The Clumsy Baker and Her Secret Mafia Husband

CHAPTER SIX

The rest of the morning passed by so beautifully and quickly! After Giovanni finished every single bite of his giant mountain of vanilla pancakes, he wiped his mouth with a napkin and stood up. He looked so happy and full. He gave me another very soft, warm smile that made my heart do a little happy flip-flop inside my chest.

"I have to go to the main office now, little bird," he said, his deep voice sounding so smooth and nice. "I need to fix that spreadsheet problem before tonight."

"Okay, Gio! Work hard!" I chirped, waving my yellow dish towel in the air like a flag. "Don't let those mean rival accountants steal your big numbers!"

He stopped near the front door and looked back at me. For a tiny second, his gray eyes looked very dark and serious again, but then he just nodded his head. "I won't, Bella. I will see you later."

Click. The front door closed, and he was gone.

Suddenly, the big apartment felt very, very quiet. I looked down at the kitchen table. Oh my goodness! The kitchen was a total mess! There was white flour on the counter, empty eggshells in the sink, and sticky sweet maple syrup on the table. And right next to Gio’s empty coffee mug was that poor, twisted silver fork. I picked it up and tried to straighten it with my tiny hands. Ouch! It was so incredibly hard! It felt like solid rock. Wow, my accountant husband must have really, really strong hands from typing on his computer keyboard all day long!

I spent the next two hours cleaning up the kitchen until everything was shining bright like a diamond. I washed the dishes, wiped the sticky syrup, and swept the floor until it was clean enough to eat off of. But when I opened the big white refrigerator to look inside, my jaw dropped open in absolute shock. Gasp!

The fridge was completely, totally empty!

There was only a single jar of yellow mustard and one tiny, lonely piece of green lettuce sitting on the shelf. Oh no! How could I bake beautiful treats for my sweet husband if I did not have any ingredients? A good, sweet fake wife needs a kitchen full of food!

"Time to go to the big grocery store!" I said out loud to myself, clapping my hands together happily.

I ran into my bedroom and changed into a very cute, bright light-blue dress with little white daisies printed all over it. I brushed my long, brown hair until it was super smooth, and I made sure my big, round glasses were clean. I grabbed my favorite pink cloth shopping bag and my little matching wallet.

When I walked out of the apartment building, the sun was shining so brightly. The air smelled like fresh flowers and warm city air. I started walking down the sidewalk, humming a happy little song that I made up in my head. La la la, baking is fun, cookies for everyone!

But as I walked down the street, I noticed something a little bit strange. Every time I looked behind me, I saw three very big men wearing dark black suits and dark sunglasses. They were walking quite far behind me, but every time I stopped to look at a cute flower shop window, they stopped too! When I turned left, they turned left. When I slowed down, they slowed down.

I puffed out my cheeks and thought about it very hard. Hmm... who are they?

Suddenly, my eyes went wide behind my round glasses, and I let out a soft gasp. Oh! I know who they are! They must be secret luxury security guards hired by the landlord of this fancy apartment building! Yes, that made total sense! This building was so nice and clean, so of course they wanted to make sure the neighborhood was safe for sweet girls like me.

I turned around and gave the three big men a giant, super friendly wave. "Hello, Mr. Security Guards! Have a very nice day!" I shouted happily.

The three big men instantly froze like stone statues. One of them accidentally tripped over a fire hydrant, and the other two quickly looked away and pretended to look at the blue sky. Wow, they were so incredibly professional and dedicated to their jobs! They didn't even want to distract themselves from guarding the sidewalk.

After walking for ten minutes, I finally arrived at the gigantic grocery store called The Mega Food Market. It was the biggest store I had ever seen in my entire life! It had rows and rows of beautiful fruit, colorful vegetables, and giant shelves full of baking supplies.

It was like a magical playground for a baker girl like me!

I grabbed a big metal grocery cart and pushed it inside. Screeech! The cart wheel made a funny squeaking sound, making me giggle.

First, I went straight to the baking aisle. This was my favorite place in the whole universe. I needed to buy the best ingredients to make special cupcakes tonight to surprise Gio when he came home from his stressful math job.

"Let's see," I whispered to myself, looking at the high shelves. "I need five big bags of white sugar, five giant bags of premium flour, three boxes of sweet vanilla beans, and a big tub of organic butter!"

I started grabbing the heavy bags of flour. But because I am the absolute clumsiest girl in the universe, my slippery fingers lost their grip. Boom! One giant bag of flour fell right out of my hands and crashed onto the floor!

POOF!

A giant, white cloud of flour exploded everywhere into the air! It looked like a winter snowstorm inside the grocery store! I started coughing cutely. "Achoo! Achoo!"

When the white smoke finally cleared, I looked down at myself. Oh my goodness! My cute blue daisy dress was completely covered in white powder. My long brown hair looked white like an old grandma's hair, and my big round glasses were so blurry with flour that I could barely see anything!

"Oh no, I did it again!" I cried out softly, feeling so silly and embarrassed.

Suddenly, I felt a very strong, heavy hand grab my shoulder from behind. It was a very big, scary-looking man with a bald head and a long scar on his cheek. He was wearing a leather jacket and looked very mean. He did not look like the nice security guards outside at all.

"Hey, girl," the mean man growled in a deep, scary voice. "Are you the one who runs that little bakery on Main Street? The one married to the new guy?"

I blinked my blurry eyes behind my flour-covered glasses. I smiled brightly, completely ignoring his scary face. "Oh, yes! That is me! I am Bella! Do you want to buy some cupcakes? My bakery is closed right now for renovations, but I can take your order down in my little notebook!"

The mean man looked very confused for a second. His big eyebrows came together. "Cupcakes? No, I don't want cupcakes! I am looking for you because—"

Before the mean man could finish his sentence, two of the big men in black suits from the sidewalk suddenly appeared out of nowhere! They moved as fast as lightning! One of the suit men grabbed the mean leather-jacket man by his arm, and the other suit man whispered something very fiercely into his ear.

"You are in the wrong neighborhood, pal," the suit man whispered in a very cold, hard voice. "Leave right now before you disappear."

The mean man with the scar turned completely pale, like he had just seen a real ghost. He nodded his head very quickly, dropped his grocery basket, and ran out of the store as fast as his legs could carry him!

I clapped my hands together in pure excitement. "Wow! You security guards are amazing! You saved me from that mean man! I think he wanted to steal the last bag of premium flour, but you scared him away! Thank you so much!"

The two men in black suits looked at me, then looked at the white flour all over my face. They looked very stressed. One of them pulled out a clean white handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to me very politely.

"Please be careful, Mrs. Giovanni," the suit man said very respectfully, bowing his head slightly. "We are always here to... protect the store environment."

"You are the best!" I chirped, using the handkerchief to wipe my big glasses until they were clean and shiny again.

The security guards quickly stepped back into the shadows of the next aisle to keep guarding me from far away. I felt so incredibly safe and happy! The apartment building owner must be a very nice billionaire to give me such helpful guards.

I spent the next hour filling my big metal cart with everything I needed. I bought fresh red strawberries, sweet heavy cream, bright yellow lemons, and a giant box of chocolate chips. My cart was so heavy it was hard to push, but I was strong!

When I finally paid for all my groceries, I had six giant, heavy plastic bags. They were so heavy that my tiny arms were shaking just trying to lift them.

"Phew, this is a lot of exercise!" I said, puffing out my cheeks.

I started walking back to the apartment building, carrying three heavy bags in each hand. The plastic handles were hurting my fingers, but I kept a big smile on my face. I couldn't wait to get back to my beautiful kitchen and start baking.

Suddenly, a beautiful, long black sports car pulled up right next to the sidewalk. The windows were completely dark black, so you couldn't see inside. The door opened with a soft whoosh sound, and a tall man stepped out.

My heart did a giant thump-thump-thump of pure joy. It was Giovanni!

He had taken off his oversized black sweater and was now wearing a very sharp, clean white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His strong arms looked amazing, and his dark hair was blowing gently in the wind. He looked like a famous movie star walking down a red carpet!

"Bella?" Gio said, running over to me quickly. His handsome face looked very worried, and his gray eyes scanned the street up and down very fast. "What are you doing out here alone? Why are you covered in white powder?"

"Gio!" I squealed happily, letting go of the heavy grocery bags. They dropped to the sidewalk with a loud thud. "I went to the mega market! I had a little flour explosion, but look at all these amazing ingredients I bought for us! And the nice neighborhood security guards helped me so much!"

Giovanni looked at the grocery bags, then he looked towards the corner of the street where the three men in black suits were standing. The men in suits quickly bowed their heads deeply to Giovanni from far away. Giovanni gave them a very quick, sharp nod of his head, and then he looked back at me with a soft, melting expression.

"You shouldn't carry such heavy things, little bird," Gio murmured softly. He reached down and easily picked up all six giant, heavy grocery bags with just one of his massive hands! Wow, he didn't even look tired at all! He was like a real superhero!

He used his other free hand to gently grab my tiny waist, pulling me close to his warm chest. Bzzzz! That beautiful pink corporate electricity exploded between us again!

"Come on," Gio whispered into my hair, his deep voice making my heart melt into sweet sugar. "Let's go home. I will help you carry everything inside, and then you can bake whatever your sweet heart desires."