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She had made it a habit to call me every Wednesday night but like always I had nothing to share. I loved my mother. I really did but her constant need to tell me to put myself out there had become shameless.
Like any good mother, she wanted me to get an education, to be independent but she wanted that as much as she wanted grandchildren. I had hoped that when my sister got married last May that any thought of children would be directed towards her but unfortunately that didn't happen.
Recently, I've gathered enough courage to tell her that kids were the last thing on my mind and that owning my own business took my full attention. I had bought my bakery right after college giving all the money I had to get it underway. After about a year, I started making just good enough profit that I was able to buy an apartment not far away.
Yet, my mother still didn't understand. It seemed every reason I had was an excuse for her. Did she recall how much it would cost to raise a child? She should know since she raised three of her own. Moreover, New York sure as hell wasn't cheap. If anything I have a decent amount of time to start a family being that I'm only twenty-five.
It had been the second week in a row that I've dodged her call and the guilt ate away at me. I knew in her own way her push was supposed to be for my own benefit but it also felt more to soothe her own anxieties about me dying alone, infertile and husbandless.
Setting my phone face down on the coffee table I flipped through Netflix-which has now become apart of my everyday routine. My days normally started with me waking up and getting ready, then I'd be at the bakery around four and work all day with a small break in between. When I had got home it had been Netflix and cuddling into my couch. My life would surely be defined as uneventful but I did like it that way.
Looking back now after I was through with high school and college I never really sustained any true friends and the only friend I had now was a seventy year old women with no desire to go get drunk at a party and who I hired as a helping hand at Elle's Bakery. So in retrospect, I was essentially paying her to be my friend.
After another three minutes of finding nothing, I settled on my go-to, Gilmore Girls. By now I could probably recite the whole series. Pitiful, I know.
Letting the episode play I walked to my fridge and grabbed the first thing I could get my hands on. To no surprise that had been a plate of the cookies, I had made.
One thing I've learned while owning a bakery was not everything was about taste. Appearance had also been a benefactor. When cake pops or cookies we're made into shapes of cute animals and had chocolate designs they had always sold better. So with cookies, I deemed not up to standard I took them home or gave them to Rosa, my helping hand. If there had been too many I'd give to the homeless shelter with a couple of my most popular muffins.
Eyeing the cookies I ate one then moved to eat another, I knew as soon as I ate them guilt would follow.
I wasn't overweight but my Doctor noted that I had high blood pressure and I could easily find myself obese in years to come if I continued to eat the way I did. Now every day after getting home from the bakery I invested an hour of my time doing at-home workouts. I had even bought myself five pounds weights to use which usually stayed in the same place gathering dust since I stuck to workouts on YouTube that had no need for equipment.
Since that ridiculous appointment I couldn't stop assessing my body through the mirror in my bathroom. It was now a consistent thing I did before I took a shower or a bath. I guess I'm relatively lucky since most of the weight traveled straight to my thighs and my butt rather than to my stomach but it still made me feel insecure-which I had never really dealt with before now.
Doing the sensible thing I let the cookies slide off the plate and into the trash. I wasn't strong enough willed to limit myself to one a day. They'd just end up being a constant temptation.
Turning back to my fridge I pulled out the things I needed for a salad and tossed then on the countertop. When I had done shopping for the first time after my doctor's appointment my fridge began to look look like a garden with all the greens I bought and for the next month, I practically steamed everything.
Throwing the lettuce and the cut up tomatoes in a bowl I doused on the ranch and added the cucumbers.
Taking a bite I continued to amble my way back to the couch. Most of my furniture I had were hand me downs given to me by my sister, Allie after she decided to move in with her fiancée at the time. She gave me her couch, coffee table, and bed frame. She offered her mattress too but I had accidentally walked into her and Dillion the week before hand and the mattress was definitely something she could keep.
Crossing my legs on the couch, I threw my fluffy red colored blanket over my legs. It was a Christmas gift from Allie and it was decorated with small white snowflakes. I was in love with Christmas and the velvety fabric of the blanket so I kept it out throughout the year.
After about another two episodes in and my bowl of salad empty on the coffee table I could feel myself drifting asleep. I was just waiting to catch a second wind. I didn't have insomnia but I found sleep hard to come by when all I could think about was the bakery and whether or not I could afford groceries or the rent on my apartment this month. Even with things going well thoughts like this kept me awake. I don't want to be those twenty year olds that moves back in with their parents after finding life far more tougher than they had initially thought. There is nothing wrong with that but for me I guess it was a pride thing.
Just as my eyes fell closed for what I counted as the third time the barking in the hallway woke me up. I should have known that would happen. Every time my neighbor got home his dog would get excited and that would result in his loud barks echoing in the hallway.
However, there had been the plus side and that was Mr. Richards downstairs was asleep during this time. The rotten man had blamed me for being a disruption when I was only trying to kill a spider and that had been when I first moved into the apartment. Since then he believed me to be some rowdy and loose morals twenty year old. How he got to that distinction I had no clue. In reality, if it wasn't for me leaving my apartment for work or to the grocery store no one would have known someone lived here.
Hearing the dog run loose in the hallway I knew my neighbor, Elijah was struggling to put him back inside. The poor dog just wants to go out and play. He has probably been cooped up in that apartment for days.
Elijah is a cop and I noticed that he started to come home later at nights. It was none of my business at all but it was Harvey's bark that gave it away. It had been common to hear Harvey around nine but then it began around ten or eleven when I was always close to sleep. It annoyed me to no end but I knew Elijah was a good dog owner and he walked him when he could.
I had only talked to Elijah a handful of times. Generally when we'd see each other in the hall. There had also been the few times where he had come to the bakery buying the same blueberry muffin that he had before. Our short conversations were civil and he seemed friendly enough.
I'd be blind not to notice how handsome he was. He was the epitome of physically strong and naturally charming. I wasn't sure if he had thought the same about himself, however. I remember when we had gone downstairs to get our mail and ran into Harriet, our tenant, she had flirted with him and would occasionally bat her eyes and mention that he was a looker. He'd kept a straight face the entire time and it was only when Harriet walked away that he rolled his eyes.
Hearing the door close and then silence I knew he finally got Harvey inside. Luckily, for myself, I had no second wind and cozied deeper into the couch and letting sleep take over.
Authors Note:
Hey everyone,
I'm so excited to share my first story. This book is sort of a way to get advice on my writing. I would really love any suggestions you have to offer. I do have a plan to create a series one with completely different characters and plotline and before I do I wanted to start off with a single, independent book. I'm hoping that my chapters will end up being longer in the future.
I really do love Evangeline and I hope you all will too. Thank you for the read and please vote! ♡