“My wife will be thrilled at that option since she is pregnant and currently obsessed with anything coming from your bakery,” Jack told me, and I could see the affection he had for his wife.
“Wonderful,” I told them. “I have two employees in the back you can chat with, and if Luna gets a break, I’m sure she would fill you in as well.”
“Great. Excuse me,” Jack said, getting up from the table to make his way back to the counter.
“What days do you work?” Axel asked me as he pulled out a small notebook from his pocket. “And what time do you arrive and leave?”
“We all work Tuesday through Saturday because we’re closed Sundays and Mondays. I generally work from eight in the morning until four, but sometimes later, depending on how busy we are.”
“Can you tell me all the people names that work here?” Axel asked. “I would like to know what they do and what hours they work.”
He moved his chair closer to mine, and I could smell hints of pine, peppermint, and leather. God, that was a wonderful combination.
“Oh, okay…umm, sure,” I stuttered. “I have six other employees besides myself. Isabel is my early morning baker. She comes in around six to get everything going. Milo is my late-shift baker and gets everything prepped for the next day. We’re open from nine in the morning until seven at night.”
He had a small little notepad he wrote everything down in, and I found myself gazing at his profile while he wrote. He had a strong jawline beneath his facial hair, which was neatly trimmed. His dark-blond hair was pulled back into a messy bun, yet his version looked so much more stylish than the hot mess that was on top of my head.
He lifted his gaze to mine, and I realized I had stopped talking.
“Oh, umm…Nell, Travis, and Drake all work the cash register, cover online orders, and help clean up. They switch shifts often to fit their school schedules, since all of them are in college. Nell also sometimes helps out in the kitchen because she’s going to culinary school and gets college credit by training with me.”
I paused again while he wrote things down, and I picked up another whiff of his scent. I wanted to bottle it up and enjoy that smell all the time.
“Anybody else?” he said, and I noticed the small smirk on his face, which meant he likely saw me checking him out. Great.
“Luna is my assistant manager. She works the later shift from noon until eight and generally assists in the kitchen or out front—wherever she is needed.”
“How long have you known Luna?” he asked.
“Luna and I met in high school, and we became instant friends because of our names,” I told him, noting the confused look on his face. “In Latin, our names, Stella and Luna, mean star and moon.”
A smirk appeared on his face once what I had said registered with him.
“We’ve been best friends ever since,” I said, shrugging as if it was obviously that simple.
“I am glad you have that.”
I was too. Luna was the best, best friend ever. She was an extrovert and had always thrived working in the service industry. That was not me. I could talk to Luna for hours on end about nothing because she was my best friend, but strangers had me struggling to find a topic to discuss. That was why Luna worked in the front with all the customers and I worked in the back with the food.
That was also why Axel fascinated me. Normally someone like him would make me nervous, and I would clam up or get so flustered that I would say something stupid. Instead, I found he was easy to talk to, and the conversation just flowed.
“What can you tell me about Braden?” he asked, and I hated that he had to.
“I opened this bakery five years ago, and he was one of my first customers,” I told him. “Nice guy, used to come in a couple times a week, and two years ago he started asking me out.”
“You said he used to come in a couple times a week. Now he does not do that?”
“About six months ago, he claimed his job was making him travel more and he couldn’t come in as often as he would have liked, which was why he started pushing so much harder to get me to go out on a date,” I told him, thinking back to how awkward some of those moments were.
“He said he enjoyed coming in to see me, but since he was seeing me less now, he wanted to know if we could go on a date. When he first asked me out two years ago, I told him I needed to focus on my bakery. That was partially true since my businesshad just switched to being in the black, after having spent the first couple years in the red, so not a total lie.”
“What do you mean, a black and red business?” he asked me.
“Oh sorry. That’s business lingo,” I told him, shaking my head. “If a business is in the black, it basically means they are profitable. If you are in the red, it means you are spending more than you are taking in.”
“Ahhh okay.” He nodded. “Sorry to interrupt. Continue.”
“Anyway, I was very polite and declined, telling him my focus was on the business. Well, thanks to Anna’s special news feature on me for her Small Business Saturday program, my bakery took off. But then my father got sick again, so I told him I didn’t really want to date so I could focus on helping my mom in my spare time. I was hoping he would take the hint. So far he hasn’t, and it seems he’s only gotten more…umm…tenacious.”
