A Pocketful of Gems

Chapter 5: to set before a king - Part 4

Designing the front display window was a challenge I'd always dreamt of tackling, but now that I stood staring at the empty display window from outside, my mind was blank. I crossed my arms across my chest and propped my chin on my knuckles and stared mindlessly through the window. Wisps of gold caught my eyes and I lifted my head off my hand to look at Spencer watching me from behind the counter. He startled, blushed and turning around dashed into the back of the bakery.

I snickered to myself. What was that about?

I pulled my attention back to the display. I wanted to do something interesting for the display, something that wouldn't distract from the wonderful offerings of the bakery, but would grab the passerby's attention and make them interested in what was inside the bakery. I looked up at the sky –frustration beginning to give me a headache. The bakery phone rang in my back pocket and I answered still looking up at the sky and mentally recorded the order for the Michael and Michel Law Office.

I pushed the phone back into my pocket and took the note pad out the other. I scribbled the order and made a note that with that order we'd only have 6 bear claws left in stock. I sighed –ain't done that in awhile. I pushed the pencil in my bun and the notepad in my pocket and looking up at the display paused. Spencer was back behind the counter, watching me again. He was chewing on his lip with his eyebrows in a knot.

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I'd started coming to the bakery about three years back. I had final convinced my parents that I could get to school on my own without being lured off by a man in a trench coat offering me candy.

My first day on my own, being followed at a distance by my dad, I'd gotten bumped by a large lady into the Sunshine Bakery's display window. I'd gotten distracted by the vases of fake wheat encircling a display of pastries and a whole apple pie. They were arranged in a way that seemed like they were pointing to something inside the bakery and I'd followed it to see a tall man smiling out at me from behind the counter. He'd waved me in and spellbound I'd wandered into the bakery to him. He gave me an oatmeal carrot cookie wrapped in baking parchment.

"Carrots are good for your eyes," he said with a smile like a 20 carat diamond. Needless to say, I liquefied.

I heard my name and pulled myself out the stupor to see Spencer, covered in flour and smelling like vanilla and sugar, "Gemma?"

"Ugh, what are you doing here?"

He laughed, "my dad owns the Sunshine."

"Your dad?" the man smiled and winked at me. You guessed it, I melted, again.

"Do you like it?"

"Huh?"

"The cookie? I made them." Spencer beamed and held out another cookie to me. I looked at the half eaten cookie in my hand. I could feel my face heating up. I mumbled thank you to the man and turned away. I was almost to the door when I turned back and snatched the cookie from Spencer. He shouted after me, "see you at school."

I came to the bakery almost every day since then. I told myself it was because the pastries were so good, but I knew it was because Spencer's dad owned the Sunshine.

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I smiled in at Spencer and gave him a shy wave. He released his lip from his teeth and smiled back. He lifted a stack of sheet pans from the counter and headed back into the bakery. I watched how his arms bulge from the weight of the pans and it occurred to me that that section of the counter was a focal point of the bakery. Whenever I saw Mr. Meyer or Spencer they were standing in that exact spot –framed by the counters, displays, racks and customers. The idea for the window display came to me immediately and I ran back into the bakery and searched through my bag for my kit which should contain an extractor blade set and a spool of thin nylon. I examined the spool and hoped I had enough for what I needed to do.