Crumbling Cakes

Part IX

The rest of the week was uneventful. I stayed out of Sebastian's way and he remained busy with several consults. There was an upswing in fall weddings, thus making our dear boss high in demand, and the rest of us scattered around like headless chickens to fill in everything else.

Today, on the other hand, would be another story. It was D-Day. The moment where I had to spend an entire six hours with the man, helping him with god knows what, was upon me. That's the interesting part in this mess, I had zero baking skills. And as you may have picked up, I'm not exactly handy with the baked goods, they always seem to end up airborne. Which meant the most current backed up orders were out of the question. So why was I really here?

Too bad this odd request wasn't enough to stow my anxiety. The entire walk over here my mind kept worrying about how I was going to wile away the time. To distract myself I made a list of things that I could clean, restock, maybe even reorder. Hilarious right? I end up ruining the product with my clumsiness but I'm in charge of keeping tabs on ingredients! Oh, the sweet irony.

Maybe now is a good time to clarify that although I call myself the cleaning lady, I'm kind of a queen of all minuscule-tasks. It didn't start off that way, and to be fair I was warned, but after my first accident, Sebastian started asking me to do other things that were not part of the original job description. I thought Great! Job security and all of that.

The more I messed up, the more he threw my way. I couldn't complain since the alternative was unemployment. At some point, I realized that he expanded my duties so as to keep me from causing too much havoc in any one thing. You'd think more responsibility would mean more disasters, right? Nope, not with me. Funny how that works. I am a conundrum.

I shivered in my thin long-sleeved shirt as I stared at the back door. I was early and yet couldn't will myself into punching in the code. My fingers were turning numb from the chill, fall was definitely coming hard this year. My stomach gurgled in hunger. Quiet you, this is stressful enough, I don't need reminding that we're out of food.

This was stupid, what was I afraid of? I could handle the beast even if it was a solo kamikaze mission. Here I am, freezing my nips off at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am, arguing with my stomach and for what? Overtime, Romanov, think overtime.

Right, here we go.

The pad beeped beneath my fingers with each button I pressed. A quiet click gave me notice that the door was unlocked. I gripped the handle tightly, taking in one final breath. Gird your loins, Gladys, we're going in.

Bracing myself for the onslaught (I'm so dramatic) I pulled the door open and marched in. There was nothing. It was quiet and still. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. I snorted at my silly joke. Of course there are no mice, God the health department would have a field day with us if there were. This isn't Ratatouille, no little chef's here. And yes, I'm aware that was a rat and not a mouse, just follow along.

"Hello?" My voice echoed down the hall, silence greeted me in return.

"Huh." I was alone. Good job, Dalia. There you were freaking out in the cold and he wasn't even here yet. Could have freaked out in the warmth but oh no, you went with melodramatic lamenting in the frosty alley.

"Sorry Ladies, I'll grow bigger balls next time," I muttered as I patted my chest, the ones with the frozen nips of course. It was as I was closing my locker after dumping my bag that I heard the door open. That was a short reprieve.

"Oh good, you're already here."

I looked over at the sound of Sebastian's voice. He was walking toward me carrying... what is that?