E L L E
As I sat behind the counter scrolling through Instagram, I noticed I didn't need to use my hand to fan myself anymore indicating that the weather was getting less hot.
Yes it was still quite sunny but it wasn't as hot anymore.
Could it be that spring is now upon us?
The bell of the door chimed and I plastered a huge grin on my face as I lifted my face to see who it was.
My smile immediately froze when my eyes landed on the dark haired devil who harassed me at Reyna's wedding.
"Why are you here?" I scowled at him. "I already sent you your money." I snarled.
His eyes looked around the whole shop while he wore a dissatisfied look on his intimidating face.
"Do you really think I care about that peanut amount? I pay my works triple that amount you sent." He commented. His deep voice echoing in every corner of the shop.
I groaned and walked to meet him, "What do you want?" I frowned.
"This seems like a good location to open a cafe." He muttered as he strolled around the shop.
"What?" I raised an eyebrow.
"I need you to evacuate this shop within the next twenty four hours or else..."
"Can you hear yourself? Get out of my bakery." I snapped.
"Your?" He scoffed. "Are you delusional? I purchased this building." He boldly claimed.
"It seems you're the delusional one. I know Mr Jones would never sell this and especially to the likes of you not to mention without telling me first."
"Money really makes the impossible possible, now, I'll be back here exactly this time tomorrow and I wouldn't want to see any of these sub standard materials here." He cautioned before exiting the bakery.
No, Mr Jones wouldn't sell and why would he? I mean I know I do owe him quite the sun but doesn't mean he can sell though.
Why would he even be interested in buying this run down establishment? Unless he's doing this to get back at me.
So many things were running through my mind and my heart clenched at the thought of me being ejected from here.
No Elle, relax. Until Mr Jones confirm everything, I should stay calm.
As if on cue the bell chimed and Mr Jones walked into the bakery with a lowered head. My heart raced.
"Mr Jones!" I called before meeting him. "Please take a seat." I offered and pointed towards the chair.
"We need to talk." His head still lowered.
"Mr Jones, Santiago Rivera barged into my shop and-"
"Everything he said is true." He slowly muttered as he squeezed his brown khaki shorts.
"What?" I muttered feeling like my whole world had just crashed right before my very eyes.
"He made such a good offer and he promised to make good use of the spot. I'm sorry, it's just you weren't paying and such an offer arrived, no one in their right mind would be willing to reject it."
My heart felt like it was being squeezed and I felt really lightheaded.
"I'll leave now. I just came to let you know." He stood up abruptly and turned to leave.
"Mr Jones please!" I got up with tears filling my eyes. "Please don't do this to me. I'll pay for full ownership of the shop but please don't do this." I cried after him.
"It's no use begging me. You seem to know who he is, just ask him to pay you off so you can start up somewhere else."
I watched in silence as he hurried out of the shop. My legs suddenly felt weak and I fell to the ground in tears.
What would I do? Where would I start from? And most importantly why is Santiago Rivera doing this to me?
You know the worst part of going through so much shit alone? There's absolutely no one I can talk about it with. I can't bother Noah, he has his own shit going on and I most certainly cannot tell Hazel. She might insist on dropping out of school to help me.
All through the night, I tossed and turned in bed thinking about what would happen in the morning.
Do I plead with Santiago to reconsider my eviction? Do I instead just not show up tomorrow? No, that would be a cowardly thing to do.
Early in the morning, I got up and got ready for work extremely early. I baked new products and headed to the store early.
I placed my banner outside and sat behind the counter like any other day, I was feeling pretty confident about today because I had the perfect plan in mind.
The bell jingled and Santiago strutted into the bakery with his usual scowl plastered on his face.
"Good morning and welcome to Elle's!" I faked a smile and walked towards him.
"You've got some guts." He folded his arm and took a seat with his legs crossed. "Let's see what you have off your sleeve." He wore a smug look.
Bastard!
"What can I get you? Or would you like to try our samples?" I continued to put on an act but he remained quiet.
"I'll just get you a couple of cookies. I think they are the best batch I've ever made and trust me, I've made tons of batches." I commented as I got a plate of cookies and placed it in front of him.
He looked at the cookies and then at me then back at the cookies then he scoffed.
"What the fuck is this?" He snarled then pushed the plate off the table causing the plate to break.
I gasped and moved away. Is this man crazy? Who does that to food?
"Listen here low class girl," He pointed at me with his index finger. "Get rid of all the stuff here by this evening or I'll have people come tear the place down and throw it out on the street." He threatened.
"Are you a businessman or a thug? How dare you threaten me like that? You can't just ask me to vacate the place I've worked all my life in!"
"So sue me then! I'm pretty sure you can't afford a good lawyer anyway." He insisted. "You have until six." He warned.
**