Jily oneshots

Say You Won't Let Go

by natalie.ana

She closed the oven with a flourish and turned to peak out of the doorway that led to the main shop. She smiled seeing her little boy taking customer orders — he worked the til better than her sixteen year old employee and he was only five. At any rate, the customers simply adored him and often preferred to have simple orders taken by the little boy. He handed over a box of cupcakes to a woman Lily knew back from school (though the two were never close) "Bye bye, Miss Mary!", and then he picked up his pencil and started colouring again.

"Harry! Mummy's just going upstairs to grab some things. Shout out if you need me!"

Not wasting any time, she quickly went up the stairs, two at a time, and unlocked her storeroom. She didn't like leaving Harry at the front on his own, but she'd only be a couple minutes. She cursed Sara for being late. Again. She quickly pulled a milk crate out and started piling in ingredients; three bags of flour, two tins of chocolate cocoa, a bottle of vanilla essence and two bags of brown sugar. She heaved it up and made her way back downstairs, making sure to lock the storeroom again. Her ears pricked up at the sound of a loud, mean sounding voice as she was halfway down the stairs.

"I want to speak to an adult!" the man demanded.

"Mummy will be back in a minute," she heard Harry say but his voice sounded small.

"Go get her! Now!"

"I'm not supposed to leave the front," he mumbled and Lily hit the bottom stair. She dumped the crate on the bench and started making her way out but the timer went off. Cursing she started for the oven.

"Didn't you hear me, boy?" the man barked. "Now!" he demanded. Fury built up in Lily. How dare he talk to her son like that? And she banged the tray of muffins onto the counter before storming out.

"How dare you speak to my son like that?" she spat as another customer said, "Woah, leave him alone! Can't you see he's just a kid? I'm sure the owner will be out in a moment."

"Mama!" Harry jumped up and clung to her leg and she ruffled his messy black hair.

"What kind of establishment do you think you're running? Leaving a child to man the store whilst you're off god knows where!"

Lily glared at the man. "I was in the stockroom grabbing supplies. Was there a problem?" Lily said coolly. If he expected her to be polite after the way he'd spoken to her son, he had another thing coming.

"I want a blueberry muffin," he said throwing a five pound bill onto the counter.

"Mama, we don't have any blueberry left. Mrs Tabby came in this morning and bought them all. I told him that but he wouldn't listen."

"You're quite right, Harry," Lily said despite the fact that she had just pulled out a tray of blueberry muffins a minute ago, "We are out of blueberry muffins."

Harry poked his tongue out at the man and Lily saw the other customers smirk.

"This is ridiculous. How can a bakery be out of blueberry muffins?" he huffed.

"I am only one person and as you see, I offer a variety of cakes and breads, not just muffins. I suggest apple crumble or the raspberry."

Lily grudgingly served the customer a raspberry muffin to go and picked Harry up once the man had left. "You okay, love?" Harry nodded and Lily turned her attention back to her customers. She was now met with the man who had defended Harry and she smiled sheepishly. "Thank you, for stepping in."

"Not at all," he smiled. Getting over her embarrassment (for she had nothing to be embarrassed about), she looked at him properly. He had a hurricane of hair on his head and round glasses with a black rim sat in front of happy hazel eyes.