"Have a nice day, pumpkin." I said before bending down and pressing my lips against the top of the head of blonde hair, in a loving kiss.

"Thank you, mum. You too." My daughter said, after letting go of my waist.

Leaving her at school had always been a difficult thing for me to do. Lexi was already in third grade, and it did get a bit easier, but never not difficult. If it were up to me, I'd spend every day at home with her, taking in every little detail about her and the way she lives. Because she inspires me every day. She's my main source of inspiration for everything I do.

She ran to the entrance of the school, with a smile that failed to leave her face, and right before turning right on the doors, she waved me one final goodbye. Standing in my place, I waved her back, before swinging back in my heels and making my way to the car, to drive to work.

I parked my car outside The Royal Rose, the restaurant I was currently working at as a waitress. The restaurant was located in Richmond, more specifically in a prime location, between the park and the River Thames, in a quiet, narrow road that led to a wider street, with far more movement than this one.

This was a fancy restaurant. Not Michelin star fancy, but definitely fancy. Chandeliers hanging on the ceiling, high quality linen tablecloths and napkins that decorated the wooden tables, low lighting that set a romantic tone, candles lit up everywhere, slow jazz music playing ever so softly in the background. This was a fancy and expensive restaurant. The kind of place posh members of society would go to, to gather their other posh friends and celebrate someone's birthday or anniversary.

Did I like working here? Yes, but I would like it a whole lot more to work behind the stove, in the kitchen. I would love to be the person responsible for the five star reviews of this restaurant, but, without any proper training in cooking, I had to settle for the waitress job.

People who ate here had money. That was how it worked. I could very easily cook one of these meals and make it taste even more delicious, but I could never afford eating them here.

I locked the car behind me and made my way inside the restaurant, skipping through the rain puddles, and holding my bag above my head to help cover me from the pouring rain.

When I walked through the backdoor, my colleague and close friend, Olivia, was already inside, tying the apron around her waist.

"Good morning, Mel." She said with a smile dancing on her lips.

Olivia Jones is the girl that is the actual human definition of a ray of sunshine. The only other person I know that would fit that category is Lexi, and she's an eight year old, but Olivia is a twenty-six year old woman.

"Hi Liv." I said with a matching smile. "How was your weekend?"

"Well, I was working Saturday night's shift so it wasn't too brilliant. But my sister and I went to our parents' place for Sunday dinner."

"Oh, that must've been nice." I commented, while removing my soaked trench coat.

"Yeah, it was okay, I guess. How's the little missy?" Olivia asked, referring to my daughter.

Whenever I couldn't be with Lexi, my brother was my main resource for help. Mainly because he knew her since forever and they loved each other - having an amazing uncle and niece relationship -, and secondly because I trusted him. However, he couldn't nor shouldn't he be responsible for Lexi all the time, and mostly now that he was married, with two kids of his own and had his own life to take care of. So, Olivia often babysat Lexi whenever I wasn't around.

"She's good." I smiled, thinking of the little missy in question. "I just dropped her off at school."

The morning shift routine was always the same. After arriving at work, it was all about preparing the restaurant for the day, and specifically for the lunches. That meant setting the tables - and checking for any reservations that were made beforehand -, checking with the kitchen staff what the specials are for the day, signing off on large orders that we're expecting such as food and beverages and getting the menus ready.

But that was all hidden work that nobody saw. The restaurant remained closed until eleven o'clock in the morning, when we opened the doors and officially started welcoming our customers.

The Royal Rose was never full at lunch time, dinner being the busiest time of the day. However, two waitresses were still not enough and Liv and I were constantly rushing around from table to table and to the kitchen and so on.

Taking that into consideration, the owner chose to add some new employees for the morning shift. The two girls were supposed to be here before we opened the doors, so we could teach them the ropes, but they were late on their first day and got here at a quarter after eleven.

"What happened to you?" I asked the girls. They walked inside the restaurant in a rush, clearly aware of their mishap.

"We're so sorry." One of them said, before the other added the rest and explained.

"There was a delay on the train and we had to take a bus."

I hated being that person but it had to be said. "Girls, being late is unacceptable."

The two teenage girls looked at me with wide eyes. "You're with me and Liv today but when you'll be on your own, you'll have to be here at nine."

The girls nodded their heads repeatedly, paying attention to every word that came out of my mouth.

"Being late and coming to work at nine thirty or even ten is okay, but being late and coming into work after opening time?" I nodded in disapproval. "You can't."

"We are really sorry." The girl with black long hair said.

"It won't happen again." The other said, her green eyes opened so wide.

"Alright. Let's start, shall we?" I handed them their aprons and showed them the way to the employee's room, where they'd have the space and the privacy to get changed.

Thankfully, we weren't busy with customers at this time, so Olivia and I had the time to teach them the basics about the job.

The young girls came back from the back room about fifteen minutes later, and took their position, standing behind the counter next to me.

"Okay, let's forget what happened and start fresh, alright?" The girls nodded with relieved expressions, and I went ahead and introduced myself and my colleague. "My name is Melanie and this is Olivia. You are?"

"Tanya and Katie." The dark haired girl spoke.

"Welcome." Olivia said with a smile before I started with the explanations.

"The morning shift is the first shift of the day and so the first thing you do when you start working is checking the specials of the day with the kitchen staff. The chef usually plans them ahead and leaves them written on a board in the kitchen but you must always, always confirm with the staff."

The girls nodded and I continued. "Then, you write them on the board and after that's taken care of, you need to start preparing the tables."

I walked to the storage room, where we kept the washed and pressed linen tablecloths and napkins. "This is where you get everything you need for the tables."

The silverware was also kept in this room, and I pointed to the large wooden boxes, where they could be found.

After being done with this room, we walked back to the main area of the restaurant. That was when I spotted a tall, blonde haired man standing by the entrance, who looked just like this restaurant: expensive. Expensive black shoes, expensive navy suit, expensive silver watch that dangled on his wrist.

"Olivia, there's a customer." I nodded in the direction of the doors. "Can you go greet him, please?" I asked, and my friend did as told, carrying out a menu with her.

I overheard the usual conversation. "Hello, welcome to The Royal Rose.", "How may I help you?", "I would suggest the corner seat, with a lovely view out the window." and "May I interest you in a bottle of our best white wine?".

"Should we start with this customer?" The green eyed girl with auburn hair asked, her fingers fidgeting with the hem of the beige apron.

I nodded in denial. "I think maybe it's best for you girls to see me and Olivia work today and help us if we need anything. And if you feel up for it, tomorrow you could start waitressing on your own."

The girls agreed and went back behind the counter with me, learning from me how to fold the napkins the right way. Not too long afterwards, Olivia was back with the menu and an order in hand, and I heard her as she spoke to the kitchen.

"I need one smoked salmon starter, and for the main course it's the honey roast duck."

"Coming right up." I heard one of the sous chefs say.

While I teached the new joiners of the waitressing staff how to fold the napkins correctly until they mastered it perfectly, Olivia served and collected the starter from the customer's table and was now on her way back from serving the main course.

"You're never gonna believe what I found out yesterday." I said to Olivia while I stacked the folded napkins on top of each other.

"What?"

"That bakery we love, L'Amour?" Olivia nodded. "It's closed!"

"No!" Olivia let out a gasping sound, probably way too loudly for the setting we're in.

"Yes. Lexi and I stopped by yesterday, and it's closed. It's indefinite."

"I wonder what's happened?"

"God knows..." I replied. "Poor Lexi was so gutted. We went there to buy croissants, ended up making our own."

"At least you know how to make them. What will I do now?" I nudged her shoulder with mine.

"Hey, I could give you some of the ones I baked." She showed me a smile before going back to her task.

"It's just sad, Liv." I continued. "Because that bakery is kind of our place. Mine and Lexi's. We've been going there for afternoon tea since she was born, basically! It's heartbreaking to see it all go to waste and ignored. Plus they had really good products. Best bakery I've ever been to."

My rant had definitely been ongoing for a while, and I didn't even notice that our first and only customer of the day was standing by the counter, until I heard him speak.

"I couldn't help but overhear..." The customer said, interrupting my conversation with Olivia and causing us to look into his direction.

Hearing his voice, speaking so close to me, I could tell without a shadow of a doubt that he wasn't from here. There was an accent. It seemed French but I couldn't tell just yet. Could be German.

I remained quiet, looking puzzled as I waited for him to elaborate. "About the closed bakery."

"Oh..." I nodded in realisation, and proceeded to answer him, rather quickly. "I don't know anything more than what you've heard. They don't know when they'll open again."

"L'Amour was it?"

Yep, definitely French. I thought to myself after hearing his pronunciation of the bakery's name.

"Yes." I replied. "Do you know it?"

"Uh..." He hesitated, and I could see the wheels turning in his head as he searched every corner of his brain for the right words to say. "Something like that."

Olivia looked back and forth between me and the customer, and let out an uninterested hm sound before turning back in her heels and focusing on another task.

"Anyway," He added, while he fished for his wallet in the inside pocket of his fancy suit jacket. "It makes me really happy that this bakery brought so much joy to you and Lexi."

My eyebrows furrowed, meeting in the middle of my forehead. I tried my best not to show it, but I was not one to keep a poker face. And I was also not one to ask questions, so I remained quiet, although my brain was jumping with interrogation marks everywhere.

"And was this really the best bakery you've ever been to?" He asked.

"Yes." My answer came out instantly, with a smile on my face as I thought about all the good food I ate there. "The best one. You don't know how good a cake tastes until you've had one of those."

The customer dipped down his head, intending to hide his smile, yet I could still see it.

"But if you know it, then you probably know what I'm talking about." I added, with the hope to get out a little bit more information about his knowledge of the bakery than his previous one.

Without any luck, the man simply nodded in agreement, remaining silent this time. From that moment onward, not another word was exchanged regarding the bakery.

"Thank you for lunch. It was absolutely delicious."

"Do you want anything else? Dessert?" He shook his head. "We can give you the check at the table."

"You're very kind, but no. I'm in a bit of a rush." He explained, avoiding eye contact.

"Alright. That'll be 35,88£." I said as I slid the check across the counter to him, while he handed me his credit card.

I noticed the name on the plastic card: Sébastien Martin. It definitely matches my previous guess of him being French.

After I made the transaction, he showed us all a kind smile and after thanking us again, he left the restaurant, causing a whoosh of cold breeze to enter the warm restaurant as the doors closed behind him.

"How weird was this?" Olivia asked once the man was out of earshot.

"Did you think so too?"

 * * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

And just like that, chapter number two is here and so is a very special someone, in this little story of mine 😏

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Xoxo, Mars