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The festive season always saw a rush, William was run off his feet with all the orders and catering. Running a bakery always sounds like a dreamy little gig, making sweet tasty treats all day, but that was hardly the truth. Well at least not all the time, sometimes it seemed like a cosy little dream but most of the time William was ready to lose his mind and bury himself in a grave of flour and sugar. To his mind the 25th couldn’t come fast enough, he could pull the shutters down and lock up tight, rejoice in the silence that came with the escape of the never ending whirl of the mixer.
It was the last dire day, Christmas eve. William had about a dozen average orders to fill and one catering order, half of which required a noon delivery, a fact that loomed over him. With hair tied back and his apron tied tight as a corset, he buckled down on icing the noon-due cookies. A dozen ‘don’t forget’s coursed through his head all the while; ‘don’t forget the cake in the oven’, ‘don’t forget to pack the two pound cakes separately’, ‘don’t forget to call before you leave’. It was all so jaw clench inducing, to the point he found himself shaking slightly, giving the snowman he was working on a wobbly smile. He looked down at the unsure smile and saw himself in it for a moment, frowning as it dawned on him. Nerves so frayed he could only jump a little as the bell in the shop chimed, noting the entry of a customer. God, he didn’t have time for a customer, he should have simply bit the bullet and ‘closed’ this morning. Biting his lip, William told himself to suck it up, slap on a smile and serve them, then he’ll close up.
Placing the piping bag down, he took a deep breath and made his way to the front of the shop, customer script in mind. Quick and easy.
“Hi, sorry for the wait, I’m-” the spiel had just only started when it immediately started to pitter away. “Mike? You weren’t supposed to be here until new years?”
William couldn’t even think to disguise his dumbfoundment at his presence, he just wasn’t expecting it. There had been the never ending back and forth between them about Mike making it up in time for Christmas, something that had been ruled as ‘not logistically possible’ much to his despair. But here he was, standing in his bakery with a stupid sheepish look.
“Haven’t you heard of a surprise, Bill? I’m told they’re all the rage this season,” Mike responded, his tone prickled with sarcasm.
Brow furrowing, William could only feel overwhelmed. Mike wasn’t factored into today’s plan, he wasn’t even on his mind given that he was still upset about being ditched at Christmas. If not for the fact that he just didn’t have the time, he would have cried, it was too much on his busiest day. Cutting into his frustration came loud beeping from the back, and so suddenly William remembered the cake that he had told himself to not forget. With a shake of the head he effectively fled the situation, escaping to the cake that was threatening to be over-baked if he left it.
Scarcely did he want to imagine how frazzled he must look, scrambling to get the cake out the oven while the alarm he set continued to beep away. And he knew he was being watched, in no world would Mike not tail him to the back of the bakery, after all they weren’t done. The cake in its tin was placed on the stove top and for a second William stared at it, putting off handling Mike for a moment longer. A soft sigh slipped out while he took his oven gloves off, putting them over his shoulder as he finally faced Mike again, face flushed from the steam that had billowed out of the oven.
“Look, I’m happy you’re here, I promise. I’m just a little busy and I wasn’t expecting you so it has thrown everything up in the air for me.” William explained wringing his hands a little.
“Then let me help you, I’m sure four hands are better than two,” Mike offered to appease his stress.
William had to mull it for a moment, he didn’t like people in his space, even if those people were his dearly beloved. In fact, especially if those people were his dearly beloved given the way they react off each other. But then Mike looked at him with the soulful eyes of a calf and William’s resolve crumbled at impeccable speed.
“Okay, you can help,” he nodded. “There is a laminated sheet over there, it’s a spiced cookie recipe. If you started measuring everything out and then mixing it…”
The instructions went no further, he wasn’t about to think that far at the moment. And anyways, Mike was fine to figure it out himself, he was old enough to figure it out. William went back to icing the sugar cookie snowmen while Mike found somewhere to leave his jacket before rolling up his sleeves and helping out.
However, WIlliam could hardly focus on the icing, glancing at Mike repeatedly while he collected the recipe and then the subsequent ingredients. A couple cookies made it through the icing stage as he kept his attention split, the snowmen having various degrees of whimsy as a result. He just couldn’t look away for that long without hearing the siren call of looking back at Mike and whatever he was doing.
It was hardly long before the magical words left his lips, “that’s not right.”
Mike looked up, clutching the bag of flour, “what?”
The icing bag met the counter again with slightly more elegance this time and William went over to Mike, suppressing a sigh of sorts. “You’re not doing it right, Mike,” William told him pretty matter of factually.
“Bill, I am literally just following the recipe that I presume you wrote,” Mike had a tone of petulance.
“You are not following the notes at the side!” He returned promptly.
“The notes?” Mike looked at the recipe again. “You mean the lefty scrawling… Bill please.”
Suddenly it was all hands, squabbling over the method and ingredients like they were a pair of teens again. It came naturally to them the silly little tiffs and hands all over the place. But it was over before it got too much, flour spilling across Mike and leaving a streak of white across his otherwise black shirt. There was a moment, a beat in which they weren’t sure what was next. And then before either of them knew it Mike’s figures were in the icing sugar, pinching the fine white powder before flicking it at William, starting a fight neither of them knew how to finish. Ingredients were tossed around, dressing each other in the makings of a cookie.
The final beat of the exchange was sugar in William’s face, making him blink frantically, his lashes making a small plume of sweet smoke. There was a perplexed look, William almost couldn’t believe it got in his face. William looked at Mike, the white of the icing sugar bringing out the brown of his eyes. Mike laughed softly at him, it was cute the way he wrinkled his nose. Too cute in fact, he couldn’t help himself when he leant forward to kiss him, a long overdue kiss that tasted sweeter than normal. It lasted a moment, a beautiful moment that was sweet and made William forget the stress that was previously gnawing at him for a second. Although, it all flooded back the second they parted, the absence of Mike’s lips making reality dawn on him.
“Mike… I’m gonna be late if you don’t start baking some cookies right now,” William whispered to him before giving him a pat on the chest.
All dalliances were paused as William’s focus returned to the baking like a laser, these snowmen will not ice themselves nor will that cake ice and decorate itself. At least the spiced cookies were fine, Mike could handle it, he didn’t need the micromanaging. William yearned a little admittedly as he made the little snowmen smile, the romance of two minutes ago was already sorely missed. He had Mike home for Christmas and he couldn’t even enjoy it because of these orders, it was dire.
The time ticked by faster given that he had less on his own plate, the orders were packed with help, splitting the load. William decided he didn’t have the time to get too picky about how neat Mike was putting on the stickers and tying the plastic ribbons. Between his nerves and the ever ticking clock, William knew he just had to get this in the boot of his car. Fortunately he had a strong set of arms to do it for him, he dispatched Mike out with the boxes while he closed up the shop behind him, it was all about efficiency right now. He had no qualms about putting Mike to work to get this done, he had arms to carry and William was going to use them.
On the note of making Mike pull some weight, he took the liberty of getting him to drive, giving him a minute to call his customers ahead of delivery. Another thing he would be roping Mike into, more box carrying for him. William would save the sentiment for now, but him turning up was short of a Christmas miracle for him. He’d make it up to him for sure, later when he wasn’t exhausted.
And as the orders were met that exhaustion looked like it would cause any sentiment to be pushed over into tomorrow. They were up and down so many sets of stairs, he was certain he’d got more than his recommended amount of steps in today. It was a blessing when the catering order was for an office, which naturally had an elevator for them to use. The half a dozen boxes of cookies were handed over to a very nice lady and marked his last delivery.
William held his breath as they went back down in the elevator, all the way down and back to his car. It was only until they were out again in the cold winter air, leant against the hood of his car that he let the breath out. A wisp escaped his lips, he watched it disappear into the air before looking at Mike. Automatically a soft look dawned his face, he had the time to be happy about his presence.
“Thanks for helping me, and thank you for the surprise,” William’s voice was gentle, a little tired.
“I’ll say it’s my pleasure, you know how I’m into manual labour,” Mike laughed it off.
A smile William wore was unmoving, he was glad for it all. He glanced around the parking lot that they were still hanging out in, it was lit up in white fairy lights which appeared to be wound around anything and everything. The sight was pretty, he wouldn’t call it romantic necessarily but it imbued a small hint of magic in the moment.
“I’m really glad you’re here, I would have missed you tomorrow,” he pushed himself off the hood of the car, draping himself over Mike. “The best present I could ask for.”
Mike kissed his forehead, he tasted like sugar still. All the carrying was worth this little moment, gently lit with his beloved. He was glad he pulled all the right strings to make it down here.
“Well, I’m glad to be here too. Even if here is a freezing cold parking lot, I’m still glad because it’s with you.” Mike nodded to himself in the process.
“Oh. Yeah,” William tilted his head up to look at him. “We should go home, get you out of the floury shirt.”
“I think you just want me out of my shirt, Beckett. At least buy me dinner!”
William rolled his eyes, “I’ll order us pizza when we get home.”
That was enough for Mike it seemed, he edged William to the car again. The last of the evening was being mapped out in William’s mind, pizza and mushy hallmark Christmas movies until they passed out on the sofa together. He couldn’t think of a better Christmas eve.