They Thought I Was Asleep, So I Let Them novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: Two Men Don't Stay
On Monday I went back to work, because the rolls did not care what had happened on Saturday.
My boss had put my apron on the hook by the ovens, folded, with a note pinned to it.
It said: Not a word to me. Bake.
I baked.
By nine the queue ran out of the door, and half of it was people I had never seen.
They bought rolls and looked at me. A woman asked for a photo, and my boss told her the shop sold bread, not photos.
I was wrapping a loaf for a man in a cycling jacket when the bell over the door chimed and the queue went quiet.
Clemens stood in the doorway with an armful of white roses.
His suit was the same charcoal one from Saturday, creased now. There were grey hollows under his eyes.
Behind him, a step back, stood his mother.
She wore a camel coat and no makeup, and she held her handbag in front of her with both hands.
"Marit," Clemens said.
The cyclist took his loaf and left very quickly.
"We're open," I said. "What would you like?"
"Please. Two minutes."
"There's a queue."
"They can hear. I don't care." He came up to the counter and laid the roses across it. "I've been awake since Saturday. I went to the hospital and she wouldn't see me."
"I'm sorry to hear it."
"I made a mistake."
"You made a plan," I said.
"Marit, I'm asking you."
His voice cracked, a good crack, an actor's one, and I watched three women in the queue lean in.
Clemens went down on one knee on the bakery's tiled floor.
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