His Runaway Queen

Chapter 8

Effie

It was a couple of weeks later, and I was busy working in my bakery. I had been down here since three this morning. Usually, I don't come in so early, but I wasn't able to sleep. For the past few weeks, I've been feeling like someone was watching me. But every time that I look around, I don't see anyone. It's driving me nuts.

It's not all of the time that I feel like someone is watching me. It's just a few times a week, but it's still enough to creep me out. I'm hoping that it's just a coincidence. And I'm really hoping that my mother and her husband or even Leandro haven't found me. It was me worried that they had, and I kept hoping that it was just some random person or something. But with the luck that I have, it's not.

We open the bakery at five every morning so that we can catch the morning crowd on their way to work. Since we also serve coffee, we usually have a pretty busy morning. My morning workers come in around four thirty in the morning. That way, they can get the bakery up and going for the day. This morning, I have Mia and Isla working. Isla is a new employee and I'm really hoping that she works out.

I have plans to find another employee soon because I have one girl who is really close to getting fired. Monica hasn't been showing up to work and when she does, she's always hours late. Not only that, but she's also mean to both employees and customers. She honestly told one girl that she was way too fat and didn't need the cheesecake that she ordered. I'm sick of her attitude and her 'I'm too good for this job' attitude. She was supposed to work this morning, but I had Isla come in to work with Mia. I didn't think that Monica would show up and Isla needs training.

By four thirty, I have most of the display cases full of the pastries and breads that I made this morning. I still have a few things in the ovens, so while those finish baking, I start getting stuff ready for the day.

At four-thirty, I go back to the back door so that I can let the girls in as they get here. It doesn't take long, and both Mia and Isla are pulling in and coming in here.

After I let them in, I waited another fifteen minutes for Monica to get here and then shut and locked the door back. I always keep the back door locked up so that no one unexpected can come in that way. I'm not taking the chance of someone trying to get in and rob us, try to get upstairs, or worse. I have a buzzer on the back door as well as a camera, so if someone shows up, I can see who it is and let them in.

I finish baking what's in the oven and then let them cool. Once they are, I get icing on the cupcakes and on half of the brownies and then put them out front. I have the case that I keep in the back full of extras as well. I always have to fill the front case up at least once, sometimes twice a day. So I always keep it full as well.

The day goes by in a blur of filling up cases and selling our baked goods and coffee. I was in the middle of refilling the case again. I had been in the back filling up a try to bring out front.

When I came back out, I was turned backward, using my butt to open the door. When I turned around, I saw the River girl and the one that looked like Alena. She was giving me a funny look like she knew who I was.

I bent down to fill up the glass case and when I looked up, she was still giving me an odd look. I kept trying to sneak looks at her because I was pretty sure that it was Alena. It looked just like her and if she was here, then that meant that he was most likely here as well.

After she ordered her stuff and then Rivers, they walked to a table to sit down while the girls got it all boxed up. After I finished filling up the case with the tray that I had, I helped them get it all boxed up. One of the girls took their stuff out to them, and after one last look at Alena, I headed to the back for more pastries.

After getting to see her this time, I knew that it was Alena. As much as I hoped that she didn't recognize me, it was really good to see her. I have missed her so damn much. I've missed all of them, even him. But I'm not ready to see or be around them. If I knew that they had ties to Texas, then I wouldn't have ever moved down here. I would've picked a different place to move to. One that they didn't have ties to.

But when I lived over there and was with Leandro, I wasn't close enough to him to know his family business. We hadn't been together long enough for me to know where their businesses were all at. Because if we were and I had known, I would've moved to the North Pole just to stay away from him. I can't be hurt by him, especially now. I have my son to worry about and he comes first.

At one point in the day, Monica finally showed up. I went to the back door to let her in and took her straight to my office. I already had her last paycheck ready for her. I was done with her showing up when she felt like it. I had given her plenty of warnings.

I sat down at my desk and pulled out the envelope.

"This is your last and final paycheck from here. Effective immediately, you are fired. I have given you plenty of warnings, both written and verbal, and you haven't listened to a single one of them. You show up here when you feel like it and don't listen to anything ever. You are mean to the customers and rude and I am done with it. Clean out your locker and leave." I told her.

She got a pissed-off look on her face and then screamed at me. "You can not f*****g do this to me. Do you know who I am? I have ties to a motorcycle club and they will put you out of work. I'll make sure that your ass is fired so damn fast. You'll be hearing from my lawyer. I'm going to sue your ass for falsely firing me."

I just laughed at her. "Really, do you think that will work? Good luck with that. First of all, your threats don't scare me at all. I also have ties to the local motorcycle club. My best friend is friends with a couple of the girls who are the sisters of the leaders of the club. And secondly, no one can fire me from a business that I own. This is my business that I own, me. It is mine and not you or anyone else will take it from me. And you can call your lawyer and try to sue me, but it won't do you any good when I have video proof to back up every one of my claims. So go ahead and sue me, and I will counter-sue you right back. Now clean out your locker and get the f**k out." I told her.

I made sure that she cleaned out her locker, taking only what was hers, and then let her out the back door. After I made sure that she left, I went back to work.

It was a few hours later and almost four o'clock, which was our closing time. I had just finished restocking the front case so that it was full for the morning. My afternoon girls (Eleanor and Valentina) were now here and helping to get everything ready for closing. One of them was helping out front while the other was cleaning up in the back.

I was bent down behind the counter when I heard the doorbell ding as someone came in. When I glanced up, I was sure that all the color had drained from my face.

Leandro had just walked in through the door.

I took a few deep breaths to calm down and then stood up. I just hoped that he didn't recognize me and got his stuff and left.