He showed up carrying a large cardboard box of half a dozen small paper sacks, each tied with a different colored ribbon. She had her head in an oven so she didn’t see him come up to the counter through the still-unlocked-but-closed-sign-up door. He gave a small cough, setting the box gently down on the counter with only a soft thud betraying its weight.
She yanked herself out of the oven with a small embarrassed squeak and looked up through tired bangs at the man at the counter. He was wearing a sheepish grin and was resting his hands awkwardly on top of the small sacks.
“Hello,” she said, rubbing at her hands on her apron and jumping to her feet. She was blushing and desperately trying to get the grease from her hands.
But he was blushing too and he was starting to fiddle with one of the ribbons, fraying one of the edges of the pale blue one the color of tiny robin’s eggs. “Hello,” he said, his smile dimpling his cheeks.
“What are you doing here so late?” She asked.
His grin deepened. “I should be asking you that same thing. Pretty late for a baker to be staying up.”
“Had to clean the oven before the morning, tomorrow’s Sunday,” she gestured to the open oven door and then saw more smudges of grease on her hands which she nervously wiped on her apron again.
“Well, I brought you something.” He pushed the box towards her on the counter, now not quite meeting her eyes. This was the fourth time they’ve seen each other and the first time that he’s brought something for her.
“What are they?” she poked one of the unmarked bags and pulled at the pale blue ribbon.
His smile sparked up to his eyes and he picked up the sack with a daffodil yellow ribbon, tied neatly into a bow, to present to her. “I’ve brought you flours!”
She stared at him and then back at the sacks for a moment before laughter burst from her, her eyes crinkling at the corners and her giggles bubbling from her mouth.
“Clever! Oh I love them,” she pulled at the bags, spreading them out in front of her on the countertop in an arch. “But which is which?”
He leaned his arms on the counter, not wiped down yet but not caring about the bits of leftover flour and sugar that stuck to his sweater. He pointed at each in turn. “The blue is almond, the yellow is semolina, the pink bread, the green is wheat, the white all purpose, and the purple is cake flour.”
She beamed at him and she opened the sack of almond flour, letting the ribbon trail onto the counter as she breathed in the scent of the fine milled almonds.
“I can’t tell you how much this means to me, thank you,” she said, her eyes crinkling at him over the top edge of the bag. She was blushing again.
“I thought they would be the right kind of bouquet for a baker,” he said, shuffling his feet and matching her blush with one of his own that spread across his cheeks to reach the tips of his ears.
She sat the small sack down and came around the counter to face him. “Thank you,” she repeated softly, her hands twisting the ties of her apron in front of her.
He straightened from the counter and looked down at her. Her hair was falling out of her bun and there was bits of flour and oven grease speckling her pink cheeks and her twisting fingers. It was almost ten thirty in the evening and she had already been up since four that morning and she would have to be up at four the next morning to prepare for the Sunday morning rush. She was smiling and looking up at him with bright eyes and nervous lips.
All he could do in that moment was to lean down and kiss her. She tasted of cinnamon and honey and everything warm and soft and sweet. And she giggled and raised on her toes to throw her arms around his neck and hold him close for another.
Outside, the rain was turning to snow and the wind howled as the night drew close around the little bakery. But inside, there were flowers blooming in the middle of winter.
So this little romantic short was inspired by the flours scene in Stranger Than Fiction (2006), which is a movie I just watched and I absolutely loved the writing. It stars Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, and Queen Latifah. And it's a great movie! Go and watch it!
:) Kathryn