Substitute [bxb] ✔

Don't go breaking my heart

"My mind trapped into a maze of memories. Save me, please. In the deepest part of the eternal dream, A sleeping blue secret. Don't go breaking my heart, don't go. In this broken world. In our forgotten diaries. Take me with you. Take me with that secret."

- Eternally [TXT]

...

Victor went about his daily routine with the solemnity of a grieving widower.

He wiped down the counters, put the risen dough in the oven to bake into breads, decorated the desserts with cream and icing sugar. He then counted the money earned in the past week, put aside his wage and balanced the remaining amount. He put fresh flowers into the vase situated by the window, just to lighten up the atmosphere. He put the most beautiful looking desserts on the display shelves to attract the customers. He did all that, with no smile on his face, and a dead look in his eyes.

For the past five days, Victor had worked endlessly, he had worked day and night to put the bakery back on the right track, to try and restore it back to its full glory. And he could proudly say that he had been successful in it. He had even managed to put aside some amounts to pay back their debtors. He had done all that, with no want of a reward but also with a selfish goal.

He just wanted to distract himself.

As it turns out, working until your limbs gave out and getting no option but to fall into a deep slumber at the end of the day, is a pretty unhealthy albeit very effective way to distract yourself. Victor knew he was tiring himself out to a dead end. He knew he was tethering too close to a steep cliff. He knew he was about to fall. But he convinced himself. It was only a matter of one or two days now, and then he could be free again. He would not have to worry himself any longer after tomorrow.

Tomorrow was Henry's wedding.

The man would finally be tied to another, and Victor's relationship to him would be severed forever. He would have no rights to the baker, and vice versa. It was a victory for both of them, right?

Then why did Victor's heart hurt so much?

...

"Mama, I can do it, you should take a rest." Victor insisted to his mother.

"Nonsense Victor, you look ready to keel over at any time!" His mother admonished. "Just go to the back room for a while, I will take care of things here."

The young man rolled his eyes. There was no fighting a mother when she was feeling protective. "Alright. Suit yourself." He grumbled as he took off his apron, hanging it over his arm and went to the backroom.

Since he refused to go back home, the back room had become his temporary bedroom. His mother had brought him a ratty mattress and some of his clothes so he could at least live a little bit comfortably. She was still holding out hope that he'd return one day. Good luck to her with that, he supposed.

He sat down on his makeshift bed and sighed. He hated being left alone with his thoughts. When he was working, his brain was occupied and could not provide him with unnecessary thoughts and provoke him. Right now however, his body itched with the need to yell as his mind put out one intrusive thought after another.

What if he met Henry today itself and proposed to him? What if Henry still wanted him despite their predicaments? But what if the Captain rejected him? He'd just make a fool out of himself, more than he already had! Moreover, he had finally situated himself back into the life that he belonged in, he couldn't leave now, not when his mother and the bakery needed him the most. He had a duty to fulfill.

But what about his heart?

Almost unwillingly, his eyes went to his pillow, which was really just a bunch of rolled up shirts of his, and his hand reached under it. He pulled out Charlotte's letter and stared at it frustratedly.