Striptease

Share

[Everleigh]

"And now, what you're going to want to do with the crust is slowly place it over the filling with a gentle touch. As a reminder, we don't want any cuts in our crust just yet, we will need to press out the edges beforehand--"

"Sissy, can I have the pie now?"

Teresa asked innocently as she stared up at me with those big blue eyes, those eyes that could bring anyone to their knees and cave to her every wish and desire, and I sighed as I felt my willpower waver for a moment.

But I was stronger than that.

Plus, she couldn't actually eat the pie yet since it hasn't even cooked fully and if she did so, it would make her sick and I didn't want her to get sick from half baked dough and underbaked filling.

My job was to keep Teresa happy, healthy and of course, living.

That wasn't an option, that was a necessity.

"Sorry, Esa, it's not ready yet. You can have some later though when it's done."

My little sister sighed loudly, her head hung low as she was practically stomping out of the kitchen.

Her tiny, bare feet barely made a sound and she looked pointedly over her shoulder, her chest puffing out as she wanted to play the role of the Big, Bad Wolf as she blew down our apartment.

Well, more like the kitchen because I wasn't giving into her wish this time around but the point was still made even if the place wasn't similar.

I smiled as I shooed her away with my flour covered hands,

"Go on, babe. I think a new episode of Spongebob might be coming on tonight, you wanna go put it on for us?"

Before I could even finish my sentence, Esa was already springing into action and her little feet running loudly down the short path from the kitchen to the living room could be heard and it brought a smile to my face when I heard the TV being turned on as well as she flipped through the channels for her favorite children's channel.

Shaking my head to myself, I turned back to the YouTube video that was playing on my phone as I went back through the instructions to make the perfect crust layer for the homemade apple pie with crushed pecan sprinkled in as a treat for myself and Esa and it was a great distraction to keep my mind off of spiraling into negativity.

Ever since I found out that I was dangerously close to losing my apprenticeship, I was doubling down on my at-home learning lessons whenever I could, which meant it was time to turn to YouTube and Google for advice.

To be honest, most of what we were learning in the classes wasn't anything I couldn't find off of the Internet and I did pride myself on being a quick learner when it came to technicalities and techniques.

But perfection could only get me so far….At least, that's what Mr Jean Paul Fitzpatrick says.

Rolling my eyes to myself since I really didn't care about what the faux French man thought of my damn rolling dough technique, a technique that anybody with two brain cells could manage which he would criticize me on regularly, I turned my attention back to the video as I followed the well explained instructions to pressing out the edges of the crust as I layered it over the already stuffed circular pan.

I was lucky that none of the filling escaped mid-press and after cutting a few thin strips into the center to allow the air to escape so my pie didn't blow up in the oven, I slid the pan into the preheated oven and nearly jumped out of my skin with surprise when I felt the generic buzzing of a notification on my phone in the back pocket of my jeans.