RP: Chocolate & Conversation

[shh_eloise]

Date: 22 June 2005
Characters: Eloise Midgen, Zach Smith
Location: Just Desserts
Status: Private
Summary: Zach stops by for chocolate
Completion: Incomplete

Comments

[shh_zach]

Zach was exhausted. It had been a long day, but at least Davies had let them go early. Still, he didn't want to go home yet. He walked for a long time, looking through the windows of the different shops. He'd missed out on so much by being gone for so long.

There were several shops he was tempted to go into, but he just kept walking, wanting to clear his mind. His lunch with Mandy had gone well, but he still felt off balance.

The scent of chocolate hung heavy in the air as he turned the corner and he followed his nose, not realizing until right now that he was hungry. And chocolate... he never had been able to say no to it.

The sweetshop was one place he knew he'd not be able to stand outside and look in. Pushing the door open, he stepped inside just in time to catch a young woman behind the counter threatening a piece of paper.

"I'm fairly certain you've scared it into submission," he said, smiling at her.

[shh_eloise]

When the door opened, Eloise looked up and smiled sheepishly when she realized that the man who entered had heard her. "I'm not so sure about that. These numbers never listen to me," she said.

"Good afternoon, sir. Welcome to Just Desserts. Are you looking for anything in particular today?" she asked as she put the parchment beneath the counter and smiled. She studied the man for a moment because he looked familiar, far moreso than most the people she'd run into, which meant he'd probably been in Hufflepuff with her.

"I'm Eloise, and this is my shop," she said. "Were you in Hufflepuff? You look familiar but I'm horrid with names."

[shh_zach]

"I don't know, you sounded pretty fierce. It just might work this time."

Stepping forward, he held out his hand to her. "Zacharias Smith," he said. "And yes, I was in Hufflepuff... Eloise? Midgen? I remember you. We were in the same year."

He looked around at the shelves full of chocolates. "Anything in particular? Um... chocolate." He grinned. "I seriously doubt there's anything in here that I wouldn't eat. Got any suggestions?"

[shh_eloise]

"Smith! That's right. You played Quidditch," she recalled. "Same year, though I left during sixth."

She laughed. "Yes, there's plenty of chocolate. Are you looking for fudge or sweets? Do you prefer simple flavors or something varied? Fruit? Nuts? Bitter or sweet?" she asked, studying him for a moment. Before he could answer, she nodded. "Nevermind. First, try something. Then we'll see if you like it or need to taste something else."

She slid open the case and removed three truffles from the appropriate trays and put them onto a plate before she handed it to him. "These are truffles. There's a butter rum, which is milk chocolate, and this one is cherry, which is dark chocolate but has white chocolate and cherries inside. And then this one is white chocolate with almonds. It's a variety to try, so you can determine what type you might like most."

[shh_zach]

"I did, yes. Long time ago." He hadn't remembered that she'd left... but then they'd had a lot of students pulled from the school once the war started.

She fired off question after question and he opened his mouth several times to attempt to answer, but then she was pulling out truffles and waving them under his nose.

"I can already tell you I'll need to taste something else," he said, grinning at her as he reached for the butter rum truffle. "I like milk and dark chocolate. Only thing I'm not fond of is white." He bit into the truffle and moaned softly. "Oh... 's nice." The cherry one was next, more bitter, but oh sweet inside and how was anyone supposed to choose. "I'd not be able to work here. I'd make myself sick. You make all these yourself?"

[shh_eloise]

"No white. Got it," she said, removing the almond truffle and replacing it with a dark chocolate mint. She smiled when she heard him moan, knowing that he must approve of the choices.

"You'd get tired of them after awhile, maybe," she told him. "Of course, I've been making fudge for over six years now, I guess, and I still love playing with new recipes and combinations."

She nodded. "I do. Well, all the sweets and fudge I make here, but the prepackaged things, like the chocolate frogs and licorice whips, are exported from the Continent. My specialty is wizarding chocolate, though."

[shh_zach]

He hummed again as he tried the mint, cool and sweet and bitter at once on his tongue. "I don't think I'd get tired of this either. Wow."

He smiled at her. "These are amazing. I'm very impressed. I can't seem to put anything together and make it taste right. I'm a terrible cook. I can eat though, damn good eater."

Raising an eyebrow he looked around and then back at her. "Wizarding chocolate? You make that too?"

[shh_eloise]

"It just takes practice and not being afraid of failure," she said with a shrug. "If you put enough things into the fudge, for instance, you'll eventually find combinations that you like."

"Yes, I make that." She smiled. "I apprenticed at Honeydukes originally, until Hogsmeade---well, then I was sent to Belgium and eventually Austria, where I spent the majority of my training and worked for a chocolatier in wizarding Vienna until I moved here, with a brief break to work at a Muggle place in Switzerland just to see how their techniques differed."

"And I didn't mean to ramble on in such a way. I do make the solid wizarding fudge that has properties that work well with certain kinds of healing and I also have fudge that's helpful with sleeping, energy, sex, and the like. They're not as enjoyable as regular chocolate, but it's a very subtle flavor difference that few even notice."

[shh_zach]

"I'm not afraid of failure. I'm afraid of injuring myself. In the kitchen, anyway." He smiled. "Wow, you've been all over, haven't you? That's a lot of training. No wonder your chocolate is so damn good. You're very talented."

Chuckling, he shook his head. "I don't mind you talking, it's nice. I.... you've chocolate that's helpful to sex?" he blurted. "I... how's that not as enjoyable as regular chocolate?"

[shh_eloise]

"Well, then, you'd be a natural for cooking because it really just requires playing with ingredients until you find something that you enjoy. As for being injured, that's why healing charms were invented," she said with a wink.

She laughed and nodded. "You've heard of aphrodisiacs? There's a common belief that chocolate can act as one, but that's not entirely true. The chocolate itself doesn't really do anything to stimulate one sexually, though it certainly can if used in, shall we say creative ways. However, there are a couple of herbs or spices that do cause an effect sexually. When mixed with chocolate, they can tantalize and entice in all the best ways," she explained.

"The spices used have to be properly balanced and used quite subtly, of course, so that tends to make the chocolate just a little more bitter than I personally prefer for just having a treat. Others wouldn't even notice, in all honesty, but the rest results do tend to show that they do what they're supposed to be."

[shh_zach]

"I don't think there are enough healing charms in the world," he said, laughing. "You, however, obviously are a natural."

Zach raised an eyebrow while he listened. "That sounds... interesting. I had no idea such a thing existed. Perhaps I'll have to check that out sometime." He grinned at her. "You've a lovely shop. I'd like some of the butter rum truffles to take."

He looked at the clock. "Shouldn't you be closed. I don't mean to keep you."

[shh_eloise]

"Not sure if I'm a natural or not. I like to putter around and create new things that taste good," she said, smiling.

"Butter rum truffles. Okay. How many did you want?" When he told her, she found the right size tin and filled it with the right amount. She also added two small squares of the chocolate with the stimulant, figuring that it was a wise investment as he might like it and buy more and, if not, it was just two smaller squares.

She shook her head. "No, it's fine. My hours of operation are rather open to change, as I rarely close right on time," she told him. "And the only thing you're keeping me from is more puttering."

[shh_zach]

"You do a damn good job of it," he said, taking the tin from her. It didn't escape his notice that she'd slipped in a few bars of the sex chocolate. That should be... interesting. Of course, the last thing he needed was to be more interested in sex than he already was.

She didn't charge him for them.

He smiled as he paid her for the truffles and looked at the clock again. "Thank you. I uh... I was thinking of going to get something to eat. Otherwise I'll just go home and eat this entire tin in one go." And considering that she'd put in two of the aphrodisiac chocolates, that would mean he'd be nauseated and horny. He'd prefer to avoid that. "Would you... would you care to join me?"

[shh_eloise]

"Are you sure?" she asked, trying to reconcile the friendly bloke who was asking a stranger to share a meal with the boy she vaguely remembered from school. The years had definitely changed them all, it seemed.

"Why not? My flat's terribly quiet right now, and having someone else make me food sounds appealing," she decided. She'd gone out for dinner the previous night but, really, it wasn't like she was restricted to going out one night a week.

"Let me just clean things up real fast and lock up. I'll do the rest of the closing when I get back. One benefit to living above the shop, I suppose." She smiled and went through the various tasks that needed done before she could leave. Some things could wait, but others needed tended to now.

Once she was done, she checked her robe to make sure she hadn't got anything on it during the day and then looked at him. "Where shall we go?"

[shh_zach]

"Course I'm sure," he said, feeling relieved. He didn't want to come off as some creepy guy. But they did kind of know each other. And he really would love the company.

He leaned against the counter and watched her. "Anything I can do?" he asked, feeling a bit helpless. But then she was done and brushing off her robes.

"Um... Socks? I'm not sure where else there is other than that and Five Alarm. Do you have any suggestions?"

[shh_eloise]

"Thank you, but it won't take long," she assured him. Soon enough, she finished and smiled.

At his question, she laughed. "Those are the two I know. Well, there's a more formal restaurant, Roma, but I think the pubs are just as good. Socks is good or Five Alarm. I'm not that particular."

She waited until he stepped outside before she shut the door and locked the shop. "You choose."