TAKE IT EASY • TC ✔️

49. Reflections

Saturday morning was dismal.

And not just dismal because Timmy wasn't a part of it, but dismal because Lu was the reason that Timmy wasn't a part of it.

She had unpacked her suitcase completely the night before, driven by boredom, guilt, whatever it was, to complete a task she would usually put off for a day at least. So now, she was lolling around, trying to find something to do. She went to work on Monday which was fine, it was- it was good, but that still left her with two days and nothing to do.

Lu decided to bake.

She got up and went to the kitchen, searching her shelves for things she could use. She came up with a few things she could use (flour, sugar, chocolate) but she had no milk, no eggs, nothing fresh because she'd left it all with-

With Timothée.

So Lu went to get her shoes and her shopping bags, and made her way to the grocery store nearest her apartment – right down the end of the street. She did a food shop and bought less than she usually would, conscious now of the fact that she had spent a lot on the cat-sitter for Julius.

It wasn't the actual grocery run that was the problem. No, the problem was that she took the side entrance on her way back into the apartment block. The problem was that she pushed the door open and it was Timothée who was coming down the stairs on the inside. It was Timothée who walked straight through the door she had just opened.

He walked out of the complex, and he didn't even have sunglasses on but it was like he hadn't seen her. Lu took her chance and quite literally ran with it, taking the stairs two at a time even though she was encumbered with bags on both arms. If she heard the ground floor door squeak as Timmy retraced his steps trying to see if it was her, no she didn't.

Lu only realised that her legs were shaking when she put her bags down to retrieve her keys from her purse. Only realised when she had to lean against the door so she didn't collapse in on herself. The rational part of Lu decided that to avoid Timmy had been a mistake, but the rational part of Lu had also been missing for the duration of her week away. She didn't understand why she should start listening to it now.

Lu let herself in and started making cookies. The recipe was easy and she'd done it before, so she put on some music while she was baking. Partly for enjoyment, partly to block out the silence that swarmed every empty space in the apartment. The dough was softer than it looked in the video, but she put it in the fridge for half an hour like it said, and plopped herself down on the sofa with a spatula coated in cookie dough. She turned off the music; turned on the TV, and sat there, Julius keeping her company by preening himself as they watched the news. Her phone buzzed on the counter, but she took no notice of it. Picked up the remote instead and started flipping through channels showing re-runs of things she didn't care about.

Julius finished licking himself halfway through an episode of some trashy sitcom that Lu wasn't even invested in, and he promptly deposited himself on her lap, curling up with his head on her thigh. Lu chuckled.

"What's this I hear about you not eating anything?" she asked quietly, putting the spatula on the coffee table and brushing her fingers over the top of Julius's head. The cat leaned into her touch and then dropped his head back down in between his shoulders. Lu sighed. "You've got to eat something, Jul. You're scaring me."

Julius started purring and nestled himself further into the gap between Lucia's thighs.

She watched ten more agonising minutes of the same episode before the oven started beeping. Lu extracted Julius from his little nest, and went to check on the cookies. She hadn't left enough space between them; they'd spread out into each other until it was just a whole sheet of underbaked dough. Lu frowned. Put the cookie back in the oven for three minutes and went to check her phone. Everything was fine until she looked at her messages.