With as much cheer as she could muster, Daphne returned to the living room, smiling at her charge. "Finished with your breakfast, Mr. Crane?"
Martin cringed, shoving his oatmeal around in his bowl before tossing the spoon onto the table in annoyance. The metal made a clinking sound before coming to a stop.
"Yeah, I'm finished!" He grumbled. "Can't you tell?"
Her eyebrows rose. For it wasn't his gruff attitude that surprised her. It was the fact that the bowl was still completely full. "But you've barely touched your breakfast so how can you possibly be finished?"
"I've been finished!" He snapped.
She chose to ignore his comment and forced a smile. "Aren't you hungry?"
"Of course I'm hungry! I'm famished in fact!"
"Well if you're so bloody hungry, why haven't you eaten anything?"
"I'm hungry for food, Daphne! Not this cardboard stuff!"
She sighed. Every morning it was an ongoing battle with Mr. Crane, trying to get him to eat healthier. Gut she knew that there would be no immediate resolution in sight.
"It is food!" She shot back. "It's oatmeal and it's good for you!"
"Well red wine is good for people too but you won't find me drinking that crap that Niles and Frasier are always raving about. Nah, just give me a six pack of Ballantine's and I can die a happy man, all right?"
"You keep eating like that and you will die!"
His eyes widened in horror. "What?"
Remorseful for her cruel comment, she looked away from him. "Nothing. Um… suit yourself. But don't expect me to make you anything else! You want breakfast? Make your own!"
"Fine! Maybe I will!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
Angrily she yanked the dishes from the table, including the bowl that he was mere seconds from sticking his spoon into.
"Hey!" he protested, giving her an angry glare. But she ignored him and stormed into the kitchen, determined not to look back. To do so would only bring remorse, as it usually did. And this time she wasn't going to take the blame for their latest fight. For what seemed like the millionth time, she found herself wondering why she put up with his nonsense day after day.
She was grateful that Frasier had decided to hire her as Martin's physical therapist. It had taken some getting used to; working for a man who was so pretentious. And his father who was absolutely and positively infuriating. But she had to admit that she loved her job. If only Martin wasn't so impossible.
In frustration she opened the refrigerator and grabbed the familiar black box with the recognizable Top Pot Donuts logo in the center. Putting the chocolate covered donut onto a plate completely went against everything that she'd been trying to accomplish. And Frasier would be livid if he knew that Daphne had given into Martin's demands yet again. But at that point she'd become so frustrated that her only immediate goal was to shut the old man up.
With the same plastered smile on her face, she returned to the living room and placed the donut in front of him. Not surprisingly his eyes lit up as though she'd made him a steak dinner and he smiled at her. "Say, you're all right, Daphne!"
"Oh sure, Mr. Crane!" She laughed. "You like me better this way, now that I've given you what you want."
His smile disappeared. "No, I-um… look Daphne. I'm sorry that I got so mad at you, okay?"
She couldn't help but smile. And it was a real smile this time. Try as she might, she couldn't stay mad at the old man if she tried.