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The lights were on. It was only half past six, a little earlier than Gaia often managed to make it in these days, but she could see the kitchen light glowing through the window as she wrestled with her key to unlock the door. It was getting worse, the lock sticking every time, and she knew it wouldn't be long before she needed to call the locksmith to have it replaced. Her strength was finite, and there was only so much longer she could last with the stiff door.
For the second night in a row, she had slept well enough, or at least heavily enough, that she hadn't been disturbed by her daughter's cries and Evan had tended to Clover, the two of them reversing their roles as he got better. He had stayed out with his sister for a while last night, a coffee turning into a drink and he had ended up at her flat, sharing a Kashmiri takeaway that his brother-in-law had ordered while he and Bree reminisced on their time with their mother.
By the time he had made it home, when Kit had given him a lift, the ten o'clock news was halfway done and Gaia was getting ready for bed. They had fallen asleep together and for the first time in a long time, she had been the little spoon when he had felt the need to hold her close. He had wrapped her in his arms all night long, his face buried in her hair and her back lined up against his stomach. She never overheated like that, relishing in the warmth of his comforting embrace.
After a good ten seconds of grappling with her key, Gaia managed to elbow the door open with a little might, shoving her way into the café with a harrumph as she smoothed down her cardigan and stifled a yawn. Mornings were fine, and she quite liked being awake so early in the day with plenty of time spread out ahead of her, but she couldn't help the yawn that forced her to scrunch up her eyes. Pushing the door shut with her hip, she pushed the bolt across to stop anyone from trying to get in before they opened and headed straight towards the kitchen.
Max was sitting at the table, working on a cake she had made the night before, and Gaia was hit with the delicious smell of baking batter as the oven whirred with two cakes inside. The one on the table had been coated in white icing, onto which Max dripped drops of food colouring and marbled the bright colours in tie-dye swirls with a cocktail stick.
"Morning, Gaia," she said with a smile, though it wasn't quite as bright as normal. Gaia cursed herself for interfering, for upsetting the apple cart with her nosiness, and she wished she had just let Max be.
"Hey," she said, trying to make up for Max's dulled spirit with a wide grin. "How's it going? You're here early."
"Mmm," Max hummed, dragging the tip of the cocktail stick through the icing to create beautiful spirals in a design that was beautiful in a breathtakingly simplistic way. "It's going well, how about you?"
Gaia dropped her bag off her shoulder, the debris of motherhood spilling out onto the table, and she took a seat at a right angle to Max, resting her elbows on the table. "Is everything ok?" she asked, and she instantly regretted the question. Of course everything wasn't ok.
