Final Love

LILY

My alarm goes off, informing me that the time was 4:30am and that it was time for me to get up and prepare as usual, I turn it off then rolled out of bed. My mornings would always start like this, I would get up, stretch a little, then head into the bathroom to get dressed. Today I picked a yellow floral sun dress and brown boots for my outfit of the day. I got dressed and did some light make up to brighten my face, by now it was 5:20am.

I run a bakery that serves different pastries and bread, also some tea and coffee to go with it. I also deliver to companies all around the country. Today was no exception, I rushed down the stairs which led to the bakery, and immediately headed to the back room, which was for baking. Most of my staff were present, so I picked up my apron and joined the set who were kneading bread dough.

"Good morning Lily," Jarod, my head chef said as soon as I walked towards him supervising.

"Good morning Jarod, how is everything going?" I replied while smiling at him and washing my hands.

"Everything is going good; 50 pans of apple pie are in the oven baking. That's the order we got from Sharon's Salon, then there's some tea bread and chocolate cake baking also, for our in-house customers." Jared always gave me a run through of the orders he got in the mornings, to keep me up to date. He was my manager, best friend and chef all in one person. "David's order isn't till evening, so we would start making his when we are done with most work here."

"So what's today's special?"

"There's no really any special today. Though we're trying all of America's favourite flavours of donuts, cake, cupcakes, pies and cookies."

"All?"

"Yes, they're working on it over there, the cookies section are making oatmeal flavour already. Now personal talk, how was your night?"

"My night was short as usual, with little to no dream. I barely got any beauty sleep," I told him while kneading dough.

"You still look beautiful no doubt," Jarod was always good with words, which was why his compliment didn't surprise me any bit. "I'm off to start work on the donuts." It was 5:42 by now and the shop was set to open 6:30 every morning. I had 25 staff working with me, because of the amount of orders I got every morning.

After my parents sent me packing, I took little of what they sent me out with, and went over to my grandmother's place, in a town called Nedford. Nedford was a small town located at the northern part of USA, my grandmother had moved to this town when my grandfather died years back. She decided on moving to a small town were nothing would remind her of my grandfather.

You would be wondering why my parents would've thrown me out right? Well, here goes your answer, I was thrown out because I got pregnant. I had my first boyfriend, Jeremy Andrews, when I was 17, he was everything I wanted in a guy, he seemed like someone I would want to start a family with. He seemed to love me so much, as much as I loved him, which was why when he asked to take my virginity, I didn't think twice before letting him. That first sex led to me being pregnant. I was scared when I found out, but was happy since it was with Jeremy, the one I wanted to have a family with. I was so excited and naïve, so I rushed over to his house, knowing his parents were not home, and ran straight to his room. I was shocked at what I saw when I yanked open his room door, Jeremy was laying on the bed butt naked, with a redhaired girl on him, also naked. I was too shocked at what I had seen to say a word, I went back out of the house and ran to tell my parents all that had happened.

My father, Steve Greyson, was the CEO of Grey's empire, one of the largest companies in the USA. His reputation to him was everything, he had the money, the fame and everything, what he wanted the world to see was the perfect family which he had built alongside the perfect company. Which was why when his last child, and only daughter came home crying about being pregnant he was furious. She was still a teenager and just got into college, how could she get pregnant? He stormed off out of the living room that day and left me with my mother, who was always at his beck and call. She hurried towards me and scolded me without considering the heartbreak I just went through.

My father came back that night and sent me packing, threw all my things out and denounced me as his child. With tears in my eyes, I picked up one suitcase out of the five he threw me out with and dragged myself to the nearest hotel. That night I called my grandmother, Annie Greyson, then explained all that happened to her, she gave me the warm replies I craved from my parents, and told me to take the next bus to her place first thing in the morning.

I was delivered a very handsome boy, I named him Jacek, it has a polish name which meant Hyacinth flower. Luckily he looked more like me than Jeremy, so I wasn't reminded of my horrible past. My grandmother helped me with my son while I went to college for baking and pastry arts, it was for two years. I had started the course when I was still with my parents, but I had to transfer to one around Nedford. As soon as I graduated from college, I decided to start my own bakery with the experience I had. I went in search of buildings around Nedford which would be perfect for a bakery. I found a two story building that was perfect for I and my family. The second floor of the house was a three room apartment, with a kitchen and a living room. While the ground floor had a main room and a back room. I met Jarod in college, we became best friends a month after we met, he was my first employee. We remodelled the bakery together and decided on a name together, 'That Bakery Shop', we decided on it because it sounded funny and catchy at the same time. Surprisingly we got busy faster than we expected, I was really popular both in high school and college, most people from high school ordered from me, while my college friends visited the shop frequently. Different shops came to my bakery to get bread for retail, companies ordered for different artist designed pastries for their company meetings and events. Jacek was now two years old, and was my number one advertisement. Jarod made a video of him snacking peacefully on one of my designed doughnuts, he had some of it all over his face, but the satisfaction was evident in his eyes. He said to me, "This is really yummy."

At exactly 6:30am, we were open for the day, we had sent the order to the salon right after the apple pies had been prepared. 7am was the usual time for breakfast rush, we began setting up the bakery, I turned on the coffee machine and placed all ingredients for our bestseller tea, and chocolate drink. Display pastries were arranged in the transparent display case, the sitting area was well arranged and we were ready for our first order. The bakery door bell jingled, signalling that someone walked in. Frank, a customer from the house next door walked in with a smile on his face.

"Good morning Frank," I said as soon as he got to the counter.

"Good morning Lily, it's always so good to be graced by your smile every morning," Frank replied, as cheeky as ever. "Am I the first one to come in as usual?"

"Yes, you are as usual. Today we would be giving you a little bit of something extra."

"That is lovely, I would like to have three..."

"Glazed doughnuts and one chocolate filled doughnut right?" he chuckled then nodded. I picked out our custom doughnut box, and placed his order in it. "For our extra gift today, I'll be giving you our new recipes. So you have to pick between our Lemon Meringue pie or German chocolate flavoured cupcake."

"Hmm, it's a tough one seeing as I've never tried any of the two," now he was stroking his chin. "I guess I will go with the cupcake, you can never go wrong with chocolate, thank you."

"No problem, here is your order," I gave him the already packed box and got his credit card in exchange.

"Thank you, how's Annie this morning?" Frank had a thing for my grandmother, ever since we moved to the bakery.

"She's doing very good. She's probably still resting," I passed his card back to him and a receipt on his order.

"Send my greetings to her," with that he walked towards the entrance and left the building. Just as he left, people began trooping in, and so the breakfast rush began.

It was now 8:30 am, this was when the rush hour most times are reduced,

"Phew, I can never get used to that," I said to Jarod as I slumped on the chair closest to me.

"I don't think anyone can get used to it, they just live with it," Jarod replied. He looked just as tired as he sounded.

"Please cover for me, let me go get Jacek ready, and make breakfast." With that I got up and headed for the staircase which led to the second floor of the building.

Once I got into the house, I headed towards my grandmother's room, because I was sure that was were Jacek would be by this time of the morning. I slowly pushed the door open, and saw both Jacek and Annie sprawled on her bed in each other's arm.

"Mama!" Jacek squealed, then ran over to hug me. I went down on my knees to receive him and smother his whole face with kisses.

"How was your night candy?" I asked him while pulling him back to look into his golden eyes.

"It was fun!" he replied then chuckled.

"Fun?"

"Yes mama, we went to Disneyland and had lots of candy," he told me while still smiling.

"We did?" I asked tentatively.

"Yes mama, in my sweet dream. Mama can you take me there someday?" he asked in his slurred baby voice, and gave me the puppy dog eyes.

"Soon candy, now we just have to get you dressed for the day okay?" I replied. He had been asking to go to California for the longest, and I didn't really have time for vacations. I knew someday I would have to give in to his request. I went over to my grandmother who had been watching the whole scenario. "Good morning nana."

"Good morning love, how was the rush?"

"Draining as usual. Frank sends his greetings." She scoffs.

"It's high time you tell him, I'm actually not interested in him or anybody. I'm not getting any younger," Nana shrugs and squeezes Jacek tightly in her arms. He had crawled his way back to her while we were talking.

"Anyways, it is not my story to tell, you have to tell him yourself. Let me get this baby boy ready and make breakfast." I picked Jacek up, tickled his sides a little, and took him to his room to get him prepared for the day.

At 9:45am, I went down the stairs leading to the bakery, leaving a now well fed Jacek with my Nana. I could hear a lot of noise from the backroom where I was. I ignored it because it kind of sounded like the normal rush, though it should have ended by now. I went into the pantry to check how much ingredient we had left, this was my daily routine.

"There's this customer talking trash about our food!" Dean, one of my workers said as he rushed into the pantry.

"Talking trash?" what could possibly go wrong with my art? I rushed over to the counter at the front room.

"I can't believe you would sell this for people to eat. It's utter rubbish, and not fit for consumption, this bakery should be shut down!!" A browned haired man shouted, he had drawn up a crowd right at the counter. He was all suited up with a suitcase in hand, and looked like he could buy the whole of my bakery and make it a corporate firm.

"Sir, we served you the flavour you requested for, you asked for honey lemon cruller, which was our special today, that's how it tastes..." he cut Jarod off

"When I asked for your special, I didn't ask for trash like this!!"

"You would not talk to my employee like that!" I don't know what came over me, but I was angry, and I just shouted at a customer....

CAYDEN

"You would not talk to my employee like that?" I watched the little woman's eyes turn from anger to regret in a minute. Did she just yell at me? "I'm so sorry I yelled, I can quickly make something else for you from a plain donut, how about that?" she looked so calm like she did not just yell at me.

"You just yelled at me, how am I so sure you know what you are doing?" I know I was being really annoying, but I wasn't sorry. I asked for their special for the day, no one told me what it was, then I was given doughnuts with lemon in them. Who the hell came up with that idea? I was furious, I had to vent out my anger. I never imagined I would meet someone who was this calm and collected, "Let me see if the 'best bakery in town' is worth it," I made an air quote with my fingers. She looked like she let out her held breath, then walked back to where she sprung out from.

I went back to where I was sat initially, and watched as the crowd went back to their sitting positions. The man at the counter earlier, brought a cup of coffee to my table,

"I didn't order coffee," I told him.

"It's on the house, sorry for the inconveniences," he looked like he wasn't pleased with what he said. He bowed his head, then walked away. I shrugged then sipped on the coffee while waiting for the petite woman to come back with whatever magic she wanted to perform on the doughnuts.

I liked professionalism, poor customer service shouldn't be part of any business problems. I was the COO (Chief Operations Officer) of one of the largest companies in the USA, Grey's empire. Professionalism was what we were known for, that's how we were pronounced the best.

I came down to Nedford for business meetings with our clients who were supposed to arrive in town today. The flight got delayed, so they were not in town yet, this was one of the reasons I was so grumpy this morning. Work was everything to me, a break from work had me frustrated, I had nothing to do apart from have some girls over and have my way with them, no love allowed. I had a no love policy, why you may ask...

I was born into an abusive family, not the kind you would see on a normal day. My mum was the abuser, she would constantly abuse I and my father, she would blame my father for marrying her into poverty, she would blame me for being the reason they got married in the first place. She got pregnant for him after their first time together, her parents insisted they got married. My dad wasn't done with college by then, so he had to quit college and start working different jobs. Even with numerous jobs, my dad still couldn't afford the glamorous lifestyle my mum craved, that's when the abuse started. She would push him, hit him, beat him and all other forms of abuse, I wasn't excluded either she would cause bruises all over my face, back and arms. She went on with the abuse till my dad died. She pushed him down the stairs and he had some internal injuries, he died because she didn't take him to the hospital immediately. After that she was arrested, and was later given a life sentence, I was taken by child services at the age of 8. This whole scenario was my driving force to most of my successes, I never wanted my life to end the way my dad's life ended. Ever since, I've never seen the need to fall in love with any woman.

"Here is a caramel apple donut, an exquisite taste for an exquisite person like yourself," the petite lady, who I think owned the bakery, said as she placed a plate of donut dripping with caramel sauce. It actually did look good, she had sprinkled some chopped peanuts on it and had drawn an apology on the top part of the plate. Everyone had their eyes on me as I picked the fork from beside the food. I took a bite, the flavours in my mouth were something I had never experienced, they were as exquisite as she had mentioned. "What do you think?"

"They are quite alright," I shrugged and took another bite. I wasn't going to be totally honest seeing as everyone wanted that from me, they didn't have to know what was going on in my head. She sighed then walked away, back to have a talk with the guy at the counter, probably her husband or something.

After I was done eating, I went to the counter stretched out my platinum credit card. To show off my wealth a little bit, the guy ignored my show, picked the card and paid the bill. After that I walked out of the bakery, headed to their tiny parking lot, then drove to the hotel I was lodged at.

As usual, when I travel to new places, I liked to explore the ladies they had, Nedford wasn't an exception. I had met a girl at the lounge last night and invited her over for lunch. She arrived just in time, as soon as I got back from the bakery.

"Welcome to my suite, milady," I said as soon as I saw her at the door. She had on a red ruched body con camisole dress, that stopped midthigh, a pair of black show me the ropes square toe heels, and a sexy smile on her face.

"My pleasure," she replied seductively, while placing her hand on my chest. "I brought lunch."

"Wow, can I have that now?" I asked pulling her towards the bedroom.

Soon our clothes were long gone, we were now in bed together, in each other's arms.

"I love you," I barely remembered her name, and she was talking love.

"We don't do love here," I chuckled and got up from the bed. "When you're settled, get dressed and meet me downstairs," I got dressed and walked out of the suite.

An hour gone, I was back in my suite, working on my laptop, trying to cover up the work I was losing. The ringtone of my cell phone went off, distracting me from work a little bit. I picked it up, my client's name popped up on the screen.

"Good evening Mr Davidson, I do hope you're doing fine," I said as soon as I answered the call.

"Good evening Mr McLou, I'm calling concerning our meeting at Nedford. The flight which I thought was postponed to tomorrow, was actually postponed to next week Monday, I'm so sorry about the inconveniences," he said from the other side of the line.

"No problem sir, have a lovely week," I sounded like everything was okay but my heart had fallen down to my feet, I was going to stay in Nedford for a whole week, without working? Just kill me...

LILY

My day could've gone well if I didn't have such a bad customer, why do people from big cities always feel like they are the best at everything? How could someone be this full of himself?

"Can you imagine him saying the donut is just alright? After saying this, he finishes the whole doughnut and cleans up the plate, including the apology," I was ranting to Jarod, who was also at the scene. "How arrogant, he couldn't even admit that my art was the nicest thing he had ever tasted in his entire existence."

"I totally agree, just calm down baby girl," Jarod replied with both hands on my shoulders. "He's not worth all this anger, he's just a one-time customer who is here for the attention."

"If you say so," just then Jacek bounded down the stairs.

"Hi mama," he flung himself into my arms.

"Hey candy, how come you came down the stairs on your own? You're such a big boy now," I tickled his side.

"Yes mama, I'm...a...big...boy...now," he said in between chuckles. I loosened my grip on him, he rushed into Jarod's arms.

"Hey Jay, how are you big boy?" Jarod asked while throwing him up in the air.

"Mummy said we are going to Disneyland soon, will you come too?" Jacek said to him, completely ignoring his own question.

"Wow, you're inviting more people?" I asked him.

"Yes mummy, everyone has to come with me!"

"Fine," I never won a fight with Jacek. "What do you want for lunch?" We always went out for lunch, with nana and Jarod. Leaving the bakery in the hands of the other workers,

"I would love to have cupcake for desert!"

"I know love, what will you have for lunch?"

"Hmm...I don't know mama, maybe chicken," this was why my nickname for him was candy, he always wanted something sweet, never actually thinking of an actual food to eat.

Two days after, and Mr rude guy is standing in front of me at the bakery counter. He was in more comfortable clothes, he wore a mint green long sleeved Ralph Lauren polo shirt, with black suit pants. Which left me no choice but to think, did he lose his job?

"Good afternoon to you too, since you seem too busy to greet a customer," he said to me, as rude as ever.

"Good afternoon, sorry I was taken aback for a while, I never imagined you would be back, after the review you gave the last time you came," I told him bluntly. Jacek was beside me pulling my pants, he had been asking and begging for cupcakes, and his sugar intake these days have gone through the roof, so I ignored him. "Did you come to complain about something this time?"

He let out a hearty grin, "I'm here only because I have a date, and my date asked for us to meet here," he seemed to be really proud of his so called date. "Can you at least offer me some coffee? How bad can your customer service be?"

I was so close to yelling at him again, he just knows how to get on my nerves. This was the worst day for nana and Jarod to go for a check up.

'I'll bring the coffee to your table, please kindly go have a sit." He chuckled as he walked away, what was so funny? I turned to the coffee machine and made the best coffee I had ever made, I didn't know why I felt the need to impress him. I placed the cup of coffee on a tray and placed some cream and sugar sachets beside it.

I took it to the table where he sat, Jacek who was still pulling my pants followed my trails. I placed the tray on the table and smiled at him,

"You didn't tell me how you wanted your coffee, that's why I placed sugar and cream on the tray," he looked down at Jacek, his cold expression turned into pity.

"Why is he crying so much?" he asked turning his stern gaze towards me. I was used to his tantrums, so I had tuned him out.

"He's just throwing a tantrum, nothing much thank you," with that said, I picked him up and placed his head on my shoulders. "Baby, not today okay?"

"Can I please ask what he wants at least?" Jacek really didn't like strangers, so I knew he wouldn't like this weird guy touching him, so I said this,

"Sure, you can try," I turned Jacek's face towards him. Today was a perfect day to betray me, Jacek didn't wait to be carried, he stretched his hands towards the guys direction, asking to be picked.

"Hi baby, what's the problem?" he cooed, who knew he could be so nice to a baby. I was so shocked about two things, Jacek let his whole guard down, then this strange rude man, is suddenly so soft for a 2 year old baby.

"I'll leave you both," I said to them, but they seemed too into their conversation to notice me going back to the counter.

Thirty minutes gone, and no date had arrived to Mr rude's table. Jacek was still in his arms, he had somehow convinced Jacek that he didn't need any more sugar for the day, and they were chatting happily. I don't know why, but I was somehow jealous, I wanted my baby to myself, and no one else.

"Hey baby girl, how's everything going?" Jarod asked, appearing from behind me. When and how did they get back and I didn't notice? "Why are you so lost in thoughts?"

"When did you get back?" I asked the one question going through my head.

"We just got back, nana muttered her greeting but you were so lost in thoughts."

"Nana was here?"

"Yes, she went upstairs though," his expression had now changed, from that of a prying friend, to a concerned one. "What exactly is wrong?"

"Well..." I was about to tell him all that had happened, but Mr rude got up, while still holding Jacek in his arms. I gestured towards his direction when Jarod gave a questioning eye,

"I'll be leaving now, apparently my date cancelled," I don't understand why he felt like he should explain to me. "Your son is great by the way, if you don't mind I would love to come once or twice to hang out with him or take him out, how about that?"

Take who out? Did he mean my son? Wait, does that mean he's still going to be in town? Wait did he ask if I would mind? What just happened?