Flour Girl (Bucky x reader Bakery AU)

Part 10

Mr. Barnes accepted it and placed his other warm palm over your joined hands. "It's my pleasure, Y/N. And please, George is just fine. It's so nice to meet you and Clint in person, finally. I don't get out of Brooklyn often these days, but when Jimmy said he was sick, I thought I'd offer to deliver," the man smiled warmly.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, too, George," you replied, returning his smile. "Thank you again, I will return that bag of flour when I receive mine tomorrow," you assured him.

He shrugged, unconcerned. "No rush, I know you're good for it. Well, I better get back. Seems we're short-staffed today. Good to meet you both," George waved as he headed for the door, leaving you and Clint at the counter.

Clint stared after him a moment and you followed his gaze. "Nice guy. Too bad about Jimmy, though. Hope he gets better soon."

"Yeah..." you trailed off, then turning back to the sandy-haired man. "Listen, I'm sorry about yesterday, Clint. I didn't mean to make a scene here, it was rude and unprofessional and I apologize."

The man finally met your eye, then taking in your contrite expression. "What, you getting into it with Jimmy?" he asked and you nodded in reply. "That's okay, I like a little afternoon drama. So...I take it he wasn't who you were here to meet? The guy didn't show?" he asked in concern.

You took in a shuddered breath, shaking your head. "No."

Clint place a hand over yours on the counter. "I'm sorry. I know you and Jimmy have a bit of tension there, so him showing up along with being stood up...I don't blame you. Guy's an idiot, by the way," he gave your hand a squeeze before turning his attention to the pastries.

You were grateful for that, since your eyes seemed to be prickling with the threat of tears. Not now, you told yourself while clearing your throat. "Thank you."

Clint signed the paperwork and you were on your way.

____________

The following morning, all was going smoothly as usual but as you drove slowly toward the Nest, looking for a place to park, the strangest thing happened. Just as you were approaching, you noticed the Barnes Bakery van out front was about to drive away. The driver stuck his head out the window briefly and you saw that it was Jimmy, who just gave a small wave and drove away, leaving the spot empty for you. Quickly, you pulled to the curb and parked, but...what was that?

Pausing only briefly, you got out of the car and grabbed the boxes to deliver. A quick conversation with Clint and you were back on the road within 5 minutes. Wow. Amazing how a good parking spot can improve your morning. Thanks to your good fortune, you made it back to the bakery just in time to see Sam pull up in his delivery truck with all your ingredients. It was the start of a pretty good day.

Later that morning, you thought about B. You had kept yourself busy yesterday to avoid thinking about all that had happened and the hole his lack of texts had left in your life but he drifted to the forefront of your mind today. You hadn't heard from him again, but his last text had left it in your hands. If you wanted to keep interacting, then it was up to you. As you sat down at your desk for the first time that day, a thought occurred to you so you pulled out your phone. You stared at the single letter "B" at the top of the open messages and nervously began to type. Before you could stop yourself you hit send.

FG: Are you okay? I mean....you're not dying or anything, right? Cause if I'm mad at you and find out you had some life-threatening disease or something and you're shielding me from it, that would suck.

Waiting a few seconds, those three dots popped up quickly and your heart caught in your throat. The thought had occurred to you that there might be a specific reason why B hadn't shown up and your brain went directly to "worse case scenario". You couldn't let go of your concern, so you asked, point blank without greeting. His reply arrived.