"Okay so. Real question," Bo started. "Is any of the batter salvageable? I feel like at this point, some of it should be salvageable," he said in mild annoyance as he began mixing another batch of batter in the kitchen, peeking out the small window that looked into the main room of the bakery.
Bo blinked, feeling his heart begin to race at the mere thought. "The inspector?" He poked his head back over to the window, seeing the familiar face of the health inspector approach the door. He didn't look friendly. But he never looked friendly. "Aw... sh-shit," he muttered, setting the bowl of new batter down and wiping his hand on a towel before he hurried over to the door to welcome him in before he barged in himself.
"Ah, hello, Mr. Rye!" Bo greeted, gritting his teeth into a smile.
Aw yiss the health inspector, that’s exactly what we needed.
“Yes, hello, Mr. Rye. What can we do for you?”
The inspector stepped past the cashier and the line of customers, and into the kitchen area. He glanced around the room, probably looking for some obvious gas leak or a square inch of mold hiding behind a plant. Then he glared down into one of the bowls of batter on the table, saying, “Using gray sprinkles now, huh?” “Sure sure sure.”
“Inspector Rye, while you’re here, would you like a donut?” Carter gestured to the wall behind the countertop displaying a hashtag stating “wallofdonuts” and was followed by nearly one thousand types of donuts. It started out innocent enough: - original - not so original - chocolate - vegan chocolate - not at all vegan chocolate The standards you could find anywhere. Number 998 on the list was described as: quadruple double chocolate strawberry orange marshmallow marmalade fudge covered in flaming hot Cheetos.
Carter was a genius, and Bo commended him for it. Silently, of course. He watched as the inspector's gaze got stuck on the wall of donuts, predictably getting stuck there for a long time. Making a choice from the thousands of options was overwhelming for even the most decisive of persons.
He looked over to Carter with a grin, only for his eyes to quickly fall back on the dove poopy batter. He grabbed the bin and casually, quietly tucked it away under one of the shelves.
"Made a choice, Inspector?" "I uh think it would be best to go for the plainest donut you have."
Carter ushered him over to the front counter and placed him in the care of the cashier. He ran back to the kitchen, turned on the radio and threw the dead dove down the garbage disposal. For an extra touch, he spritzed the lemon air freshener all around.
Pointing to Bo he commented, "Or we could have just tied him up in the food locker."
Bo was just relieved that the inspector was gone, or otherwise preoccupied. He sighed in relief - only to stop abruptly halfway through at Carter's comment. He snorted.
Carter levitated a few pancakes off the griddle and flipped a few others, keeping his back to the burners the entire time. He looked hesitantly at the fire extinguishers and smoke detectors, wondering if there was any danger in their status.
A few unidentifiable rodents gathered at the tip of his shoe, looking for the donut he moved down onto the floor. They ran away quickly and left Bo looking at the trail of fudge sauce and pink icing dripping into the flood drain.
"Bro..." Bo shook his head, only to have it shoot up as he heard the first ding of the morning as the clerk tapped the little bell by the window. Their first order. Bo hurried over to check the little slip of paper.
It read: two dozen ultimate chocolate storm donuts. Except it was in sloppy shorthand, of course.
Bo quickly pulled out two boxes. "Fire up some choco storms for me will ya?" he asked carter.
Carter started a whirlwind of the ingredients moving around the room and one of the talking rats looked up to him saying, "The only thing predictable about life is its unpredictability."
Carted sighed. It was a good quote and the little rat had a point, but they really needed to stop watching that movie.
The donuts fell by themselves into the wrapping paper and into the boxes. "Done."
