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You’d think two baked goods shops located wall to wall on the same street would inherently foster some kind of rivalry, after all, they were competing for the same customers, right? That’s what Skizz thought at least. He didn’t treat the other bakery’s employees any differently, always smiled whenever one of them came in to get something to drink from the small little coffee shop Ren let him run on the same property. He made a mean espresso.
One of his regular customers was Martyn, the owner of the not-so-rival-bakery. He usually came in, bought a cup of tea, and asked if Skizz could get Ren, who was almost always baking in the back, for him. Honestly, with how often Martyn came by, he was the only reason he still sold tea, nobody else really ordered it. Actually, now that he thought about it, he came to ask for Skizz’s boss an awful lot, at least once every week, and Ren would always look nervous when he told him Martyn was waiting for him. Upon bringing him out, he would talk with Martyn for a bit before they left together.
It’s not that he was suspicious exactly, there really wasn’t anything to be concerned about, but he was intrigued. Ren was generally friendly and easy to talk to, but he hardly talked about himself. He tried asking his coworker Etho if he knew anything about what was going on between the two bosses but he just looked at Skizz weirdly before walking away, chuckling slightly.
You couldn’t really blame him for paying extra attention to Ren after that. The man seemed happy, in fact, happier than Skizz has ever seen him, so whatever their deal was, it couldn’t be that bad, could it? For his part, Martyn also seemed to be in high spirits whenever he visited, though he didn't really know him enough to judge if that was normal or not.
Skizz did eventually manage to spot a pattern. Most times when the two would leave together, Ren would take a bag of something he baked right before that was definitely not on the menu with him. Whenever Ren didn’t make anything, Martyn came in with his own bag, smelling incredibly delicious. The order of who had the bag wasn’t consistent, sometimes Ren would bake for a whole week, sometimes only one day, but they always had just the one bag.
Today seemed to be Ren’s turn judging from the way he was running around the kitchen. He seemed to be making… salted caramel bark? Skizz could only recognise it because Ren sometimes brought it over for their Christmas parties. He was so distracted watching Ren, that he almost missed a customer asking for ‘a latte but without the milk’. He was too nice to these people.
When Martyn came through the door, his tea had already been prepared. Skizz didn’t even wait for him to say anything before he was already handing him the paper cup while smiling widely. He called out a brief greeting before immediately shouting Ren’s name, scaring some poor old lady looking at the baguettes. Martyn and Skizz’s boss then talked for a minute before heading out.
And well, if he just happened to take his break right after, that was normal, it happened sometimes. There was a really good café down the street and, sure, he could brew his own coffee, but this way he was helping the local economy! The fact that the café was in the exact direction his boss and Martyn went every time was pure coincidence.
He spotted them soon after paying for his coffee. They were in the small park across from him, lying right next to each other on a blanket. He couldn’t really tell what they were doing from this far away, but they were really close to each other. Aww, they must be really good friends and- oh, oh. They were kissing now. Oh, god, that explained so much. He hurried back to the bakery and promptly rested his face on the cold hard countertop.
And if from that day on, he made sure to always leave a cup of coffee on the counter before Ren came in, and if there was always a little bit more tea in Martyn’s to-go cup than there should be, well, that was just pure coincidence again, wasn’t it?