Chapter Three
Marinette felt bad. No, correction. Marinette felt horrible. She completely forgot that a family was supposed to come and stay at her B&B today. She'd been out with Alya, looking for gifts to give her friends, but she'd lost track of time and had to rush home. Marinette prayed that they weren't there yet. She still had to add the final touches to the rooms.
Marinette pulled up to her house and didn't see anyone or another car. She sighed with relief. She'd made it on time. As she ran into the house, she went through the mental list of everything she needed to put into the rooms and bathroom. Marinette practically threw her groceries and jacket off as she flew up the stairs to the third story.
After twenty minutes of frantically running around, Marinette flung herself onto one of the beds. She must be really lucky to have managed to pull that off again. Marinette had an unfortunate habit of waiting until the last second to do things. This led to many close calls.
Marinette got up and walked down the stairs when she heard her phone ringing. She walked over to it and picked it up. "Hello?", she said.
"Hi, is this Marinette?", the person on the other side of the phone asked her.
"Yes, this is. Are you calling for any particular reason?" Marinette hoped they weren't calling to cancel. She hated it when people did that.
"Yeah, I was wondering where we're supposed to enter from?"
Marinette almost smacked herself in the head. How could she have forgotten to tell them about the side staircase? "I'm so sorry. I completely forgot to tell you that when you made the reservation. There's a staircase on the right side of the building that leads to my house."
She heard the person chuckle. "It's alright. I know how stressful the holidays can be."
Marinette felt herself sag with relief. They didn't sound mad about her forgetfulness so that was good. "Thank you for understanding. I'll be there in a second," Marinette said as she grabbed her coat and hung up the phone. She opened the door and headed down the stairs and around the corner.
In front of the bakery stood a very tall man with blonde hair. He had two children circling him; a girl and a boy. The boy had black hair, while the girl had blonde hair matching the man's hair. Both children seemed tired but were bouncing up and down with excitement. As Marinette got closer to them, she realized the man looked a lot like Felix from behind. There were some differences, but other than that they looked almost identical.
The man was pulling on something as Marinette stopped in front of the small trio. The girl noticed her presence first and smiled at her. Marinette back at her and noticed that the man seemed to be struggling. "Um excuse me do you need-", but before Marinette finish the man jolted upwards, hitting himself.
"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?!" Marinette said as she realized her mistake of standing right behind him.
The guy was rubbing the spot where he'd hit his head. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine," he said as he turned around to face her. That's when Marinette noticed just how alike this man and Felix were. They looked almost the same! His eyes meet hers, and for the first time in a long time, Marinette felt her heart flutter.
The two of them just stood there for a few seconds before she took a step back. "I am so sorry for accidentally sneaking up on you and making you bump your head. I swear I don't do that for fun."
The man got started to chuckle a little bit. "It's fine, honestly. I've gotten hurt way worse." For the second time that night, Marinette felt relief flood her. She held out her hand to him. "I'm Marinette," she said.
He took her hand and gave it a good shake. "Adrien," he said.