"Chase!"
The frilly, high pitched shrill traveled through his ears to his head, causing slight pressure on his already throbbing temples. He poured an excess amount of chocolate chips into his velvet red cake batter as he tried to ignore the annoying girl that was sitting on a bar stool, watching him lovingly. He sighed and slipped on a pair of blue gloves and began to pick out some of the chips.
Chase could never understand the young waitress's obsession with him. He insulted her daily, more so than anyone else on the island and made it a point to give her the cold shoulder whenever she addressed him. He clearly remembered the previous night when he compared her fudge brownies to pig feces, and the distraught girl had flown out of the bar in a fit of sobs. Now here she was, glittering blue eyes wide and glazed over in admiration. The chef decided that some things would always remain a mystery.
"How are you today, Chase?" Maya asked brightly.
He plugged the electric cord to the mixer in a nearby socket, relieved that the noise would soon be drowning her voice. "I was doing great. But seeing your face has brought on fresh stabs of pain." He calmly clutched at his chest.
Maya pouted and stuck out her tongue at him. This didn't go unnoticed by Chase, who returned the gesture by rolling his eyes.
"How come you're always so mean to me?" She demanded.
He placed the whisk inside the doughy mixture and allowed his finger to hover over the power button pointedly. "Don't think you're so special. I'm mean to everyone."
Before Maya had a chance to reply, he pressed the power button and set it on the highest level. The steady, sharp sound of machine was like music to his ears. Sprinkles of dry flour dotted the front of his apron. He could hear Maya screeching indiscernible words from behind him and could see her bony limbs flailing all over the place from the corner of his eye. One, two, three. The thoroughly pleased chef counted to himself. And surely enough: WHAM! The door to the bar slammed shut. It never failed. He struggled to suppress a laugh. He stopped the mixer and poured the smooth batter into a lightly greased pan. The door opened again and to his relief, it was only Kathy. She gave him a pitying look as she shed off her coat and tossed it on one of the tables.
"What's with the face?" He commented as he slipped his hand into an oven mitt.
"Could you at least try to be nice to Maya? She really looks up to you, you know."
"Kathy, how long have you known me? Do I ever try to be nice to anyone?"
She entered the kitchen so that she could look at him face-to-face. "Be nice to her, or I'll tell everyone about the kind and generous deed you did yesterday," she threatened.
All the color drained from his face. "You wouldn't."
"How long have you known me, Chase? You know I would. In a heartbeat."
It was true. Kathy never made empty threats, no matter how vicious they seemed to be. She grinned triumphantly as Chase grudgingly accepted her request. "This is ridiculous," he muttered, shoving the pan into the oven. "I'm just a cook. Not some public relations officer."
"Suck it up," she replied haughtily. "Speaking of which, how'd it go with Akari? I'm sorry I wasn't there to finish my shift. The inn needed my help last night."
Chase thought back to Akari's words as he set the timer for thirty minutes. He felt that he had underestimated the farmer. She didn't blubber on his shoulder nor did she breakdown and cry. No, she was perfectly composed and this impressed him. Even though she didn't flat out say that it was she and Owen's relationship that was causing her distress, Chase could easily decipher the meaning in her words. The one thing that troubled him, however, was that she was so willing to stay in a relationship that was never going to change. But he knew what it was like to hold on to something in the past. Chase shook the memory out of his mind and recalled what he could to the attentive waitress.
"I just don't get it," Kathy sighed when Chase was finished. "Why doesn't she just break up with him?"
He only shrugged, staring absently at the changing numbers on the timer.
"Owen's not a bad guy," Kathy rambled on, much to the chef's discontent. "I've known him for my entire life. He'd never hurt anyone. But when he started drinking…" She walked over to the untouched dishes piled in the sink and began to fill it with scorching water. "I should've warned Akari. I thought maybe she would change him."
Chase stood on the opposite side of Kathy and grabbed a dry towel. They unconsciously agreed that she would wash and he would dry. "No one can really change unless they want to," he replied.
"You're right."
"Aren't I always?"
"Go kill yourself."
He laughed good-naturedly, appreciating her quick, biting comeback. The scent of sweet, sugary cake had now wafted through the kitchen. Chase pulled a tub of vanilla icing from the refrigerator as one of the doors in back of the bar opened.
Selena strolled over to the waitress and chef, her pomegranate auburn hair wet and draped over her shoulder. She looked stunning, as usual. She was dressed in a tight fitting exotic dress that glamorized her well endowed curves. Chase sighed. Selena was only slightly less aggravating than Maya. The Toucan Island native didn't have an obsessive crush on him, which was a good thing, but her arrogant and sassy attitude was a major turnoff. And what disturbed him most was that their personalities were creepily similar.
"Good morning, Kathy," she greeted coolly. She smirked at Chase. "Morning, douche."
Chase opened his mouth for an inappropriate response before Kathy clamped a hand over it. "Can't we all just be nice to each other for once? You guys bring such negative energy!"
The chef nipped at her hand, which she pulled back in shock and disgust. When Kathy wasn't looking, he stuck his middle finger up at the dancer, who then returned it dismissively. He turned his back on the girls and focused his quickly decreasing energy on his cake. He put an oven mitt on one hand and slid the pan from the glowing rack. It looked perfect. The round and flaky pastry was ready to be coated with the vanilla icing. As he was expertly spreading it across the cake's smooth surface, he realized that he had no specific purpose in baking it. After another restless night at home, he arrived at the bar at six in the morning with nothing better to do than to cook. He did this a lot. And now a product of his restlessness sat in front of him.
He refused to waste it on Maya.
For reasons unknown to him, he thought about Akari. The shred of good in him, though minuscule, considered delivering the cake to the farmer. He brushed the act off as an act of consideration to one of neighborly responsibility. Akari did look much too thin to have to handle all of that farm work on her own. She probably never ate much, considering her lack of culinary skills (he knew this due to the cooking lesson he attempted to teach her) and the fact that she never stopped by to grab any food. And knowing that she was depressed over Owen, she probably wasn't eating anything at all. It was settled. He would give the cake to her.
"…I'm going to see her today," Chase heard Kathy say to Selena. "Maybe she'll actually talk to me."
Selena shook head as she combed through her tangled hair. "She needs to go punch that jerk in the face. I swear, if a guy ever hit me, every bone in his body would be crushed."
Kathy laughed. "It's not in Akari to do that. She's actually a good person," she teased.
Chase took the opportunity to slip out the back door.
A/N: Even though Chase doesn't like Selena and Maya in this fic, I actually like them. Well, I liked Maya in TOT. In AP, she makes me cringe. But I always liked Selena. She seems like a no-nonsense type of girl. I like Kathy, too. I think she and Chase would make good friends. I'm sorry if this chapter seems like a filler. I don't want to go too fast, considering Akari is still trapped in a complicated relationship. I promise Owen will be in this fic soon. I haven't found a way to introduce him yet. Ideas?
Thanks for reading!
