Light Up The Night | One-Shots | Discontinued

The Bakery ~ Wade x Molly

I sighed as I finished wiping down the counter because of the kids sitting at a table in the corner of my bakery. They always like to cause a ruckus or a mess (or both), and I've almost banned them from the bakery multiple times, but my good friend and one of my two workers, Mark, always kept me from it, as they "brought us business." Trying to get Bob, another good friend and the other worker, to take a side in this debate always resulted in a silent shrug from him before he returned to his duties, so I would just kick them out for the day usually.

I tossed the rag into a bucket sitting nearby as a woman with blonde hair I'd never seen before walked into the bakery and up to the register. I gave her a friendly smile and said, "Hello, welcome to the Barnes Bakery, how may I help you?"

Returning the smile, she said, "I'll have a chocolate donut without sprinkles and a small, black coffee."

I rang up the order as I yelled back at Mark to get her coffee. "That'll be 3.75$."

She paid for the order, so I went to slip a donut in a small paper bag as Mark asked the lady, "Name for the order?"

Damnit, I totally forgot to ask that!

I mentally facepalmed at my own stupidity as she calmly gave her name to Mark, her smile not disappearing. Her name turned out to be Molly, a very pretty name that suited her well. Mark scribbled the name on a cup as I gave her donut to her.

"Thank you, sir," she said as she took the small bag.

I smiled at her. "Call me Wade."

She glanced to my name tag that literally no one seemed to ever notice and nodded. "Okay, Wade."

I smiled at her again as Mark hands her coffee to her and says, "Sorry that my friend here is an idiot sometimes."

"Hey! I'm right here!"

He sticks his tongue out at me as Molly giggles. I rolled my eyes and said to Molly, "Hope to see you again!"

She smiled. "Of course!"

After she left, Mark remarked, "Did you get so enamored by her beauty that you forgot to ask for her name for the order?"

"Shut up, Mark!"

"Get back to work, you idiots," Bob said from somewhere in the back.

As soon as he said that, the kids started making a mess again. I had had enough with them and yelled, "You kids, stop making a huge mess and get out of my bakery!"

After that day, Molly kept coming back everyday, her order changing constantly for the first week as she figured out what she liked. Eventually, I didn't even have to ask for her order, I'd just get it ready as soon as she opened the door to the bakery. Mark constantly teased me for it, but I told him everytime that it improved efficiency, which it did! He just doesn't understand that.

Within a span of three months, the staffing had changed drastically. Mark took his new girlfriend, Amy, and Tyler and met up with Ethan and Kathryn to move to Los Angeles, leaving just me and Bob, but then Bob and his wife, Mandy, moved to North Carolina, leaving me alone in Cincinnati with the bakery. A good friend of mine, Garuku, moved up to Ohio to be with his girlfriend, Tegan, and offered to help with the bakery. Fresh out of a bad relationship, Jp also offered to help, meaning that the employee team completely changed. Tegan also offered to help out, so the team grew from two to three. Despite Mark no longer working there, he still texted me often to tease me about Molly, much to my annoyance since Gar had taken Mark's place as the teaser here. I now had two annoying teasers to deal with.

One day, after this span of three months, the day felt ... off. It was one of those dreary days filled with grey and rainy skies, something not uncommon in Ohio. Usually, our business was a little less on these days, probably because not as many people were out. Tegan was out today, Gar informing me of her flu troubles, so we were down one worker. The annoying kids came in, as usual, and after they caused a ruckus and greatly annoyed an older couple (the only other customers in the bakery at the time) who were trying to enjoy some coffee and chitchat, I finally banned them from my bakery, much to the delight of Gar and Jp. As the day came to a close, I realized why today was so off.