Today…
“Did you look through the recipe?” He asked.
“I am looking through it… Sooo, am I supposed to memorize this?” Ai tilted her head.
Rather than her view of a recipe—a single page with a list of ingredients and one-line explanations—this was more of a booklet with ingredients listed down to the last milligram, details about every step and why they were necessary along with what they achieved. All of that is for just one recipe.
“Not really, you need to follow it enough times to memorize it.” Ai turned to him as those words sounded ominous.
“Mister, what do you intend to do with me?” She stepped back noticing his small smile.
“Stop being so dramatic, we need to start with the cake first. When you get that down the rest will be easy.” He folded his arms.
“Mister, you are such a buzz kill.” Ai pouted, but she was secretly excited.
With his teaching and the detailed recipe at hand, what could go wrong? The answer to that was everything. It all went wrong because there was too much to follow.
By the time afternoon rolled around Ai had made 20 batches of the cake(No filling yet), and all of them were deemed unusable by the demonic teacher standing over her shoulder.
“This isn’t good either, it is too airy.” Even the 21st batch was not spared, Ai slumped on the counter.
Was he being extra picky? Yes. Did she blame him for that? No. He was doing what she wanted, trying to teach her how to make a cake that was better than his and this was an impossible task with the current method. If he wanted to, guiding her hand to bring the cake to life was simple, but that wasn’t what she wanted.
Ai wanted to create that cake with her own hands. This may seem contradicting with the recipe booklet, but even with a detailed explanation she couldn’t handle the task.
It was like calling a person dumb if they couldn’t build a rocket when they had the complete blueprint and resources at hand. An inexperienced person is bound to make mistakes even if he is provided with everything, especially when they had no contact with the field in question. Ai was anything but a baker, she had no idea about half of the utensils used, and there were technical issues to keep in mind that would make even professional baker scratch their heads.
Sometimes she overmixed the ingredients in haste and then they were undermixed the next time cause of the previous mistake, the inconsistent or the overactivated batter wouldn’t be accepted either.
The worst point was adding something before it was said to be in the sequence cause of forgetfulness, if the yolks were said to go in second, then they must be second. If the recipe asked for her to switch between cold and warm milk in a specific order, then it had to be done. There was no room for mistakes or for any form of improvisation, the recipe in her hand was as perfect as it could be and there was no room for such things.
“Let’s try one last time,” He said as their session was coming to an end.
Soon she would leave for her house as the kids would be back from school. Leaving with no progress on the first day left her bitter, but even if the will to continue was there she could not.
“My hands…” Mixing batter over and over left her hands numb. She has not been this spent even when she practiced her dance routines for hours on end. This task was testing more than just her physical endurance at this point.
‘Maybe it won’t work…’ She knew how much talent she had for baking, it would be average at best around the same level as her cooking skills. Thus making the cake match his level in just two days was an impossible task. Ai knew but still tried to make it happen, as success in this was not her goal.
“Show me,” Her eyes turned towards him.
At first, she wondered what he meant but staring at his outstretched hand she placed her right hand in his, it only felt natural to do so. Soon the numbness vanished, rather her entire body felt reinvigorated like this morning.
“I won’t do this often, but we have another hour so let’s not waste it,” His words brought her down from the clouds she floating in.
“Mister you really weren’t joking about the tough teaching.” As much as the words sounded like a complaint, the smile on her pink lips told a different story.
Even if mastering this cake was not her initial intention, now it had become so because of him. Just like that another person had been added to the list which contained the names of her kids alone.
“It is necessary or the end product wouldn’t be up to the bar.” He said much to her amusement.
“Alright then, I’ll succeed this time!” She turned to the table and started her work meticulously following the instructions, and he would tell her when she missed something.
“Ugh!” Without speaking this also turned out to be a failure.
Regardless, she went back home with a smile on her face that stayed with her even when midnight arrived. The living room was dark as the curtains were shut, and the only source of light was her phone screen.
Adam — Try to read through it a few more times, you just need a few more tries to get it down.
— Understood! I will not let you down, sensei!
Adam — Stop that and go to sleep.
— Ok, see you tomorrow morning!
Those messages were exchanged about an hour ago, yet she still couldn’t stop staring at them. But unwillingly she closed the message app and opened the health app she had installed a few days back. It took data from the band on her body and compiled it here for her to analyze later.
She opened the heartbeat report to check the results of the day, especially between 9 A.M. to 3 P.M. The sudden peaks in that otherwise steady flow were as obvious as lush green trees in the desert, she knew of these moments very clearly as they happened always when Adam was close to her.
The light feeling appeared in her chest almost every time he was close. If she had to name a major reason for her failures today it would be him. Whenever he came close her concentration was destroyed, and then she ended up forgetting things and making mistakes.
This feeling has been there along with the fear of misinterpreting them. The fear was so prominent that she outright refused to believe it sometimes, playing it off as her misunderstanding or overreaction.
But now it was certain, the data was before her and she knew of the reason more clearly than ever. The biggest rise in her heartbeat on record happened today, there was no need to think as it was fresh in her mind.
“There is nothing left now,” Ai couldn’t deny it any longer, her smile brightened as she stared at her right hand.
‘Today… I have to do it today,’ With a conviction in her heart Ai went to sleep with mixed feelings. But the morning arrived all the same, and as the kids left Adam came to pick her up. Tomorrow is the twin's birthday, so if she wanted to succeed it had to be today.
Ai focused on her task with all of the attention she could muster. She had to learn this today no two ways about it. After three hours of grueling work and over 10 extra rejections, her hard work was accepted.
“Hmm, this is passable.” He said after a small bite of the cake(Still no filling).
Adam wasn’t trying to be a jerk or a tryhard this was indeed as he described it, a passable cake according to his recipe.
“How you do on the filling is what will make or break it,” This was just half the battle, but he had faith that she’d complete a tasty cake by tomorrow.
“You really won’t let me enjoy the moment, will you Mister?”