had spotted one of Steph’s skips downtown and wanted Steph to come get him.

A quick apology for leaving so suddenly and a promise to return soon were called over her shoulder as she grabbed her bag and left.

That had been four hours ago.

The time between then and know had included the destruction of her car, a tear in the seat of her pants exposing her backside to the public in general, a collision with a display out side the five and dime, two dogs and a mud puddle.

To make it worse, her own grandmother had been the one to bring down her skip.

Well, that and the fact that half the police and fire departments showed up when the fire in her car reached the gas tank and it exploded.

Somehow she had managed to get through it all, but now, showered, changed and back at her parent’s house, she sat transfixed by the spatula sitting in the mostly empty bowl of chocolate frosting. A little bit of chocolate and sugar would go a long way to improving her mood.

It wouldn’t take much to snag the spatula. After all, her mother’s back was turned so she would never be the wiser. Granted a spatula wasn’t quite as efficient as using her finger to snitch frosting, but it might make it easier to hide the evidence if she took it.

Just as she was about to reach for the frosting, she saw the bowl and the spatula disappear.

A gasp of loss escaped her as she frantically sought the culprit. She quickly spied Mary Alice galloping around the kitchen, bowl securely held in her arms.

“Thanks, Grandma!” she called out, banging the back door open as she escaped into the yard.

“Mary Alice!” Mrs. Plum called out, knowing it was futile. With a sigh, she looked at Stephanie. “Would you mind going after her and bringing that frosting back? I was going to use it to frost some cupcakes for them.

“Sure, Mom,” Stephanie agreed, heading out the back door.

It didn’t take her long to find Mary Alice. She was shocked to see that her niece hadn’t touched the frosting, but instead seemed to be waiting for her.

“Hi, Aunt Steph,” Mary Alice greeted. “I heard Grandma on the phone talking about your day after you left and figured you could use a little frosting to make you feel better.”

Stephanie could feel her heart melting at the thoughtfulness of her niece. Leaning forward she placed a quick kiss on the girl’s forehead and offered a quick “Bless you” before swiping some of the frosting with her finger, ignoring the spatula had entranced her earlier.

A small hum of satisfaction escaped her even as she shivered from the decadence of her treat.

“You, Mary Alice, are something else,” Stephanie complimented. She was rewarded with a chocolate covered smile.

“Any time, Aunt Steph,” she assured.

End.

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