Chapter 37.

"Hey guys!! The mini pies are selling out so fast! You guys need to hurry up with another batch! People love this stuff!" Selena said as she rushed in with Rose closely following her and the peered into the kitchen.

"We're almost done!" Jamie shouted as he went to the oven with oven muffs.

Holly was busy decorating a cake that they had to deliver in the next few hours. It was a three tiered cake and the base was going to be made of gel food colouring and a paintbrush to create a watercolour design.

The client had asked for a simple and aesthetic design without too much decorations or piping or fondants and for a while Holly and racked her brain thinking of what she should make.

The past few days had been stressful since she had decided to throw herself back into work. After getting no reply from Ryder, she had come to terms with his rejection and decided that she was going to raise her baby all alone.

Talking to Charlie had made her see things a little more clearly and Holly was simply elated by the fact that she was having a baby.

The day before she had gone for her first checkup and heard the baby's heartbeat. It had brought tears to her eyes. Not only at the fact that she was listening to her baby's heartbeat but also at the fact that Ryder was not there to witness it. But she had decided that it was his choice, he chose to be excluded from her life and the baby's.

She had bought several pregnancy and child books in hopes to start reading and also preparing on what she needed for the long journey.

She had slept off reading one of them last night, that was how serious Holly tool her new role as a mother.

"This is a pretty cake, are you going for the watercolour design for the next two tiers?"

Susan asked and Holly shook her head.

"I'm not sure, I don't think I will."

"Do you have a sketch?" Susan asked and Holly shook her head again.

Everything she had been doing to the cake was random, but the cake was turning out nicely.

Holly rarely started a cake without a sketch but she was too tired and unfocused to sketch.

It was a vanilla bean cake with a raspberry cream filling and she already had a layout for how the design was going to go.

Rose came into the kitchen again.

"Reggie is here."

She said with a frown and Holly looked up quickly. She knew she was lagging back on her rent but she had promised Reggie that she was going to pay up the moment it was the end of the month.

Reggie worked for the building and he was the one who served her with notices, updates about her rent and generally everything that had to do with her building and payment.

She dropped the cake and wiped her hands on a clean napkin as she walked out of the kitchen.

Rose had the good sense to usher in Reggie into her office and he was already seated with a grim smile.

"What's wrong Reggie?"

She said as she sat in her office chair across from him, she noticed that there was something in his hands but she couldn't fathom what it was. Maybe there would be changes in the mode of payment or something. She thought as she watched him wearily.

"You're behind on your rent Holly."

He said and Holly nodded.

"Yes, I'm just a few weeks late and I informed you that I was going to pay up at the end of this month. You know it's not been easy with the rent money going up."

Holly apologised and Reggie passed her the document in his hands.

"I'm very sorry to hand you this." He said as he urged her to take the document and Holly looked at it with anxiety and curiosity.

It was an eviction notice.

Holly looked up at Reggie and she laughed.

"You can't be serious with this! What is this Reggie?"

She asked with a frown on her face as she briefly glanced at the document and felt herself suddenly angry at it.

"Its an eviction notice. You're behind on rent and someone just paid a three month advance for this place. With thrice the amount you're paying for this place."

"And you just gave it to them? What the hell Reggie? This is unbelievable? Legally, you can't do this!"

She said as she picked up her phone ready to call the lawyer she had once acquired to help her acquire the building space years ago. She had never had any problems with Reggie before and she had never had a reason to call her lawyer but it was an exception.

"You don't have to bother. You didn't pay your rent early enough and now someone else has paid for your space."

"Reggie what the fuck are you saying? This isn't the first time I have been behind on rent money!!! Why are you doing this to me?"

She begged as Reggie started getting ready to leave.

"I'm sorry Holly, call your lawyer or whatever you want to do, it won't change the decision. You have two weeks to pack up and leave."

"Two weeks? Reggie two weeks? What the hell are you saying? Reggie please tell me you're joking! I can't lose this too. I can't!"

She begged as she stood up the same time Reggie stood up too and walked after him as he started getting ready to leave her office.

"Reggie, let's talk about this, please let's just talk about it." She pleaded quietly as he walked out of her office into the shop.

"There's nothing to talk about Holly, I'm sorry but I guess this has to happen."

He said as he left the bake shop with Holly closely watching him as he crossed to the other side of the street.

Holly had a hand on her mouth as she watched in shock as Reggie left, the eviction notice still in her hand. Rose was looking at her with a concerned look, so were some of the people in the shop.

"Oh God! Oh God!"

Holly thought as she started walking towards her office when she caught a glimpse of Kim at the corner of her shop laughing.

What the hell was she doing in her shop?

She thought as she glanced at Rose who shrugged.

"She came in with Reggie. I have no idea what she's doing here."

Holly was in too much of an emotional turmoil to take Kim seriously as she stormed back into her office with the eviction paper in her hands.

Her hands were shaking as she examined the eviction notice again and again.

Several thoughts crossed her mind as she started imagining the implications that it would cost.

With shaky hands she managed to call her lawyer who promised to come over the next day after she urgently begged him to find a solution to the problem.

Her mind went back to Kim whom she saw in her shop, what the hell was she doing there?

Holly thought as she walked outside her office and found Kim still in the same spot.

She was wearing a wickedly short gown which showed off long tan legs clad in Christian Louboutins. Her hair was pulled back in a high ponytail that made her face look thin.

She was smiling demurely as Holly walked up to her.

"What are you doing here?"

Holly asked as calmly as she could doing her best not to blow up in rage for all the people who were in bakery to see.

She was struggling so hard to be cool but the truth was that she was crumbling fast and close to her burnout.

"I'm just admiring the view."

"Do that somewhere else. This is my bakery."

Kim raised a perfectly arched eyebrow and she smirked.

"Yea, for the next two weeks. Then it'll be mine."

Mine??!!!

The word rang in Holly's head as she staggered in disbelief. Kim bought her shop?

It was impossible?

Maybe she was lying?

Those were the sentences that ran through Holly's mind as she tried to understand what Kim was trying to say.

"I don't understand. What do you mean?"

Holly asked as Kim stood up and faced Holly directly.

"Yes, you heard me. I offered Reggie fifty thousand dollars for this place. And he was happy to give it to me. What do you think I should do here? I'm thinking a gym.... What do you think?"

Kim asked mockingly as Holly slowly started coming to terms with what Kim was saying.

Of course it was Kim, no one else would have known she was behind on rent money, no one else knew Reggie leased her the place and was greedy enough to sell it off to the highest bidder the slightest chance he'd get.

But for her own friend to have done something like that to punish her, it was unbelievable.

"I'm thinking a gym? What do you think? Although it's a bit small but I guess I can work with it."

"You bitch! What did I ever do to you?"

Holly asked with her eyes glossy with tears. She refused to let the tears fall, she was trying so hard to blink them back but they kept falling anyways.

She was going to lose everything, from the one person whom she never expected it from.

"Do to me? Holly you betrayed me! You slept with Ryder! You used me to get to him! Isn't that enough? I trusted you enough with him and you betrayed me!"

Some people in the shop turned to look at them, suddenly interested in their conversation. Holly was too distraught to even care that they were causing a scene.

"Now, you're going to suffer for it. I am going to take away everything from you. You won't have Ryder anymore and you definitely won't have this stupid bakery anymore. You can go back to the New Jersey slums where you came from."

Kim added with contempt and with satisfaction in her eyes.

She was not done too.

"So, it's better you get your fat ass..."

It was a shock to all of them and everyone in the bakery when Holly's hand streaked out like the strike of a snake, cutting the words from Kim's mouth.

As the imprint turned red on Kim's cheek and the whole bakery went silent after the resounding slap echoed through the room, Kim looked on in disbelief as Holly felt a tiny bit of rage slip away.