Lana decided not to attract too much attention today, immediately went to the service entrance. It was still too early, but work was already in full swing in the kitchen. Here and there several assistants of the cook went round, they readied everything necessary for sandwiches and salads.
In the corner set two waitresses with coffee, actively creating a sound background for the current mess, with their chatters. The arrival of Lana, as always, attracted widespread attention. Everything around her immediately fell silent, casting curious glances in her direction. Lana could barely restrain the desire to re-imagine how the bloodbath would suit this place. No, today she must be sweet to a toothache.
She inconspicuously took a deep breath and fastened the most charming smile she could on her face. The blessing that her childhood was spent in a rich family. Where a fake smile was on the lists of good manners.
"Good morning!" - she proclaimed, stopping in the middle of the kitchen. All eyes immediately turned to her.
Surprise, fear, ridicule - the emotions of others varied. Only a few squeezed out a barely audible greeting, the rest waited, what will happen next.
Lana decided not to disappoint them. Demonstratively placing two large boxes on the table, she turned to the others and, as if nothing had happened, said in a cheerful voice.
" I am so ashamed that I had to take a day off because of my son's cold. Therefore, as an apology, I decided to pamper you with my pastries!"
The answer was silence. But Lana was not accustomed to give up. Grabbing two saucers, she carefully laid out the cakes on them and headed to the pair of waitresses.
"Here, try it. They will go wonderfully with coffee." - She said, smiling friendly at the girls. The first of them apparently decided to show pride and sniffed dismissively.
"I'm on a diet, so please take it away from me." - She said, not even daring to look at Lana. Although the voice was full of poison. But it was difficult to jar on Ruslan with such stupidity.
"I can't believe that you need a diet. I think you have a great figure!" - Lana spoke, feigning surprise and staring with a cheek at this daring waitress. Once she decided to humiliate someone, she should expect to be on the other side of the barricades. The girl threw a surprised look at Lana, but in a next second recovered and turned away again.
"It's not polite, to be so annoying," - she said with aplomb. - "Everyone has their own reasons and to shove their sweets at me, when I refuse, is simply indecent."
Lana grinned to herself. "Girl, you still was playing with dolls when I was already playing these games."
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it like this" - Lana replied showing all the possible sincerity on her face. Lower shoulders, slightly stooped to look depressed and most importantly more remorse in the voice. - "I just wanted to do something nice for you all. I did not think that this could offend anyone."
An uncomfortable silence hung in the air. The rest closely watched what was happening, but pretended that they were engaged in their business. There was a clear dismay on the face of the second waitress. On the one hand, she was certainly not comfortable with such aggressiveness of her friend, on the other hand, to accept the cake now was the same as going against the team.
Lana dejectedly returned to the table with the boxes. Gently placing both saucers on the tabletop.
"My kids helped me a lot, they wanted to know if my colleagues would like our creations." - She added, turning to the chef's assistant with a slightly sad smile.
The woman was already not young and Lana had heard accidentally that she too had children. There was a real struggle on the woman's face.
Lana decided not to delay and deliver the final blow. Pulling out her old phone from her pocket, she quickly found photos of her children.
" What do you think, they are gorgeous in those matching aprons?! They tried so hard." - She said, letting into the voice all the warmth that she felt for her children. Luckily, the pictures were just the moment when the children helped her to cook. Although it was almost three years ago.
The woman hesitated a moment, but nevertheless came closer and looked at the screen. In a second, her face broke into a tender smile.
" What a sweet pair!" - She admired, carefully considering the pictures. - Very similar to you. Only with dark hair. The boy is just lovely. In a few years so many girls will be chasing him like crazy!" - the woman continued splashing prices around.
The rest pulled their ears out of curiosity. The cook's assistant seems to have noticed that too. In the eyes flashed cunning sparkles.
Not many people knew that Anita, in spite of her low position, was not only one of the first workers of this cafe when it's just opened, but also came here with Miss Bright. They were colleagues in the past work place. In public, they tried to maintain subordination, but in fact were close friends for almost twenty years.
Anita never had any personal ambitions, but she knew her work to the t. And for that, she earned the trust and warm attitude of an unapproachable boss. She always laughed at the struggle for power and intrigue among the young. In the kitchen you need to work, bake, boil, simmer, fry, and not measure who has the longer loaf.
Yesterday, after closing the cafe for the night, Miss Bright, or for Anita, at such moments just Katherine could not calm down for a long time, all ranting about Ruslana. The boss could not yet understand what made her worry so much over a seemingly quite ordinary girl. But since all these rumors appeared, Miss Bright was annoyed and secretly collected all the leaflets that she could found, burning them in the backyard. Anita yet needed only one glance to understand what her old friend felt, but so far couldn't even admit to herself.
Therefore, now, casting a sidelong glance at the waitresses fuming from indignation, Anita continued to chat in a friendly way with Ruslana. Injoying the show, she picked up one of the cakes, flipping through several photos on the girl's phone and fixed her gaze on one.
"What is it?" - She pointed to something on the screen and cast an exciting look at Lana. The girl moved closer. Anita apparently flipped the photo back, and now a picture appeared on the screen, on it Nicky, still quite small, was picking at a pile of plastic parts with Greg. They were so absorbed in their work that they did not even notice how Lana had photographed them. There were several such pictures. The latter pic captured them already in full ammunition.
It was Halloween, Nicky, and Greg decided to make a robot suit themselves. Unfortunately, they managed to do only one and Greg gave this honor to Nicky.
In the last photo, they were already all in suits, ready for the celebration. A rare smile played on Nika's face, Lana was next, dressed as a Mexican chef with huge mustache. Because little Vicky wanted so much to be burrito and no one could talk her out of it. The kid was completely invisible behind the yellow-brown wrapper, but Lana remembered how Vicki crawled around happily in her strange suit, scaring passersby better than any spooky monster.
Greg was left with a Power Rangers suit, the pink one. He bought it himself in the hope that Lana would put it on, but in the end, he had to pull it on when there were no other options left.
But Greg wore this girlish costume with such confidence that no one even dared to laugh. And the female neighbors almost covered him with sweets.
It is this photo that Anita has been considering now. Lana went cold inside. She didn't want any questions to distract her plan.
"Hmmm." - Anita drawled, frowning at first, then broke down and burst out laughing. - "Don't tell me that this is who I think it is?"
Lana grimaced but nodded shortly.
" That's awesome !!" - the woman chuckled, biting off another piece of cake, "By the way, your pastries - the best! I have not tried anything like this for a long time! You just have to leave a little Miss Bright. She has been looking for a baker in a cafe for a long time, but you know her. She is so hard to please!"
Anita continued to admire sweets, swallowing one cake after another. At this point, one of the assistants couldn't hold back curiosity any longer and moved toward them. As soon as he came close, Anita turned off Lana's phone on purpose and handed it to her.
" Oh yea, that was one big surprise, girl. I didn't expect to see him like this ... I'll keep this image in my head for the rest of my life. " - she said with a laugh. All around literally burned with eagerness to know about what is the conversation about.
" You want some?" - As if not noticing the general tension, she extended the cake to the guy who had already come close. He barely kept down a curse, he didn't come here for this. But it was too late to look for excuses, so with a grateful nod toward Lana, the man still took the treat. The first bite and his eyes lost focus and almost rolled in.
" OMG!" - He moaned, already forgetting about all these gossips. Now his only goal was sweets. He had already begun to visually calculate how much he would be able to eat in one sitting when the figure of a waitress who was working in the hall during breakfast today attracted everyone's attention. She flew into the kitchen as if someone had thrown her in.
"There .. there!" - She could barely stammer, out of breath.
"What are you mumble there, Jenny! Speak already!" - That same waitress with a diet shouted at her.
"There is Mr. Gibbons, and he is furious! - Jenny finally squeezed out.