Page 24 of Help Wanted: Wife

Prudence inspected the cleaned-and-shined glass cases awaiting baked goods, then she pivoted to survey the half dozen round cheery-yellow café tables and chairs. Not only would it be convenient for patrons to eat in, but hopefully the sight of customers enjoying delicious baked goods would entice people working and visiting in the building to come in and try for themselves.

“It’s wonderful. It looks like a real bakery! The café part is amazing!” She trailed a hand over a table. “These are perfect. Good selection of sizes.” There were tables for two and for four besides a bar with stools along the window. She dropped her gaze to the blue-yellow-and-green-checked floor. “Everything is so warm and welcoming.”

She eyed the blue sign on the wall before moving to the self-serve beverage station. Customers could dispense their own drinks and pay for them with a tap to their wrist. She fondled the special brewing machine he’d scoured the HyperSphere to find, purchase, and express ship so it would get here on time for the grand opening. “Is this what I think it is?”

He grinned. “Yes. Check the cabinet underneath.”

With a touch of her finger, she popped open the door. “Coffee!” She hugged a bag of beans to her chest. “I only ordered coffee from Terra Nova the other day. How did it get here so fast?”

“This isn’t your order; it’s mine. I submitted it the first day you suggested it.”

Her jaw dropped. “That was weeks ago.”

“I knew we needed to jump on it right away to receive it by the grand opening. The Cosmic Mates office helped me since I didn’t know what to buy or how to go about getting it. I wanted to surprise you.”

“You—you did.” Her lower lip quivered, and she fanned her face.

He chuckled and hugged her. “You do like your coffee, don’t you?” He couldn’t stomach the stuff, buthe was willing to gamble other human women would like it. He trusted Prudence’s judgment.

Shaking her head against his shoulder, she sniffed. “It’s not the coffee. It’s that you got it for me because I like it.”

He squeezed her tight. “That’s not even the biggest surprise. Come into the kitchen.” Taking her hand, he led her around the counter toward the back. “Office equipment will go there.” He pointed to a large console with two chairs tucked in a cubicle between the customer area and the kitchen. The DataDrive hadn’t been moved over yet. Until the new bakery opened, it would be more convenient to do the books at home.

“Big enough for both of us,” she said.

“That’s the idea.” Sometimes they needed to sit side by side to review the financials, decide on what supplies to order.

A door slid open, and they entered the kitchen.

“Oh my god!” Pru gasped.

He blinked.What the fizzak!

Every single rack was laden to the max with baked goods. There had to be at least seventy-five loaves of bread, five dozen pies, trays and trays of breakfast rolls. Every single machine whirred away. The kneaders were twisting and punching bread, aconveyor fed pie crust into the rollers before taking it to a stamp press to be cut into rounds, and mixers whirled cake batter. Every single oven was fired up and baking.

Don3.5F, their android, was in the process of adding ingredients to a huge bowl.

“Stop!” he shouted. “Don3.5F, stop right now.”

The android froze.

He stared, taking it all in. What were they going to do with all this stuff? They could never sell all this in a day or even two days at the cozi. They’d be lucky to move this much product in a week, but it would go stale long before then.

“Fizzak. This is my fault.” He glanced at a wide-eyed Pru. Her hand was clapped over her mouth. “The android came yesterday. I programmed it with our specific recipes. As a test, I ordered it to bake a selection of everything. But I forgot to tell it how much or when to stop. It’s been working since yesterday morning.”

A snort erupted through Prudence’s fingers.

“Are you laughing?” he asked incredulously.

Blue eyes crinkled. She shook her head. “No…” But a definite titter slipped past her lips, and then she erupted into giggles. Her shoulders shook, and she doubled over.

“This isn’t funny! Ingredients cost money, and we’re going to have to throw a lot of this stuff away.” With dismay, he assessed the racks of bread and upped his estimated count to about a hundred loaves. There were slow periods when he didn’t sell that much in a week! Only insomnia had enabled him to keep up with the baking before Pru, and even then, he’d only been able to stock the basics. They’d gone from having barely enough inventory to having an overabundance. His lips twitched. Seconds later, a chuckle slipped from his mouth, and then he was laughing uproariously.

The hyper-efficient android who never required sleep had baked multiples of every kind of pie in the recipe collection. Hand suspended, it remained frozen at the mixing bowl. Only the light whirling atop its head revealed it was still active.

“I’ve never owned an android before,” he said. “I guess there’s a learning curve to giving one instructions.”

She started laughing again. “Just don’t tell her fudge bars can lead to death by chocolate.”

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