Second chance to love you

Bakery

A k i r a

In the period I have known Ethan, which is precisely more than a year, my admiration for his inexhaustible vault of skills increases greatly, the more I learn about him.

It is nearly frightening how many talents this single human can manifest, and how many skills he can adapt and adjust to his preferences and command. It's impressive and admirable simultaneously, making me more encouraged to match his pace. As promised, Ethan and I are knee-deep on the kitchen floor, with a thick layer of flour covering our bodies. I adjusted the cute chef's hat on my head as we both peered into the oven, watching the fourth batch of muffins bake within the heat of the oven.

I thought his way of apologizing would be an even greater chance for us to bond and build more sweet memories but unfortunately shortly after we started, we quickly realized that, among the many skills Ethan possesses, baking was not enlisted in his criteria.

The kitchen is a mess, I am hyperaware of the scattered baking utensils, eggshells, and ingredients littering the once spotless kitchen. We will apologize to Chef G about that later but now...

The oven hums as it dings, alerting us that the newly made batch is now ready, Ethan carefully pulls out the tray, his callous and big hands hugged in pink kitchen gloves. They look edible at best, compared to the first three batches. 

"There. Freshly made blueberry muffins and see, I didn't burn them this time." He turns to me proudly.

"But you still burnt the others. Three times" I remind him and he shrugs off my statement with an eye roll-. " It was just practice, now try them."

I give the muffins a long scrutinizing look, I consider giving them the benefit of the doubt, as I take a cautious bite. 

The moment I bit into the muffin, my face contorted as I tried to chew. I tried to hide my reaction as much as I could, trying to salvage Ethan's dignity but my lord.

"Well, they certainly...have a unique flavor. I mean..." I fight the urge, I will not empty my stomach, I want to, badly. But I will not. I swallow. Hard. " Not bad, not bad." 

Ethan narrows his eyes on my face, he doesn't believe me. I can't blame him, I look like I'm suffocating, or fighting with constipation. I smile at him tightly. " Yap not bad" 

He held my wrist as I was about to take another bite. I nearly cry out in relief, I want to delude myself that he didn't notice but my relief was so apparent, he must have noticed. " You are terrible at acting and even worse at lying. Stop eating that before you get sick and I have to live with the guilt that I killed you with my terrible baking." 

I stifle a laugh but a smile slowly cracks on his face. And something else. I realized soon, judging by the way he was glaring at the muffins as if they betrayed him, that he was not used to not being good at something. Frustrates him, and I know it does, he likes being in control, being able to tick something off his achievement list, and all tasks completed with efficiency. This must be hard for him to swallow but he can't bake.

Ethan looks defensive, his frustration with himself bubbling to the surface. His shoulders tense and arms crossed, and he is still sending death stares to the muffins, willing them to taste better or work out better.

He groans. " Why are they not coming out right? I followed the recipe exactly! It's just flour, eggs, and blueberries, dump them in the oven, wait a while, and be done! Baking is supposed to be easy, right ?" 

I can't help but laugh, shaking my head in disbelief. Ethan was so confident that baking was so simple and easy but now faced with his creation, he must swallow his earlier statement.