His Rotten Apple

5 ~ Bake me a Tutor

At the very corner of the suburban street, Lilia's Bakery was situated, with its beige coating and striped window canopies that shaded the large clear windows.

    Despite the suburban location, Lilia's Bakery was quite popular throughout the neighborhood. The menu ranged from plain loaves of bread to colorful, sprinkled donuts and international delicacies, mainly inspired from Lilia's recipes.

    Saturday afternoon, Zailey and Lilia took their time to walk to the bakery as it was right across from their apartment complex. Before they had even arrived at the front of the tiny bungalow, there were already seven people waiting, enduring the cold wind. She took the orders of three of the customers, while the other four looked around the bakery for mouth-watering breakfast delights.

More and more customers entered the shop as time went by, creating a line that almost filled the bakery. Along with the people that entered the bakery was a new customer, one whom she had just become acquainted with recently.

Connor? She tiptoed to catch a glimpse of him through the crowded line, amongst the other chatty customers.

    Once Connor arrived at the counter, he gave her a sly smile and slowly scanned the menu boards hung up on the walls behind the counter.

    "Excuse me, sir," Zailey emphasized, "You're holding up the line here. Could you be any slower?"

    "I'm sorry, but I thought that the customer is always right," Connor said.

    Zailey rolled her eyes and said through her gritted teeth, "What would you like?"

    "Sir..." He continued for her.

    She took a deep breath and bit her lip, "Sir..."

    "I would like to order a tutor, please?" Connor, continuously blinking his eyes like a little child begging for a treat.

    "What's the hold up?!" An impatient customer shouted from the back of the line.

    "You really took your precious ass time making that stupid joke of yours, didn't you?" Zailey scoffed.

    Connor smirked and raised both of his hands in surrender, "So, you can't bake tutors... Darn, I guess I'm stuck with you, then."

Zailey shot him an annoyed glare.

"Alright, I'll wait... Can I have an... En-sayy-ma-da, please."

Connor chose a seat in the far corner where he wasn't seen by Zailey. A horde of customers blocked Zailey's view of him, but he was still able to see her radiant face hard at work.

He watched as Zailey took orders with impeccable speed, even managing to give off an angelic smile to each person. It was an attitude completely opposite of the Zailey he had come to recognize. She ran back and forth from the counter to the kitchen to take orders then prepare their pastries. He didn't fail to notice that due to understaffing, she had to juggle a million other tasks, while remaining unswayed by nagging, impatient customers.

The way she smiled at her customers, the way she wiped her sweat with her sleeve, her quick yet graceful way of working the cash register, the authoritative voice she used to call out orders... He was completely taken by it all. Every few minutes, Zailey extended her head to check on Connor. He would immediately shift his eyes on his food, until it felt safe to plant his focus back on her.

    After half an hour of shoe tapping and extreme fluctuation of customers, Connor noticed her exhaustion and walked to the counter. He grab an apron hanging on a hook and started to wash his hands. Zailey turned to look at the person standing beside her, eyes widening when she saw Connor's smiling face.