She was driving her moped, a scarf loosely tied around her head. Taking a swift right, she saw the cake shop. Her favorite cake shop in the city.
The last time she was with him, they had passed that shop, newly opened then, wanting to go inside. We'll go there when I come the next time he had promised. The next time he had come to the city, he hadn't called her. I can't sit across a table sipping coffee while knowing you're not mine, like two stranger friends, that's what he said when he texted her later, telling her that he had come to the city but was now gone.
Don't think about it now, it's of no use. She found a parking place, and took off the scarf. She daintily arranged it around her neck and peeped into the mirror once. Girls!
Carelessly fiddling with her keychains, she entered the shop. The pastries always looked so beautiful, she started lovingly at them. The salesboy smiled at her courteously.
"Yes ma'am?"
"Is that all the bakery stuff you've got today?"
"Uhmm.. Ma'am.. Can you wait for a minute please?"
The boy disappeared into another room. She stared dreamily at the cakes. Seeing something white in her peripheral vision, she turned to her left. She saw a glass cabin, and a man behind it just shifted a round cake onto the rotating disc. The man saw her staring at him pointedly.
"Ma'am.."
She turned and looked at the salesboy, having no idea when he had come back.
"Ma'am, can you please wait for a few more minutes, our bakery stock is just out of the oven. They'll transfer it downstairs in a few more minutes. Is that alright, Ma'am?"
She nodded, and turned her attention at the man who was making the cake. He had finished applying a layer of cream. He looked at her again.
He was around 40, with a belly. His cheap light green flannel shirt disfigured him even more. His hair dishevelled and his white teeth shining against his dark skin, his nose was equally blunt. His hand skillfully polished the cream layer.
He looked up at her. He could see a young woman of 20, admiring his work. He smiled.
She smiled back.
The microwave bell rang. He hurried to get the molten chocolate out and back at his revolving disc. He looked at her again, partially relieved that she was still there. He transferred the molten chocolate into another container. She looked at the passion with which she looked at all his actions.
He looked at her again, and smiled. She smiled back. The smile exchange remained something beyond any words they could have exchanged, as if there was some far deeper understanding between the two of them, something that can develop only through the years.
She took a step closer.
"Ma'am, the bakery products are here."
She again absent-mindedly looked at the salesboy who had appeared out of thin air once more. She hurriedly asked a sandwich and a roll to be parcelled, while keeping one eye on the cake maker. She took the parcel from the salesboy and stood in front of the glass cabin.
He smiled at her again. Feeling encouraged, she asked, "How do you transfer in onto the base?"
He pointed at his long knife and said, "Using this."
"This?! Knife?!"
He wordlessly went back to spreading the chocolate on the cake. She kept standing there.
She had no idea that the salesboy and the cashier were both ogling at her. He didn't like it.
Rubbing of the excess chocolate, he went across the room and came back to the rotating disc with a cardboard base in his hand. He looked at her.
With two careful swipes, he loosened the cake. He looked at her again. He had all her attention.
With one swift motion, he transferred the cake from the disc to the base. He looked at her again. She nodded at him, with a satisfied knowledgeable smile visible only to him. He nodded back.
Clutching the parcel and rummaging among the keys for the right one, she walked back to her moped.
She had just met a friend in a stranger.
