Baker's Apprentice Who Lives In A Shoe

The Still Small Voice

I wake up slowly, and it feels really nice. I haven't slept in in a long time. Wait. Why didn't my alarm wake me up? I snap my eyes open to a ceiling that was not mine. I look and see that I, for sure, am not in my own room. I then realize that there is an arm over my midsection, and a slight brush of air that seemed like breathing on my shoulder. Oh, god. Please tell me this is some kind of dream. I look at the body next to me. It's Archie. I breathe a small sigh of relief. At least we've gone on a couple dates, but I maybe would have liked to remember something about what we did. I look at the clock on his nightstand and see that I am so late. I bolt out of the bed and try to find my clothes. As I sit down on the bed to put my shoes on I feel the bed shift behind me.

"Oh, god, Ava. What happened?" I look over my shoulder to smile at him.

"Well, Archie, what does it look like happened?" I finally got fully dressed and stood up checking the clock again. "I am so late. Granny is going to kill me." I walked around the bed and spotted my purse. I went to the door to leave, but I turned back around and went over to Archie who had found his glasses and put them on. I bent down and gave him a chaste kiss on the lips. "We will talk about this later, but I have to rush to get some baked goods to Granny." I said as I walked back to the door. Before I went through the door. "See you later, Archie." I said before closing the door and running out of his place, past Pongo, and down the street towards my shop. I finally get there, but I struggle with the keys and drop them. "Crap." I whisper yell to myself. As I get the key into the lock I notice someone running towards me.

"Hey, what happened?" I look up to see Ruby. "You didn't come by at your usual time so I thought you slept in, but I went to your place and you weren't there." I tried not to make eye contact and headed inside my shop. "Wait. Are you wearing the same clothes from yesterday?" I put my apron on and turned to the ovens. "You slept over someone's house last night, didn't you?" I had to wait for the oven to heat up, so I move on to preparing batters and doughs. "You are blushing like a madwoman." I glare up at her. "It was Dr. Hopper, wasn't it?" I slam the bowl on the counter.

"Yes, Ruby, it was Archie." She looked taken aback by that, and she stepped back a bit. "Now, if you didn't notice, I am running extremely late." I slowly picked up the bowl to finish mixing the batter. Once I got everything in the oven I went and sat at the table Ruby was currently waiting at. "Sorry, I've been a little stressed."

"I can tell. I thought it was supposed to relax you." I rested both my elbows on the table and put my head in my hands.

"Well, we were both drunk. We went to the Rabbit Hole, and I just kept drinking. I think Archie was trying to keep up with me, and I woke up at his place."

"Wow, so what is bothering you isn't that you did it, but that you don't remember it."

"I don't know, I guess." I look at her through my fingers. "I really like him, but we've only been on two dates." A timer goes off and I go back to the oven to pull the food out as I continue. "I just have a weird feeling that I'm not supposed to be with him." Ruby walks over and leans on the counter.

"So, why don't you just tell him that? Archie is a reasonable and really nice guy. He will understand." I was finally able to box up the order for Granny's and placed the order in front of Ruby on the counter.

"That is the problem, Ruby. He is such a nice guy. I don't want to hurt him." She looked at me with a look that said she didn't know what I was going to do. "Get this to Granny. I'll see you later." She nodded and put the payment for the order on the counter. She headed out of the shop with the order. I switched the open side to 'closed' so I could think about what was going to happen with Archie and me. I sat all day in my shop just thinking. Sometimes I would veer off topic, though. I thought about Mr. Gold, my dreams, Archie, Emma, Henry, Mary Margaret, and then back to Archie again. I had to talk to him; we have to talk about what happened. I got up to go see him at his office, but I stopped when I noticed that it was dark outside. I can't believe that I have been sitting there, thinking, all day. I let out a breath, and head to Archie's office. I figured it was too late for him to have an appointment, so I just headed straight up. The sooner we talked about this, the better. I knocked on the door once and opened it. "Hey, Archie, can we talk about..." That is when I noticed that he was actually talking to Henry. "Sorry, I forgot that you had an appointment with Henry today."