The double doors swung open and in came five guys, obnoxiously singing a birthday song. Anyone could easily tell who it was for, the one in the middle, with a flushed face and a weary but amused smile. He was trying to act like he was humoring them, but Bet could tell he was pleased. Two of them had come in earlier and ordered a cake. She hadn’t taken the order but she recognized them.

‘We’re not too sorry you were born! This is what monks get!’ read the top of the cake. She didn’t really understand it. It was clearly an inside joke. She scooped up the cake and handed it over to the waiter. A little while later, they called for the waiter but he had already left because his shift was over, so she went to see what they wanted. They asked for something to drink. She replied that this was a bakery and that they didn’t have drinks but offered to get them some soda from across the street. They said they wanted something stronger.

She went across the street and got them four cans of beer and a can of sparkling water because the birthday boy doesn’t drink apparently. She asked if they wanted anything from the menu and the birthday boy said he wanted a slice of hibist to go. He smiled at Bet as he said it. She was still thinking of that smile as she packed his order. They stayed only a few ten minutes. Considering how long other customers stay usually, that is a long time. But they were animated and laughed loudly, which brightened the place. Bet was sad to see them leave.

She was the only one left in the shop aside from her dad back in the kitchen. She cleaned the tables as the vacuum cleaner cleaned the floors and closed the front door before she went to the back where her dad was closing up. It wasn’t a particularly small kitchen but there was so much equipment in it that it barely felt like it was any bigger than the front of the shop.

“Noisy bunch those collage kids.” remarked her father.

“Yeah but they were fun to watch.” She answered, “And they are your most loyal customers.” she added.

“They’re still too loud.” He stated with disdain as they climbed the stairs up to their apartment.

“Who’s loud?” asked Bet’s mom as they reached the top of the stairs and stepped into the living room. She was sitting curled up on the couch wrapped in a blanket. There were two other blankets folded next to her waiting for her husband and daughter.

“The kids from university.” Bet answered, “Is the movie up yet?” she asked taking the peach blanket and sitting cross-legged on the rug in front of the couch.

“I don’t know I haven’t opened it yet. I was reading while I waited for you.” Her mother answered putting down her tablet on the side table.

Bet opened the television and sat back with the remote in hand. Her dad was asleep halfway through the movie and her mom soon after. She watched the rest alone and that didn’t help in keeping birthday boy out of her mind.

The next morning she was logging in the previous day’s balance at her usual spot at the left end of the counter when he came in. He sat at the bar suspiciously close to her. She waited for him to look in her direction before she said hello.

“Hi, good morning.” he replied sheepishly.

“Morning.” She said, “Can I help you?” as if she hadn’t been thinking of him the whole of last evening.

“Do you have some chocolate bread?” 

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“We might, I’ll go check.” Bet said and hopped off of her stool to the kitchen. She came back with tray full of them to put in the front shelves. She slid a plate towards him right before she remembered that she didn’t ask him how he wanted it. “I’m so sorry, did you want that to go?” she asked.

“It’s fine, I can eat here.” He answered good naturedly and looked down at the bun. She remembered with a silent gasp that she didn’t give him a fork or napkin.

“I’m sorry. I don’t usually serve so I forget these things.” she apologized as she put them on his plate rather haphazardly. He chuckled and said it was fine. She asked if he wanted something to drink and he asked if she was going to run across the street again. She told him they have hot beverages here in the mornings and he ordered a latte.

He came in the next day as well, and then the next. The fourth time he came in she asked him if he wanted the usual. He said “No, something different. You pick.” She warned him he may not like her choice but he persisted. He tentatively asked what her name was and she told him and realized just then that she doesn’t yet know his name.

“Yours wasn’t written on your birthday cake.” She told him as she slid a plate of green pancakes in his direction.

“It’s Alex.” He said.

She repeated the word in her head.

“Do you go to university here?” he asked.

“No, I am not doing university.” She replied.

“Why not?”

“Waste of my time.” She answered, “I don’t need it.”

“Do you think I’m wasting my time?” he asked.

“Not if you don’t.” she said, “It is just that I know what I want to do and they won’t teach me anything that I need to learn to do it.”

“What do you want to do?”

“This!” she said gesturing around her, “It belongs to my family and I want to take it over some day.”

“You like baking?”

“What?! NO! I couldn’t bake anything halfway decent to save my life.” She said, “It’s the managing I like.”

He chuckled.

“What are you learning?” she asked.

“Engineering!” he answered, “Also the family business.” He added.

“Really? What does your family do?” she asked, excited that she found they had something in common.

“Construction- buildings I mean.”

“Do you like it?”

“Yeah I guess.” He said, and then added, “To be honest I don’t really know what I like. This was just there and I took it. It is going okay so far.”

“What if you someday find what you like and it is nothing like what you are doing?”

“Let’s hope I’ll be too busy to notice.” He replied, taking a bite of the pancake, “What if you realize it was a mistake to skip university?”

“That won’t happen.” She said definitively, “I have been at this for almost two years now and even when it is hard, there is nothing else I’d rather do.”

“Wow! Look at you adulting already! I feel left behind.”

“Says the guy living away from his parents.”

 “You don’t know that.” he retorted.

“Oh yeah? Why else do you come in here for breakfast every morning? If your house was in town you would go there.”

“I might have other reasons.” he said pointedly, poking the second pancake and brandishing it in the air before taking a bite, “This really good by the way.” he added with a mouthful, “Why is it green?”

“Avocado.” She answered.

He was visibly flabbergasted. “You mean to tell me there is avocado in this?”

“Yeah! We have a farm.” she said, pleased that he was impressed.

“You have a FARM of AVOCADOS?” he asked his face gone slack with shock.

“Not me exactly but my family does.” She answered, “My mother is a plant geneticist and she was able to find the original variant from around a hundred years ago and engineered a copy. Its patented and everything.”

“Why doesn’t she license it then? She can make a lot of money and we can all have avocados!”

“She has. But the other farms that took the specimen tried to make it more productive and faster. Mom’s variant takes three to four years to develop and their investors said it was too long. They wanted it to be faster. It also doesn’t produce as large of a quantity as they would need to be profitable I guess so they mostly abandoned it.

“There is also the issue of soil.” She added, “Most of the soil in the country is conditioned to produce with a certain kind of fertilizer only and it destroys the avocado trees.”

“My great grandfather used to tell me they used to buy them from the market when he was little.” said Alex, “he said around June and July there would be so much produce that it was in heaps all over the booths. He always found it strange that we think it‘s special. He blamed the government for the loss.”

“It’s funny how well intended decisions can lead to such disastrous results.” She said.

“Good thing your mom is here to save us.” He said.

“We can only be saved if we learn to ask from nature what it can give us.”