With Icing on Top - (BadBoyHalo x Baker)

First Impression

"Beep Beep Beep!" The alarm clock screams at me and I almost feel like screaming back.

I turn it off quickly so as to not wake up my neighbors, this apartment building has thin walls and the occupants that live next to me have an even thinner patience. I've tried to go through this new life as a baker without an alarm clock but I just couldn't will myself to get up at 3am without one. It was just unfeasible. 

I never wanted to get up this early, but for the pastries and all the muffins to be done on time someone has to be the one to do it. I could trust my loyal employee George to do it but he always has night shifts so I'd feel bad. I could also ask my one other employee Drista to do it but she is a little too chaotic and I am afraid without someone else there with her the place would be burned to the ground.

I pull on the uniform that I make myself and my employees wear before putting my hair out of the way for food safety reasons. I brush my teeth and then run out the door like fire is on my heels. I always eat breakfast at the bakery and I'm the one paying for ingredients so I see nothing wrong with that. Not that George and Drista don't get breakfast because they most definitely do. I feel the need to take care of them and I like to think that if I was in a bad situation that they would take care of me too. 

The bakery isn't far so I always walk. It probably isn't safe to walk around at night but the town isn't humongous so as long as I have my pepper spray I feel safe enough. I shiver as the night air hits me but I smile as soon as I see my bakery come into view. I started "Baked Haven" right out of culinary school and thankfully the town loved it as much as I did. I have many regulars now and business is steady. I desperately need more than two employees but rent is tight and it's all my fault. My bakery side is perfection while my business side is flimsy at best. I didn't go to college for business I went for baking. Rent on the bakery is always paid and so are my employees, I just wish I could say the same for my apartment. I end up buying mixers and fun new ingredients to try instead of saving up for rent for my own living space. It's something that I need to work on but it's really hard to break the habit of unnecessary spending when it feels so necessary.

I unlock the door to the back and step into the kitchen. It is now 3:45 am and I need to get cooking. I slip on gloves and grab what I need. When I first put the kitchen together everything was color coordinated and still is but I had to add extra precautions for when George helps me in the kitchen. Even if it is a rare occurrence for him to help in the back I still wanted to make things easier for his colorblindness. So now as well as having colors label the different doughs and ingredients so do labels saying precisely what it is and what it is used for. You can say a lot of things about my bakery, especially the business side, but nobody can say it is unorganized.

I start rolling out dough and preheating ovens and soon everything seems to go away in a haze. I've done this probably more than a million times now and it is so easy that it almost gets monotonous. This is why I need the fun ingredients and the new mixer, if I can only have one thing in life I want fun. I start smashing cookies into tiny bits to make cookie monster cupcakes when I hear a slam.

"AHHH!" I scream as I reach for my pepper spray on the other counter. I turn around to see my lovely employee Drista absolutely dying of laughter. I smile and I put the pepper spray down as she grabs a rolling pin to help me attack the cookies.

"Sorry boss I didn't mean to scare you. I really need to watch my strength when it comes to that door. I guess I am just too pumped in the morning." Drista says as she attacks the cookies with so much force that I feel bad for a pastry item.

"It's fine I just didn't know that it was six. Oh my goodness it's six!" I slam the rolling pin down and run to the front.

Since I am in close proximity I feel okay with leaving Drista by herself for the meantime. I run out to the display cases and start filling them with everything I made earlier that morning. We open the doors to "Baked Haven" in thirty minutes and everything should be ready by then. I still don't know how I lost track of time. The cookie monster cupcakes are new so that must have been so distracting that I lost track of time. As I fill the cases I yell for Drista to bring me everything else and she dutifully does so even though with her jittery hands it looks like she is about to drop half of it. I guess that is what happens when you hire a loyal employee who also just happens to be a caffeine addict and very clumsy.