Chapter 86

• PENELOPE
• The bakery was weirdly empty at noon on a Thursday, the only people here were Jess, Alex and I.
• Jess sat near the front window, giggling as Alex spun a clean dish towel like a lasso before tossing it over his shoulder. He’d spent the morning helping me unload a shipment, cracked three jokes in five minutes, and—somehow—still managed to charm the elderly couple who sat at Table Two earlier that morning into offering him business advice I doubt he needed.