16. Put In Oven

Tom was having a tough time.

Bud was being an asshole and saying that every loaf of bread was 'worthless crap that no idiot's gonna buy'. Tom was about to lose his mind. When Bud went round and threw his fourth loaf of bread at the far wall the guy was seconds away from just slapping Bud in the face. He could practically see Andrew's face telling him to 'man the fuck up and just slap the bastard already!'. But slapping his boss was a one way ticket to getting fired and not being able to pay rent wasn't on the top of Tom's must-have's list at this very moment.

"There's nothing wrong with 'em, Bud," Tom said as he stood in the far corner of the kitchen. "They're the same as they are every other day."

"Then every other day they aren't good enough!" Bud snapped, pulling his suit jacket further around his beer belly. "They've gotta be perfect, Thomas, you know how it is. No ones gonna buy bread if it ain't perfect."

Most people don't know the fucking difference between each loaf, asshole.

"They can't be perfect, boss," Tom ground out. "This is the best we can do."

The two other employees stood off to the side, looking down and pretending as if they were suddenly invisible.

"Well it's gotta be better, hasn't it?" Bud suddenly yelled. "I don't pay you for this shit. It's either perfect or you're out!"

"It's just a loaf of damn bread, calm down!" Tom yelled back.

"Our goods being the best is the only thing keeping this city coming to our doors instead of anyone else's," Bud said. "The whole city's in my hand and I'm not gonna have you and your inability to bake screw that up for me."

Tom knew that the other bakeries Bud was going on about was Maisie's place. He already knew Bud had hated that bakery but the second the four offenders walked in, he had seemed to hate them even more. All day it was just Bud talking shit about Maisie's place in his ear and the guy was about to go insane...or spontaneously murder Bud, either one. He could make it silent, there's tons of knives in the kitchen. It wouldn't exactly be clean but half the other employees hated Bud too so they could clean it all up together and then they just had to dump the body in a dumpster or a nearby lake of which there was none-

"Thomas!" Bud snapped his fingers in front of the guys face as he fazed out for a moment. "Anything to say for yourself?"

Tom shrugged. "Am I supposed to be sorry or something?"

"For damn sake," Bud growled under his breath in frustration and grabbed the loaves of bread off the counter before charging out the back door. Tom frowned and ran after Bud, catching the door just before it slammed shut and saw Bud throwing the loaves of bread out onto the street and into the dirt, surprising some pedestrians.

"What are you doing?" Tom demanded. "You're not Peeta fucking Mellark! Katniss isn't sitting by a tree somewhere, you're just wasting bread!"

"I'm ridding this bakery of incompetent mistakes!" Bud shouted and walked back towards Tom, his overly gelled hair a little ruffled and his shirt mildly creased from exertion. He stopped in front of Tom and straightened is hair back into place with his chubby fingers. "You've got one job, Tommy," and the man in question was about to kill Bud just for calling him that, "make fucking bread and don't fucking fuck it up! Got it?"

Tom nodded silently.

"Good," Bud sighed before shouldering his way past Tom and back through to the bakery's kitchen.

Tom rolled his eyes and looked over to the end of the street where it curved around to go down another street, a street that had a bakery where Andrew was probably standing inside and still trying to wrap his head around why you would braid dough and then bake it. Ben had made a comment that hinted at Tom being not too intelligent and had been slapped in the face with the dough for it.

Tom sighed. He didn't get enough pay for this.

***

Well, the kitchen was on fire.

Maisie tried not to be alarmed when she walked out of the back room and immediately smelt something burning. She just thought oh, Keith must have just left the scones in the oven for too long like he did last Tuesday. But then Keith came out of the kitchen with a bored look on his face and held his hands up as he walked past Maisie to lie on a booth.

"It wasn't me," he said.

Maisie glanced back at Tony who had come in with her to fix the leaking sink in the bathroom but his bushy eyebrows were nearly hitting his receding hairline when she caught his eyes. The two of them quickly rushed forward into the kitchen to see Nick and Andrew, Charity and Logan already having been accounted for in the back room. They immediately took in the black smoke that was pouring out of the oven and the subsequent fire that they could see through the window of the appliance.

Maisie held her arms out as she looked at the two guys who just stood to the side nervously and sweating.

"Were you going to maybe do something?" she asked as Tony rushed to grab the fire extinguisher and put out the fire in the oven.

He opened the door and smoke engulfed the poor guy within seconds. The sound of the fire extinguisher going off eased Maisie a little and Tony came over, panting and holding the extinguisher between thick fingers that were now lightly stained black.

"It wasn't us," Nick said quickly.

"Then who the hell was it, my grandma's damn ghost?" Maisie asked.

"It was a rat," Nick said seriously.

"A rat?" Maisie frowned.

"You let your pet rat go into an oven and burn to death?" Tony asked.

"Small," Nick sassed, "do I look like the type of person to have a fucking pet rat?"

"Yes," Tony deadpanned.

"The rats didn't go into the oven but we saw them running around the kitchen and were so intent on killing them that...well we forgot about the cakes," Andy explained.

"Rats, plural?" Maisie jumped and if the noise that left her was a shriek then she wasn't about to admit it anytime soon.

The two boys nodded.

"Plural," Nick said. "As in three. We were easily outnumbered."

"I'm sure it was a traumatic moment for you," Tony said plainly.

"Excuse me, is that sass I'm detecting?" Nick scoffed and held up a finger to Tony's face. "Small jr, the man just sassed me."

"Uh huh," Maisie said noncommittally before turning to Andrew. "What was in the oven?"

"Carrot cake and white chocolate and raspberry scones," he answered and Maisie shrugged.

"That's fine," Maisie said. "There were some left over from yesterday, we'll make them cheaper and put a sign saying they're a day old up. As for the oven, we're just lucky a rat didn't actually go in there otherwise we'd have to buy a brand new one. Tony, can you check that it's still okay to use?"

Tony nodded and opened the oven door down further.

"Okay this is fine, just make sure all the stuff we have is out on the shelves for opening time and all will be fine. We'll just have a little lower stock today," Maisie said in a fake attempt to be cheerful.

"We're sorry, Mais," Andrew winced and Nick nodded.

"It's fine guys, these things happen," she said. "If you didn't do it one us eventually would have."

Logan walked into the kitchen with Charity and Keith behind him and the three stopped abruptly at the sight of Tony half inside an oven and Nick and Andrew nearly in manly tears.

"Um," Logan started.

"Left the oven on too long and it disintegrated a carrot cake and scones," Maisie explained.

"Ah," Logan nodded and walked over to stand beside the redhead before smiling in amusement. "Which idiot did it?"

"Excuse me, I am not an idiot," Nick spat, baffled by the accusation.

"He did," Andrew pointed at the man beside him.

"Excuse me, but we did this together bitch, if I'm going down so are you!" Nick said with outrage.

Maisie looked at the oven and just felt depressed. One more thing to worry about. First she had to meet her dad all over again, then she had to put up with Rachel's bullshit and then she had to somehow break it to her dad that she was the world's biggest disappointment right in front of Rachel who would be stood of to the side with a big ass fucking grin on her face.

Maisie felt an arm bump hers and looked over at Logan who looked down at her, a small smile on his face. He leaned down a little so his mouth was closer to her ear.

"You still up for tonight?" he asked quietly.

Fuck it's Friday.

Maisie suddenly had a smile on her face and nodded. "More than up for it."

"Text me your address and I'll pick you up at six," Logan said.

"Alright stalker," Maisie said and Logan grinned.

Tony yanked his head out of the oven and gave Maisie a thumbs up. "Quick clean and you'll be fine to use it again. Maybe wait till tomorrow though otherwise everything might taste a little smoky."

Maisie nodded. "Right, thanks Tony."

"No problem, kiddo," Tony ruffled her hair and honestly Maisie didn't have it in her to be annoyed by it at all. It was becoming strangely endearing.

Maisie turned back to Logan. "So is there a dress code I need to be aware about?"

"No," he said. "Wear whatever you want. Preferably don't dress as a ghostbusters though, there's just something about the whole khaki looking jumpsuit thing that I can't get into."

Maisie laughed. "Alright, no khaki jumpsuit."

When everyone started getting back to their jobs and Tony left with a bag full of donuts, Charity took that moment to go over to Maisie.

"Birthday cake delivery was a success and the kids mom was very happy with it, weirdly gave a tip," she said. "I think she thought we were just the delivery men and took pity on us."

Maisie snorted and then she suddenly frowned before she turned wide eyes to Charity.

"Oh shit," she said with realization. "We have rats!"

***

After trying to figure out how to rid her bakery of rodents and keep people from running away in fright and worst of all Bud finding out about their problem, Maisie was more than done with the day. So when it was nearing six, she finally felt the worries of the last twelve hours ease away.

Smack on six o'clock, Tony was yelling from downstairs about a 'stupid fucking criminal' waiting for Maisie outside. She quickly rushed down the stairs and shouted goodbye to Tony and her mom before leaving the house quickly and slamming it behind her. She stopped when she took in Logan and her face lit up with a disbelieving smile.

"Is that your car?" Maisie asked as she stared at the sleek, black sports car that looked like it was worth more that Maisie would ever hope to hold.

Logan stepped out of the car and took in what Maisie was wearing before a smile slipped onto his face at the denim overalls she was wearing over a white shirt.

"I thought I said no jumpsuits," Logan teased.

"Technically," Maisie stepped forward, scuffing her shoes along the floor as she went, "this isn't a jumpsuit."

Logan took in the messy bun which he knew she had literally thrown her hair up into last minute with a single hair tie that was probably an elastic band and the very black mascara against her widely freckled face and honestly, he thought she looked beautiful.

Maisie smiled at Logan's skinny jeans and black button down shirt before Logan held up the keys to start the engine to the beauty behind them with a smirk.

"Oh, and I might have stolen my dad's car."

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- Ellie x