The Fae Book 2: Burr and Daisy

Chapter 11: Is My Girl In Back?

Working at the bakery was its own special kind of hell. Let's just overlook the fact that the only job I'd ever had was working beside my Dad in his corporate office. He kept me right by his side, learning to review contracts, meet with customers and vendors and negotiate. He taught me how to check on employees to determine if they were happy and finding satisfaction in their jobs. One day a month, I had to work in one of the various departments, and I kept cycling through them, one after the other, until I worked in them all and then I started all over again.

In short, I'd never been in the service industry, which was, as I mentioned, its own special hell. I was used to being waited on, not being the one who waited on others.

"Hi, welcome to Nenn's. How can I help you today?"

Over the past three days, I'd gotten pretty good at remembering all parts of the welcome spiel, but now I don't think Donna would have cared if I'd spoken in a foreign language to the customers wearing a fucking tutu. The women of Darren and the surrounding towns had been lining up for the last few days and business was booming. 

Now, I looked at the man in front of me, waiting patiently for his order. During the first day, Donna had kindly informed me that drumming my fingers on the countertop and asking, "What do you want?" wasn't quite the customer service note she was trying to hit. But that was right before the customers started flocking in so my guess was I could get away with whatever I wanted now.

"Hey, is my girl in back?"

His girl? This had been happening over the last three days more times than I'd liked. And I didn't like it even once. His question identified him as one of the douche pack -- one of the numerous men who had a thing for Daisy. My Daisy. My True Queen.

Daisy was the only girl who worked in the back. Chork (I still didn't understand his name) could never be mistaken for a girl, and he was the only other baker back there.

"No," I said curtly. "Now if you don't want anything, you need to leave." I'd looked around to make sure Donna wasn't in hearing distance.

"Oh, well, I'll just have an Americano and while you're getting that, I'll head back and leave her the flowers."

I held out my hand to stop him from coming past the end of the counter. "Yeah, I don't think so. Health code violation."

"What? Since when? I brought her flowers here after our date last week, and she said it was fine."

"Health Department orders. Your flowers are probably the reason they're cracking down on us and have given us sixteen violation citations in the last week. They're getting serious. When she gets back, I'll tell her you stopped by."

Like hell I would. No fucking way.

It hadn't even been ten minutes before another member of the douche pack came up to the counter and asked for Daisy.

"She left town," I told him, gritting my teeth. "Family emergency. She's not expected back for weeks. Next?"

Instead of taking the hint and leaving, he continued to stand in front of me, his face confused.

"That's weird considering we're going to dinner tonight. A very important dinner. I'm going to try to convince her to move in with me, even if it's just as friends at first. I've told her I'll take care of her baby since the jackass who knocked her up isn't around."

"He might be closer than you think," I warned the guy through gritted teeth. Just one little lightning bolt...

Daisy pushed through the swinging door with a tray of scones. Oops.