Sweet Rolls and Magic Potions

It all started as a joke. My husband and I were invested in a television show that was scheduled to air its final episode this past week after seven years of seasons. The final season included several scenes of a gentleman meticulously eating a cinnamon roll from Cinnabon. My husband has a voracious sweet tooth and remarked that we should eat a Cinnabon roll during the final episode. I nodded and secretly decided to do just that.

Our city has three Cinnabon sources, none of which are particularly convenient to my house. I decided the dreaded mall location was my best bet, oh spare me. I have not been in the mall since, well, I do not remember. It was a rainy day so I rationalized that I could add some walking time to the adventure. I entered at the opposite end of the Cinnabon and worked my way to my targeted purveyor of sweet treats. It is quite the gauntlet and I made the rookie mistake of making eye contact with a young lady who was handing out some sort of freebie. I nodded and said I would pass on it. She continued to say something and as I passed her by I raised both my hands with a thumbs up gesture. Immediately, I realized my gesture might be a rude response relating to what she said and I made plans to find a way to apologize after my Cinnabon stop.

The Cinnabon kiosk was manned by an adorable freckle-faced kid. He was very helpful and loaded me up with a six-pack of tastiness with some extra frosting for good measure. I asked him if he noticed an uptick in sales due to the recent airing of the show we were watching. His blank stare gave me the answer but he also wanted to write down the name of the show so he could check it out. I realized my big blunder as I gave him the name of the show. I would not call the show particularly appropriate for kids so I told him it was "kinda creepy". Hopefully, he will pass on the TV show and stick to his video games.

Now, it was time to circle back to the young lady handing out free samples. I apologized to her and handed her a monetary gift to punctuate my sincerity. She was rather surprised and said she wanted to offer me another sample. Thinking it was another packet of face cream, I followed her into the shop and she proceeded to sit me down in a chair and dab some goo under my eyes, guaranteed to reduce puffiness. Good grief, I had three pounds of Cinnabon rolls in my lap and she truly believed there was hope for me in the beauty department. I didn't have the heart to stop her so I endured the daubing and mumbled something about being on a tight time schedule. She prattled on about the restorative powers of her magic potion as I tried not to engage. Soon enough I bolted out of the shop, lugging my load of rolls. She waved goodbye with a big smile on her face. I took that as a sign she had forgiven me and, of course, was hoping for a future sale.

I arrived home with my blue box of rolls and presented them to my husband. Needless, to say, he was ecstatic. As I chattered on about my adventure I could see his eyes glazing over. He was clearly ready to nose dive into the box and was waiting for me to take a breath. I wrapped it up by saying, "Just so you know, I took one for the team this round." He nodded and quickly pulled one of the behemoth rolls out of the box, ready to savor the moment.

We enjoyed the last episode of the final season of our show. We also enjoyed working our way through the rolls. But for the record, the magic potion wasn't completely successful. Next time I will just dab a little frosting under my eyes and call it good.