70

Noah
A smile spread across my lips and peals of laughter burst out afterward when she ran away from me. It was so adorable and sexy when she bent just to pick up a box and even cuter when she overlooked what she was looking for. She avoided looking into my eyes and didn’t want to utter a word. I wondered why she slammed into me with tears streaming down her eyes and I rubbed the sides of my forehead which was beginning to heat up from the impact of the bakery’s door.
I closed the cardboard box which she left open and made for the door. I opened it to see Damien staring back at me.
“What is it?”I asked.
Damien shook his head, a smile appearing on his face. I walked past him while fondling the nape of my neck in confusion. I shrugged it off while walking toward the counter. I sighted Ashley and Emily exchanging words with a couple of kids who wanted to order a pecan pie.
I smiled at one of the kids who waved at me shyly while walking toward the counter. They screamed, squealed, and pointed with their little fingers. People began entering the bakery in numbers with some sitting down while some ordered a coffee or a pie or bread in fact.
A man walked to the counter with his plate half filled with pecan pie and began to berate Ashley and Emily.
“I told you to stop putting too much sugar in pies. Haven’t you heard about the complications it can cause men of my age?”
I was still confused about what was going on when I heard Emily respond after taking in a deep sigh;
“Mr. Roy, ” she started, “The last time you came, you complained of no sugar in your coffee and that the bread you bought was bland. ”
“Are you trying to insult me, lady?” I heard Mr. Roy respond as a frown flickered on his forehead and across his lips.
I watched as Emily shook her head in the non-affirmative while Ashely nudged her by the shoulders, stepping in to apologize to Mr. Roy.
“I won’t come back to this despicable bakery anymore. Enough is enough. ” he pushed the plate in front of me, dusting his pants while paying for whatever he had eaten before taking his leave.
“He always comes back, ” Emily chuckled while facing me, noticing my confused expression, “Don’t worry about him.”
I watched as Ashely didn’t look at me but remained focused on answering every person’s demands with a radiant smile on her face.
Emily held out two empty cardboard boxes in front of me and I raised a brow in inquiry whole pushing up my spectacles.
“Can you drop them by the dumpster please?” she pleaded with her eyes. I nodded with a smile, taking them with both hands. I walked towards the kitchen, smiling at Alfred who threw me a playful wink and I opened the door with my gaze directly facing the dumpster when I noticed something odd happening behind me.
Nadia had two fingers wrapped around a cigarette as she puffed without coughing against a wall.
I dropped the cardboard box loudly and whipped my head around.
“I didn’t know you smoked. ” I told her while crossing my arm across my chest.
Nadia turned her neck while shooting a quick glance at me, throwing the cigarette on the floor and mashing it with her shoes.
“You are going to have to clean that up, Nadia. ” I told her with my hands inside my pockets.
Nadia let out a chuckle as she straightened her back while advancing toward me.
“Are you going to judge me for smoking during work hours?” she uttered.
“Why would I? We barely know each other.” I lifted a shoulder in slight amusement.
“Then why are you in my space? Asking me questions that you can answer yourself?” Nadia inquired.
A small smile swept across my lips as I lifted my index finger, facing it towards the blue sky.
“What space are you referring to? I didn’t know that you owned the place around the dumpster. ” I chuckled lightly.
Nadia lowered her face and raised it afterward, a sharp glint on her face.
“I’m not interested in playing games with you, Leo. Let’s just skip this conversation and you can forget you saw me here.” Nadia answered.
She made to walk past me but I then spoke which made her rooted to the spot.
“Are you telling me not to report you for smoking?” I asked her.
“You can do it,” Nadia smiled in a way that made me feel uneasy. Her spectacles were quite smaller than mine but they fit perfectly, “I don’t care. ”
I was about to respond when the door creaked open revealing a strung-out Damien holding a black polythene bag. Nadia took the cue and decided to leave while Damien dropped the bag straight into the dumpster. I was about to leave when Damien called out to me;
“What’s your deal with Nadia?”
I whipped my head around as I propped up a brow in confusion.
“Nothing strange. Nothing new.” I answered swiftly.
I turned around and took another step but Damien’s voice made me halt on my heels.
“I think you’re making her uncomfortable and you should stop it. ” Damien pressured further and a scoff escaped from my lips in haste as I wondered if he woke up on the wrong side of his bed.
“I didn’t do anything. What are you referring to, Damien?” I asked him with my gaze directly facing his.
“I know you’re very attractive and you flirt a lot but can you please exclude Nadia from your games?” Damien started while licking his lips, “And what would you try to report her for smoking? It’s not your concern with what she does with her life. ”
I covered my lips with my left hand, trying to hold myself back from laughing.
“First of all, I never flirted with Nadia, ” I told him while gesticulating, “And secondly, I had no interest in reporting her which brings me back to a trivial question. Why are you eavesdropping on a conversation that is none of your business?”
“Don’t you dare manipulate me with that? Don’t do that, please. ” Damien raised both hands in rebuffal.
“Do you like Nadia, perhaps? If you do, I don’t care and I have no interest in stopping you from chasing your dying love.” I explained to him, edging closer to pat him on the shoulder.
He retreated away from me harshly while heading towards the door before banging it loudly behind him.
“Did I do anything wrong? I just asked him a simple question. ” I muttered to himself with a shrug.
I walked towards the door while casting a quick glance at Damien who was scrubbing plates with a hand sponge. Nadia was kneading flour and seemed uninterested when I walked past her.
But that moon-shaped scar on her knuckles kept making me uneasy all the way to the pit of my stomach. I walked toward the counter and resumed working without uttering a word.
***
Nadia was the first to clock out first with an excuse while Ashely and Emily stayed behind. I then decided to take my leave.
Emily bade me goodbye while Ashley pretended not to see me. I rushed outside while noticing Nadia walking a few meters away from me.
As I continued walking, I sent a text to Daniel on my cell phone, telling him to wait for a couple of minutes before getting alarmed.
I wheezed my way through the crowd, observing as Nadia’s red sweater came into my view and her black hair which was tied into a bun kept me going. Ever since my conversation with her at the counter and outside at the dumpster, I had an odd feeling that she knew me and was only toying with me.
For days, I had tried to get rid of my suspicions but the text message that I saw on my cellphone, kept ringing back to me and Eugene who kept playing games with me was also fishy. Did she come to Mrs. Ping’s bakery to check up on me at any time?
The only person in that bakery who had my cell phone number was Ashley and why should she try to send me a ridiculous text?
I was beginning to think that the paper where I left my number was where it all began. I kept my eyes on her, turning back to look at anything else when she turned.
I was about to continue walking when I didn’t see her anymore, I waltzed through the crowd in a frenzy, looking for her when I halted on my heels realizing that she led me on, knowing that I was following her.
I let in a sharp intake of air, clenching a hand into a fist and placing it by my sides as I picked out my phone from my pockets, sending a text to Daniel to keep him from getting scared.
I reminded myself that I needed to exercise more as I stood in the middle of the pedestrian walkway, calming my racing heart.