“My cookies and cream cupcake,” she announced, and placed it in front of Mallory with a flourish. “Chocolate cake and vanilla buttercream icing, with cookie pieces on top,” she added. “Give me your honest opinion.”

Olivia stood back, her hands on her hips, as Mallory took a big bite. One of her more recent initiatives—only in the last few days, as a matter of fact—had been to start offering cupcakes—gorgeous, fluffy, decadent cakes the size of your fist, loaded up with icing and decorated to perfection, a step up from the scones and sponge cake she usually offered, and when placed in the shop’s front bow window in a tantalising display, hopefully enough to entice a passer-by into the shop—and to make a purchase or two.

“This is amazing,” Mallory gushed as she wiped a dab of icing from her upper lip. “The chocolate is so gooey and yummy.” She hesitated, and Olivia’s eyes narrowed.

“But...?”

“But maybe it could use a few more cookie pieces on top? Not just for decoration, but you know, because, yum?”

“Yum. Okay.” Olivia nodded, smiling. She’d be lavish with the Oreos; why not? If you were going to treat yourself to a ginormous cupcake, best to make it—and the calories—worth your while. “And that’s why I need you to test them, Mallory.” She made a note to order more cookies along with everything else for her weekly shop on Sunday, after she visited her mum in her retirement flat in Witney.

“You know what you should do?” Mallory said, her words a bit garbled around another mouthful of cupcake. Olivia glanced up from her notepad, waiting for Mallory to swallow—and stop spraying crumbs. Her glance moved around the little shop, with its old oak counter, six tables crammed quite close together, the wrought-iron shelving unit bedecked with boxes of macaroons and vintage teacups for sale. Three weeks before Christmas and she needed to start decorating—both cakes and the shop.

She’d go all out for Christmas as she always did, with fairy lights and evergreen boughs, and red velvet bows to match her red velvet cupcakes. She was even thinking of running a mulled-wine-and-mince-pies evening this year, opening the shop at night, fairy lights twinkling among the holly. She could invite her friends, and if they invited their other friends, and Harriet did her usual trick of asking all the schools mums, it could be quite a nice crowd, and hopefully make a decent profit.

“Hmm? What is it that I should do?” she asked as Mallory swallowed the last bit of cupcake and shot a quick but longing glance at the Victorian cake stand on the counter, with two pieces of lemon drizzle and one of Victoria sponge left.

“You could do a promotion around the cupcakes!” she said, turning away from the cake stand to give Olivia the full force of her bright blue eyes and wide, engaging smile. “You have so many fab flavours—what was yesterday’s?”

“German chocolate.” With a dusting of coconut and a glacé cherry on top. Olivia had been quite proud of those, and had managed to sell five.