The Christmas Spirit Read Online Free PDF Page A

who had been flung in at the deep end, and alongside a
temporary new manager, too. The regulars were quietly happy.
    When the rush was over, Natalie turned to Jacob and said,
‘Thanks for that. Right, let’s have a look at those references, shall we?’ and,
business-like, she put on her glasses and took from Jacob the envelopes he had
retrieved from his jacket pocket.
    ‘Well, that all seems in order,’ Natalie said, after a few
minutes of perusing the pages of A4 she had withdrawn from the envelopes. ‘So,
let me fill you in on what we do and what I need help with. It’ll be a work in
progress, as I’m still learning. This is only my second day.’
    Jacob awaited further instructions.
    ‘OK, can you bake?’
    ‘No,’ Jacob said flatly.
    ‘Right, let’s leave the baking to me, then. We can start
with you serving customers and clearing tables. I’ll show you how to use the
coffee machine, for latte, mocha, espresso and the like, as that’ll be a big
help, as making coffee can be quite time-consuming. I’d also like you to tell
me when we’re running low on any particular cakes, so I can try and make more,
depending on what time of day it is. Make sense?’
    ‘Yep, sounds good.’
    ‘You can count, can’t you? Without a calculator, I mean.’
Natalie wanted to check.
    ‘Yes, no problem.’
    ‘Good. Well, I would suggest familiarising yourself with the
price list. I’ll talk you through the cakes we have here, as I gathered earlier
you don’t know the names of all of them.’
    ‘About half,’ Jacob admitted.
    ‘No problem. By the end of the day, you’ll know your way
around a piece of pecan pie,’ Natalie assured him.
    As she ran through the cakes from left to right: angel cake,
banana cake, bran muffins, banoffee pie, Battenberg cake, she realised Mrs
Williams had alphabetised her layout! Natalie had no idea if it was intentional
or not, but it made her giggle. Jacob looked at her oddly and she said, ‘It’s
nothing,’ then told him, since it would be easier for him to remember the names
if he knew they were in alphabetical order. Plus, if he was to display the
cakes in the glass cabinets, it would assist him in remembering what went
where.
    Just then another customer arrived, so their training
session was cut short. Jacob chatted with the elderly gent, who was in for some
Battenberg cake. After he left, Jacob laughed and said, ‘Thank God he didn’t
ask for zabaglione !’
    ‘Yes, we’ve got quite a bit of this alphabet to get through
yet, and just so you know we don’t have any zabaglione ,’
said Natalie.
    ‘Well, that’s easy enough to remember. So where were we?’
    ‘C,’ Natalie continued, ‘Carrot cake, chocolate cake,’ she
said, indicating each with a wave of her hand. ‘D - date and walnut loaf and
Dundee cake. E- Eccles cake, F - fondant fancy and fruitcake.’ Natalie drew
breath and stopped to ask Jacob which one was Eccles cake. He got it right. She
continued, ‘Genoa cake, gingerbread. No H, I, J or K and we go straight to L
for lemon cake.’
    ‘Straight to hell, did you say?’ Jacob made an effort at
humour.
    ‘I hope your jokes improve,’ Natalie said bluntly, but with
a smile in her voice.
    They got through discussing the rest of the cakes without
mishap, stopping twice to serve customers. By the time the lunchtime rush
arrived, Jacob was able to distinguish his Madeira cake from his upside-down
cake.
    He was a hit with the elderly ladies, charming them with his
cornflower blue eyes and dirty blond hair, even if it was a little long for
their tastes. Some of the regulars kept him busy asking for more tea, and he
cleared tables whilst Natalie prepared new batches of cakes that were running
low. Mrs Gardiner, an elderly lady who they later discovered had never married,
came in to meet Mrs Seymour once a week, to share a piece of cake, a pot of tea
and a chinwag. Mrs Gardiner’s guide dog, Sam, a seven-year-old golden Labrador
with a gentle personality, lay at