Tara: A Baker's Adventure

010

"What do you mean you already got a cake?"

I could suddenly explain the reason for my nervousness the moment we walked through the gates of UBA.

"It means we already got a cake, ma," the guy in front of me wasn't smiling, and that caused me to feel like a small, disappearing person, but it didn't take away my confusion. "Didn't you order a cake from me?"

"We did, and we asked that it got here by 8.30," he looked down at his wrist watch, and I figured he did this for emphasis, "It is 10.20."

"We're sorry," the guy beside me cleared his throat. "You know how bad the traffic can be in the mornings."

"We're sorry about that," the worker looked from him to me.

"What would have happened if you got both cakes in time?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Then we would have taken both cakes if we had paid for them," he gave me a tight-lipped smile, reminding me that the cake which I made wasn't even paid for.

I frowned slightly, "Oh."

"We're sorry for any inconvenience you might have had to go through," he said again. "We'll reach out again if the need arises."

I watched the guy walk away from us, and my heart sank. Inconvenience? Getting here was like fighting against principalities and powers. I heard a chuckle and turned to look at the guy who stood right beside me, "Did I miss something?"

"Principalities and powers?" He laughed. "Come on."

I cracked a smile only because I couldn't help it. "I didn't realize I'd said that out loud. I can't believe this happened,"

"I mean, we did kind of say it could happen."

"Yeah, but the fact that it actually happened," I sighed. "The guy could have taken the cake in my opinion, sha."

"He wouldn't see a need for them to pay for it now," he shrugged. "Speaking of which, they had back-up, too."

"I didn't know that, thank you very much," I rolled my eyes and started to make my way out of the bank.

"Hey, hey," I heard him call after me before he got outside where I now stood. "I'm sorry, it wasn't my intention to make you feel bad, but it's the truth. I only said that to show you that backups are a good thing. This shouldn't have happened."

"I know," I sighed again, shaking my head. "I can't believe I still managed to mess this up too."

There was a bit of silence between us. The box of cake sat in my hands, and I wasn't sure what to do with it now.

"On the bright side, you did take up the challenge. You didn't get to deliver the cake, but other opportunities will come," he looked at me. "Besides, now you know someone like me exists too."

I may not admit it to him, but spending the morning with him by my side reduced the pain I should be feeling from how this morning went. There was just something about him being there that felt nice even though I didn't fully know him, and a part of me was already dreading the part where would have to say goodbye to each other.

"You know what's funny?" I dragged my eyes to his.

"What?"

"Uche had two cakes to deliver today. This one, and a break up cake-"

"Break up cake?" He looked like he was about to laugh. "As in 'I'm breaking up with you, but here's a cake?'"

"Mhm," I nodded, laughing.