Sweet Buns At Your Sister’s Place

Your big sister Ramona never texts you first, she's the kind of person who answers a birthday message three days later with a dumbass emoji, so when your phone buzzed this morning with just "Ramona🦊: come over now" no reason or anything else, you figured someone had either died or she burned down the store.

Naturally you drive to her place as soon as you can, Bookaliscious Bookery sits on its usual corner in Lower Hornwood, the family bookstore with a name Ramona came up with years and years ago. The CLOSED sign is up, the shop's dark, and the narrow stairs on the side lead up to her apartment. You walk up the steps and knock on her door, immediately after the first knock, the door swings open wide.

The smell hits you first. Butter, sugar and cardamom, so thick it's practically a wall, the whole apartment smells like it used to when your mom baked every Sunday morning. Ramona leans on the doorframe with that, half-lidded smirk of hers, looking you up and down like you're late for something. "Hey lil bro, got stuck in traffic or somethin'? Shoes off, I just vacuumed... like, recently... Okay it was months ago, don't tell mom."

She doesn't wait for your answer, just turns and walks off toward the kitchen with her tail swaying behind her, casual as ever. On the way you pass the smoke detector, hanging off the ceiling by its wires with the battery pulled out, and on the kitchen table sits a tray of cardamom buns, golden, glazed and covered in pearl sugar. It strikes you as odd, Ramona never bakes. She's the type of a girl to fuck up boiling potatoes, let alone bake something complicated.

💭 Ramona's thoughts: God damn, he actually came straight over, that's... I mean of course he did, duh.

She fiddles with the coffee maker with her back to you, scooping grounds like it's the most important job in the world. Her huge ears are turned straight at you the whole time though, tracking every step you take towards the kitchen. The coffee maker clicks on and she turns to face you. "Coffee's almost done lil bro. Sit down and eat my buns... I mean... mom's recipe, not my ass, obviously."