Razor's Edge (A Vincenzo Fanfic)

14. The Choice

Carina woke the next morning dure to her phone alarm in the cool of dawn- not dawn exactly, as her phone's brightned screen was showing 4 am.

It was still early.

She groaned and massaged her head, already regretting her decision. What possessed her to set an alarm at 4 in the morning?

Carina blinked and covered her sore eyes as she slumped back on the sofa. She groaned. She'd be less than honest if she said that going back to sleep right now wasn't tempting. And she would have done exactly so if she did not have work to do.

She bregrugingly threw the blanket on floor instead and made herself comfortable on the sofa, picking her phone up.

Silently praying she didn't wake Vincenzo up, she set the alarm off. After all, he just a room away.

Vincenzo had tried to the best of his efforts to make her sleep on the bed last night. He insisted that he woud take the sofa instead, but Carina was having none of it. Afterall, Carina is very stubborn about changing her mind once she makes a decision. In the end, he gave up and let her have the sofa.

A small smile appeared on her face as she thought about him.

One can almost picture him waking up, his hair messy and uneven, his groggy eyes- squinting due to morning light.

Sometimes Carina wondered, what would it be like to sleep next to him - wake up next to him?

This sudden idea startled her, made her shudder, blush, and made her feel such a rush of warmth of blush as it crawled up her neck.

Carina chuckled to herself a bit and shaked her head, trying to break free from her line of thought and rubbed her eyes. She had lot of work today. She needed to go to hospital.

Still not completely awake, Carina stumbled up to the bathroom to brush her teeth before heading to the kitchen to cook breakfast for both of them. Because truth to be told, she did not trust Vincenzo to take his meals on time. She opened the fridge to see what was available, what she could work with.

Carina wouldn't call herself a good chef. She was good in baking cakes, but cooking, on the other hand, she could cook one or two dishes, but thats it. It's not like she never tried. She tried to learn in past, but it was like she just didn't have any talent in this area.

So after going through the available things she had in the fridge, which weren't many, she setteled for simple egg sandwiches- which was the only few things she knew how to make- and some fruit juice.

Carina started humming along some melody as she worked on the sanwiches, the hot air of the flames came rushing on her face, making her sweat. While she wanted to wipe the sweat off her forehead, she was unable to do so because her hands were busy.

Carina bit her lower lip as she continued to work, slowly falling in a deep thought. Maybe she was all by herself in the kichen, or maybe she was just missing her father, or maybe for another some reason, she started reliving the memories of her past while she cooked.

Things she used to do when she was free or getting bored. Small things. Little things.

She used to bake whenever she was free. Because it made her feel connected to her mother. Those little incidents.

She remembered the smell of different essences she used to experiment with. Or when she would burn her fingers due to her carelessness. The smile on her dad's face when he would taste the cake she had just made.

Of all these memories, one that stood out was when she would leave the batter to be baked in the oven sometimes and forget about it. Sometime later, maybe minutes or  even hours, the servants would find the whole kichen filled with black smoke. This had happened two or three times at least. She had an earful from her father on that. Carina smiled fondly at the memory.