Bakers Touch

Incense & Fleeting

Nikolai stands in his kitchen reading over his lesson plan on his tablet while drinking his coffee. He places his black mug on his slate gray island countertop and scrolls to the next page, checking for any errors or mistakes before finalizing and sending it off to his colleagues for review. His phone pings as Laura, his trusted estate manager, enters the front door.

"Good morning Nikolai, you're up early today!"

Her bright and lifted tone brightens the room, you can hear her smile as she speaks. Nikolai swivels to the stove and throws the kettle on the burner, then preps Laura's mug. She doesn't drink coffee, but he knows she loves tea, Jasmine to be more specific.

"Morning Laura, I could say the same thing about you, your shift starts in an hour." He loads the mesh diffuser and carefully places a tea saucer beneath the cup.

"Well, I wouldn't have been early ... if it wasn't ... an emergency." She emphasized her pauses, hoping he would catch it.

As she hangs up her jacket and looks over her left shoulder into the kitchen, she catches his expression and is slightly puzzled. Her brows furrow a bit as she realizes he's waiting for her to continue, as he is lost upon what she's talking about.

"Nikolai, you said you needed me to be here early."

With an understandably irked tone in her voice, Laura hangs her pocketbook by the strap on the hook beneath the shelf. She also shoots a daggering gaze as she changes into her work shoes, kept stored in the bottom drawer, beneath her space on the rack.

"Please tell me that you did not waste my time."

"No, I didn't, I do need your advice on something." Nikolai rubbed the back of his neck nervously, trying quickly to come up with a lie as he'd been busted, but just that moment, he recovered to his remembrance as to what he requested her assistance for.

"I'm thinking about getting rid of these counters and cabinets, maybe redoing the floors? Also, what do you think about a bronze farm sink?" He rambles on until he notices that Laura hasn't spoken a word. He swivels and his eyes lock with Lauras'. There's a calm yet nervous tension between the two as even still, nothing is said. She's unamused with this nonsensical idea of his.

"What? You don't agree?" He asks again, taking the last bite of his blueberry muffin.

He chews slowly, not knowing if she will raise her voice, he braces for her response, expecting the worst but still somehow hoping she will approve. Laura, having a minuscule amount of patience and even less desire to amuse him with a lie, decides to hit him with the truth.

"Must we go over this again Nikolai? I'm starting to think this constant sim-like behavior of placing, erasing, and re-designing the kitchen, is the beginning of a behavior that only therapy is going to fix."

He shrugs and throws the debris from his muffin in the bin, and Laura continues.

"I think it looks exquisite as it is now- and you just finished the renovation four weeks ago. Why would you drum up more dust and chaos?" She argued, hoping his muffin-minded cranium would comprehend her genuine worry. She takes a few steps towards him hoping she would finally get through to whatever is causing him to make such an irrational decision.

"Look, this is your first time seeing it for yourself in person, and you haven't even given it a chance. You're just going to have to let it grow onto you, because you have bigger things to focus on, and be concerned with."

"Where's the chef?" Nikolai mumbled as he fetched a broom to clean up the crumbs he carelessly missed. Laura squinted her eyes in displeasure, and locates the broom herself, then thrusts it towards him.