Noah finds himself visiting the bakery more often than he expected.

At first, he just simply found that having breakfast before starting his day turned out exceptionally nice. He is concentrating better on his job and it also lifts his mood for the entire day.

Well, that cliché excuse aside, Noah also likes the pastries they served, it matches perfectly with his taste - a biassed opinion from a noob since he was never actually a big fan of bread and never been a regular customer of any bakery as well so he doesn’t have enough references to compare.

The point is, he just likes Oliver's Bakery’s delicacies. Not the baker, strictly just his bread. Completely no personal feeling involved, just a fair judgement from his tongue. 

That’s it, that must be it.

Because Noah is still in his right mind to know better than stealing his best friend’s lover and it seems Oliver also has a zero interest in him. Noah had given up and got over it.

Or at least that’s what Noah tells himself over and over again whenever he’s driving to the bakery.

Albeit, he can’t deny that a chance to see the beautiful pastry chef could be one of his main, yet unspoken, excuses among his cliche ones. 

Noah won’t ever admit it. Yet as soon as he set his foot on the bakery door, his eyes would automatically sweep the entire room to find the pale guy with jet-black hair. Stealing some curious glance to the kitchen where Oliver mostly works at. 

To his dismay, Noah doesn't always meet Oliver. Most of the time, the chef is too busy in the kitchen since Noah always comes before they open, or according to the reason Noah believes the most; Oliver purposely avoids him. 

It makes sense, you would instinctively set space with someone who has a tendency to meddle in your personal business, and Noah believes Oliver also thinks the same.

Noah doesn’t mind since he is there to buy his breakfast not to meet the chef - again, that’s part of Noah's attempt to lessen his guilt trip.

They pass each other sometimes and Oliver usually just pulls out his ‘not you again’ look before ignoring him and going back to his work. Noah just brushes off it all. He is fine with gossiping with Evie, or sometimes Jonah will sit with him to eat their breakfast together. 

Noah can’t deny that it is really pleasant to gain more friends. He is too busy with his business and doesn’t have time to expand his social life. 

Before this, he is quite satisfied with having Taylor, Dominique and Kerry all this time. It was always the three of them that fill Noah’s day and deal with his chatty demeanour so, when he is now getting to know new people; talking to Evie and gossiping with the other chef, Jonah. Noah gets more reasons to start his day with a huge smile.

“Are you going to throw a party again, Noe?” Evie sneers after Noah puts two baskets full of cinnamon rolls on the cashier's table. The youngster got a new nickname for him when Noah first introduced himself with a mouth stuffed with bread and made his name sound like Noe instead of Noah.

Noah shrugs, leaning to the counter and takes a mint from the bowl. “What? I have employees to feed on”

“What an exemplary boss you are” Jonah sighs sullenly in front of his citron sponge cake for breakfast “I wish I have a boss like you who regularly feeds me”

Oliver stops himself from arranging the display rack and looks at the older chef offendedly “I  can’t believe you said that while eating my bread as your breakfast peacefully”

Jonah scoffs, and turns into a defensive mode as if someone actually insulted him and his precious cake, “Excuse me, good sir, I made my own breakfast!” 

“Really? With whose ingredient?” Oliver fires back.

“What??? Are you going to count every grain of wheat I ate to reduce my salary now?”

“Yes, if you keep comparing me with Noah!”

“Oh woah…I can’t believe this. Noah, I’m telling you, there’s no democracy in this bakery”

Noah watches both of them bickering amusedly.

Just another lively morning in the bakery. Noah smiles to himself.

Regardless of Jonah's one-sided opinion of him being an exemplary boss, it’s true that recently he brought bread for each division in his corporation. His staff appeared to be delighted, finding their superior showing his affection by providing the employees with free breakfasts. From Noah’s perspective, they are working more energetically. A lot even praised the taste and made a plan to visit the bakery.

With that being said, Noah is not sure if they had to force themselves to eat the bread he brought for a couple of days. They could be just reluctant to reject their superior’s giving. He’s sure in a few more days they would be sick of it and as their boss, Noah perceives himself as a tyrant who uses his authority and drags his workers into his one-sided love shenanigans.

Noah can’t help but inwardly apologise whenever he sees his worker take a bite of their bread. 

Your service will always be remembered, soldiers.

One day on a certain gloomy morning, Noah enters the bakery while trembling as the rain is falling heavily outside. Evie, who is busy doing her makeup on her counter, abruptly bursts into laughter after catching the sight of Noah’s damp appearance. His hair is a mess and his supposed-to-be cotton coat turns into a raincoat with how drenched they are.

“Noe, did you really go through the storm to eat our bread?” She can’t stop laughing until Jonah peeks from the kitchen and shakes his head in disbelief at Noah. “You like us that much?”

Maybe he did. If that’s not the bread, could be something else.

Feigning annoyance, Noah rolls his eyes “The weather was fine until I got out of the car and the water came out of nowhere” he quibbles when the truth is he knows how bad the weather is, he is just simply carving their pastries. Lending the towel Evie got for him, Noah dried his hair near the heater “Listen, young lady, you should be grateful to have such a loyal customer such as myself, do you know how hard it is to gain customer loyalty in this business?”

“The CEO himself giving me a lecture of doing business then I should take a note of it since our boss not even acknowledge out esteem customer right here” Evie took a post-it note from her pouch and writes, 

‘Don’t forget to greet Noah every morning’ 

then sticks it to the board behind her.

Noah nods approvingly.

Oliver soon comes out with 2 trays of freshly baked brownies, he throws a glance at Noah and doesn’t miss uttering another snarky comment, “Don’t you feel tired of eating bread every day? You can get yeast poisoning or something”

Noah, who is in the middle of contemplating between croissants or eclairs, snaps his head after realising he is the only customer in the store and the target of Oliver’s quip.

“Evie sweetie, tell your boss he would never get any customers if he greets them with that attitude. This is the terrible example,” he fires back purposely loud, which gains a wheezing laugh from the cashier girl.

“Noted, Mr Jones” Evie talks back.

“No bonus for you, Eve” Oliver glares back at his employee, however when his eyes meet Noah’s he immediately averts his gaze. No proper greets nor any casual acknowledgement. 

Oliver blatantly ignores him by putting the brownies in the storefront. He eyes Noah indifferently as if he’s already part of the bakery's decoration and blends in with the shop naturally. 

Noah shouldn’t be bothered by Oliver’s cold shoulder. After all, he doesn’t visit to woo him or impress the chef, he just is there as the most dedicated and loyal customer of the humble Oliver’s bakery.

But still, buying bread without the sight of a charismatic chef in the present makes the taste of the bread a bit too dry for Noah’s liking.