Chapter 2 | Stodax

Chapter 2

Stodax

How does this human manage a business?

She moves along the counter as she makes coffee and handles the customers. The white fluffy ball on the tip of her red hat dangles with her movement. This is such a silly woman.

It's not like I'd wish for her to go out of business, that's for sure. I've been worried about getting a job or doing something to feed myself, and she provides me with everything without trying to dig too deep into my background, which is perfect, and I can't thank her enough.

Life as a ricod isn't that fancy. If it was easy, I wouldn't have ended up here. I glance at the sky through the window above the kitchen counter. It has been a while. I wonder...

This isn't a time to think about that.

Even though I'm far away from the Empire, at times it still feels like they're chasing behind me.

I get back to the dough, trying to numb my mind with work. Zoe is a nice boss. She won't talk to me unless she has to, which... is a lot more than she needs to, but I can bear with that.

I check the ingredient list again when I have to follow her recipe. It's a bit different from how the Empire's army does it, but cooking is cooking, and I can do that well.

My life as a slave in their factory is over. I'm not heading back there again, so there should be nothing to worry about.

Sometimes, it feels bad to be hiding things away from Zoe, but... Maybe I can say that she didn't ask, so I technically didn't lie to her.

"Thank you. Have a nice day!" She greets customers outside and she always sounds happy.

Somehow, her chuckles make me warm from the inside. I take a breath to calm myself. I don't get it, but she has a way to get to me.

While I'm not looking forward to putting on those clown clothes, watching her be happy in those clothes isn't that bad.

I mix the ingredients and check the list of pastries I have to prepare. It has been a smooth day, which is good.

Now that she's wearing red, she keeps distracting me. There's no door between the baking area and the storefront so we can move stuff from place to place easily. Whenever she walks past the entrance, my eyes are glued to her. It's the red, too eye-catching.

Despite that I shouldn't and would never, part of me wants to grab her and hold her in my arms. I may have a trick or two to impress her, which she has no idea about and I'm not telling her before then. She's been a tease...

I shake my head. I should stop thinking about her that way. I need this to work.

The dough is ready, so I lift the mixing bowl and turn around. "Whoa!"

"Oops. Sorry." She jumps backward. "I meant to check whether the chocolate croissants are ready."

I put the mixing bowl on the table and check the timers. "Not much longer. Maybe five minutes. Those are already sold out?"

"Not sold out, but running low." She goes to the wall of timers. The corridor is narrow, so even though I tried my best to give way and she sticks to the other side of the corridor, our bodies still touched slightly.

She drives me crazy.

Even worse, she smells like a perfect loaf of freshly made bread, which... I want to nibble at it.

She checks the timer. "Okay, just a few minutes left. Get me half of the tray when they are ready. Also, we need more egg rolls." She points at the timers as she searches for the right one. "Do you need help with anything?"

"No. I'm handling those well. Don't worry about that. The customers are waiting for you."

Maybe the customers aren't, and maybe there's not even a single one of them, but I want to be alone.

She looks at the entrance. "I'll check. Just let me know if you need anything." She heads to the counter with a bounce in her steps. Sometimes, I kind of want some of that happy vibe, but that's not for me.

I move on with my job. None of us on the Empire's spaceship found it fun to be cooking and preparing food. I don't know about others, but she's the first one I've met who seems to like doing this.

She has been teaching me a lot since I joined her bakery, and every time, it feels like she really enjoys this.

And holidays. She loves those. She takes every chance she gets to decorate and put things up. I don't understand, but if she enjoys that, it's what it is. This is her bakery, after all. I'm just working here.

The timer beeps, which pulls me away from what I'm working on. I guess I should move on and focus, otherwise, my boss's not going to be happy.