Short STORY

Hello everyone! 

I wanted to post something different this time. 

Since the whole reason why I created a blog rather than YouTube channel was because I wanted to write, I thought I could add a little short story I have written quite a while back. 

This was one of the first works of mine that was recognised by my teacher and also was the start of my writing. 

I wrote this for my GCSE coursework and it is inspired by a poem. I do not remember what the poem was or who it was written by but I do remember it was about a newly wed couple who would close their shop for a few hours just to have some couple time. 

So here goes nothing. I hope you like it. 

The woman in the picture

8:45 in the morning. The last batch of freshly made chocolate croissants are out of the oven. A smell of buttery vanilla with a very strong kick of chocolate fills the air, a smell that makes you forget about early, rainy mornings. The colour of these precious babies perfectly matches the walls of my shop: yellowish-brown, just like early spring honey.

Besides my love for perfect pastries I have another love, for a tall, big shouldered man. Brown eyed, long haired; covered in full body tattoos. Ha I don’t know what’s gotten into me. He is completely opposite to me. But opposites attract. 

I am a 30 year old woman and run the bakery shop left by my dad. And what a shop I have! All morning people pop in to buy some of my delicious just-made pies, with a warming cup of coffee. A perfect beginning to a new day. I follow latest fashion trends and prefer to wear those slimming dresses that make you look as slim as those size 0 models on those white runways. Then I throw some accessories on to make me look presentable just in case I have a meeting later. And of course high heels. No woman can forget those gorgeous high heels! It is the next best thing after bakery and sex.

And him! A tattoo artist! My daddy wasn’t too sure why I picked him… neither am I to be honest. Sometimes he’s such a bore. All he ever does is draw. But what a drawing he gave me the other day! It was so beautiful I hanged it on the wall of my shop. He said: 

“This is a perfect sigh of midnight on the beach with a sky full of stars, and this warmish breeze that surrounds you while you sit on the cold sand inhaling salty sea air that makes you a little dizzy. That is my favourite place to get away. And I drew it for you.”

My knees felt like cotton balls soaked in water. So heavy and so soggy. I couldn’t stand. I needed a chair to sit as I was imagining that perfect sigh on the beach with him. It was my favourite place too… My breathing became deep and slow and I could hear my heart beat. Oh he knows how to drive me insane! I am not that kind of person to show my emotions to others and it was too soon to show them to him, even though I do love him like crazy. I put on a smile and replied with a joke.

“And I was thinking you can only draw in black and white.” 

We both laughed. 

His work room is full of mysteries. Well to my eyes at least. It’s like this greyish dirty colour. I suppose like most artists’ work places. On the walls he has lots of different objects and paintings. Some of them are finished and some – just raw ideas. There’s an immense wooden table in the middle, painted in all sort of colours from his previous work, and some cabinets around the room. Just between you and me that table becomes quite comfy in the middle of the day… oh and the squeaky noise makes it so dangerous… well you know what I mean. I must admit we test this table a lot… or any other exiting surfaces. I had couple of complaints from customers. Once I made the batch of maple pies and Mediterranean bread; that was about midday. They were in the oven, slowly tanning and I had 25 minutes free time. Well of course I won’t just sit there relaxing. So I went upstairs to check on my hubby. As I passed through the hallway, I saw red armchairs sleeping in the left corner. A beautiful dark red orchid resting on the glass table with separates the armchairs. On the right there was a door to his room.

We spoke for couple of minutes about the bakery when my eye caught something rather impressive. A beautiful portrait of a woman. It wasn’t finished. He was still working on the face and the hair. 

“Who is this?” I asked

“Oh this is nothing. Well just something I’ve been working on lately. You weren’t supposed to see it till it’s finished.” 

“Wait I have this top?!” 

“Yeah…” 

He paused. 

“Well I saw this blouse on you the other day and you looked more beautiful than ever, so I decided to draw you in it. I was keeping it a secret form you for a couple days and I was planning to give it to you tomorrow.”

The same sogginess rushed through my knees and this time I thought I was going to pass out. I jumped and wrapped my legs around his waist; whispered into his ear:

“I love you,” 

and kissed him deliriously. 

40 minutes later I rushed downstairs with the smell of burned bread and pies. I saw unhappy customer faces looking at me. My cheeks turned bright pink. What an embarrassment! I thought to myself. As I opened the oven I saw crispy golden brown goodies. The room was filled with different scents, but you could almost taste the smell of maple, sundried tomatoes and vanilla. No French perfume could kill this bakery smell. That’s why I love it so much. When I exposed my baking goods, which looked a lot browner than other pastries, I saw confused customer faces, as though they wanted to ask me: 

“What happened?” 

My cheeks weren’t helping either. And YES I did receive a couple of complaints that day.

* * *

8 pm on the Friday evening. Last customer has left the shop wishing me goodnight. I smiled at him politely and locked the door behind him.

“Jane! Chris!” 

They have emerged from the kitchen.

“Don’t worry about the kitchen, I’ll clean it myself. I suppose you can go.”

“Thank you Lena, have a nice weekend.”

“Oh thank you, you too.”

I’ve spent lots of time cleaning the tables and the kitchen, then I started working on the finances of the shop. I heard footsteps and glanced at the clock. 10pm. 

Andrew hugged me from behind. 

“Look, this is for you as I promised.” 

He gave me his finished drawing, which looked beautiful. The woman in the painting looked young and happy. Her hair was full and wavy. The colour of chocolate, with streaks of dark red and honey colour highlights. She was beautiful but I couldn’t relate her to me, at first. 

“I think you should forget your finances for a moment and do something you love.” 

He was trying to cheer me up. 

“What about some golden cinnamon rolls?” 

His smile was sure pure; it was like looking at the child in the sweet shop.

“Oh okay… I suppose I could do with some cooking right now.” 

I smiled.

He helped me to make those gorgeous dark brown cinnamon rolls. I had so much fun, I had never had this much fun in my life. Oh and they turned out so tasty. The pastry was buttery and crispy, cinnamon and sugar combined so well, it wasn’t too sweet and you could still taste the spice of cinnamon; when melted sugar create a glasslike crust, which reminded me of crème brulee. 

We both sat on the floor net to the window with a big plate of cinnamon rolls between us. We were looking at the night sky, full of stars. We laughed. We kissed. At that moment I felt happiest woman in the world. I was the woman in the picture. 

The End

Yours Izabele

xoxo