The rest of the day was a blur. Emotionally unstable and way over his head, Kael spent hours learning how to hold a knife and how to use it. Edward had a clear plan for his teaching. Learning by repetition seemed to be his method. By the end of the day, he could prepare vegetables decently well. That was not to say that his time was without troubles.

Kael tried his best, but with everything that had happened over the last few days, he was not in his best condition. At least Edward's character helped him in that respect. The quiet and withdrawn Edward had changed a lot when he started cooking. He was loud and to the point. So much so, in fact, that it came dangerously close to abuse. That was when Kael made mistakes, at least. In his instructions, the older man was still not pampering but took his time and made sure Kael really understood what he had to do.

Getting yelled at was nothing new for him and, when it was constructive criticism, he had nothing to complain about.

Besides Edward himself, there were Sean and Marcia that worried about him. Multiple times during the day, they would come into the kitchen and ask if he was ok, all the while admonishing Edward for making a child cut onions for an hour. Kael was thankful for their concern, though he had trouble expressing it. Their pure energy would overwhelm him and leave him unable to speak. Expressing gratitude, however misplaced it may be, with only a nod of the head was difficult, as Kael learned that day.

When he returned to his room in the evening after watching Edward cook for a few hours with the ingredients he had prepared, it was already dark outside. Exhausted, he sank onto his bed. He made a mental checklist of what he would still need to do and, to concentrate better, closed his eyes. Closing his eyes for just a second should be fine, right?

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

When he next opened them, he got up from bed. He blinked a little and wondered if it had somehow gotten brighter in his room. Shaking his head at the absurd thought, he returned to the dryer that he had fed his freshly washed clothes. Once they were folded, he debated tossing his work-stained shirt into the washing machine too. In the end, he decided against it since it was already late and it might disturb Sean.

Walking back to his room, he saw Marcia standing outside of his door, in the process of knocking against it. "Hey, Marcia. I was just getting my clothes, what's up?" He was treated to one of her blinding smiles when she turned towards him. "Good morning Kael! I hope you had a good night. Edward said to tell you to take it easy today. You did a lot yesterday and deserve some rest." By reflex, Kael began to return her greeting, only to realize that something was not adding up while he spoke. "Good mo... morning? Isn't it, like, evening?"

"Haha, don't be silly. It is already half-past ten in the morning. Come down when you're ready for breakfast." Kael watched his coworker as she walked back downstairs. "Fuck!" Only minutes later, while he was showering, did he remember closing his eyes for just a second last night. Still grumbling about the bed being too comfortable to sleep on, he ate his breakfast in the company of Sean, Edward, and Marcia. The others had already finished but were still talking over a cup of coffee.

During their conversation, Kael confirmed what Marcia had told him with Edward. "Yes, that is right. There is still a lot for you to learn, and while you are still bad, you would slow me down too much for Friday through Sunday. You are welcome to observe. But don't you have some stuff to take care of? Monday is the restaurant's rest day, so we will have the entire day to train. Take it as a long weekend, if you will." Suddenly there were three entire days of free time on the horizon. Thanking the others, Kael quickly left the kitchen.

Back in his room, he was about to make a plan for the day when his smartphone vibrated.