No, no, no, no, no. Not again.

I was running down the street and trying to catch a breath at the same time. Aubrey's going to kill me. The only thing she can't stand is when someone is late. And by someone I mean me. She can't stand when I'm late. And she can't stand me.

But it's not my fault. I can't be blamed for being late when my shift starts at seven which means I have to get up at six to get ready. What normal person can wake up that early in the morning anyway?

My chest hurt so bad I wished I could just stop for a second. But I didn't and soon I was able to see the small one story building with ugly pink doors and windows and (even uglier, if possible) big sign that said "Bella's Bakery".

I ran in and finally managed to breathe again. But not for long.

"You're late," I heard an annoying voice. I didn't have to look up to know that the voice belongs to Aubrey, my uptight boss and passionate bakery owner.

"I've been late before, what's the big deal?" I asked. I didn't think this through. Aubrey was already furious and my imprudent comment made her even more furious. She looked like a bull ready to attack the matador. And I was the matador.

"It is the big deal, Beca! Your shift starts at seven and it's," she looked at her watch before continuing, "7:12 now. Twelve. You're twelve minutes late. And you're always late! Since the day I hired you! What was I thinking when I hired you?!"

"I guess you weren't thinking, as usual," I replied. I cursed myself inaudibly the second I said that because the look Aubrey gave me...too scary for words.

"What did you say?"

I opened my mouth to repeat, but I closed them instantly. I needed this job.

"You listen to me, Beca Mitchell. If you're late again, just once again, I will not hesitate to fire you! Have I made myself clear?"

"Crystal," I answered, for the first time today not trying to be rude and disrespectful.

"And lose the attitude, Beca. It's not charming," she said firmly.

"What attitude?"

„Stop acting dumb! You're doing this on purpose, I know you are! You're trying to drive me crazy and you've been trying to do it since the day I hired you!"

She stopped yelling and tried to calm herself down. This could've end ugly. I know it has before. She has a horrible and disgusting habit of burping uncontrollably when she's angry and/or nervous. It happened every time she yelled at me for being late which means it happened on a daily basis.

"Everything okay?" redhead girl asked when she came from the kitchen, a huge soothing smile on her face.

"No, everything is not okay, Chloe!" Aubrey yelled again. Chloe put her hands around Aubrey trying to calm her down.

"Shh, don't yell. We don't want you-know-what to happen now, do we?" Chloe asked practically whispering. Aubrey shook her head.

"Come on, let's go to your office," Chloe slowly led Aubrey through the kitchen to her office. I stepped behind the counter and grabbed my pink apron. It was in contrast with my black jeans and plaid black and red button up. I was tying my apron around my waist when I heard Aubrey scream from the kitchen: „You're supposed to be making cupcakes, Amy, not eating them!"

Burping began. The girl had problems.


I really didn't understand why Aubrey was so mad at me for being late a few minutes. We open at seven, but our first customers don't show up until around eight, if then. The place was called Bella's Bakery, but we were more of a cake shop than a bakery. We didn't have any kinds of bread at all, just cakes and donuts. And coffee. And that's mainly what our customers were buying at eight am – coffee and donuts. Breakfast on the go.

It was eight and fifteen and we only had two customers by now. I was standing behind the counter doing nothing while Chloe was arranging cupcakes by color. I'm pretty sure the girl had some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder. Or maybe she was just bored.

I looked at the clock on the wall. Eight seventeen. My shift ends at two. Six hours to go.

I leaned on the counter, turning my back to the front door and facing the kitchen. I saw Amy pairing two cupcakes together and trying to put them in her mouth. Surprisingly, she succeeded.

I heard Chloe sigh.

"I'm going to help Amy in the kitchen," she said as she left the room. I continued watching her trying to explain Amy that she is not allowed to eat the cupcakes. But Amy used every time Chloe turned around to put another cupcake in her mouth. I couldn't help but smile.

"Hello," I heard a cheerful voice behind me. I turned around only to see a tall man with puppy eyes and a huge smile on his face.

"Hi," I said, not even trying to return a smile, "How can I help you?"

"I'm Jesse. I just started working at a video store," he pointed his thumb over his shoulder. I looked at the small building (all the buildings were small here) across the street and then I looked back at Jesse.

"I really don't care," I said, "Do you want to buy something or not?"

"Can I have three croissants?" he asked politely, a huge smile still on his face. It kind of annoyed me.

"We don't have croissants," I replied quickly.

"But this is a bakery. Aren't you supposed to have croissants?"

"Well, I'm supposed to have a better paycheck, but I don't. Life isn't fair, buddy."

He smiled brighter after I called him buddy. I guess my attempt at cynicism isn't working on him. Or maybe I'm becoming a little rusty.

"What do you have then?"

"We have donuts."

As if his smile hasn't been wide enough already, it just became even wider. He looked completely ecstatic.

"You have donuts with sprinkles? I love donuts with sprinkles! I grew up in Philly and we had a great little bakery down the street that sold donuts with sprinkles, but they stopped making them back in '98. Can you believe I haven't eaten donuts with sprinkles since '98?"

I honestly didn't know how to answer that. He could've gone to another bakery. But I didn't say that, that would continue the conversation and I didn't want that. I wanted him out of this bakery. He looked way too happy watching the donuts I've never seen a twenty something year old man getting so excited over some donuts. I've never seen anyone getting so excited over donuts.

"That does sound unbelievable, but all I need to know is if you're going to buy a donut or not?"

"Yeah, I'll take six. Do you sell coffee here?"

I nodded while I was putting donuts in a donut box.

"I'll have three lattes then."

He looked around the bakery happily, still grinning widely. I could swear he was on some kind of drugs.

"This is a pretty sweet bakery. Wait, is your name Bella?"

"It's Beca," I answered while preparing lattes.

"Why did you call the bakery Bella's Bakery then?"

"I didn't, Aubrey did," I replied again without looking at him.

"Oh. Who's Aubrey?"

"The owner."

"Why did she call it Bella's Bakery if her name is Aubrey?"

"Dude, I don't know! Can you just let it go?"

He just grinned brighter in reply. Couldn't he be serious for like a second? I gave him the box of donuts and three cups of coffee.

"That would be 11.20," I said trying to sound calm. He gave me twenty dollars and I opened the cash register to give him the change when a middle aged women walked in.

"Now go. I have another customer," I said putting the money in his hand and practically shooing him.

I saw Jesse still standing by the cash register while I was preparing coffee for the woman. After about a minute he left. Thank God.


It was quarter to two when Stacie walked in the bakery wearing shorts and a little too tight top. It was warm outside but not that warm. She passed by me walking like a supermodel on a runway to the staff room to leave her bag and then she came back.

"I had such a rough night," she admitted, but I cut her off: "Before you continue, I don't wanna know."

"Relax, it's not what you mean. A conduit or whatever broke so I had to call the plumber. He was really bad, it took him hours to fix it. Or replace it or whatever he had to do. And then we did it," she winked at me, "If you know what I mean."

"Gross," I said quietly.

"Trust me, it was everything but that. Especially with all that chocolate syrup..."

"What? Chocolate syrup?" Amy came from the kitchen licking a spoon covered with white creme.

"Oh, I was just telling Beca about..." Stacie began her story again, but was now cut off by Amy: "You know I love dirty stories with a lot of juicy details, but your stories make my tummy feel sick."

"But Amy, this story involves two things you love most: sex and food," Stacie said hoping to get another opportunity to describe every little obscene detail of her sex life. Amy thought about it for a second before saying: "Alright, let's hear it."

"Oh, Stacie, you're here," a lively voice said entering the room. Chloe took a pink apron and handed it to Stacie: "Put this on and go help Amy in the kitchen. Beca," she looked at me "just clean the counter and you're free to go."

"Yes! Finally," I exclaimed happily and started cleaning the counter, wanted to finish as soon as possible. It was then when I first noticed a little pink napkin (everything was pink in here. Guess whose brilliant idea that was.) neatly put against the cash register. I grabbed it and just before I threw it in the trash I noticed something written on it. Just one sentence.

It was nice meeting you, neighbor. :)

My eyes automatically landed on a small video rental store across the street and one particular person came to my mind.

What a dork.


A/N This is my first fanfic so if you're going to review it, please don't be too harsh. But constructive criticism is appreciated. :)