Building Bridges

Chapter Four

Two weeks passed since I started working at the bakery.

Two weeks since I restarted my life after meeting Steve.

Two weeks since the parents left for their mysterious trip.

And two weeks of struggling to keep this family in shape.

I managed my time between studying, working two part times jobs and taking care of the family.

Now, it's five a.m, I am working on the bread dough to make some pain de mie, and in front of me is a tired Steve working on a puff pastry dough.

-"Are you sure you are okay?" He asked for the hundredth time in these two hours.

-"Yeah" I replied calmly.

-"Am I not your friend?" He asked

-"Sure" I said as I stuffed the dough into the bread container.

-"Is it a yes or a no?" He asked as he stopped working and just looked at me.

I sighed and covered the last container.

-"I lost my job at the station" I said and his eyes went wide.

-"What?" He asked in surprise.

-"The owner accused me of stealing money" I breathed.

-"The asshole!" Steve grumbled furiously.

-"I was supposed to get paid tonight, so, he jut made an excuse to fire me and not pay me" I confessed.

-"Everything is gonna be okay" Steve said with a reassuring smile.

And strangely, at the sight of his dimples, I found myself smiling too.

By six thirty, the owner came to us, helped us organize and stuff everything in place before leaving.

he gave us some bread and sweets as always, but, to our surprise,  we received our payment, and let me tell you, what we got was worth a month of hard work at a respectful business not a simple bakery.

-"That's a lot!" I said in surprise.

-"Not at all! You worked hard, both of you, during these two weeks business flourished, and Steve here helped that too with the new recipes, and the payment system goes by two weeks, so, thank you both of you!" The boss said with a huge genuine smile.

-"No! Thank you ! If it wasn't for you I would.." I couldn't finish my sentence because I can't imagine my life without this job, I would have lost all hope in keeping our family alive.

-"Oh! Almost forgot! We are going to close for a week! My wife wants to go visit her family, so we are going to be absent for a few days! Have a nice break boys!" He said and waved us goodbye.

We exist the bakery with smiles in our faces.

-"You look better now!" Steve said with a smile.

-"Thanks God! I almost lost hope" I said with relief.

-"So, you gonna buy a phone?" He asked with a smile.

-"Yeah! A simple one that doesn't have camera or color, it won't costs a lot" I said.

-"Here" I heard him say and turned to find him giving me a piece of paper.

-"What's that?"

-"My number, put it into your phone and give me a call or just text me" he said and went to his car waving goodbye.

I smiled at the paper and tucked it into my backside pocket and walked home.

I did the routine, and flopped on the sofa after sending everyone to school and took the toddlers to kindergarten.