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“Morning, Azu.”
Azu looks to her left to see Zolf. He’s leaning against the counter, very obviously putting his weight into his good leg. “Good morning, Zolf. What can I get for you today?”
“Eh, just the usual,” he says.
“One black coffee, coming right up.” She turns to the coffee machine and starts to brew his drink. “Anything else I can get for you? Cel just pulled a batch of pastries out of the oven a few minutes ago so they should still be warm.”
Zolf shakes his head. “No thanks. I ate at home.”
They chat for a few more minutes before Zolf’s coffee is ready and he has to head off. He works as a pediatrician at the local hospital and takes it seriously. In the time that she’s known him, she’d seen him late exactly once and she thought he was about to have a heart attack from the stress. She gives him a small wave as he walks out the door.
The morning rush hadn’t truly started yet, only a few of the regulars had started to wander in off the streets for their morning coffee. Cel, a nursing student at the University of London and one of Azu’s best friends, wanders in midway through a conversation with Hamid, a fashion major. They both stop to chat with Azu as they pick out a few pastries (Hamid would eat everything in the display case if allowed) before Cel drags Hamid out the door so they don’t miss their early morning lecture.
The bakery slowly starts to fill up as the morning wears on. Einstein and Curie, two professors at the university, somehow bump into each other in the doorway and then it’s just a battle of chivalry to see who goes first. Curie wins.
Paladin’s is Azu’s pride and joy. She had built the bakery from the ground up after she had moved to London from Kenya. For the first few months, it had only been her and a handful of employees who came and went. Now, almost two years in, she had a loyal customer base (that somehow mostly consisted of university students) and a few diligent workers.
Halfway through the morning rush, the bell jingles, announcing the arrival of a woman Azu doesn’t recognise. She’s dressed head to toe in black leather, looking straight out of a steampunk movie. She stuffs both of her hands deep within her pockets as she walks up to the counter, looking behind herself anxiously.
Wanting to make the woman feel less nervous Azu flashes a bright smile, “Welcome to Paladin’s Pastries. What can I do for you today?”
She hesitates for a moment before taking a step back. “Never mind. This-this was a bad idea.”
“I beg your pardon?” Azu asks.
Before she can answer, the door opens again revealing two bulky men, one of which has a clear gun-shaped bulge in his jacket pocket. They spot them talking and begin walking to the counter. Azu leans in close to the woman. “Are these men following you?” She whispers. The woman gives a slight nod.
Azu lifts the gate and ushers her behind it. She looks at Azu for a moment, puzzled, before scurrying behind the counter. Azu grabs her shoulders and steers her through the doors to the kitchen. “Stay here. I’ll get them to leave. Jasper,” the gnome looks up from the dough he’s kneading. “Get the phone and be ready to call the police.”
One of the two men is leaning against the display case, almost certainly leaving fingerprints against the otherwise pristine glass. They’re both tall and muscular, but Azu has at least three inches on them. “Excuse me,” she says, keeping her voice firm and even. “Could you not lean against that? You’re going to smudge the glass.”
He ignores her question, crossing his arms on the top of the case and grins cheekily at her. “Mornin’, love. We saw a lady come in here a few minutes ago. We’ve got a message for her she might want to hear.”
“Short, dark hair.” His friend describes. “Have you seen her?”
She knows they’re testing her, trying to make her say that she hasn’t when they very well know where the woman has gone. What happens afterwards, she can’t say. She does know that no matter who they are, they’re creepy and she wants them out of her bakery as soon as possible. Yes. I have seen her. She just came into work,” Azu lies. She’s not very good at lying, but she can’t tell if they buy it or not. “I can deliver the message for you if you would like.”
They exchange a glance. The one leaning against the case shrugs, pulls an envelope from his pocket, and hands it to her. “No need to cause a ruckus, even though I know for a fact Sasha wouldn’t work in a bakery. Just make sure she gets that, yeah?”
Azu takes the envelope and considers, for a moment, ripping it to shreds. She decides not to. This really isn’t her business. “Thank you. I will give it to her now.” The two nod at her curtly and walk out, leaving Azu with more questions than anything.
She slips back into the kitchen where she finds the woman (Sasha?) playing with… a knife? It disappears before she figures out what it really is. Jasper is standing in the back corner, the phone clutched tightly in his hands. “You can put that away, Jasper. They’re gone.”
Sasha seems to visibly relax when she says that, her shoulders falling away from her ears. “Uh, thanks for that. You really didn’t need to step in there.”
“You came to me. I thought you were going to ask for help,” Azu says.
She shrugs. “Yeah, well… still didn’t expect you to actually do anything. So, uh, cheers for that, mate.”
Azu smiles warmly. “You’re very welcome.” She hands the envelope to her. “They wanted to give you this, whatever it is. Said they were delivering a message.”
“They didn’t have to chase me across the city for that,” she mutters, pulling a pocket knife out to slice open the envelope. She skims the letter quickly before crumpling it up and stuffing it in the trash, muttering something under her breath. “Uh, I’m Sasha, by the way.”
She extends her hand to shake and Azu has a horrible realization that she’s missing her ring finger. She tries not to let it show on her face as she shakes her hand. “Azu. It’s very nice to meet you. I think they’re gone, if you would like to leave, but you’re very welcome to stay if that makes you feel more comfortable.”
Sasha’s cheeks flush slightly and she glances away. Azu has another realization that she is covered in scars, from a large burn on her neck to nicks all over her hands. She’s no stranger to scars; she herself has gotten quite a few from childhood accidents, but the sheer amount and severity of Sasha’s, coupled with the missing finger, makes her wonder if there is anything she can do to help. She decides, against her better judgement, not to ask. It really wasn’t her business and she didn’t want to make a potential new friend/customer uncomfortable.
“Thanks, mate,” Sasha grins a little and Azu’s heart does a little flip. “I’ll just hang out here if that’s alright with you.”
Azu smiles back. “Of course. Anything I can do to help. Just try to stay out of the way.”
“Will do.”
Azu gives a small, encouraging nod to Jasper who has been staring at them confused during their conversation. He nods in return and turns back to kneading the dough.
As she’s stepping out of the kitchen, a small green blur rushes into the shop. Grizzop weaves between the tables and almost breaks the gate off its hinges as he throws it up. She catches his arm as he tries to squeeze past her. “Slow down. You’re going to break something or hurt yourself.”
He wrenches his arm free from her grip. “Sorry. Veseek needed help with something this morning and we lost track of time. I did text you.”
“I’ve been working all morning, so I haven’t seen it,” she says. Grizzop starts to turn away, but she catches his arm once again. There’s no one waiting at the counter so she decides to spare a few minutes to explain the situation. He listens intently and agrees that she did the right thing by letting Sasha stay in the kitchen.
The rest of the day goes by smoothly. Sasha eventually comes out of the kitchen and takes a seat at a table in the back corner of the shop. Azu brings her a few pastries that Sasha insists on paying for even though she tells her they’re on the house. Zolf drops in again during his lunch, talking with Cel about their most recent experiments. Hamid joins them soon after. Azu is happy enough to chat with them for a little bit before returning to the kitchen to help Grizzop.
Azu doesn’t notice when Sasha leaves, doesn’t even hear the bell jingle. She’s slightly disappointed that she doesn’t say goodbye.
At the end of the night, Jasper has to leave early, leaving Grizzop and Azu to close up. They usually work seamlessly together, moving around each other with practiced ease. But tonight, Azu’s distracted. She can’t get Sasha off her mind. The strange scars on her hands, the mysterious note she was delivered, the way her eyes crinkle when she smiled. Before she knows it, she’s colliding straight into Grizzop and a pile of dishes are clattering to the ground.
Azu apologizes profusely and the two of them start to pick the dishes up. Grizzop just shakes his head and smiles almost knowingly at her. She lightly punches him in the arm.
----
Azu is honestly surprised when Sasha shows up again, this time without a pack of thugs chasing her. She comes into Paladins’ after the early morning rush and orders a single black coffee. Azu wants to strike up a conversation, but she has no idea where to start. Does she bring up the incident from the day before?
“So,” she clears her throat and ignores the nervous feeling in her gut. There was no reason that she needed to be nervous. Sasha was just another customer who just also happened to be kind of cute. She dealt with attractive people all the time. “How are you doing today?”
Sasha shrugs. “Same old, I guess. Better than being stalked by some gang though.” There’s that smile again. Azu’s heart skips a beat. She turns toward the coffee maker so that Sasha can’t see her blush.
It continues like this for a few weeks. Sasha comes in around 11:00, orders a coffee, and the two of them have a small conversation before she has to go back to work. Azu learns that she works just down the road at an antiques shop. Everytime, Azu’s stomach turns itself inside out and every time she smiles like an idiot as Sasha leaves. It doesn’t take long for Grizzop to notice and tease her relentlessly about it.
Azu’s not blind to her emotions. She knows a crush when she has one. But it feels strange to be crushing on someone she’s only met in a professional capacity. Sure, they’ve been talking more and more when she comes in to the bakery to order and she’s pretty sure Sasha and Grizzop have hit it off as well, but she doesn’t want to come on too strong.
Eventually, Sasha comes in around the same time as Hamid. Azu’s already making his coffee so it’s easy to hold a conversation with the two of them. They seem to get along rather well and Hamid invites her to a movie night the rest of them were planning. Sasha sputters for a second before accepting.
Which is how Azu ends up on the couch in Hamid’s flat squished between Sasha and Cel as some cheesy horror movie plays. She’s not really paying attention to the film, something about a man with too many eyes. Instead, most of her brain power is focused on definitely not thinking about how Sasha is pressed against her side and how her soft hair tickles against her neck. The dull flush on her face could be blamed on the wine Zolf had brought or the heat of being in a room with five other people. Either way, she looks adorable.
Halfway through the second movie, Sasha leans her head against Azu’s shoulder and her heart stops. She freezes, not wanting to move for fear that Sasha will leave. It’s not until she hears the soft snores that she relaxes. Hamid meets her eyes from across the room and smirks. She sticks her tongue out at him. He giggles and turns his attention back to the movie. She tries to do the same, but now her focus is not moving a muscle for fear of waking Sasha.
---
“Emeka, I think I’m in love.” Azu’s laying on her bed staring up at the ceiling. Her phone lays next to her on speaker and her brother’s laugh echoes tinnily through the speakers. She misses her family and her parents are absolutely inept when it comes to technology, so she has to settle for the occasional phone call .
“Azu, I could have told you that weeks ago when you first started talking about her,” Emeka teases.
She groans and drags a hand down her face. “Am I really that obvious?” After the movie night last week, Azu hadn’t been able to think about anything except how peaceful Sasha had looked sleeping on her shoulder. She knew that Sasha wasn’t the most comfortable around people, so she was thrilled that she was comfortable enough around Azu to fall asleep on her.
“You are nothing if not obvious,” Emeka says. “But from what you’ve told me she doesn’t seem to have noticed.”
“No… no, I don’t think she has either.” It’s a small relief to think that Sasha doesn’t know about her feelings.
---
“Alright so,” Grizzop hops onto the counter to be eye level with Azu. She rolls her eyes and looks up from the spill she’s cleaning. “You need to tell Sasha how you feel.”
Azu sighs. This was the fourth time this week Grizzop had brought this up. “Grizzop, no. I don’t know if she’s even interested in me like that. She may just think of me as a friend. I don’t want to ruin anything.”
He huffs. “You really think you would ruin something by telling her how you feel?”
“Yes!” Azu throws her hands up in the air, accidentally letting go of the rag as she does so. It goes flying off into the empty shop. “If I accidentally make her feel uncomfortable or-”
She’s cut off by the door flying open and slamming shut. Sasha stands in the doorway, dripping wet from the rain outside. Azu had learned that locked doors weren’t really a problem for Sasha after she broke into her flat last week to return a bracelet she’d left at Hamid’s. “Sasha? What are you doing here?”
“I, uh- I wanted to talk to you Azu.” She scratches the back of her neck awkwardly.
Grizzop leaps off the counter. “I should be going anyway. Veseek’s gonna kill me if I’m late to dinner again.” He throws a wink at Azu and slips out into the night.
Azu gestures for Sasha to sit at a table and joins her. “What’s going on, Sasha? Is something wrong?”
She shakes her head. “No, no. Nothing’s wrong it’s just- I don’t- I’m not very good at this thing. Talking to people, that is. Like, I can do other things, but talking is hard.” She frowns and doesn’t meet Azu’s gaze. “What I’m trying to say is… I like you, Azu. You’re really important to me and- and I wanted to know if you wanted to go on a date with me?”
Azu stares at her. This was a prank. It had to be. There was no way this was real. Sasha stands up suddenly, almost knocking the chair over. “This was a mistake. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done this. I’ll go.”
“No. Sasha, wait,” Azu pleads. She gently grabs her arm and smiles as warmly as she can. “I would love to go on a date with you.”
Sasha’s face lights up and Azu wants to hold the image in her memory forever. She wants to make her smile like that all the time. “Really? I mean- that’s great! Uh, so can I pick you up tomorrow after you close? I know this really good restaurant a few blocks away that has the best eels. You’ll love it.”
Azu can’t get rid of the dumb grin on her face. “I’m sure I will.”