I sighed as I finished wiping down the counter because of the kids sitting at a table in the corner of my bakery. They always like to cause a ruckus or a mess (or both), and I've almost banned them from the bakery multiple times, but my good friend and one of my two workers, Mark, always kept me from it, as they "brought us business." Trying to get Bob, another good friend and the other worker, to take a side in this debate always resulted in a silent shrug from him before he returned to his duties, so I would just kick them out for the day usually.

I tossed the rag into a bucket sitting nearby as a woman with blonde hair I'd never seen before walked into the bakery and up to the register. I gave her a friendly smile and said, "Hello, welcome to the Barnes Bakery, how may I help you?"

Returning the smile, she said, "I'll have a chocolate donut without sprinkles and a small, black coffee."

I rang up the order as I yelled back at Mark to get her coffee. "That'll be 3.75$."

She paid for the order, so I went to slip a donut in a small paper bag as Mark asked the lady, "Name for the order?"

Damnit, I totally forgot to ask that!

I mentally facepalmed at my own stupidity as she calmly gave her name to Mark, her smile not disappearing. Her name turned out to be Molly, a very pretty name that suited her well. Mark scribbled the name on a cup as I gave her donut to her.

"Thank you, sir," she said as she took the small bag.

I smiled at her. "Call me Wade."

She glanced to my name tag that literally no one seemed to ever notice and nodded. "Okay, Wade."

I smiled at her again as Mark hands her coffee to her and says, "Sorry that my friend here is an idiot sometimes."

"Hey! I'm right here!"

He sticks his tongue out at me as Molly giggles. I rolled my eyes and said to Molly, "Hope to see you again!"

She smiled. "Of course!"

After she left, Mark remarked, "Did you get so enamored by her beauty that you forgot to ask for her name for the order?"

"Shut up, Mark!"

"Get back to work, you idiots," Bob said from somewhere in the back.

As soon as he said that, the kids started making a mess again. I had had enough with them and yelled, "You kids, stop making a huge mess and get out of my bakery!"

After that day, Molly kept coming back everyday, her order changing constantly for the first week as she figured out what she liked. Eventually, I didn't even have to ask for her order, I'd just get it ready as soon as she opened the door to the bakery. Mark constantly teased me for it, but I told him everytime that it improved efficiency, which it did! He just doesn't understand that.

Within a span of three months, the staffing had changed drastically. Mark took his new girlfriend, Amy, and Tyler and met up with Ethan and Kathryn to move to Los Angeles, leaving just me and Bob, but then Bob and his wife, Mandy, moved to North Carolina, leaving me alone in Cincinnati with the bakery. A good friend of mine, Garuku, moved up to Ohio to be with his girlfriend, Tegan, and offered to help with the bakery. Fresh out of a bad relationship, Jp also offered to help, meaning that the employee team completely changed. Tegan also offered to help out, so the team grew from two to three. Despite Mark no longer working there, he still texted me often to tease me about Molly, much to my annoyance since Gar had taken Mark's place as the teaser here. I now had two annoying teasers to deal with.

One day, after this span of three months, the day felt ... off. It was one of those dreary days filled with grey and rainy skies, something not uncommon in Ohio. Usually, our business was a little less on these days, probably because not as many people were out. Tegan was out today, Gar informing me of her flu troubles, so we were down one worker. The annoying kids came in, as usual, and after they caused a ruckus and greatly annoyed an older couple (the only other customers in the bakery at the time) who were trying to enjoy some coffee and chitchat, I finally banned them from my bakery, much to the delight of Gar and Jp. As the day came to a close, I realized why today was so off.

Molly didn't come in!

I was about to keep it to myself when Gar looked up from cleaning the coffeemaker (the Keurig had clogged up for some unknown reason) and asked, "Hey, wait, did Molly not come today?"

"I don't think so," I remarked.

"She didn't," Jp said loudly from the back where he was grabbing things like cups and napkins to restock our main working area.

Gar placed the dirty rag soaked with coffee grounds and water on the counter. "Strange, doesn't she come in everyday?"

I nodded. "Yep, she has for about three months."

"Wow, holy shit, I did not realize that she's been coming in everyday for that long."

"You see why I'm concerned now?"

"Yeah, I do."

Jp appeared from the back and said, "It's probably fine, it's just one day. Give it a week, Wade. If she doesn't show up, then I'd worry and try to find out what's going on."

I nodded. "Okay, I will. Thanks, Jp."

"Anytime, dude."

A week went by, and Molly hadn't shown up. I was really worried about her because of how she'd come everyday. Sometimes, I'd talk to Jp about it, especially because Tegan recovered but then Gar got hit with the flu (which was bound to happen with how he'd care for her while she had it), meaning he wasn't working and thus couldn't tease me about Molly.

While the bakery was quiet and there wasn't much at all to do, Jp asked out of the blue, "Did you ever get her phone number?"

I shook my head. "No."

He sighed. "Well, there goes that idea."

Tegan joined into the conversation. "Speaking of Molly, I logged onto my old Facebook account yesterday. I was apparently a Facebook friend of hers, but our last conversation from like five years ago was an argument in a group chat."

My interest was peeked. "I don't use - wait, has she been on lately? Or did you not look?"

"Oh, I looked. Her last post was something about a new cat? It was like a few weeks though."

"I remember her telling me about Keeters when she came in a few weeks ago." I frowned. "Was there nothing else?"

"Nope."

Jp was about to say something when a couple customers came in. On that note, the conversation ended, and we returned to our duties. Once the day came to an end and I closed the bakery, I groaned when I remembered that I had parked further away than normal because traffic had been a mess that morning. I finished the last of the cleaning and locked up, Tegan having left early to attend to a Gar emergency and Jp leaving a few minutes before closing, as was his routine annoyingly.

Walking down the street to my car, I noticed a female jogging in my direction, obviously trying to get somewhere. Her eyes were locked on a shop behind me, and she almost went right by me, had we not both stopped in our tracks.

"Molly?!"

"Wade?!"

Without another word, I pulled her into a hug, and we literally said nothing for a full minute or two. When we finally separated, the first thing I said was, "I've missed your daily visits, Molly. Where did you go?!"

She sighed. "It's a long story. I was actually trying to get to your bakery right before it closed so we could chat, but obviously you already closed it."

"Yeah...sorry. We can chat at my place though! I've been letting Jp stay with me since he moved up here, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind a visit from you."

"You sure?"

"Yeah!"

"Okay."

I smiled as I took Molly to my place, a small, two bedroom apartment that I shared with Jp. When we walked in, I didn't see him, but when I realized that the shower was running, I said, "Guess he's in the shower."

"I can tell that, Wade," Molly said sassily. "Anyways, you got a nice place here."

"Thanks. It's not the biggest, but it's a good size for me and Jp."

"Yeah."

I took a spot on the couch and motioned for Molly to take the spot next to me. When she did, I said, "Okay, so what happened?"

She sighed and looked off into space. "Well, part of it was an impromptu vacation for a few days with a few friends." She looked back to me. "We went up to Cedar Point. It was literally a last-minute decision."

"What was the other part of it?"

She blushed. "I've been ... struggling with some emotions lately."

"What kind of emotions?"

She sighed. "A lot of different emotions. I've been a mess trying to untangle them. I'm still trying to untangle them, in fact."

I smiled and subconsciously grabbed her hand. "I'm here for you, Molly. So is everyone else who works at the bakery. Jp, Gar, Tegan - they're all here for you."

She smiled back. "Thanks, Wade."

"Of course, Molly."

Suddenly, from the bathroom, we heard a loud, "You've been ... THUNDERSTRUCK~!" Molly and I both burst out laughing, me releasing her hand in the process. I forgot about Jp's tendency to sing quite loudly, and it created a very hilarious moment. After we recovered, Molly continued the conversation with, "What's your number so I can text you?"

Almost as soon as I gave it to her, I heard the shower turn off, so I yelled to Jp, "Don't come out half-naked like you always do!"

"But Wade!" he yelled back.

""But Wade" nothing, there's a guest here!"

Molly chuckled as Jp came crashing in with blue Tampa Bay Lightning basketball shorts on and no shirt, landing on his stomach in front of the couch. A loud smack sounded as my hand landed on my forehead at the stupidity of the young male while Molly just laughed, "Well, hello there, Jp."

"Hi Mollyyyyyy," he said as he got up.

I snapped. "GO PUT ON A SHIRT, JEREMIAH WOODWARD!"

He chuckled as he walked back to his room. "Okay, I will."

After Jp disappeared, Molly sighed and said, "I should probably get home. I was coming to your bakery right after getting back to Cincinnati, so I need to get back to Keeters."

"Your cat, right." We both got up as I said, "Well, glad you're back, Molly. See you tomorrow at my bakery?"

She smiled. "Of course!"

The next day, when Molly appeared in the bakery, she was greeted with a lot of loud hellos, the loudest being Gar (yes, he recovered from the flu), who yelled, "HOI!" and almost obliterated my eardrums. I was still recovering when she smiled and gave a greeting back. They made small talk while I got together her usual, me smiling the entire time. She couldn't stick around (she had to go get cat stuff), but that didn't matter. With a wave goodbye, she left the store, and almost immediately Gar started attacking me with questions.

"You saw her last night and took her back to your place?! What happened? Are you two a couple now? Was there flurtingggg? Did Jp ruin the moment?"

"HEY, I'M RIGHT HERE!"

I chuckled. "No, Gar, we're not a couple, nor did we flirt. She just explained what happened, and we were at my place since I had already closed the bakery. Also, technically yes, first he sung a lyric obscenely loud, then he came crashing into the living room without a shirt on."

Jp chuckled. "He's not wrong."

Gar pouted. "Awwww, I was hoping Made was a thing nowwwww."

I raised an eyebrow. "The hell is Made?!"

Tegan sighed. "It's his ship name for you and Molly."

I smacked Gar upside the head. He winced and went, "What was that for?!" I just rolled my eyes and replied, "I think you already know. Now, get back to work."

A few weeks went by, and Molly was hanging out with us a lot more, even outside of the bakery. She hasn't felt like a customer for a while, more like a friend honestly. Actually, if I'm completely honest, the week she wasn't around made me realize that these feelings are more than friendly. Does she feel the same way? I don't know.

A particular Saturday rolled around, and I was putting up a sign on the bakery door that read, "NOTICE: Barnes Bakery closed for personal reasons and will reopen Monday :)" (I recently made the decision to keep the bakery closed on Sundays anyways due to the fact that Tegan and Gar both took off days here and there to destress). Why? I had organized a day with Molly, Jp, Gar, Tegan, Patrck, and Marie to go to the Cincinnati Zoo, especially since Pat and Marie were up from California visiting for a week and I wanted to do something with them besides hanging around at the bakery.

The day was perfect. The sky was mostly clear, with a few clouds dotting the sky here and there, and the temperature was perfect. Nothing to complain about. Well, maybe except for the fact that Jp overslept, so I had gone ahead and gone out to put the notice up.

When we all were at the zoo, we stuck together as a big group. Eventually, when we got to one particular section, we split off into three groups without meaning to, Tegan and Marie together, the three guys together, and then me and Molly. Realizing this, she stopped abruptly and said, "Wade, remember when I told you that I was dealing with an emotional tangle?"

My heart started to pound heavily. "Yeah, why?"

"I untangled the mess, and you know what?"

"What?"

Using my shirt to pull herself up, she brought her lips to mine in one quick second. I was taken aback, but I accepted it nonetheless. I mean, I was just happy that my feelings for her were mutual. Heck, if they weren't mutual, I'd be devastated, so I'm really happy.

"I'm sorry, was that too much?" Molly asked as she let herself down.

I smiled. "Nope." I kissed her forehead. "I'm just really happy that our feelings are mutual."

She smiled back. "And to think it was all because of your bakery."

"Yeah, I know. Mark and Gar will be super happy about us."

"Why? Did they tease you about us even before feelings developed?"

"Yup."

"Of course, they seem like the people who would do that."

I snaked my hand into hers. "Yeah, but I don't care about them. I only care about us."

"Are you guys FLURTINGGGGG?!" Gar, who came out of nowhere, suddenly yelled.

"GODDAMNIT, GAR, YOU RUINED OUR MOMENT!" I yelled back.

Tegan just chuckled. "Marie, you owe me 50 bucks."

Marie sighed and handed her 50$. "Dang it."

I raised an eyebrow. "Did you two make a bet?"

"They bet who would ruin your moment," Pat said. "Tegan said Gar, Mk said Jp."

Molly laughed while I shook my head and asked, "Why are you guys like this?"

~~~~~

A/N

Holy crap, this is my longest one-shot ever 0-0 Guess that's what happens when I'm not on WiFi so I can't get distracted lol I started it in North Carolina and finished it in West Virginia! Took me four and a half hours.

Word Count (before A/N): 2623

Anyways, here's the prompt I used:

Credit to -roseyy for it :)

Oh, and I should also mention that this is obviously an AU because the timing of some events is totally different compared to real life. And yes, Gar's girlfriend irl is named Tegan, and yes, he does actually have a girlfriend, she'll be appearing in my stories of course lol

~Kat