The Baker's Man

The Story of Us: That Four Letter Word

Odette groaned to herself as she stepped out of the business building of her college. She had just finished her final and her head was pounding. The late night study session she had with Elijah seemed to help her out a lot. Now she could only wait for the results.

"Who is that?" Odette overheard a girl ahead of her ask.

"I don't know but he is fine." Odette classmate Bianca said. Odette sent a text message to Fred to find out where he parked as she bypassed them. It was bitter cold and all she wanted to do was go home and become a human blanket burrito.

"Ducky." Elijah called out to her as she walked by him. Odette stopped in her tracks and finally looked up from her phone.

"What are you doing here?" she asked as she broke out in to a full smile. She walked straight in to his arms, welcoming the warmth he provided.

"No way, that ain't Odette's boyfriend." Bianca said in complete disbelief. Odette rolled her eyes as she ignored her.

"I thought I'd surprise you." he said as he wrapped his scarf around her neck.

"Consider me surprised." She giggled as she hugged him again. She had taken a three days off from work and spent her days at the campus library trying to study for the exam. She was sure that Elijah was feeling a bit neglected.

"So Ms. O you are officially finished with school. What do you want to do now?" he asked as he ushered her to his car. Odette got in to the car and Elijah closed the door before trotting around and getting in on his side.

"So what do you want to do now?" he asked again as he cranked up the heat.

"I just want to wash my hair and go to sleep."

"For real?" Elijah had expected her to say go ice skating since she had been hinting to him that she wanted to go after her finals. He wasn't too thrilled on the idea but if that's what she wanted he would do it. Odette could have asked to go to the moon and he would have found a way to make it happened; it brought him so much joy to see that sparkle in her eyes whenever she was happy.

"Yeah, oh and order some Thai food."

"As you wish my Queen." He said as he drove off. "So how did the test go?"

"I think I did really well actually. Thank you for helping me study last night, you were a big help." She said as she rested her weary head on his shoulder.

"No problem, it was kind of fun seeing how much I actually remembered."

During the car ride home Odette fell asleep, Elijah was grateful to see her face relaxed for once. He knew that she had been under a tremendous amount of pressure, at least now she had one less thing to worry about. When they reached home, Elijah put Odette to bed before leaving to pick up their dinner. When he returned Odette was up and slathering conditioner on her puffy curly mane.

"I was hoping you would still be asleep." He said as he placed the bag of food on the kitchen counter.

"I wanted to do my hair so I have enough drying time. Victoria wants to take me shopping for my graduation outfit tomorrow."

"How does it feel knowing that you're finally graduating?"

"Unbelievable... I struggled for three years for this degree, and for it to finally be over...it's .... unbelievable." Tears threatened to fall but Odette had promised herself that she wouldn't start crying out of fear of turning in to a blubbering mess. Odette let out a groan as she tossed her bottle of conditioner across the sofa.

"I'm too sleepy for this crap." She mumbled, she didn't have enough sleep and her patience was running low. She didn't even care how crazy she looked in front of Elijah with just a quarter head full of conditioner. Elijah chuckled as he pulled her off of the couch and led her to the kitchen and sat her down on a stool.