Fire Lodge ( jenlisa )

Part 14

Chaeyoung woke up to find Jisoo in her arms, snoring lightly. "Oh yeah," she thought, "I could get used to this." She leaned over and planted a kiss on the tip of Jisoo's nose. "Wake up, sweetie! We've got to go make French toast."

Jisoo rolled over, smacking her lips, and seemed surprised to find Chaeyoung there. "Well hello," she said with a smile. "This is all right!"

Chaeyoung gave her a hug and kissed her on the forehead. "Much as I'd love to stay here all day, we've got to go down and get to work on breakfast."

In just a matter of minutes they were both dressed, teeth and hair brushed, and padding down the stairs to the kitchen.

"You're on bacon this morning," Chaeyoung said. "Warm up the griddle, fill it with bacon. When the bacon's done, put it all on a warmed plate, refill the griddle, and start the whole process over. By the time you finish that, I should have the French toast ready to go on the griddle."

"There are two secrets to French toast," Chaeyoung said as she started mixing eggs and milk in a baking pan. "The first one is to use good bread - if it's not a bread you'd enjoy eating plain, it's not worth making into French toast. I like to use a challah or a brioche. The second secret is instead of using cinnamon, using pie spice. It's got a mix of cinnamon with nutmeg and some other spices, so your French toast will have a more complicated flavor profile. The diner's won't be able to tell what's different, but they'll know the difference between this and any French toast they've had before."

Chaeyoung looked up and was pleased to see that Jisoo was paying attention to her instructions while also keeping her eyes on the bacon. She decided to give her apprentice a challenge. As Jisoo was taking the last of the bacon off the griddle, clearing the way for Chaeyoung to cook the French toast, Chaeyoung called out to her. "Jisoo, peel, core, and wedge 3 apples. Put them in a saucepan with a quarter cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of pie spice. Cook it, stirring frequently, until the apples are softened and the sugar's all melted."

"Yes, Chef!" Jisoo responded with a wink and a saucy grin. She took some apples and a paring knife over to the prep table and got to work. After a few minutes of relative silence, broken only by the sounds of Chaeyoung flipping the French toast and Jisoo cutting the apples, the peace was broken by a yell from Jisoo. "OW! DAMMIT!" Chaeyoung looked over just in time to see Jisoo bleeding profusely from a cut in her hand.

"Get to the sink and rinse your hand," Chaeyoung said, running for the first aid kit. She cleaned Jisoo's hand with an antiseptic scrub, rinsed it again, and took a look at the wound. "You got lucky - it's long but not deep, and you don't appear to have hit any major structures. Wiggle your fingers for me." Jisoo did, and found she still had full function of all her fingers. Chaeyoung taped a gauze bandage in place over Jisoo's wound and was just finishing putting a nitrile glove on her hand when they both smelled burning French toast.

Chaeyoung sprinted for the stove, scooped the French toast off the griddle into the trash, and immediately laid out a new set of slices. "How are you feeling? Do you need to sit down?" She turned around and saw that Jisoo was already cleaning up the apples and getting ready to sanitize the prep table.

"I was stupid," Jisoo said. "I kept telling myself to be careful and not to go too fast, but I wanted you to be proud of me, so I kept trying to work faster and I cut myself and ruined the compote." Chaeyoung could see tears welling up in her eyes.

"Hey, come here," Chaeyoung said, putting one arm around Jisoo's shoulders as she flipped French toast with the other hand. "If that was anyone's fault, it was mine. I was trying to push you to help you develop your skills, and I pushed you too far."

"That's sweet of you to say," Jisoo said, resting her head on Chaeyoung's shoulder, "but I know my skills - especially my knife skills - aren't up to what to what someone in this job would normally have, and I know you're having to work extra hard to make up for me, and I feel bad about it."