Chapter 1
"I swear to God, if you don't turn the volume down." I paused,
The last investor withdrew this morning.
Three years of work in my tiny bakery, and now it might all disappear because of a scandal that wasn't even my fault. Apparently, catching your husband cheating with an older woman doesn't earn sympathy in this city.
It earns gossip and whispers as you cross the street.
"If she couldn't even keep a husband, how could she keep a business"
"Imagine losing your husband to someone old enough be your aunt"
From the cashiers at the grocery stores and even from people I thought were my friends.
Customers stopped coming. Investors stopped calling.
And now the only thing louder than my collapsing business was the ridiculous reality show blaring from the front of the shop
"I'm going to come down there and shove the cords up your ass," I yelled from my office.
More like my storage room, I turned into an office. It had a tiny plastic table, a stool I took from the front of the shop and an old telephone that barely even worked. It wasn't necessarily the best place but at least it was functional.
The air hazy with tiny particles of flour that floated like mist. Every movement stirred it up, making the sunlight streaming through the window glow like a warm, golden cloud. It smelled faintly sweet and earthy with all the flour and icing sugar in here.
Most people told me I was crazy when I decided to open this bakery in this small space including my mother.
No surprise there.
Hell, even the landlady wished me luck when I collected the key.
But it had been three years since I opened my bakery. The pink walls, the glass see through doors and windows, I forced Darius to fix on a random Tuesday.
The first few years we were the talk of the town and had to close later than usual occasionally because we had a lot going of customers. We had been doing quite well in sales until recently.
"Who will you be coupling with tonight?" echoed from the front of the shop.
The walls were pretty thin, so I'm very sure he heard me and just decided to ignore me. I closed my laptop, seeing as I couldn't even concentrate so what was the point.
"I will be coupling with Tr—" The TV went off as I yanked the cords from the socket.
That would be hard to couple back, I thought to myself.
"What the fuck, Andrea?" he cussed, leaping of the stool, cookies scattering across the floor.
"I was just about to find out who she was coupling with," he whined falling to ground with his fists in the air rather dramatically.
"Typical Darius" I chuckled.
We met in college and have been inseparable ever since. He was my best friend and I wouldn't trade him for anything. I basically forced him to work here when I couldn't find any employee I could trust; the ones I found were very inexperienced, to say the least.
"I told you I was going to yank the cords out. You're lucky I didn't shove them up your ass," I added, eyeing him jokingly.
"Haha, very funny." he said, rolling his eyes at me as he unraveled himself from his crouched position. Standing at a towering foot more than me, he seemed very intimidating when people saw us together, but he was the sweetest person ever.
The lights flickered as he turned around to go get his things from the back room. It was already late and, seeing as we didn't have any customers, we might as well lock up and go home.
Home.
Was it really home?. My actual home was ruined by a sick cheating bastard.
"Andrea– hello?" he called out to me with a concerned expression.
"I said, will you lock up?" he asked.
I forced a smile. "Yeah. I've got it."
"See ya," he said as he hugged me goodbye, sauntering out of the shop.
I locked up as slowly as I could, dreading actually going home, the one place that somehow felt worse than my empty bakery. My mother's house was a little far from the bakery, at least two buses from here.
I weaved through the crowded streets, the hum of traffic and chatter pressing around me. Neon signs flickered above, taxis honked, and the scent of street food mixed with exhaust. My steps were quick, weaving past pedestrians and cyclists, till I was safely tucked in the bus.
I opened her door and it all flooded back to me.