Bad Day Blues

Upon returning to her apartment, Makoto closed the door behind her with a slam and fought back the urge to scream.

What a horrible, miserable, no good day. Everything that could go wrong, did. First, her alarm didn't go off, making her late for the early morning delivery at the bakery. Then when she arrived, she discovered that her wholesaler had misread the order form. What she was supposed to do with five thousand eggs, she did not know, but it took her an hour-long phone call to get everything sorted out with the company – during which she burnt two batches of cookies due to being too distracted to pay attention to the time.

The day just got worse from there. A couple who came by for a cake tasting for their upcoming wedding got into a huge argument over carrot cake – of all things – and ended up calling off their engagement. An irate mother yelled at her because one of her decorators had used the wrong kanji on her son's birthday cake. One of the assistant bakers accidentally dropped a bag of flour on the floor, getting flour everywhere. And to top it all off, Makoto had to fire one of her cashiers because she caught him stealing from the till.

It was enough to make her almost regret opening the bakery in the first place. Almost, but not quite.

With a weary sigh, Makoto kicked off her flats and plopped face-first onto the sofa. It was her turn to cook dinner tonight, a chore she usually enjoyed, but cooking was the last thing she felt like doing at the moment. Nephrite would have to be satisfied with take-out Chinese.

Though her clothes and hair were still covered with flour, Makoto buried her face in a rose-print throw pillow. Her eyes fluttered close, her mind drifting off into a pleasant dream…

"Mako-chan… Mako-chan, wake up…"

Makoto moaned. Something soft and sweet-smelling brushed against her cheek, stirring her from her slumber. Slowly cracking open an eyelid, she was startled when she saw a beautiful pink rose floating in front of her face.

"Huh, what?" She quickly sat back up on the couch, rubbing the last remnants of sleep from her eyes. "Oh, Nephrite, it's you," she said, her live-in boyfriend standing in front of her with a whole bouquet of pink roses in his hand. "Are those for me?"

"No, I bought them for Zoisite," he said with a chuckle, rolling his eyes. "Of course they're for you, silly."

"But it's not my birthday or anything."

Nephrite shrugged. "I was passing by the florist on my way home and thought it would be nice to buy you some flowers." He frowned, setting the bouquet down on the coffee table and taking a seat beside her on the couch. "Hey, something wrong? Why are you covered with….is this flour?" he asked, wiping some of it off her cheek.

"Oh, Nephrite, I had the most awful day!"

Makoto threw herself in his arms and told him about everything that had happened, Nephrite rubbing soothing circles on her back as he listened to her ranting. It felt good to finally get everything off her chest.

"Man, it really has been a terrible day for you," he said when she finally finished. "I'm sorry. That sucks."

"It's okay." Sighing, she glanced down at her watch and jumped up when she saw what time it was. "Oh, no, I forgot to order dinner!" she said, reaching for the phone, but Nephrite grabbed her wrist, stopping her.

"Forget about dinner." He stood up as well, kissing her before he began leading her to the bathroom. "I'm going to draw you a hot bath, then you're going to take a nice long soak while I make my famous spaghetti bolognese. How does that sound?"

It sounded absolutely heavenly.

DISCLAIMER: "Sailor Moon" doesn't belong to me.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Written as a gift for nelwynprincess. Hope you enjoyed the story! Feel free to follow me on Tumblr! My username is kaleidodreams.