It Has Always Been You

Chapter 03

"Since then ... Win... that guy never came back for our cakes."

I sighed as I pounded on the dough that I was working on. It has been two weeks and Win never came back to P'Mario's cafe. I feel like sulking - simply because I thought we cleared the air between us when I gave him a treat that one night.

'He even said that the cakes I bake taste good.' I shook my head and pounded on the dough roughly, 'talk about major disappointments...' I thought before sighing.

"...right!" And with that, I thought he would visit often without reservations and would open up more. But instead ... "Bright?!" I sighed. He looked so pleased with the cake I served him too, and the end, he never even came back to say 'hi' at least. He seemed to know P'Mario and P'Fern too. And I haven't even thanked him enough. "Bright! There's an order!"

I felt the ends of my hackles rise; cold sweat broke in my back as I was pulled back to reality from my daydream world when I heard P'Fern exclaim my name from the counter.

I looked up to the piece of paper pinned in the counter and pulled out some pudding and a cheesecake from the fridge at the back before hurrying to the counter, giving her the orders she was looking for. "Sorry." I said, bashfully scratching my nape.

"Seriously, get a hold of it!" she raised her brows and sighed. She skilfully sprinkled some confectioners sugar on the pudding and arranged it carefully in the tray, "You're daydreaming often these days." her attention still fixed on the desserts. "Tell us if you feel weird, we can give you a day off." she finally turned to my direction and looked at me with a concerned expression and said before going to Table 6 with the orders.

I gave her a nod, followed by a smile that meant 'I'm okay.'

I leaned to the work table and sighed. I threw my head up and reflected on my actions these past few days. Indeed, I've been really spacing out a lot. But I'm sure this isn't because of the accident or whatever. Aside from a wound that gave me three stitches in the head, there haven't been any problems with any part of my body - so far. The main reason I've been spacing out, really, was Win - to be honest. That guy was a mystery. He came to me like we knew each other in the hospital and even gave me a hug then acted like we never knew each other after. I wanted to know him better, ask him if we knew each other before or were we close or not... but even so, I don't even know where to look for him - and he had not showed himself up in the cafe ever since.

I stood on my two feet when I saw P'Fern coming back with the tray and a new order on her hand. I sighed.

"Another order for Table 3." she said pinning the piece of paper on the counter.

"P." I muttered.

I saw her turn to me, waiting for the reason why I got her attention.

"About the guy who comes here every morning for cake?" I asked.

She placed both of her hands on the pockets of her apron and looked at me intently. "What about him?"

I took a deep breath, calming myself, trying to compose myself. "Do you know anything about him?" I said turning to her.

She remained silent for a few seconds before raising her eyebrow, her disposition slowly turning dark. "Why?"

I was taken aback with her expression and her delivery. She looked angry and I felt like she was literally throwing daggers to me when she asked. For some reasons, it felt like she didn't want me to meddle or do anything with Win. It felt like she knew I was up to no good - even if I'm really not. "B...But -"