Sweet Little Pains

6

True to his word, Simon visited the café late in the evening two days later, around the time the café closed for the day. He stepped into the café which was as good as empty, causing all activity in the room to cease as the employees of the Icing On The Top froze at his presence. 

They were in the middle of cleaning for the end of the day, he saw. Lexi had been running a mop against the floor, the two baristas had been cleaning their station, and the pastries side of the counter was vacant. 

It was the girl who thawed first. Her eyes full of genuine warmth and what suspiciously resembled amusement, she propped her mop against a table, wiping her hands on her apron quickly as she made her way to him with a wide smile.

“Good evening, sir.” Her smile turned apologetic. “Unfortunately, we’re closed for the evening…”

“That’s fine.” Simon interrupted, flashing an easy smile of his own. “I actually came here to see your head baker, Clare. Is she not in?”

“She is.” Lexi supplied easily, “But she’s in the kitchen, cleaning up with Suzie…”

“And I’m guessing that zone is employees only?”

“Naturally.” Lexi grinned. “But if you like, I can let her know you’re here to see her. Or maybe you can wait for her to finish?”

As if. If he went with that option, by the time he would know what was going on, Clare would have headed up to her apartment. Her locked apartment. There was no way in hell he was going to let her escape him. 

Shaking his head, Simon flashed another smile. “No, that won’t be necessary, thank you. Is your manager in?”

“Oh yes. Would you like to see him, sir?”

Behind her, the younger barista made a hissing sound. “Lexi!”

  Completely ignoring him, Lexi looked at him anticipatingly. Besides himself, Simon found his amusement was beginning to grow. 

“Yes, thank you. Where’s his office?”

             ***

“Jesus, Lexi!” Collen exclaimed, shooting his co-worker and friend a baleful look. “Why did you go and do that? You know Clare will be mad.”

“I didn’t.” Lexi feigned ignorance of the consequences of her action, resuming her cleaning duty. “A customer wanted to see the manager, and I directed him. Aren’t we supposed to make our customers feel welcome and appreciated?”

“Welcome and –” Collen himself cut off, pressing the heel of his hand to his eye in an exasperated face palm. “You know exactly how Clare responded to our teasing the other day, and yet you still went ahead?”

Lexi shrugged, making a nonchalant sound as she worked. She did remember how Clare had reacted to their harmless teasing the previous week over the obvious interest she had inspired in the billionaire who now frequented their café. They had meant no harm in it, and yet, the woman had responded with such a cool, frosty tone Lexi had felt chilled afterwards. After that, she and the others had silently decided not to mention it in her sight again.

But then, when Clare had received a note from Mr Wentworth on that morning two days ago when they had gone on a delivery together, she’d seen the contents of the note herself, over the woman’s shoulder. That alone hadn’t been able to convince her, but then out of sheer boredom and curiosity, she had looked up Mr Wentworth. 

Then she had come across old articles from a long time ago, a scandal about his wife, and the situation had become clearer to her after a little research. Or as clear as it could get from the articles she had read.