Six Days: Book One in the SIX Series (2 page)

           
The day I met Mallory my world got a little better. It
was the third day of my job search and things looked a little dismal. I ran
into her on the street corner of Sixth and Savannah, just a few blocks from my
apartment on a small side street. I had never before heard so many curse words
come out of someone’s mouth so quickly. I started thinking maybe she was even
making some of them up. I noticed in that moment that she had tears in the
corners her eyes. Clearly she was having a bad day, though strangely I felt
comforted by the thought that someone else was having a tough time just like
me.

           
“Excuse
me,
is there something I
can help you with? You seem like you’re having a rough day,” I said, cocking my
head to the side, trying to make eye contact with her.

           
“Unless you happen to be an excellent baker and you’re
free for the next seventy-two hours, I don’t think so,” she replied. Her tears
slowly made their way down her pretty heart-shaped face.

           
My mind flashed back to the break-and-bake cookies I
burnt two weeks ago, and how angry Grant had been about it. “I’m pretty good at
baking, with a recipe,” I replied.
Not a total lie,
I thought. How hard
could it really be? “I’m definitely free for the next seventy-two hours, that’s
for sure. Maybe I can help? My name is Adelaide. Well, my friends call me
Addie.”

           
The woman, with her short dark hair and hazel eyes,
looked up at me and threw out her arms. Without a word, she wrapped me in a hug
so tight I could barely breathe.

“You’re
an angel,” she said excitedly. “My name is Mallory. This is my shop,” she said,
pointing at the large pink French doors with a sign above them that read ‘Sweet
Cheeks.’ “My business partner, if I should even
be
calling her that, has apparently found a better opportunity. She left me a note
saying that she moved to New York. How could she do this to me right before one
of my biggest catering events? She was one of my good friends too, ironically
enough. This is the biggest job I’ve had since starting up the shop.”

Mallory
looked up at me as if I completely understood the emergency. All I could do was
stare
at her.

           
“I need six cakes, three hundred cookies, one hundred and
fifty cupcakes, and about fifty treat bags for the kids. Do you have any
experience?” Mallory looked at me with desperation.

           
This was one of those moments where I didn’t know how big
of a lie to tell. I wanted so badly to ease her fears and tell her I knew what
I was doing. Then I remembered the four, yes, only four times I had ever
decorated a dessert of any kind and I began to feel hopeless as well.

           
“Look,” I said, clearing my throat in an attempt to sound
more confident. “Maybe you can make the recipes and I can help decorate
something? I’m a decent artist, painting and drawing and such,” I added,
although I had no idea if some pencils and a sketch book correlated whatsoever
with a frosting thingy and something edible. “I’m sure I can do it.”
The
biggest lie I told so far.
I tried to search my brain for some type of
happy frosting memory… didn’t I frost Christmas cookies with a grandma once? Oh
that’s right, not too many sweet loving grandmas at the boarding school I was
sent away to. Damn.

           
Without hesitation, Mallory swung open one of the pink
French doors and led me inside. The smell was amazing. The room was lit by a
pink sparkling chandelier. The floors were perfectly white, and directly in
front of me stood two large glass bakery cases filled with the most superb
desserts I had ever seen. There were giant cupcakes with cherries on top,
chocolate tortes, cookies galore, and things so covered in sparkly sugar I
couldn’t even tell what they were.

           
“Those are
fake
, if you were
wondering,” Mallory said with a mischievous smile, pointing to the bakery
cases.

           
“You make fake desserts? I don’t really get that,” I said
with an obvious confused expression on my face. “I’ve never heard of a bakery
that specializes in fake food. That sounds a little disappointing.” They looked
pretty, sure, but it just seemed like a cruel joke. Why would someone have such
beautiful glass cases filled with fake desserts?

           
“I’m not really open all the time. I mainly just do
private orders. This building is more or less just my work space. One of my
friends built me those beautiful glass cases, and I don’t know
,
it just seemed weird to keep them completely empty. But,
since I don’t have a stream of people coming in here, I could never keep them
full with the real stuff or it would all go bad. So I settled for some
mock-ups. Makes people at least think I am a superb baker if they look through
the windows though, right?” Mallory said with a smile.

           
I nodded, amused by the sight of all those fake desserts.
Her idea certainly worked, strangely enough. My mouth was watering and I wanted
to try them all.

           
“Back here,” Mallory said, motioning me to walk around
the counter. I suddenly felt like I was invading such personal space. “Put this
on,” she said, throwing a
ruffly
pink apron at me.

           
Without hesitation, I lifted up my long blonde hair and
tied the apron around my neck and back. I then made my way over to a large sink
area to wash my hands.
Probably the only thing I would do right today.

           
For the next twenty minutes, Mallory gave me a stunning
how-to presentation as if she was a tour guide for a kindergarten class. Her
hazel eyes sparkled as she spoke, and I noticed she had a few light freckles
underneath her eyes. She was a pretty girl, looking honest and laid back in her
skinny jeans and a loose t-shirt. I smiled at the irony of a baker wearing
skinny jeans. The idea of it was amusing to me. She continued her tutorial,
making the equipment sound easy to use, and the baking room was immaculate and
well organized. She then led me into a small decorating room completely full of
piping bags, colored frosting, and even some design books for me to thumb
through.

           
“Are you ready to get to work?” Mallory asked, beaming at
me for the first time since her earlier break down. Her teeth were perfectly
straight and she had a dimple in her right cheek. I nodded, not really sure
what I was in for.

           
Mallory gave me very specific instructions as to what I
would be in charge of, and I appreciated how organized she was with her
process. She set up a small work station for me, giving me all the tools I
would need to accomplish whatever she had set out for me to do. It was a little
overwhelming, but I could tell immediately that she would be patient with me,
which relaxed me quite a bit. I still wondered how well I would be able to pull
all of this off, given I literally had no experience whatsoever with what she
was expecting me to do.
 

           
The following three days were a blur. We baked, sorted
things, decorated, baked some more, and then packaged up our creations. The
hours passed by so quickly I couldn’t recall if I had even closed my eyes for a
nap at any point. Mallory pointed out that I did get a ninety minute snooze
along the way, sometime on day two, although I may have been standing up for
most of it. I’m not sure that type of slumber truly counts unless you’re a
horse.

           
The theme “May Flowers” was a little cliché if you ask
me, but safe enough for a politician gathering I guess, which
was the catering job
. Mallory didn’t know the specifics,
other than just how many people would be attending the event, which was quite a
few. Somehow in the last three days I piped one hundred and seventy-eight
ladybugs, two hundred and forty butterflies, and at least four hundred flowers
of all varieties onto various cookies, cupcakes, chocolate tortes, Oreo pops,
and
a
even a cake. The cakes were Mallory’s forte, so
she did all the others. I couldn’t believe how many items we made, but was more
horrified that somewhere along the way I was counting ladybugs and butterflies.

           
While we baked, Mallory explained that the building
belonged to her grandparents. They left it to her when they passed away. There
were two small apartments upstairs. Mallory lived in one of them and the other
was rented out to some long-time tenants, which covered Mallory’s utilities on
the building. She just recently had the bottom renovated and turned into the
bakery, but it was still only a part-time gig for her, just a little start-up
project. It was more of a hobby than anything else, and she liked having a
place bigger than her apartment kitchen to experiment. She admitted the inside
was overdone given that it was decorated to a tee despite not having many
actual customers, but she loved the atmosphere and believed it encouraged her
to want to bake even more. Because the bakery was located on a side street,
there wasn’t much foot traffic from the downtown tourists. She was only
officially open once a week when she had open houses where people could come in
and sample her work and place large orders.

           
Mallory also worked part-time as a fitness instructor at
a local gym teaching spinning classes and Zumba.
Kind of
ironic for a girl who otherwise worked in a bakery, surrounded by calories.
She was very bubbly and personable, which was infectious. She invited me out
for a shopping trip once we were finished with this order, and I was happy to
have made a friend so quickly after moving to town. I never would have imagined
I would be helping someone out in a bakery, but so far it somehow seemed like a
good fit for me and I was glad I could help.

           
Once we finished perfecting the last of the order, we
packaged it up and organized all of the boxes. It seemed like she had enough
supplies to get through an entire year’s worth of orders, so again I was
baffled by the fact that she talked about this shop as such a small side hobby
when clearly she seemed prepared for much more than that. Sure, the actual
customer area in the bakery was small, there were only two small bistro tables
set out for people to sit down. But even then, she definitely had enough baking
space in the back to handle some significant sized outside orders, and she had
plenty of storage space to house everything. I really didn’t understand why she
hadn’t expanded her business to being open a little more regularly. Surely she
should be doing more than a birthday party here and there and the rare
occasional large catering job like this one.
 

           
“Well, you did it,” Mallory said after doing one final
count to make sure we had completed everything on her list. Although she should
have been a zombie by then, she radiated with pride. “This is going to do
amazing things for my business.
All these people at the party
reading my name on the display boxes, eating all of this.
I really
couldn’t have done this without you, Addie. Whatever you want, I’ll pay you.
Any amount, I swear,” Mallory said, making her way over to the cash register.

           
“Oh no, I just… I mean, I’m just glad I could help. I'm
happy that I was in the right place at the right time. I’m not looking for
anything, really,” I answered back.
Sleep.
I just really wanted sleep.
“Look, like I said earlier, I just moved here from out of town. I'm in one of
those apartments just down the street within walking distance. Maybe if you
need help again you can call me?”
Yes, a job, that’s what I actually needed.

           
“Are you kidding me?
Really?
You
would want to work here? I only started this up a few months ago, so it
wouldn’t be a ton of hours. Well, not steady anyway. It’s pretty sporadic.
Honestly this is the most time I’ve ever consecutively spent here. But business
has been picking up, and obviously I lost the only other help I had when my
roommate left. Would you really want to help me? The job is all yours if you
want it.” Mallory smiled, as if she already knew my response. I nodded, too
tired to say much more.

           
I slowly walked back to my apartment, mildly surprised my
limbs still worked well enough to get me there. Must be all the frosting I had
coursing through my blood stream. Good thing I now knew a fitness instructor, I
was pretty certain that would be helpful at some point. I smiled, clearly
delirious at the thought of any kind of exercise after everything I had just
eaten the past three days. I turned the key in my lock, walked down the hall to
my bedroom, and flopped down on my bed face first. As terrible as I felt in
that moment, this new life already felt better than the one I had just left
behind.

           
Fourteen hours. Had I ever in my life slept for fourteen
hours straight? It felt amazing, and I had no complaints about the rental bed I
was in, so long as I wasn’t thinking about
who
else
may have slept in it at one time or another. Mallory and I had plans today to
do a little shopping and she promised to show me around town. In the
seventy-two hours we had spent together, all the baking and decorating didn’t
leave much room for deep conversation. Well, she really did most of the
talking.

           
As I learned a few things about Mallory, I quickly
realized we were from two different planets. She had grown up in a small farm
town nearby with two loving parents and a brother, one of those “normal”
upbringings, if you can call that normal anymore. Her parents actually met on a
blind date and they married three weeks later, and had been happily married
ever since. Stories like that really baffled me. Mallory went to college and
ended up studying abroad in France, Italy, and even Australia for a semester.
She spoke whimsically about her experiences, the guys she met there, the places
she saw. It further made me realize I hadn’t had much adventure in my life at
all.

           
That afternoon, and the several days that followed, we
became fast friends. There was something about her, something, well…. fun. She
seemed so carefree, almost cavalier, but in an adventurous type of way. We
spent some more time at the bakery and she officially put me on the “payroll”
as she called it. Just like Mallory had warned me, the bakery wasn’t open many
hours. But once a week when she would host one of her beautiful open house
events, a good number of people would come to sample her work and place orders.
Just the preparation for that one event seemed to keep me busy enough, let
alone a couple side jobs and orders she had here and there. She was extremely
patient with me, and worked hard to teach me new techniques with her piping
bags during our downtime. I was surprised by how easily it came to me,
considering I had never even held one in my hands before meeting her. We saw a
couple movies together and did a little more shopping, picking up some basics I
needed for my apartment since I was still trying to get settled in.

           
“So next weekend some friends of mine are having a little
get together,” Mallory said as she stretched out on my uncomfortable leather
couch one Sunday afternoon. “I thought it would be fun for you to meet some
more people. You know
,
broaden your social circle a
little bit.”

           
“I don’t know
,
I’m not really a
‘big group of friends’ type of girl. Is it like a party, or like an intimate
gathering of close people?” I asked quizzically. I certainly didn’t have many
close friends growing up, given I was constantly moved around from place to
place. Even back when I was in school it seemed like everyone I was close to
eventually got into a relationship or moved away, so I never stayed in contact
with anyone very long. Once I met Grant, I didn’t exactly expand my social
circle then either. We had friends, sure. But they were all
his
friends,
so I guess I didn’t really lose any in the break-up since I wasn’t all that
close with them to begin with.

           
“Oh come on, it’s just a few friends getting together for
some food and drinks. There may be a decent sized group of people coming and
going, but by the end of the night it will dwindle down and there will probably
be less than ten of us. We can just sit around and hang out. It’ll be fun, I
promise. Besides, I know a few eligible bachelors who will be there,” Mallory
replied, raising an eyebrow at me.

           
“Eligible bachelors?
Are you a
1980s dating show? Who says that?” I shook my head, only slightly amused.
“Dating isn’t really my thing. That’s pretty much how I ended up here,
actually.”

           
I explained my history with Grant, leaving out a few of
the messy details. She seemed to understand. The first few days in the bakery
Mallory and I had plenty of juicy conversations about love, but they were all
her stories. Although none of her stories worked out either, they all sounded
more romantic and whimsical than mine. She clearly she didn’t seem too broken
by them.

           
“Look,” Mallory continued, “I’m just saying that I think
it would be good for you to meet some more people. Now that you’re planning to
stick around town for
awhile
since you just got a
fancy new job, I just think it might be nice to make some good new friends.
Other than myself, of course.”
Mallory flashed her big
confident smile, as if to tell me she already knew I would be going to the
party with her.

           
The rest of the week flew by, spent busy learning some
new frosting techniques and brainstorming some event ideas for the bakery. I
thought maybe if we spread the word a little more that her shop even existed,
perhaps she would be able to increase her orders, thus giving me more work to
do, which I needed. Mallory taught me some new recipes as well and we
experimented with some new desserts, trying to expand her available menu. I was
surprised at how well I was picking up what Mallory taught me, given that I
never really dabbled with baking before. I felt as though I could finally bake
a few of her items from scratch without her supervision, which seemed like
great progress for me. Even when we didn’t have much to bake, it was still nice
to hang out with her at the shop. We talked and laughed, and Mallory had
endless funny stories to tell. I really enjoyed getting to know her better.

A
couple of Mallory’s friends stopped by throughout the week and they all seemed
pretty nice and sincere. There was Megan, a girl Mallory had known from school.
She had long dark straight hair and striking green eyes, one of those girls who
was just naturally pretty, but didn’t seem to act like she even knew it.

Then
there was Steve. He was handsome, like,
really
handsome
,
with blonde hair that either
seemed messy or perfectly done, though I couldn’t tell which. His eyes were an
unusual hazel-green mixture, and he had a defined jaw line and a dimpled smile.
He insisted I come to the party Mallory had mentioned on Saturday night, though
I sensed he was being urged by Mallory to talk me into coming.

Stephanie
and Tyler stopped by the bakery that week as well, a couple Mallory knew from
college, though they were married and had moved a couple towns over so Mallory
didn’t see them too often. A guy named Johnny stopped by the bakery twice. He
had short brown hair and dark eyes, and Mallory seemed close with him. Not in a
romantic way, but more like they had just known each other for a long time.
Mallory briefly explained that Johnny and Kate, her friend that ditched out on
her and the bakery, had dated for
awhile
. Apparently
things didn’t work out between them, given Kate was no longer in the picture.
All in all, everyone I met seemed so genuine. Since the party Saturday night
was at Johnny’s house, he talked me into coming. He promised me a good time,
though I was nervous as to what he meant by that.

           
Saturday finally came, and for some reason I felt nervous
about meeting all of Mallory's friends. Even though I had met a few and liked
them all instantly, I still had a pit in my stomach. Mallory came over to my
place so we could get ready together. I never really cared much about what I
was wearing. I gravitated towards leggings and tunic style shirts, which were
effortless and comfortable. They seemed to work well with my slightly curvy
five-foot-six frame. I usually didn’t do much with my long blonde hair either.
I pretty much relied on just drying it with a round brush and then moving on
with my day, sometimes throwing it up in a
pony tail
or a loose bun, especially while at the bakery. Mallory, however, thought it
had much more promise.

Of
course Mallory also had killer fashion sense, so she was constantly trying to
improve my wardrobe. I never exactly told her why I arrived with only one large
bag of clothes and little else. I had mentioned wanting to leave Grant behind
for a fresh start, but I didn’t really explain that I left on such a whim
without leaving so much as even a note behind.

           
“Seriously, Addie, just wear this,” Mallory said, holding
up a peach chiffon dress. “I’m telling you, there will be some guys there who
want to see you in this dress.” Mallory’s eyes pleaded with me to say yes.

           
“That thing is practically see through. Guys won’t be
seeing much of a dress!” I exclaimed. I picked up a grey tunic shirt and some
leggings. “These seem moderately adventurous, no?”

           
Mallory laughed. “I have a camisole dress you can wear
under this. You’re wearing the peach dress.”

I
pretended to pout.

“Besides,
Mr. Right could be there tonight, and he might lose you in a sea of leggings if
you dress too boring,” Mallory said, already pulling the chiffon dress off the
hanger and laying it over my bed. “Trust me. I’ve been in love like sixty
times. Wear the dress,” Mallory said, giggling.

           
“What does that even mean, a ‘sea of leggings’? I bet Mr.
Right would have found you by now if he could ever figure out what you were
saying,” I teased back, shooing Mallory out of the room so I could put on the
peach dress.
 

Damn
. Maybe I should start paying a little more attention
to what I wear. The dress fit perfectly, and the color actually went well with
my blue-green eyes and light hair, which Mallory had curled and pinned back on
one side.

           
After Mallory finished accessorizing me, we finally made
our way over to Johnny’s downtown apartment. It looked like a relatively trendy
area of town. All of the small apartment buildings were intermixed with coffee
shops and boutiques. As soon as we arrived, the door flew open and Mallory was
quickly pulled inside. I reluctantly followed, relieved when Megan spotted me
and gave me a quick hug.

           
“I’m so glad you made it! Wow, that dress is ah-mazing.
Let me introduce you around,” Megan said, grabbing my hand. She led me through
the fifteen or so people gathered throughout the living room and the kitchen.

           
Mallory was
right,
there sure
were some good looking guys at the party. Steve looked even more handsome than
when I saw him in the shop. He was wearing a light blue collared shirt with his
long sleeves rolled half way up.

           
“Hey Sweet Cheeks Two,” Steve said in a soft, low voice
as I passed. I’m pretty sure I blushed more than would be reasonably expected
from just one quick comment.

           
“Oh, ignore him Addie. He’s always called Mal ‘Sweet
Cheeks,’ mainly because all the guys back in college joked that the cupcakes
she was always baking led to her perfectly sculpted derrière. So now that
you’re in the baking business as well, you’re going to get plenty of that. I
think he means it in an endearing way, actually,” Megan giggled. “So anyway,
what do you want to drink?”

           
“Um, wine?” I wasn’t much of a drinker, so I wasn’t even
sure of my options. Please God, anything but whisky.

           
“Sure, coming right up,” Megan said, reaching for a
half-opened bottle of wine. She filled up one of the wine glasses already lined
up on the kitchen counter. The wine looked light and even a little bubbly, so I
hoped it would taste sweet, rather than dry and bitter like one of the red ones
Grant always liked. I certainly needed to gulp down the glass whether I liked
it or not, just to loosen me up a bit.

“So Mal
tells me you’re single, huh?” Megan raised an eyebrow, and then leaned in to
whisper. “If you see someone who interests you, let me know. I can give you the
rundown on most of the guys in here.”

           
I wondered just how much Megan knew, and how she knew it.

“Oh no.
I
mean yes, I'm single. And there are some attractive guys here, but I’m not
really interested in that whole thing. I mean, I’m interested in guys,” I
continued to ramble, “just not really, you know, at the moment. I kind of just
ran away from one, so I’m not exactly looking at falling back in love right
now, you know?”

           
“Who says you have to fall in love,” Megan mused, clearly
indicating we were having two different conversations. “Just let me know,
Addie. I’ll give you the dirt on whichever guy you like.” I laughed, as if it
was that easy to just pick one you liked and that was that. Although for a girl
like Megan, maybe it was that easy.

           
Megan pointed at a few random people and told me their
names, as if I would remember them all later, then left me to work the room.
Mallory was nowhere in sight. I glanced around the room, noticing that everyone
seemed to know each other well. Just then, I locked eyes with a man standing
against the back wall of the living room talking quietly on the phone. I quickly
glanced away, feeling the warmth on my cheeks from blushing. He had thick dark
hair and piercing grey-blue eyes. His jaw line was perfectly chiseled and I
couldn’t tell if he hadn’t shaved in a day or two or if he had just walked off
the set of a cologne advertisement photo shoot. He was wearing dark jeans and a
white button down shirt, his long sleeves rolled halfway up. I glanced back at
him. He seemed to be having an intense conversation on the phone, but even with
his furrowed brow he was still by far the most handsome guy in the room.