The Baker And The Queen Pin

Chapter 32: The High Table

'So, what do you plan on doing?' I spent my day, thinking about her. I knew she was busy and I knew she had things to do yet I couldn't help but to think about her and her smile. Why wasn't she talking to me? Did I do something wrong? But I know I didn't do anything wrong or could I have been mistaken? All of these thoughts ran through my mind, why was she gone? I keep finding myself, asking.

Why would she leave without saying anything? I forced myself to go to work and push the thoughts out of my mind. Could this really be what love feels like? I'm in my 40s and I'm worried about a woman who's almost half my age. You love her, don't you? I think to myself, it's then that I call her phone again and it still goes straight to voicemail. Straight to voicemail again and I knew it was time to let it go.

I find myself thinking about what her father said, I find myself questioning how I'm going to deal with this. I knew she was busy but she's never done this before. She's never gone this long without talking to me, I accept what it could be and I let it go. As I get ready, Junior asks me, 'What's the plan, Dad? We can't stay in her house forever,' 'Did you guys argue?' I hear Belle ask. "I don't remember arguing with her," I say to her, honestly, "If anything, I thought we were all happy," The kids then ask, 'Do you think maybe Miss Maria didn't want to deal with you?'

I find myself, wondering the same thing but I let it go. Maybe she just saw me as a charity case. The money she spent and the people she had with her didn't mean anything. Maybe I was just a glorified charity case for her. I take a deep sigh and tell the kids, "We may have to leave," Booker looks around and see everything, how nice it was and he found it hard for him to say anything. As I tell the kids to prepare to leave, I get ready to take them to school. We get ready to leave and I take the kids to school.

'Why would Miss Maria do that?' Booker asks, 'Why would she leave without saying anything? Dad, do you think we were just charity cases?' My kids were saying what was on my mind and it was worse because they knew me so well. "No, we've never been a charity case and I'd be insulted if she thought we were saying,' I wasn't even trying to convince them, I was trying to convince myself at this point. As we get ready to leave, we have to call Duber because my car was having trouble. I felt insulted and angry that there is a chance that she stopped dealing with me because I was a charity case.

I dispersed the thought as I then say, "We need to get ready to go, kids," As we're sitting in the car, Belle then musters up the courage to then say 'Dad, you can go back to the apartment but I think we should wait until something happens,' I nod as she knew more about it. I tell her, "It's okay. We probably won't move for a while. We want to give her a chance," I perish the thought and I focus on taking the kids to school.

When I get to the bakery, I noticed that Gregor had not been there in a few days either. I see that he has posted on vacation for a couple of days. Gregory comes into the store and I notice how calm he is as he asks, 'Where's Paul?' "Hey, Gregory. Have you seen Maria?" I don't know why I got the point so quickly as Gregory says, "Yeah, she's fine. Just busy," I nod and say, "Do you know when she's coming back?" 'Unfortunately I can't tell you. I've just been told to keep an eye on the place. You trust me to do that, right?' I nod and say "Okay" From what I'm learning, Gregory and Gregor are close but they're even closer to Maria.

I'm calm as I hear his response, I agree to it and I let it go. 'Anyway, Paul has something for me and I need to get it,' I see Paul walking up and I see him handing an envelope over to Gregor. "What's in the envelope?" I ask. I've never seen this before and it's very rare to ask. He looks at me and says, 'It's something Maria had in place. She'll tell you more about it,' "Are you saying she's coming back, and do you know when?" I say, fixated on Maria, I ignored the envelope altogether.

'Listen, Mr. Booker. When Maria returns, you'll know for sure. Until then, I think you should let it go,' I was going to persist more but something was wrong. I could tell by the look on his face that he didn't feel like getting into matters and I had to have faith in Maria so I let it go and return home. Hopefully, everything pans out, I think to myself.