Connexion

Part 114

"Well, that was interesting. I like him!" Caleb leaned backward on his chair, "So, how do you know these people?" He tipped his head to the side, "Cause they seem more like family. You and them."

"They are nosey, pests!" Jena grumbled. She knew Bill and the team will rehashed this because she is a regular here, and she comes on her own.  

Caleb watched the emotions that raced through her eyes, and he wondered if he was imagining anticipation. "And that is why you volunteered to help these 'pests'?"

She said with a shrug and admitted, "I worked here, ages ago." This cafe was a saviour in her life.

"You working here? When?"

"When I started my company."

He narrowed his eyes, "Why would you work here if you were starting By Design? Surely that would have occupied your time. "

"I started By Design, because I lost my job!" She looked embarrassed. She provided an a short explanation, " I was taking too much time off for my grandmother. She was not too well. I just needed another job, in the interim. And this cafe took me on. They were kind enough to allow me to work as necessary." Balancing work and personal commitments and generating enough money to pay bills, was crucial at the time.  

"Yes, Sophie said that."

"I thought if I worked for myself, we would not have that problem, you know, finding a way to deal with the situation with my grandmother's conditions. And I thought we could bake. But to start it, I would need money, to buy the ingredients." She looked around. The cafe had not changed much at all. Random tables and mismatched chairs. The same numbers of tables. The only things that changed was the paint on the wall and the framed pictures. "I waitress here. Working the last shift, midday to seven pm for three days. If grandmother was ok, I would bring her here, she would remain in the kitchen and had company. Bill and Lily are good chefs, so, Anne and I did the afternoon shift. They also allowed me to use their industrial oven when things escalated in my new company. I could use it after 7pm. So would bring the cake mixture here, bake it, take it back home and ice it, and the customer would collect it from my place or and I also sold it to this cafe. The cakes were pretty simple in terms of construction, but the flavours were amazing. So within two months I had to find the money to convert my house, to host an industrial oven. A bit of a gamble, but it allowed me to accept new orders. When that took over, I reduced my time here, and eventually stopped when I took on my current team."

"Obviously here, they love you." And he could understand why. There was something about Jena that was loveable. A combination of empathy, integrity and kind. And the fact she was beautiful was a bonus.

Jena said quietly, "They were very kind to me. And my grandmother. They were so kind."

"And that is why you volunteered today, during their peak time, to help them."

Anne approached with a platter. "Wow!" Caleb's eyes went wide. The selection and the portions were unexpectedly.

Jena huffed. "Tell Bill, he is not feeding the whole café!"

Anne chuckled. "Hey, this is just the starters!" She joked and left.

"This looks great." Caleb reached for a pastry. "Your work perks are better than mine."

"Your work perks?"

"Yes. When I started to work, my work perks were not exactly a perk!"

"When did you start?"

"My first job?" He asked and she nodded. He tacked on, "When I was fifteen."

"You had a job when you were fifteen?" She blinked.