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an hour now. Today had gone
well. The pieces were starting to fall into place.
     

 
     
    Chapter Eight
     
     
    4th December
    Jacob arrived at the bakery ahead of schedule next day.
Natalie was juggling trays, so he bid her good morning and went to assist her.
Taking Natalie’s instructions on board from the day before, Jacob began to
arrange the cakes and pastries on the platters in the glass cabinet. They
smelled wonderful and his stomach rumbled. Natalie came up behind him just then
to hand him another batch of cakes, and said, ‘Haven’t you had breakfast?’
    ‘No, no time. I must have set my alarm wrong. It didn’t go
off.’
    ‘Right, well, as soon as we’re done with setting up, grab
yourself a croissant or something and a cup of tea. I don’t want you passing
out midmorning.’
    ‘Thanks. I’ll pay for it, of course.’
    ‘No, you won’t,’ Natalie insisted. ‘Right, I’m just off to
get the strawberry tarts.’
    As he put them in the display case, Jacob marvelled at how
many types of cakes there were and how Natalie managed to make them all herself
without staying overnight in the bakery. What time did she
come in in the morning? Finished arranging the cakes, he unloaded the
dishwasher and stacked the dishes on the shelves, then asked Natalie what
needed to be done next. Natalie shouted through from the back, ‘Nothing urgent.
Just have some breakfast.’
    So Jacob did as he was told, took a plate from the pile of
dishes he had just unloaded, a pain au chocolat from
the display case, and made himself some coffee. He noticed the machine was
already on. Natalie must have done it earlier; he knew industrial coffee
machines could take a while to heat up. As he munched on his pastry and sipped
his coffee, he thought about Natalie. She was a bit of an enigma. What must she
be? Thirty-five, forty, but with the kindly way of a grandmother, or rather,
what Jacob imagined a grandmother must be like. He had never known either of
his, as they had both died before he was born.
    Although Natalie had spent much of the previous day bustling
back and forth between the kitchen and the front shop, Jacob had noticed her
way with the customers. She always had a kindly word for them. She was
interested. Chatting with the blind lady, she had told her that her dog had the
most beautiful coat and asked her and her companion how long they had been
coming here. She’d given the mum who had brought in the baby girl in the
front-facing carrier, some recipes for when she got older - swore by them. The
woman had been ever so grateful and promised to try them out and seemed pleased
at having been given such attention. Jacob realised he had no idea if Natalie
had children of her own, but he didn’t want to pry. Women could be complex
creatures, although he wasn’t speaking from his own recent experience, he
thought woefully. The chance of him getting a date was thin, even now that he
had a job. Despite the pay Natalie had discussed with Mrs Williams being at the
high end for a bakery assistant, it still really only covered essentials. He
could maybe afford to take someone for a coffee, but that would be about it;
the grand sum of his wooing efforts. It didn’t occur to him that not all girls
need the boy to pay, particularly if they know his circumstances.
    Natalie and he muddled along quite well as the bakery became
busier. People were already starting to do their Christmas shopping, and the
radio churned out the same songs as it did every year. Unsurprisingly Natalie,
a jolly sort, Jacob thought, had the radio tuned constantly to stations playing
Christmas songs. She was clearly a festive sort of person. Jacob had never
enjoyed Christmas much. Christmas was for families and a time for them to spend
it together. Well, that was the general idea, but that concept appeared to have
passed his family by.
    For a Wednesday, when many shops in the town closed for a
half day, the bakery café was hearteningly full. The cold snap