This is Love (LarssonSiblingsSeries#2)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

BAILEY

"So this is the famous Green Earth Kitchen?"

I look up from changing the till receipt in the cash register and spot the one person I don't want anywhere near my business. Clara. The spite in her eyes says she knows I don't want her here too and is doing it for fun.

Two times in two days?

Lucky me.

I take a few steadying breaths and plaster on my practised smile for awkward customers, going crazy on the inside. It's coming up to half past one in the afternoon, and I know Noah will be strolling through the door at any moment.

"Yes, what can I get you?" I reply, really biting on the side of my cheek.

She watches the blackboard behind me with her finger tapping on her lips. "I don't like the look of anything you sell."

Of course she doesn't.

"I'm sorry about that, Clara." Please leave and never come back. "Everything we sell is fresh so I can make up pretty much anything you fancy."

The fight begins in her eyes, the emotions bubbling beneath the surface, ready to attack as she runs them all over my face. "I want a green salad with the cherry tomatoes quartered, spring onion sliced lengthwise and chopped, cucumber with no skin and exactly forty grams of goats cheese."

Is this woman for real?

"Do you want us to milk the goat ourselves too?" Emily adds in making the customer she's serving laugh as well as me, but I do well in holding it inside.

"No, is that the way you speak to your customers?" Clara spits at Emily.

"It was a joke, hon." Emily smiles, but we all know it wasn't.

"Oh." Clara seems to shake out of her bad mood as glances at the blackboard once more. It's slightly confusing how she can switch so quickly. "I'll get a super green smoothie, but leave out the avocado. It's full of fat."

I nod. "Good fats. Your body needs those."

"I said to leave the avocado out, didn't I?" she says.

Deep breaths, Bailey. Deep breaths. "Yes, you did. I'll get to making it right away. Are you eating in or taking out?"

"I haven't finished my order yet. Stop rushing me," Clara replies, screwing up her delicate features.

I look down the lunch time queue and see it's building up. "Could you please stand to the side so I can serve my other customers?"

She moves to the look around her shoulder and then shakes her head. "No, I'm good stood here."

"Okay, then. I'll work with you." I wave to the woman stood behind her and smile. "What can I get you today, Margret?"

Margret rolls her eyes in Clara's direction,  showing me her sweet grin. "The usual, Bailey. Double up on the lemon chicken today."

I nod and get to work, taking out the cardboard boxes Noah sourced out for me and use the tongs to pick up her usual salad items, adding extra chicken on the top, serving her in two minutes flat, before asking my next customer to come forward. Emily and I work together in getting the queue down to a few more customers when I spot Noah walking inside the shop.

Clara steps forward. "Are you free to serve me now?"

My eyes set on Noah, who seems to be in a world of his own, strolling up with his phone in his face, and I wish telepathy is real.

NOAH!

Noah, run away now!

Damn it.

I nod. "I was willing to serve you, Clara. What do you want?"