"Hello girls! How are you?", Laura said, she is a local primary school art teacher and Betty's foster daughter, Emma, is in her class.

"We're fine thanks. What about you?", I replied with a smile, her sunny mood always makes me smile, "Will it be the usual order today or will you try something new?"

"Hmm. It smells amazing! Is that...?"

"Yes, you got it right. Our new special Christmas orange cookies. Since we released them in early December, they are quite popular. For the holidays I cut them in a festive shapes. This December everyone loves them", I replied.

"I'm going to pack the ready ones in the delivery boxes", Betty added, "and I'll make one for you, Laura."

Betty winked at her and Laura and I both laughed.

"I don't think I have to choose anymore then", Laura joked.

But she scanned all of our ready for sale stuff - muffins, bars, cookies, croissants, and I was sure that the orange cookies won't be the only thing she'll choose today. Well, like usual.

"Buuut, I won't give up one or two of my usual temptations. Your healthy peanut bars are irresistible! I can eat an unhealthy amount of them."

We both laughed and I just took a box to fill it with a few bonuses from other new specialties, because how can I not pamper a friend who genuinely enjoys my creations and experiments.

"Aash! You've decided to fatten me up again, haven't you!?", Laura joked when she saw that I was filling her box not only with peanut bars.

"I have new products for tasting, I can't help but offer them to my best taster, right?!", I replied with a smile.

"Well, if you put it that way... I take my responsibilities seriously and I get to work right away", she said in the most serious tone she could muster, but soon her smile blossomed again, just when I handed her the box and she saw...

"Is this a French croissant?", Laura asked excitedly.

"Oui oui!"

"I already know where to start then."

Laura took the croissant out of the box and bit it impatiently. Almost immediately, she rolled her eyes in pleasure, and bit again.

"Itsh very tashty", she replied with full mouth, and barely swallowed the last bite, she took another one.

I stepped right, reached for another croissant and give her a sign to come closer with the box, then put it in it.

"Just to have one for later", I said with a wink. "I finally managed to perfect the recipe", I proudly shared.

"It's just perfect!", Laura replied with a content smile, and the last bite of her croissant disappeared in her mouth. "Mmmm! You shouldn't have shown it to me!", she tried to scold at me but her eyes were saying quite the opposite.

"I know, I know. It's automatically added to your regular order", I replied with a smile of pleasure.

This is one of the things I love in my job - the contact with people, the immediate response of what I've prepared for them, the joy in their eyes. I love that in our bakery the communication is free and easy. I immediately see people's reactions and even if someone doesn't like something, I can ask why, and correct it - either by changing the recipe or by offering another thing that they would like better.

"Here's a nice box of new freshly baked cookies for you, angel", Betty said, handing Laura a beautifully packaged branded box.

"On the house", I added, because how could I not treat her with them when she helped me perfected these cookies. She tried them when they were just an experiment and her feedback was priceless.

"Thank you!", Laura replied with shining eyes, "Have a wonderful day, girls!"

She paid and headed to the door just as our next customer came in.

"I'm expecting my favourite taster soon", I told Laura instead of bye, and she laughed with her beautiful fairy laughter.

The man entering stopped in the middle of his action. He looked startled and stared at Laura's receding figure.

"Hello, what would you like?", I tried to get his attention.

But he kept looking at Laura and didn't notice me at all.

In the matter of facts, I believe that even if I had slapped him now (not that I'd do such a thing to a customer), he wouldn't have reacted at all. He was absolutely engrossed by Laura.

Hmm, that's interesting, here may be something. Oh well, only time can tell.

"Sir, what would you like?", I asked again.

"Mmm?", he replied, but his gaze was moving from me to the direction Laura went. He still couldn't focus on anything else but her. Weird, isn't it?!

"Sir, what would you like?", I repeated my question again.

"Oh...ahhh. The orange cookies. One box", he replied.

Betty reacted immediately and brought him a branded box like Laura's. All of the holiday orders are in special branded boxes with the name of our bakery, "Sweet moments", on them.

"Will that be all?", I asked.

He nodded.

"12.99", I said.

He paid, took the box, wished us a good day, and left.

"Strange man", I remarked.

"It's just quieter", Betty replied, "But he's cute - dark, and tall."

"BETTY!", I muttered, barely holding back my laughter, "Shame on you, you are a married woman!"

"Oh, come on now! I can't help but notice when someone is so attractive, and my George knows I wouldn't prefer anyone else to him", her gaze filled with love when she mentioned George.

"You are very lucky", I said, and a little sadness tried to creep in my voice but I pushed it back, "to find each other so early."

The two had met on the orientation day at university they both were accepted to. Their meeting was so accidental that it might not have happened at all and yet... George loves to tell the story of the first time he saw her - a girl with shiny black wavy hair, rippling down her back, dressed in an ethereal pink summer dress. "She kept a notebook and a pen and kept writing things down", he says. He approached her, but not too boldly, and just then she brushed her hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear, and he gasped. "My breath stopped when I saw her", he says, "and that's when I realized that she was the perfect girl and I would never meet a girl more beautiful than her." On their wedding day, just a year and a half later, shortly after Betty turned 18, he says he thought the same thing, but this time he considered not only of her outer but her inner beauty too. "I knew that this woman, my wife, is the one, the perfect one for me, and that I'll love her till my last breath, and more", he never tires to repeat.

"God blessed us with each other, that's right, and I'm infinitely grateful, but...", another customer entered, and she couldn't finish the sentence, but I knew what she meant.

But... their prayers for a child did not seem to have been heard yet.

So they decided to wait no more, and soon enough they became foster parents. And once again they got lucky because the first child they took to take care of was Emma. She enlightened their lives. And they loved her as their own child. I couldn't talk on Emma's behalf but I knew that for Betty and George she was the child they were praying for, and they'll do their best to adopt her, and give her a happy life.