6. Chapter Six
Chapter Six
Evalina
This week has been a barrel full of fun, and if you add the notice of increase on my apartment rental, it’s an all-out blast. The last thing I need after losing my business and my patience with a baseball player this week is being notified I will be paying nearly a hundred dollars more a month for our not-so-great apartment.
When Annie strides into the lobby carrying this morning’s donuts, I fold the notice and slip it into the wastebasket.
It took nearly two hours for my bakery to calm down yesterday after Koa Keaton’s public display of idiocy, and another hour to clean up the mess left behind by reporters and patrons who, if they ever heard of a trash can in their lives, chose to ignore that they existed in four easily accessible places, including one right beside the exit.
“Let’s hope today isn’t as eventful as yesterday. I think there was more donut on the floor than in people’s bellies.” Annie pushes her glasses up her nose and drops the trays on the counter. “How are you today?”
“Surviving. Do we have any orders?” Tying my long, black hair into a ponytail, I grab a rag and get ready to wipe down literally anything to avoid another conversation about Koa, the destruction of the building, and every other thing that seems to be going kablooey in my life.
“Just one for this afternoon. I’ve already packed it.”
Like clockwork, Nick pushes through the door with a smile and a spring in his step. “Morning, ladies.”
“Good morning, Nick.” Annie offers a small wave and disappears into the kitchen.
“Looks like I beat the rush again. I’m getting good at this,” he teases, but we both know it doesn’t matter how good he gets at timing his visits, soon enough there won’t be a Sparkly’s.
I try to plaster on a smile, but he pegs it as fake right away. “I heard about the commotion here yesterday. I can’t believe that jerk had the nerve to accuse you of selling him out.” He shakes his head and bites into the donut I hand him.
“It is what it is. I’m glad it’s over.” I can’t hide my sadness from Nick any better than I can hide it from Annie. He’s become as much a fixture around here as the books on the back wall. He fits, he’s part of the place, and he knows when I’m upset.
“Hey, Lina, I’m sure it’s going to work out somehow. You’ll find an amazing place soon and you’ll be so popular, this place will be nothing more than a fleeting memory.” He offers a reassuring smile and takes his coffee. “I’ll see you in the morning?”
“Yeah. For a while longer, at least.” I can’t help but smile when he winks at me, giving me a small boost of joy to get me through the day.
A few more patrons visit, offering condolences, but the rushes have significantly declined this week.
I can’t help but notice we’re not running out of the favorite flavors, and the pick-up order screen is empty.
People are already getting adjusted, finding new things, forgetting about their donut routines.
I join Annie in the back for cleanup, my heart aching again.
Neither of us mentions the slow morning or how my bakery showed up on every news station from here to the west coast, including lovely images of me standing, staring at him with my mouth open.
Then the donuts falling in slow motion like a steaming, sticky rain of confetti, because why not slow it down and replay it a dozen times?
Honestly, it should be criminal for slow motion to even exist. Or video recording at all.
What happened to the days when a person could make a mistake and it wasn’t international news within an hour?
“Lina, things will cool off and we’ll figure this thing out.
You’re stuck with me to the bitter end, okay?
” Annie shoulder nudges me and forces a smile we both know is fake, but we pretend it’s not so we can get through the day with real smiles for our customers.
It’s just us now. The teens quit because why not?
Why be responsible and work through the last thirty days when you can go work for a brand-new bakery a few streets over that guarantees a paycheck after the end of the month?
Yeah, okay, that makes sense. Still, the fact that Annie and I will have to run this place on our own for a month makes my heart race. In fact, it makes me consider closing up shop today and applying for a waitressing job at that new bakery.
Annie disappears into the back to clean up while I pretend I’m actually getting anything besides worrying done up front.
The door chimes, reminding me we are still open, but when my gaze drifts up to the patron who entered, I can’t help but wish I’d turned that closed sign around and given up for the day.
Koa stops midstride when his gaze catches mine.
I didn’t have a staring contest on my to-do list for the day, but it appears it must be on his, since all we manage to accomplish in the first thirty seconds is intense, frustrated eye contact.
I raise my brow, the only thing I can muster in the way of can I help you?
“I…” He blinks but says nothing more.
“You?” Dropping my rag so I can cross my arms seems like a good idea, especially when he won’t stop staring at me.
“I…came to…” He shakes his head and saunters up to the counter.
“I came to apologize for yesterday afternoon. I realize I was a complete jerk who made assumptions about you I had no business making. I should have known Andrew wouldn’t be friends with someone who would sell a person out for a few bucks or attention. ”
My cheeks burn, which I can only assume shows as a red-hot blush of anger. “You didn’t just make assumptions. You verbally attacked my character on what became national television.”
He stands straighter, back rigid the same way he did yesterday right before everything went all wrong. “I realize that, and I’m here to try to apologize to you.”
I cross my arms tighter. “Unfortunately for Andrew, I happen to think his choice in friends is a little suspect. After all, you’re his friend.”
Koa narrows his eyes, and the left side of his lips quirks up. “Are you trying to say you are the sort of person who would sell out someone for a buck? Because that’s sort of the argument you’re making right now.”
“No!” I thrust my arms down to my sides, hands balled into fists. “I was merely stating that where I’m concerned, he made a good choice, but you tarnish his record, clearly.”
“You don’t know anything about me!” His voice elevates.
“I know you’re a rich daddy’s boy who doesn’t think about how his actions might impact others who are just trying to make enough to care for their families. You turned my bakery into a three-ring circus yesterday, then had the audacity to show up today with a half-hearted apology.”
“You won’t let me apologize, but I’m really starting to wonder if drama is your thing.”
“Are…you…I never—”
“Somehow, I doubt you never.” He snickers and looks around the bakery. “Listen, I only came to apologize and try to offer some explanation for my behavior. I can’t make you hear it.” Raising his hands, he steps back from the counter and heads for the door.
Okay, it’s possible I overreacted to his initial apology, but he’s still a jerk…right? Who comes to issue an apology with a backhanded statement like assuming my character? Without knowing anything about me? At all?
The truth is, I should let it go. Just let the rich kid waltz out of here feeling superior because he tried to apologize and I got mad again. I should…but I don’t.
“Is that it? That’s your apology? Restating what you thought of my character before claiming I like drama?”
He pivots on his heel and throws his hands in the air. “I started with the apology. You chose to laser in on the reason and took offense to it. I said I was wrong.”
“You did not!” I round the counter and stop in front of the bakery case where Annie left two trays of donuts.
“You decided to interrupt me rather than listen with your ears.” He points to his ears as if I’m some kind of idiot that needs everything spelled out for me.
At that, the heat in my cheeks spreads down my neck and right out those ears he seems to think I don’t use.
All composure flies out the window, and I grab the nearest thing I can get my hands on—donuts—and throw them at him.
The first one, he catches…because, of course.
But the second, third, and fourth come at him so fast he can’t manage them all.
One hits him square in the face. The fifth and sixth land on his chest, sticking to his shirt, thanks to the frosting and sprinkles.
His face reddens as he peels the donuts free and throws them back at me with a speed I did not think a donut could move. Getting into a throwing match with a baseball player was a horrible idea, but now that I’m in the thick of it, there’s no going back.
“I said—I was—sorry!” Koa shouts between throws. I’m pummeled with three donuts.
“No—you—didn’t!” I manage to get my hands on more ammo and hurl them at him. At this point, he merely dodges my throws and hurls them back at me.
“You attacked me the second I tried!”
“Attacked you? No, this is attacking you.” I hurl the bakery items in rapid-fire until the tray is empty, then use the tray as a shield to block his return throws.
At no point does it occur to me that this is the most childlike way to resolve a conflict between adults.
Also, at no point does it occur to me that other people might get embroiled in our war until Annie rushes from the back.
“What on earth is—”
Smack!
A jelly-filled donut hits her right on the cheek, sticks for a second, and slides down her face until it plops on her shoulder, rolls down her apron front, and splats on the floor. She blinks a few times, adjusts her glasses, and shifts her eyes between the two of us.
“I’m so very sorry,” Koa says. “I absolutely didn’t mean to hit you in the face with food.
” He rushes forward with a wad of napkins, but Annie’s glare holds him off.
She does accept the napkins, but from a distance.
I’m not sure Koa could stretch his arm any farther to offer them well out of her swatting range.
Annie wipes the jelly from her face and pulls off her apron. “I think you should go.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Koa steps back, slides around a little on frosting, and finally catches his footing.
He doesn’t even look over his shoulder at the mess he helped create, which naturally makes me want to throw another wad of donut at him.
It lands between his shoulder blades, freezing him in place.
After a few breaths, he pushes through the door and shirks the donut onto the sidewalk before stomping to his vehicle.
“Very mature, Lina. Do I want to know what happened here, or should we just get back to work cleaning up again?”
Her motherly tone can’t be mistaken. I was foolish, I let my frustration and anger get the best of me, and I made a clown of myself. My cheeks burn again. Pressing my hands to them, I note that I’m covered with frosting.
“I threw donuts at a grown man,” I whine.
“I noticed. Any thoughts on why you did?”
I mean to lean back on the counter, but I don’t stop there. Sliding all the way down to the floor seems like the only option, the only way to disappear from reality. When my butt flops, I squish in frosting. Annie kneels beside me, back against the wall.
“He came to apologize, gave me a crummy one, and I don’t even know what happened from there. Annie, I don’t know what to do anymore.”
“There’s more to this than that. You were tenser this morning than yesterday, and don’t tell me it’s because a couple teenagers quit.”
A long sigh prequels an even longer explanation of the rent increase along with what I assume is a letter of tuition increase from Dustin’s school that I haven’t had a chance to open yet.
Annie nods along, never interrupting or interjecting until she’s sure I’ve told every last bit of my story.
She takes a moment to analyze, to ponder, and come up with…
“You should have accepted his apology.”
“What? Are you kidding me?” My nostrils flare and Annie chuckles.
“I heard the apology from the back, Lina. It wasn’t great, but he came all the way down here to do it, which has to count for something. Did it occur to you at any point in your argument that you two might have the same pride issue?”
“I don’t have a pride issue.”
“Says everyone with a pride issue. You didn’t give that man an ounce of grace after getting angry with him for not giving you grace. You were mad he assumed the worst of you, so you went and assumed the worst of his apology. Now that you’re even, can I make a request?”
With pursed lips, I motion for her to make her request.
“If you want to have another go with him, can you let me know the day so I can call in sick? I’m sort of tired of scrubbing donut from the grout.”
Tears burst forth in a loud sob and I drop my head in my hands. Annie rests her arm around my shoulders and shakes me. “Come on now, none of that. Let’s get this cleaned up, turn that frown upside down, and act like somebody today, hmm?”
She manages to get me on my feet and looks me up and down.
“First, you need to go change or you’ll attract ants.”
With a swat, I pass Annie and head to my office where I keep a change of clothes.
You never know what sorts of messes you’ll make running a bakery.
Certainly, I’d never anticipated having a donut war with a grown man, but such is life.
And if life has shown me anything in the last few days, it’s that things can always get worse.