Page 10 of Bread By the Grim
“Sorry, I haven’t had a chance to put the bread in the oven yet,” she apologizes.
I come to stand beside her as the customer leaves. “Are you kidding? You’ve gotten so much done. I’m sorry, I’m late. I woke up with an upset stomach.”
“No worries. It’s been a slow morning. The rain is keeping everyone home, I think.”
“Still, thank you. You did an incredible job.”
She smiles, and it lights up her whole face, the vanilla scent of her coming off in waves.
Gods, does she know that she does that? I wonder as a new soggy customer comes in from the rain. She welcomes them in with a cheerful smile, and I sneak off, grateful for the chance to adjust myself in private while she deals with the public.
I’m two hours behind, and there’s a ton of work to be done in the back, but that doesn’t keep my mind from drifting back to Phil at every possible minute. Even the sub rolls, so perfectly shaped, make me think of her and how amazing she is with dough.
What else could those hands do? What else could we do together?
Despite the rain, business is steady throughout the morning, keeping Phil busy enough out front that I manage to get caught up in the back.
Ten o’clock comes way too soon. “You got plans for the day?” I ask her as I come back up to the front.
“I hadn’t really thought that far ahead. Would it be okay if I stayed out here a little longer? Learned about lunch? Not on the clock, of course.”
“You’ve been out here since two. Aren’t you exhausted?”
She smiles and shakes her head. “The kitchen’s my home. Not in the barefoot and pregnant way. In the chef way. Not that I’m against pregnancy. I want kids one day. I just–”
The idea of Phil barefoot and pregnant with my child does things to me that I’ll definitely be paying for later. I cough to clear my throat, and, frankly, as an excuse to turn away so I can adjust myself yet again. “You just mean you’re at home in your work environment?” I ask as I go to the sink and wash my hands.
She flushes a beautiful pink. “Yes.I feel capable in the kitchen in a way that I don’t feel capable in other places.”
“I have a hard time believing that.”
She chuckles, and the sound sends shivers down my spine. I have it so bad for this woman. “Then don’t ever ask for help with the books. My math is atrocious.”
I shrug. “We all have our weaknesses.”
She smiles and shakes her head. “I can’t imagine you have a weakness, Grim. You seem incredibly strong and capable.”
I can’t help but smile at the compliment, but I’ve never learned to take one. “You’d be surprised.”
A customer enters the shop before she can press that line of thought any more.
“Goodness, the spadefoot population is going to be out of control this year with all the rain we’re getting!” the woman exclaims to herself.
“What’s a spadefoot?” Phil asks.
The woman chuckles. “You must be new around here, dear…it’s only the horniest toad on the planet?—”
Phil thankfully gets sucked into a scientific discussion of the mating habits of our local Great Basin Spadefoot, the toad that will be living it up here pretty soon with its annual mass orgy in Dreadwither Forest. It’s more than enough to distract her from where our conversation was going and lets me slip to the back.
Not that I’d mind talking to Phil about anything she wants to talk about, but discussing weaknesses is the beginning of a dangerous path for me. I want Phil to have the chance to spend some time with me and get to know the real me before she has to know my gremlin.
Over the next few weeks, Phil quickly becomes a customer favorite. I’d expect nothing less. She kindly listens to Ben, the elderly moth man who’s a regular, tell her long-winded stories about his grandchildren while he eats his daily turkey and Swiss on wheat. She sneaks free cookies to small children and has even started making doggie treats for the people that eat on the patio with their pets.
She’s absolutely the perfect employee—always on time, always in a good mood, always working hard. Working with her makes the day go by so much faster and makes her days off seem so much quieter and bland by comparison.
I do my best to keep far away from her on her days off. The itchy-achy feeling along my spine has only gotten worse in the weeks that have passed since she arrived, and I don’t know what to do about it. I’ve been attracted to women before. I’ve even had a few short relationships over the years, but I’ve never felt the way I do about Phil. Which soundsstupid—something a kid would say. But it’s one hundred percent true.
Maybe it’s because she’s my employee? Maybe this is only exciting because it’s forbidden, and it’s making my gremlin all antsy?
