He sauntered in the bakery and was surprised to see Alex there. Except grown up. Hunter
knew that 10 years was a long time but this was surprising, even for someone who constantly
saw people grow up.
The older Alex was taller, taller than Hunter, he had grown 5 inches. His muscles flexed
as he worked, stocking different pastries and bread. He was wearing a button up dress shirt but
this time it looked more professional than casual. And, finally, he had chopped his hair down to a
caesar cut style hair. Hunter thought looked good on him, though he thought anything looked
good on Alex.
"Good Morning, Sir" Alex's Old teen voice was replaced by a deep thick toned voice. It
still had the old "Alex cheer".
"Good Morning." Hunter couldn't stop himself from smiling.
"What can I get for you, today?"
"I'll take a chocolate chip cookie."
"Ah." Alex said while taking one out of the display case. "You're lucky, I just freshly
baked these ones."
"That's great I always loved the cookies here."
Hunter waited for him to tell the total, today he brought money he got from his mom.
"It's on the house." Alex said.
Hunter went to his old seat and started drawing in his sketchbook. He started drawing a
woman with a small,black afro. He gave her a cigarette and drew her smoke overtaking the environment around her. Hunter was about to finish on her outfit when Alex's voice interrupted
him.
"Good Morning, again."
Hunter looked up at the man. It wasn't the same Alex.This Alex had forgotten about
Hunter., about what happened This Alex didn't know that just them talking like strangers was
killing Hunter inside.
"Good Morning." Hunter smiled.
The man smiled and put on a curious face.
"Sir" he said. "I feel like I've met you before?"
"Well, I used to come here a lot before. You were very kind to me."
"Oh." Alex said, but he didn't look satisfied with that answer.
"Well, maybe, you know my dad." Hunter started. "His name is Hunter Allen."
Alex's eyes widened. "You're Hunter's kid?"
Hunter modded unconfidently.
"Wow, now that you say it. You look identical to him." Alex exclaimed. He sat down
across from Hunter.
"You know." Alex continued. "Your dad was in here drawn=ing the first time I met him
too, can I see?"
Hunter slide the book across from him.
Alex chuckled when he saw the page. "This reminds me of my wife."
"Wife?"
"Yeah, I have a wife and two kids at home."
"Oh" Hunter turned pale.
"This is really good."
As Alex slid the notebook back, Hunter noticed a blue and white bracelet around Alex's
wrist.
"You still have the bracelet I gave you." Hunter muttered
"Huh? What was that?"
"Your bracelet." Hunter pointed "It's nice."
Alex fitted around with it. "Yeah, your pop gave it to me. That was the last day I saw
him."
"What happened?"
Alex stared at his hands. "I was young and I wanted to speed up the relationship by
asking some stupid questions I found online. He didn't want to answer them, and I overreacted
thinking he didn't like me. I yelled at him and when he didn't respond, I ran away. A couple days
later he tried to repair things, but I too embarrassed of how I acted to talk to him again. Then he
stopped showing up."
Hunter didn't know what to say.
"So how old are you?" Alex asked trying to change the subject.
"21"
" 21, Wow you're old. That's the-" Alex was interrupted by the sound of a lady yelling. X!" I recognized it as Alex's sister. "WE NEED YOU TO MAKE MORE
COOKIES!"
"ALRIGHT!" Alex yelled back.
"I gotta go." Alex said as he scurried to get out of his seat. "Nice meeting you. Tell your
pops that he should come over sometime, meet the family."
"I will, but honestly I don't think his heart could take that." Hunter said but Alex had
already walked away.
Hunter gathered his things and walked out of Sinclair's he decided it would be better to
never come back. Alex was so happy when he talked about his family, Hunter knew he could
never top that.
"It's okay..." Hunter said out loud to himself. "Who needs love? Not Hunter Allen that's
for sure. At least the universe seems to think so. Can't you let something go my way for once?
Huh? Just once?"
Just then he saw a beautiful dark,skinned lady walking by herself. Her small afro bobbed
as she walked. A trail of smoke led from her cigarette into the icy morning sky. How lucky, just as Hunter was beginning to feel hungry, he sees to woman who took Alex away from him. Joy .
"Thank you, universe." Hunter said as his stomach growled.
