"Well, that was interesting. I like him!" Caleb leaned backward on his chair, "So, how do you know these people?" He tipped his head to the side, "Cause they seem more like family. You and them."
"They are nosey, pests!" Jena grumbled. She knew Bill and the team will rehashed this because she is a regular here, and she comes on her own.
Caleb watched the emotions that raced through her eyes, and he wondered if he was imagining anticipation. "And that is why you volunteered to help these 'pests'?"
She said with a shrug and admitted, "I worked here, ages ago." This cafe was a saviour in her life.
"You working here? When?"
"When I started my company."
He narrowed his eyes, "Why would you work here if you were starting By Design? Surely that would have occupied your time. "
"I started By Design, because I lost my job!" She looked embarrassed. She provided an a short explanation, " I was taking too much time off for my grandmother. She was not too well. I just needed another job, in the interim. And this cafe took me on. They were kind enough to allow me to work as necessary." Balancing work and personal commitments and generating enough money to pay bills, was crucial at the time.
"Yes, Sophie said that."
"I thought if I worked for myself, we would not have that problem, you know, finding a way to deal with the situation with my grandmother's conditions. And I thought we could bake. But to start it, I would need money, to buy the ingredients." She looked around. The cafe had not changed much at all. Random tables and mismatched chairs. The same numbers of tables. The only things that changed was the paint on the wall and the framed pictures. "I waitress here. Working the last shift, midday to seven pm for three days. If grandmother was ok, I would bring her here, she would remain in the kitchen and had company. Bill and Lily are good chefs, so, Anne and I did the afternoon shift. They also allowed me to use their industrial oven when things escalated in my new company. I could use it after 7pm. So would bring the cake mixture here, bake it, take it back home and ice it, and the customer would collect it from my place or and I also sold it to this cafe. The cakes were pretty simple in terms of construction, but the flavours were amazing. So within two months I had to find the money to convert my house, to host an industrial oven. A bit of a gamble, but it allowed me to accept new orders. When that took over, I reduced my time here, and eventually stopped when I took on my current team."
"Obviously here, they love you." And he could understand why. There was something about Jena that was loveable. A combination of empathy, integrity and kind. And the fact she was beautiful was a bonus.
Jena said quietly, "They were very kind to me. And my grandmother. They were so kind."
"And that is why you volunteered today, during their peak time, to help them."
Anne approached with a platter. "Wow!" Caleb's eyes went wide. The selection and the portions were unexpectedly.
Jena huffed. "Tell Bill, he is not feeding the whole café!"
Anne chuckled. "Hey, this is just the starters!" She joked and left.
"This looks great." Caleb reached for a pastry. "Your work perks are better than mine."
"Your work perks?"
"Yes. When I started to work, my work perks were not exactly a perk!"
"When did you start?"
"My first job?" He asked and she nodded. He tacked on, "When I was fifteen."
"You had a job when you were fifteen?" She blinked.
"You seem surprised."
"I assumed, because your family is rich, you would not have to work."
He tipped her nose with the tip of his finger, "Your prejudice is showing!"
She shrugged, "So, what did you do?"
"When I told my mum I wanted to race, she told me to learn about the workings of a motorcycle before racing them!"
"Good advice, but I thought you were racing from a young age."
"Kart racing, when I was nine, but my penchant for motorbikes started when I won a prize, racing a motorbike." He took a bite of the savoury pastry.
"Ah, so you switched to motorcycles."
"Sort of." He rubbed his lip. He nodded at the pastry. "I will have to remember this. It also explains the queue today. Lots of take-aways?"
"Yes." She reached for a pastry. Obviously they were not going to leave soon!
Ann brought Caleb's coffee and ice-coffee for Jena. "Thanks." Jena said automatically.
"Pass on my compliments to the chef. "This is delicious."
Anne nodded and smiled. Jena reached for her ice-coffee.
"Clearly, they know you, brought your drink without you ordering it!"
Jena smiled. "Anyway, you said you were working, like me." She reached for a sausage roll. "What was your first job?"
"At a garage. As I said, my mum said they would only buy a bike for me, if I learnt about the workings of the bike."
"And you loved your job, no doubt."
"Eventually!"
She quirked brow.
"I found a job at the nearest garage to our place, a small garage, run by a family, and they knew my background, and like you, thought I could not work!"
"I didn't say that!"
"Too rich to work, remember?" Caleb quirked a brow.
Her eyes twinkling she said, "I just assumed you were born with a silver spoon."
He reached for his coffee to hide his reaction. How could a simple gesture, like a smile, could render his logic moot. "They also assumed that too!"
"So what happened?"
"Got all the rubbish jobs!" He shrugged as if that was normal.
"Ah" She took a sip of her ice-coffee.
"But allowed me to watch and I became a mechanic go-for, a low assistant, at the garage."
"But you raced..."
"Eventually."
"Did you go back and gloat?" She rose her brow, "I would!"
"No."
"You didn't. I would! I would go back and parade my success in their faces! Rub their noses ..." She chuckled.
"Not needed really."
"Well, you are a better man than me!"
"As I said, not needed, because they became my mechanics when I first started to race bikes!"
She put her cup down, and her eyes showed her surprise. "Really? They were your back team?"
"Yes. Fixed everything. Prepared for the race. Took me and the bike to the races. Wore their name on my leathers and the bike. They were my team."
"I thought you were sponsored by Mclean..."
"After the first season. We won. And Mclean offered sponsorship, to run under their badge."
"And I am pretty sure you did not drop your original mechanics and team."
He smiled. "I told Mcleans I come with a team. Either all or nothing."
"So they took you and your team?" Jena was pleased to hear that he was loyal, and would look after his friends and employees.
"Yes."
They both reached for the same pastry. She put her hands up and smiled, "Yours!"
His eyes met hers, and for a few seconds, they just smiled. Caleb said, "We can share."
She shook her head. She reached for another pastry. "So what happened to them after your accident?"
"They continued to work for Mclean. Then they came and worked for me when I started this company."
Bill appeared at their table. He smiled as if he knew the topic and just interrupted.
"So. Anne says you are enjoying this. What do you think?"
"Was thinking of ordering a takeaway?" Caleb said with a grin.
Bill frowned. "Why? You still hungry?" He noted there was at least another 6 pastries still on the platter.
"For tomorrow."
"Best if you collect it tomorrow. It will be fresh. Obviously you can keep todays, but fresh is best. And in any case, you will have to come back with Jena."
"He doesn't need me if he wants to come back!" Jena corrected. "He is an adult, well, I think so!"
Bill shook his head. "Naughty, Jena! I meant to help with this façade. You will need to be seen together."
"People have already seen us together." Jena said pointedly.
"One event. Doesn't mean a relationship. You seem to think that this date will appear in the media."
"Yes. I think there was a journalist here. We watched as he asked for a photo and I watched as he paid, so of course, it will end up in the media, either social media or the papers."
"Will see. My advice, is arrange another date! Something more prominent!" Bill grinned.
"Bill, stop playing matchmaker. This evening was perfect for the circumstance. And thank you for this."