Back at Fuller Street, Norah had enlisted the help of her niece, Claire Hail, who had worked in food service before taking a part-time office job. Claire agreed to cover the counter for a few mornings at an hourly rate Ryan could afford, provided he trained her properly and did not treat the arrangement as a favor that could stretch indefinitely. Ryan welcomed the terms. He was relieved that someone else understood the distinction between generosity and unpaid labor.
The shop became busier in a way that still frightened him. Regular customers were coming earlier because they had heard television cameras would soon arrive, and Ryan did not want them treated as background decoration for a national story. He set aside the existing reserved orders, displayed a clear notice about filming, and told Daniel he would not ask customers to surrender their privacy for the sake of a better shot. The producer agreed immediately and arranged to film the kitchen and consenting customers without disrupting the rest.
On the final evening before filming, Ryan checked the one reliable oven, the food storage temperatures, and every ingredient he would need. The failed oven sat dark and disconnected, its absence plain to anyone who looked. He considered moving supplies in front of it to hide the damage from the camera, then left it exactly where it was. He was finished pretending that a business had to look untroubled in order to be worth taking seriously.
Sophie was at home with Mrs. Alvarez when he called to say good night. She asked whether the television people would make him famous, and Ryan told her he did not know what they would make him. "Will you still come to my school performance next week?" she asked. The question pierced through every calculation he had been making about production schedules and possible customers. "I'll be there," he said, and put the date in the center of his notebook rather than in the margin.
He had already missed too much family time while trying to keep the bakery alive. He did not want success to become a new excuse for giving Sophie less of what she needed. Before going to sleep, he called Mrs. Alvarez and asked whether she could bring Sophie to the bakery after school the next day, once the camera crew had finished. His neighbor agreed, then told him that a man who could organize three dough schedules ought to be able to organize one afternoon with his daughter.
Ryan slept a few hours in the small room above the bakery office. He woke to the sound of a delivery vehicle outside and the smell of rain moving through the partly open window. For a moment he forgot about the filming and thought only about whether the bread had proofed correctly overnight. Then he remembered the cameras and the producer and the national audience he was not ready to imagine.
Norah was already waiting when he came downstairs. She had put a fresh kettle on and was reviewing the first batch schedule with a pencil in her hand. Her eyes moved from the notebook to Ryan's face and she said, "You're going to make bread today, same as every other day. That's the only thing the cameras need to know." Ryan nodded, washed his hands, and began.