| London, England 1881 -- "Careful!" Oliver called worriedly. The red-haired girl chuckled, "I'm not the one who should be extra cautious right now." She pointed at the stacked boxes and pie that filled his arms. "If I could trust you not to sneak bites while I'm not looking, then I wouldn't need to carry all of these!" he replied and blew a few pink hairs out of his eyes. "I didn't eat breakfast that time. I'm bad at resisting that kind of temptation when I'm hungry." she pouted. Just then, they heard the chime of the silver bell above the door. A distant call of "hello" from the front of the store signaled that their customer had beat them there. "Oh, bloody-" Jack began to mutter a curse. The two of them immediately sped up their steps. Just before they could reach the end of the hall, Oliver tripped. The dessert boxes and the orchard fruit pie flew up from his hands. He shrieked and flailed his limbs trying to catch them. Jack practically flew backwards and caught the cake plate. With a lightening fast-reflex, her boss caught the pie plate in his trembling hand. The boxes made a miraculous landing, hapharzadly stacking themselves in a tower atop his left leg. Both of them were panting, the short adrenaline rush fading quickly. Jack smiled and stood back up, plate in hand. She grabbed a couple of the boxes, off the man's leg. Oliver, who was shaking and sweating by this point, gladly relaxed his awkward position and took the remaining one. "Phew," he breathed a long sigh of relief. "That was a close call if I've ever seen one." "I'll just carry these now," she motioned toward the packages. "Yes, I believe so," he said, panting slightly. "Um, hello? is anyone here?" the same voice called out. "Coming!" the two chimed and rushed, a bit more cautiously, towards the front of the bakery. |

































































