“Richard Gansey has a good day”

It was a late morning when he woke up, because no, you can’t start a good day at 7am. Monmouth Manufacturing is warm and nice in the spring, and it has the perpetual feeling of home. It’s not that he doesn’t like the place where his parents live in Virginia, he does, but it’s just not his. 

When he stepped out of his room, he was hit by the smell of fresh-baked goods and well, that didn’t happen often, he didn’t even know any of his friends there could bake. That was the moment when he saw Noah stepping out of the bathroom with an egg carton from the fridge.

“Oh hey, Gansey!” Noah smiled at him “Blue and I have been trying to learn how to make cupcakes and we’ve already been practicing for hours. And I guess… Well, you’ll have breakfast for a couple of months. But c’mon, we’re waiting for you!”

He was too sleepy to process anything his friend just said so he followed the nice smell into the improvised kitchen, just to find almost every surface covered in trays with homemade muffins (some burnt, some pastry shop worthy).

“What’s all of this?” Gansey wasn’t mad, just confused. He reached for one of the good looking buns but Blue slapped his hand before he could do it.

“They’re not finished!” She turned around and offered him a finished one (meaning totally covered in sugar sprinkles and edible glitter) “Well… Noah and I were watching Masterchef last night and they made a beautiful, wonderful wedding cake and we looked at each other and decided that we wouldn’t be able to make that, but we could learn how to make cupcakes. They’re good aren’t they?”

She looked at him hopeful and watched him carefully every single reaction to his first bite, he smiled, trying to speak to tell them that they were actually good but he had his mouth too full to do it. He had sprinkles and glitter all around his lips and god, she wished she could kiss him.

Gansey had a couple of cupcakes with his coffee while Blue finished with the last batch, Noah had gone out to the garden near Monmouth to get some flowers, he had lately been obsessed with flower crowns. She sat next to him and had a coffee herself in comfortable silence.

“Hey, what do you say about me getting rid of some of these muffins?”

“Richard Campbell Gansey III you’re not going to throw our hard work to the trash” She looked at him fake-angry “But we could use some space in the trays… We’re learning how to make doughnuts next”

“I promise I won’t”

He got dressed and went down to the kitchen to get a couple of cupcakes in a paper bag and left Blue and Noah to their thing, now wearing daisies flower crowns.

He drove in the Pig, oh he loved his car, into Henrietta and parked next to Adam’s work place. He looked at his watch, five minutes until his break, he got out of the car and waited at the door until Adam got out.

“Oh, Gansey? What are you doing here?” Adam looked confused “Anything happened?”

“No, no, of course not. I just wanted to come and spend a little time with you. I brought cupcakes”

Adam smiled in a way Gansey hadn’t seen him do in a long time, it was certainly the small things that made life happier. They spend the little time Adam had for his break eating and joking, without any worry.

Then he drove to the forest, and found a nice spot next to the river so he got his “History of Welsh Kings” book out and sat there reading it for an hour, maybe two, who cared it was his day.

When he got back to Monmouth Manufacturing, Ronan was already there, but not in the kitchen talking to Blue and Noah as expected but on the sofa in the main room.

“I’ve been kicked out because I can do it better than them. And also because Chainsaw started picking at the food” Ronan caressed his bird’s head

“You can’t bake” Gansey was slightly amused with the situation

“I can dream of better doughnuts. And I can have them all for myself. And Chainsaw”

“That means you want to run to Candy Land on a unicorn”

“You’ve been reading that dream interpreter book again, haven’t you?”

“Oh, yes” Gansey smiled and took it from the shelf before sitting down in a chair next to the sofa, like if he was a psychologist and Ronan his patient “So what have you been dreaming lately?”

Who could have told him that messing with a dream interpreter book and a Greywaren could be that bizarre and fun at the same time. When Noah and Blue came back from the kitchen, and Adam from work, they found the both of them sitting on a mess of different stuff with tear of laughter in their eyes (What the hell had they been doing and why was only half of a squid hanging off the lamp?).

After cleaning everything up, they all sat on the floor and had a nice chat with Chinese take-out with a bad Nicolas Cage film in the background. When it was time to leave Ronan and Adam left for the Barns, where they both lived together; and Gansey drove Blue back to 300 Fox Way. He parked and got out of the car to open the door for her, but she was already out before he could do it and she didn’t need anyone to do it for her either, Blue looked at him with a shy smile “Can we… do it and never talk about it again?”
“Yes, sure…” He was already getting close to her and cupping her face with his hands “…With one condition” She looked at him like prompting him to tell her “We’re going to talk about it, okay? Maybe tomorrow?” Now that Adam and Blue weren’t together anymore, and they both over each other (Adam even had a boyfriend now) it wasn’t an issue anymore and maybe, only maybe, Blue and him deserved to be happy too.

Then he came back home and laid in bed.

Yes, it had been a good day.