Chapter 4 - Bake
Sheldon knocked frantically on the wooden door of the flower shop across the street from "Dreams." The nosy owner was always there, clucking her tongue disapprovingly at all of the kids and teenagers which hung around the bakery. That demographic typically did not purchase any of her floral wares.
"Please! What happened to the bakery? Was anyone hurt?"
Mrs. Vartabedian took pity on the agitated man. She had often seen the tall pair together as they left each night from the bakery.
"Oh dear. The shop caught fire two nights ago. An electrical accident the fire marshal said. Luckily it happened in the middle of the night when no one was there."
Sheldon sighed and almost slumped against the doorway in relief.
She wasn't hurt!
Sheldon ran back through his eidetic memory. The electrical wiring in her building was entirely up to code. He had checked the layout himself much to her exasperation.
The older woman leaned in surreptitiously, "They say that a large, muscular man was seen running from the area soon before the shop burned."
Her companion frowned though not at the blatant invasion of his personal space. There was only one man who fit that description that came to Sheldon's mind.
The gorilla! But why?
The head baker's words came back to him in a rush – "She's much too busy with the shop. If she wasn't working, she'd have a lot more spare time for you."
He gasped reeling in shock. It was his fault! His blundering words had often gotten him in trouble in the past but never had he caused such grievous harm to another. That terrible misfortune had happened to the blonde baker brought a blow to his psyche.
He should make amends. Wait, he could make amends. An idea that Sheldon had struggled to squelch frequently reasserted itself again in the maelstrom of his thoughts. It was perfect.
The tall man slid long fingers into his pocket to pull out his business card.
Gateau Affairs
Sheldon Lee Cooper, Head Baker
The blonde owner wasn't financially stable enough to rebuild. With the insurance payment, she'd be lucky to break even. She was just making a profit recently in the past weeks.
She would make a suitable addition to his team. She'd be tough enough to reign in Howard, pretty enough to entrance Leonard, sweet enough to tolerate Raj's mutism, and especially stubborn enough to handle his own genius.
"Would you like me to tell her anything?" Mrs. Vartabedian asked noticing the man fidgeting slightly.
A flashback to last year's disastrous Stevenson's attempt caught his breath.
No! More people only meant more bitter betrayal!
She wouldn't do that to you, a voice whispered, but then again he had never expected a knife in the back from his handpicked teammates.
"No, no thank you," he choked out.
Sheldon angrily shoved the card back into his pocket, and he left the florist's in stilted steps. Let the chaos theory of the universe decide. He had his own goals to attend to.
They would not include her.
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Penny Lane curled up in her bed weeping softly.
Her shop! Her wonderful bakery was gone.
The girl sniffled quietly, tempted to run out and grab the nearest bottle of liquor, but no, she needed a clear head.
She couldn't rebuild her shop. The bank wouldn't extend a second loan due to her situation being considered a liability. She wasn't willing to put her family into debt. She refused to take any more money from them. It was hard enough to watch their strained faces on her first loan.
After she had worked so hard, and "Dreams" was finally being frequented by more customers, her bakery she had raised from near bankruptcy had burned down.
Witnesses had reported seeing a large figure running away from the scene minutes before the building became a blazing inferno, but without security camera footage or a positive identification the police could do nothing.
It had to be him! It must have been Kurt!
Where was he? Where was her whack-a-doodle in shining armor?
Her eyes flashed. No she didn't need anyone to save her. She had depended on him far too much. Yes, the man had brought her out of the trouble she was in before, but wishing he was here now was not helping. She could do this. Not to sound cliché, but she didn't need a man to help her with any of her problems. She was Queen P!
Speaking of which, the blonde pulled out her laptop. Maybe a little troll slaying would put her in a better mood.
As her homepage loaded up, she saw a brightly colored advertisement listed on the side. Her penchant for searching for baking recipes and equipment guaranteed that the spam bots did their work.
Interested in a creative culinary job that allows you to meet with renowned celebrities?
Come sign up! Gateau Affairs!
What the frack? Did a five year old design that advertisement?
Gateau Affairs. That was one of the most elite bakeries in the city. It was said that social starlets like Paris and Kim personally had to beg the shop to even order cakes for their birthday bashes. It was that good.
The head baker was known to be eccentric though. It was rumored he was so cold; his hands could physically hold the thinnest sliver of chocolate and not have it melt at his touch.
It was a sign. This was the perfect opportunity for her.
If she got hired, perhaps even one day, she could find her neurotic savior and thank him for training her so well. Maybe she could get him a position there too, and together they could overturn the baking world on its head!
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"You did what?!" Sheldon exploded before his cowering coworkers.
Howard jumped behind Leonard while Raj held his hands up in self-defense.
An irate Sheldon was never a good thing.
Leonard adjusted his glasses nervously in front of the tall baker. "Gablehauser said we needed some new blood around here. Our profit margins have suffered during the past few months."
Sheldon clenched his hands in anger. He had been distracted ever since the Stevenson incident, but his creativity had flourished recently like never before.
It was only because…
He wondered what she was doing.
The man scowled. She was a distraction, nothing more! He didn't even know her name. He was still waiting for the universe to speak.
Gablehauser only thought of the big name clients, but Sheldon knew his shop was frequented by all walks of life. Like she had said, cake was a joy for all.
Stop it!
The trio watched Sheldon's face twitch and react with some strange conniption. Were those actually emotions showing in their head robot baker?
He was so distant after the disaster of last year's Stevenson attempt, but for a few months following the incident he'd almost been normal even finding joy in his work. Suddenly, out of the blue last week, he'd pulled a 180, snapping at even the smallest infraction. Howard's singing and dancing plastic plant figurine would never be the same.
"Did you switch out his bran fiber cereal, Leonard?"
"No, not this time."
Sheldon ignored their petty, whispered comments.
Hiring someone new. A flash of vibrant green eyes.
It would be easy to look up her information online in the restaurant business databases. He could probably hack into the bank loan paperwork within an hour. She wouldn't betray him. She'd poke, laugh, and outright yell at him, but betray? Never.
The head baker sighed. These what-if's were giving him a headache.
"Fine, if that's what Gablehauser wants."
Sheldon retreated to hide away in his office, not to be disturbed on pain of scouring the kitchen from top to bottom.
His companions glanced at each other in surprise. That was too easy. Did an alien replace Sheldon?
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"Each applicant is to bake a simple yellow cake. At each station are the ingredients necessary to create your entry."
Leonard made the announcement to the assembled candidates as they borrowed the local culinary school's teaching kitchen for the hiring process. The facility had advantageously the greatest number of state-of-the art ovens situated in one enormous room.
He continued on, "No decoration or frosting is required."
That was common sense. A baker who could provide the most beautiful creation, but if the base tasted horrible, no one would buy it.
Leonard's eyes landed upon a pretty blonde unpacking her kitchen tools in the last row.
Wow! She's gorgeous, he thought in admiration. It would take a miracle for her to join the team though.
"You have one hour. Begin!"
A couple of the entrants looked panicked as time started.
Leonard made his way to the rest of the bakers from Gateau Affairs at the front of the room. Those would be eliminated. An hour was plenty of time to make a cake. While not as demanding as the dinner rush hour at a restaurant, a last minute order from an impatient client was possible in their line of work.
Now where was Sheldon?
Ordinarily their head baker would have had an imperious hand in everything, wanting to personally peruse the resumes beforehand, eliminating those not worthy of the Gateau Affairs name.
The tall form soon joined the trio silently from the back room, a stern expression on his face. "Let's begin."
The team made notes and evaluated each potential baker as they traveled up and down the aisle of ovens.
Sheldon, of course, was typically harsh, not bothering to hide his contempt at some of their ineptness.
"You're using an excessive amount of equipment!" Gesturing to the dirty, used blenders, mixers, and utensils spread across an applicant's station and the floor, he snarled, "It's not rocket science!"
To another poor soul, he snapped, "You're wasting ingredients! Keep your station clean!"
The man had spilled flour and broken eggs all over the countertops.
Sheldon grimaced. A messy kitchen was ripe for bacterial disease, mold, and heaven forbid roaches!
Leonard, Howard, and Raj looked at each other in despair. They had to hire someone, but who could fit Sheldon's exacting standards?
He went up and down the rows continuing to critique as he went.
A woman's long hair not being tied back was a food hazard. A man who didn't pre-heat his oven would be serving a pile of uncooked batter to the judges. Another entrant smelled funny. This one whistled while he baked!
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Penny flipped through the pages of what she dubbed "The Book," making sure she had covered every step before placing her batter into the oven. Each and every single page was filled with the recipes she and her whack-a-doodle had personally worked on, adjusting them to perfection. It was lucky she had kept the binder with her instead of at the shop the night of the fire.
With a clean 38 minutes left on the clock, she had plenty of opportunity to bake thanks to her mentor's time saving tips. Loud voices met her ears, but she was too engrossed in setting the pan into the oven.
Sheldon huffed as they approached the back of the last station. The entrant had her posterior bent, positioned perfectly in front of the boys' eye line, and the bakers were practically salivating at the sight.
"Look," Leonard whispered to Raj. "That's the girl I saw before." He was already imagining teaching tall, blonde haired children how to use a mixer in a picturesque, sunny kitchen.
Sheldon turned to glare at them, silencing them with a severe look.
The trio deflated visibly. They doubted the uptight man would find a reason to hire a pretty girl.
The head baker of Gateau Affairs turned and stepped forward towards the girl to deliver a nasty rebuke to the long-haired, blonde candidate, but to his surprise the baker had a clean, neat station and was already baking her dish.
He … he couldn't have done better if he tried!
Sheldon silently slid just behind her as she straightened. Maybe she had some kind of physical flaw – too much garish makeup, or some odiferous perfume.
Penny stood and turned back around to tidy up the rest of her station, only to run nose-to-nose with the head baker himself! No one could miss the tall white hat of the bakery supervisor.
Startled emerald eyes met familiar sky blue ones.
And the world held its breath.
Yeah, a drama like Gateau Affairs gets pretty insane. I like the initial storyline, but then the girl usually blows something out of proportion or does something stupid towards the later episodes. As always most of the plot comes from the TVB series. The kitchen set up and some of the inept bakers comes from me binge watching Season 3 of Masterchef (go Christine Ha!). Sorry for the cliffhanger. This was originally one chapter, but it was extra long so I had to divide it into two.
Many thanks to those who've reviewed.
Grignard