As I mentioned in MmmmmmMonday's post, MsKathy, a fic goddess and wonderful person, whipped fandom in to action in order to raise funds for the relief effort in Haiti last month.
Continuing on MmmmmmMonday's theme, I'm sharing one of my favorites from the T and under rated section of the document. I am very pleased to announce that today's Peach is The Cupcake Girl and the Tattooed Boy by dahliablack.
The blurb on dahlia's blog says that this story is:
A modern-day fairytale. Cupcake store employee, Rosalie, finds herself yearning for tattoo artist, Emmett. One Spring day, fate finally steers Emmett across Rosalie’s path.
Written for MsKathy’s Twifans 4 Haiti fundraiser.
I liked that wording because this story is a wonderful fairytale about a strong but completely not bitchy Rosalie who falls for and is slowly wooed by an intelligent, worldly Emmett. I sighed throughout the story and found myself falling in love with both of these characters. Here's a little of the reason why:
Emmett returned to the cupcake shop daily without fail to sample the baked treats that Rosalie would undoubtedly have ready for him: coconut cake with blue vanilla frosting and coconut sprinkles, lemon cake with lemon butter cream and a wedge of lemon candy on top, red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and pink glitter, marble cake with peanut butter frosting and crushed peanut sprinkles.
Every day the cupcakes became tastier and more elaborately decorated, and every day their conversations became longer and more involved.
As it turned out, Emmett had studied ancient civilizations at college and spent the three years thereafter touring the globe, researching the amalgamation of his two passions: ancient civilizations and tattoo art. This endeavor had led him from the most remote reaches of South America, Africa and Asia, to the most urban parts of Europe and North America. The inked art that covered his body was an homage to his journey. His departure point, Atlanta, was symbolized by a black dot and a tiny Georgia peach on his left index finger. A fine black line connected the various black dots and accompanying symbols that traveled up his left arm, across his back and down his right arm. The last dot, situated on his right index finger depicted a miniature version of the Seattle Space Needle, completing the map of his journey. Emmett had decided to settle down in Seattle because it felt the most like home to him out of any of the places in the world he had traveled.
Rosalie listened to the tales of his travels with rapt attention, marveling at all he had already experienced at the tender age of twenty-five. Rosalie knew that she would probably never experience even a single day of the kind of excitement and rich cultural diversity that Emmett had encountered for three years. But, instead of letting this notion make her sad, Rosalie decided that she would live vicariously through these stories while being content with the lot that life had dealt her. She had made her choices and was sticking to them. Even so, there was no harm in dreaming...
Upon his eighteenth visit to the cupcake store, Emmett commented on the wide variety of cupcakes that were available. There hadn't yet been a day on which he'd sampled the same cupcake twice. What he didn't know, was that Rosalie had started asking Mrs. Cope to bake new and special combinations of cake and frosting so she would be able to surprise Emmett every day.
On his thirty-second visit to the cupcake store, Rosalie caught Emmett examining the unblemished, perfectly porcelain skin of her left arm with curious concentration.
"What?" Rosalie giggled after he had been staring for longer than was appropriate or necessary.
"Rosie, I think it's time that you got some ink on that pretty skin of yours." Emmett was the only person that Rosalie allowed to call her anything besides her full name. She kind of liked it when he did.
I know all you Emmett lovers out there are going to adore this story. Please go show dahlia some love, read her story and give her a review. And if you're a Jacob/Bella fan (or even if you're not but want to read and AMAZING story) you absolutely MUST check out her WIP, Fix You, which was nominated for not one, not two, but THREE Indies!!! It's currently a finalist selection in both the "Best Secondary Characterization" and "Best Use of a Parent" categories. Voting will open Monday, March 15th at 8PM EST and closes on Wednesday, March 24th. Don't forget to vote!
Hope this starts you out for a lovely weekend! Maybe you can even get a new tattoo, too!
Enjoy!!!
