Perfect

Chapter Four: One Year Later

 -ALEX-

  My little sister Poppy held onto my hand as she skips down the street, telling me about her day at nursery. I smile, watching the glee on her face as she reminisces about the boy she clearly has a crush on, who accidentally threw paint at her.

   Sure, Mum is going to freak big time now there is blue paint all over her £700 dress but the story is cute otherwise, however overprotective I get over my only little sister.

   I fear my overprotectiveness was only going to get even worse when she's a teenager.

   "Which way are we going, Alex?" She asks, looking around at the unfamiliar surroundings. "Where's the car?"

   "I thought we'd walk," I tell her. "And plus there's this shop that I wanted to try out, a bakery."

   "You mean a cake shop!?" She gasps. Poppy is all about cake. It is her favourite food, much to the annoyance of our kale-fanatic Mother, who wants Poppy on a gluten-free diet for some mad reason.

   She is 4!

   "Yeah," I chuckle. "It's called 'Perfect Desserts."

   "That's a pretty name," She grins, still skipping down the street.

   "Yeah..." I went into thought. "It is a pretty name." I wonder why I find that phrase familiar.

   When we reached the door of the shop, I pressed my hand against the white wood, letting it open and the bell on top signal to the workers that they had new customers. I let Poppy in first, still holding her hand.

   We sat at an empty table by the window, hoping that paparazzi wouldn't catch us here. It is in a sort of suburban area of London, but when paparazzi want their pictures, they'll go to great lengths to get them.

   I notice a little girl sitting at a table by herself just ahead of us towards the back of the shop, the table littered with colouring pencils and colouring books. She looks close to Poppy's age, and this is sort of confirmed when she looks up, notices Poppy sitting with her back towards her, and then jumps off her chair with a few pencils and a book, running over.

   "Hi," The little girl speaks, showcasing a toothless grin - too cute. "Do you want to colour?"

   "Yeah!" Poppy exclaims in excitement as the young girl climbs up onto the seat next to Poppy, putting the book down in front of them and handing Poppy some pencils.

   The middle-aged man at the counter smiles before he began walking over, standing next to the young girl and placing a hand down onto her shoulder, and then looks my way.

   "Hello," He greeted me, extending his arm. "Jason Perfect, I own this bakery."

   "Alex Darkbloom," I shake his hand, not really paying attention to his name. "And your shop is lovely; I always wanted to try this place out but never got the chance."

   "It's great having such famous company here," I fear it became my trademark to cringe at being recognised all the time. I hate it. "Don't worry; we're not one of those companies that try to milk celebrities appearances."

   "Much appreciated." I smile, looking down at the girls again who giggled as they chatted away with each other.

   "This is my granddaughter, Emma." Jason introduces, looking down at her proudly.

   "Well, this is my little sister, Poppy," I proudly spoke as I look at Poppy, her long brown hair falling down her shoulders and over her red coat. "I'm guessing after this, we may become regulars to this bakery."

   I place my order and within minutes Jason is back with our cake slices. Poppy cheers as she uses a miniature dessert fork to eat her cake as Jason again looks down at his granddaughter, smiling.

   Then an older lady walked out from the back, towards us at our table. She also smiles down at Emma, who looked up to her and flashes her cute toothless grin again. She then turns to me, and extends her arm as well.

   "Hello I'm Amanda, Emma's grandmother, I heard you all talking whilst I was back there," I shake her hand also. She had a Brummy accent – who figured? "Hey Emma, made a new friend?" She leans down to talk to her young granddaughter. They look eerily alike. Genes must be a major deal in this family.

   "Yeah, her name is Poppy!" Emma exclaims excitedly, and then went back to her colouring.

   "Whose name is Poppy?" A new voice spoke up now. One that I... Was absolutely certain I had heard before. That accent – that Birmingham accent.

   I look over to the young woman who arrived from the back of the bakery store, her jet black hair in a ponytail, and what looked like flour all over her black uniform.

   She looks just as beautiful as the first day I saw her.

   She stops as soon as she sees me; her smile now disappeared and replaced with one of surprise. "Alex?"

   "Ava?" I ask, now making all of the connections. Perfect Desserts? She even told me she worked in a bakery!

   A year had clearly been too long for me to forget details like that.

   "What are you doing here?" She put the tea towel down on the counter before walking around. I notice the converse on her feet and remember the last time I saw her, how she whipped off her heels and wished she wore converse instead. It made me smile as I look up to her face again.

   "Poppy likes cake," Was all I say, causing her to look at me in confusion. "Sorry, Poppy as in my little sister, Poppy," I tried to get myself out of his awkward altercation. "I wanted to treat her to cake, and I have wanted to try this place out ever since we moved here recently, so yeah..."

   "Sorry," Jason interrupts. "Do you two know each other?"

   "We met a year ago," Ava became just as awkward as I was, clearly embarrassed about the fake number.

   As soon as she left the club, I dialled it to find out it wasn't hers. Mainly because an elderly woman picked up and then swore at me for calling her so late in the night.

   I tried to catch up with her outside of the club, but as soon as I managed to get out, she was gone. "At Gaby's engagement celebration thing we went to."

   "Wow," Amanda was clearly impressed with the company Ava kept. "Can you believe who Mummy knows, Emma?"

'Wait...' my subconscious finally stops partying at the sight of Ava again. 'Did she just say Mummy?'