Sapphire_Lake

Halle has a café running now. With her sick mom, she has to work extra hard for a successful operation. After 5 years she was able to put back her tragic past and move forward focussing on her mother and the café. With two of her friends' help she's been progressing through her life alone. Now that things were going well there is a new problem. The person who ruined her name and brought chaos into her life is back in her life. And he's coming back for revenge. Will she be able to handle it and take care of her mom?

Will you leave me alone? I don't have time for you anymore!

Halle stared at the window next to the counter. "Hey, I think we shouldn't open the curtains there and play it safe."


            Pace nodded. Halle closed the curtains. "Oh my!"


            "What happened?" Pace ran to her. "Anybody there?"


            "Sorry!" Halle smiled sheepishly. "I forgot about the cupcakes Ashley asked me for."


            "That did not need such a reaction." Pace chided.


            Halle apologized and went to make those chocolate cupcakes.


            By the time the cupcakes were on the cooling rack, there were already seven customers waiting for their coffees and donuts.


            Halle stared at the customers while Pace was making a cappuccino. "What in the . . ."


            Pace looked over. "I can't believe we're having these many customers at such an early hour. The highest we get is at 1 when they can't have a full lunch."


            Halle nodded. "Or after 4 when students come here on weekdays."


            "Good for business, right?"


            Halle understood Pace's uneasiness. After yesterday they're not able to let go of anything as normal. Even the teensiest thing seemed suspicious. A happy thing like this is turned into a reason of worry. She sighed.


            "Yeah. Let's just focus on that."


            After about an hour of cooling and decorating those chocolate cupcakes, Halle noticed that the number of customers weren't dropping but rather increasing. It was nice and weird at the same time. Was someone playing here? Better to keep the Baking Room locked in case anyone was asked to do something fishy.


            She placed all the cupcakes carefully in a box, locked the baking room and started helping Pace by taking care of the new customers who were arriving to the café like clockwork.


            The sun was about to set and they were out of cupcakes and donuts, but the customers didn't stop coming.


            "Close the shop, I suppose." said Halle. She noted the time. "It's already getting late. And I don't want to meet her husband when I give the cupcakes."


            "You're going to her house?" asked Pace dubiously. "In this situation?"


            "What else do you expect me to do?" Halle changed the shop sign to 'Closed'. There were still quite a number of people inside.


            Halle paused. "She'll think I'm heartless or two-faced, like I did it on purpose."


            "Do you give importance to yourself?" asked Pace. "Is your safety important or is giving the cupcake in person more important?"


            "After that fateful marriage gets over," continued Pace. "You can meet her up in person and give her as many cupcakes as you want. Just don't it for a little while."


            "Okay okay, I'm not angry." said Halle. This was exactly what he would've wanted her to do. Be helpless and then slowly become worthless. He took a personal interest in making sure that happened then and he's doing it again.


            No, she told herself. It isn't the same this time. He's not controlling you. You're making sure that you don't fall into a trap. It's not the same thing!


Chapter 14