Lyrics of a Small Town by Abbi Glines
Five
Two banana loaves, two dozen caramel oatmeal cookies, one batch of dark chocolate granola and one batch of brown sugar granola later along with a new idea in the oven I didn’t have a name for yet.
It was well past six in the evening and I was covered in oat flour, batter of many different kinds, and happier than I had been in a long time. While humming a tune my gran used to sing in the kitchen, there was a knock at the door.
I wiped my hands off on Gran’s yellow gingham apron and used my wrist to push the hair that had worked its way free from my bun out of my face then headed for the door. It wasn’t until I rounded the corner that I saw who was on the other side of the glass door. Pausing, I thought of several things at once. First of all, my appearance. It was very likely I had flour amongst other ingredients on my face and in my hair. Then of course the most important thing, why was Saul here and was I going to open the door?
I didn’t even know his last name. His eyes met mine and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to turn and walk away now. Not that I was so drawn to him but because I had better manners than that. I wasn’t rude. Besides, whoever Saul was he had helped me not once but twice. I doubted he was here to be rude.
When I reached the door, I opened it and forced a smile I hoped was polite. “Hello,” I said as if he hadn’t just watched me contemplating not coming to the door.
The corner of his mouth curled as if this amused him. “Did I interrupt something?” he asked.
I shook my head no. “Not at all. How can I help you?”
He continued to appear as if he may laugh at any moment. “You got some flour on your nose and forehead,” he said, nodding his chin in my direction as he said it.
“I am baking,” I explained, refusing to reach up and wipe it off. With my luck, I would only make it worse.
“Then I am interrupting something,” he replied.
Was there a point to this visit? My smile was pointless. I was sure it looked as fake as it felt. I dropped it. “Currently it’s in the oven. I have a few minutes,” I told him, emphasizing the word few so he would get to the point.
He didn’t seem to care. Instead he looked around me and inside the house. “Smells good.”
“I hope so,” I replied.
His eyes shifted back to me. Then he reached into the pocket of his jeans, drawing my attention to the outline of his well-chiseled stomach under the thin fabric of his white tee shirt. I shouldn’t be looking at that but it was hard to miss.
“I was asked to drop this off to you,” he said, snapping my attention back to him and not his abs. He was holding out a small plastic card the size of a credit card.
Confused, I reached for it and immediately read what it said.
Hendricks was written at the top in the familiar gold letters of the hotel and condominiums’ emblem. Underneath it was my name Henley Warren. Then lastly, there was a long number and a barcode.
I lifted my gaze back to meet his. “What is this?”
“Entry card. Lily sent it. When the guard on duty comes to your car, you just show him this.”
Lily had sent me a card through Saul? I wondered how she knew Saul. Was he not just some employee? Did he find out who I had visited and alerted her to my having difficulty getting in the gate? I started to ask, but he spoke first.
“I overheard Lily asking a guard to have a card sent to you. I told them I knew where you lived and I’d drop it off,” he explained, as if he had read my mind.
“Oh, well, thanks,” I said. He didn’t ask how I knew the resident in the penthouse and I didn’t offer an explanation. We weren’t to be friends. He had made that clear.
“It was on my way,” he said. If he was concerned I was going to read too much into his gesture, he need not be.
“Of course,” I replied, realizing he was once again headed to the house party. “Well, have a good night and thanks again,” I said and started to close the door.
“One more thing,” he said, stopping me, and I paused to look back at him. “If Drake comes around, don’t take him seriously. He isn’t for you,” he said then turned and walked back down the stairs.
Had he just warned me off his friend? Had that been the reason he offered to bring the card here? I stood there staring at his back for a moment longer than necessary trying to process what he had just said and the way he had said it. There had been a definite smirk on his face. It had been slight but I had seen it.
Closing the door with more force than necessary, I growled in frustration. Saul might have been helpful, but apparently, he was also an elitist ass. An elitist ass who drove a beat-up old truck and worked at a condominium complex. Did his ridiculously good looks get him accepted by the trust fund brats down the street? Did I even care how he fit into their world? No. None of it mattered. He nor his friends were a part of my life and I did not have some hope that they would be. If he thought I was sitting around waiting on Drake to show up and flirt with me again he was sorely mistaken. It annoyed me more than it should that he thought I needed to be told not to take his friend’s flirting seriously. Those two had taken up the last of my time. I would be sure to stay clear of them. Both of them.
I had what I believed I was going to call a dark chocolate roll in the oven that I needed to get out and let cool then add the icing. I wasn’t going to dwell on Saul or Drake. They were not part of my plan this summer. After today, it was very unlikely I would see either of them again, unless it was them driving by to go party down the street.
The smell of books was not what wafted up to meet me when Hillya opened the back door to the café. The kitchen smelled of cinnamon, vanilla, caramel, and coffee. I held two paper bags in my hands that were filled with all I needed to make the items I had worked to create yesterday. I had one of the banana loaves with me as well as a plate with one of each of the other items I had made for Hillya to try. I had awakened at three unable to sleep any longer and made a fresh batch of the dark chocolate granola, deciding to try some goji berries this time, and I had been happy with the way they turned out.
“Good morning,” Hillya said, closing the door behind me, “I see you came prepared.”
“Yes, I hope it’s okay, but I wanted to try a few things yesterday and went to buy supplies. I brought some samples for you, if you’d like to taste them and see what you think.” I was still not sure of my baking abilities, at least not at this level. If she tried my samples and sent me packing, I would understand. I would possibly cry and eat my weight in oat milk ice cream, but I would still understand.
“You don’t do anything halfway. A go-getter. I shouldn’t be surprised,” Hillya said with a smile. “Let’s see what you got.”
We spent the next half hour on stools as Hillya enjoyed some of all my baked goods while she drank a cup of coffee. When we stood back up, I had my work schedule, and she had a list of the things I would need for her to order. This morning, I was to make all I could with the supplies I bought then put them out front to sell.
It was almost ten when the last of my banana bread sold. It had been what I had the most of so it had lasted the longest. The granola had been gone by nine and the dark chocolate rolls had been gone in the first hour. I was amazed. If only Gran could have seen this.
The bell chimed on the door, and I stood up from taking the empty tray that had been holding the banana bread out of the display case to greet the customer. Hillya was in the back working on lunch items and Jill had left after the morning crowd. She was a cashier that worked mornings, but I heard her say this was her last week so I wouldn’t be getting to know her.
Drake’s face lit up in a grin when his eyes met mine. He had his arm thrown around the shoulders of a petite brunette with dark brown eyes in a hot pink bikini top with a pair of tiny white shorts. “Good morning,” I said, returning Drake’s smile. The brunette didn’t smile or acknowledge my greeting. She was looking up at the chalkboard menu behind me with a bored expression.
“Henley,” Drake drawled out my name. “Are you gonna be making my morning cup of joe?” he asked.
“I’ll just get a water. I can’t get a cappuccino here. This place doesn’t have low-fat oat milk. I don’t do soy,” the girl said, glancing up at Drake obviously annoyed.
“I have low-fat oat milk,” I replied and went to put her order into the computer. The only reason we had low-fat oat milk was because I had brought some with me today. It was not something Hillya typically had. I wasn’t sure how to ring it up, so I just put it under special.
“It’s not on the menu,” the girl told me.
“No, it’s not, but I brought some in this morning to use for the dairy-free, low-fat banana bread I made,” I explained to her, keeping my smile in place. Her eyes widened some when I said that and her demeanor changed.
“You have dairy-free, low-fat banana bread?” she asked.
“We did. Just sold the last of it. We will have more in the morning. It is also gluten and nut-free,” I added.
The girl looked up at Drake. “Oh my god. Why didn’t you tell me they had things like that here? I thought it was just a regular coffee shop. I have to text Amy,” the girl said then walked off with her phone in hand.
“Well, damn, girl,” he said impressed. “I’ve not seen her that excited about anything since I met her, but I just met her yesterday or was it the day before. I’m not real sure. Anyway, get her that drink shit she’s so pumped for and I just want an Americano.”
I added his order into the computer when he said, “Give me one of those strawberry donuts too.”
I put it in then went to the espresso machine to start on the cappuccino.
“Amy and I are coming in the morning at eight,” I heard the girl tell Drake.
“That’s great. Now, which one is Amy?” he replied.
“The redhead,” she answered him. “Want to come with us?”
“Will it end in a threesome or a blow job?” he asked hopefully.
The girl laughed. “Uh, no. Absolutely not.”
“Then no thanks. I’ll be in bed,” he replied.
It sounded like Drake asking girls about their feelings on blow jobs was common. I wanted to think it was just him being funny and making a joke… but I didn’t think it was. I was fairly certain if a girl replied that she liked giving blow jobs, he would take her up on it that very moment.
I finished her cappuccino and Drake’s Americano then placed them on the counter. She picked hers up and headed for the door. I put Drake’s donut in a bag and he gave me a lazy smile as he took it from me. “Now I know where to find you,” he said.
“I guess you do,” I replied. However, his buddy would not be happy about his looking for me. I also was not Drake’s type and he wasn’t mine.
“When do you get off work?” he asked me.
I glanced over his shoulder at the brunette talking on her phone just outside the door. “It appears you have enough company today,” I told him.
He shrugged. “She’s getting boring.”
“Don’t be a jerk,” I replied.
He placed a hand over his chest. “Ouch. You wound me.”
“I doubt that. Have a nice day, Drake.”
He shook his head grinning. “Don’t play hard to get, Henley. I like that game.” Then he turned and walked out of the door. I watched as he, once again, put his arm around the girl and they walked away.
With a sigh, I picked up the low-fat oat milk and put it back in the mini fridge under the counter. I needed to find the chalk and add the oat milk to the menu. Then I needed to add it to the list of things for Hillya to order.
Tomorrow I needed to plan on making an extra loaf of banana bread and two more batches of the dark chocolate rolls. If the brunette helped spread the word, we may just need them. Smiling, I headed back to the kitchen to find my list. Gran must be sitting back and smiling right now as she watched this unfold. I liked to think she was always watching.
