A prompt a week - 4. For the Love of Dan - Prompt 296

“I’ll give him honey, it is only a few.” Peter wiped off his brow as he removed yet another loaf of bread from the oven.

The kitchen looked like a bomb had gone off. He had been baking nearly non-stop for the past few hours. There were four loaves of banana chocolate chip bread, three loaves cranberry cinnamon bread, and he had just removed three loaves of lemon blueberry bread. He was exhausted and hot.

Peter turned the oven off and waited for the bread to cool enough to move it onto a cooling rack. Through blurry eyes he caught sight of the clock. It was now nearly four am.

“I’m going to kill the son of a bitch,” Peter muttered as he looked at the disaster he still had to clean.

He couldn’t help but remember how a sweet gesture had turned into such a total disaster.

­_ * _ * _ *

Daniel sat behind his desk marking his student’s papers when Sister Maria Rose walked into the room.

“Mr. Walkins?”

Daniel looked up to find the nun standing with her hands folded before her. ‘What did I do wrong now?’ passed through his mind as smiled and slowly stood up.

“What can I do for you, Sister Maria?”

The nun stood silently for a moment.

Daniel couldn’t help but realize she was one of the few nuns to still wear the long dark clothes. Being a Protestant he hadn’t really had to deal with nuns before, but when the only teaching job he could find was in the all girl’s private school he was grateful to have a job. The fact it was a Catholic school was something he was learning to deal with. So far no comment had been made about his personal life, but considering he lived thirty minutes from the school and had to commute he figured few would complain about him being married, never mind to a man.

“Tomorrow is the school bake sale.” The nun began slowly. “Your class is participating in the sale.”

“Yes, Sister. I passed out the flyers and all the students have committed to at least one baked product to sell to help raise funds for the school.”

The nun nodded.

“Good. How many are you bringing tomorrow?”

Daniel stopped and felt like a deer stuck in a pair of headlights.

Sister Maria stood silently watching him.

“I’m bringing?” Daniel’s mind was blank. What in the hell am I supposed to bring?

“Yes, Mr. Walkins. If you had checked with the other teachers in your grade they would have let you know that the teachers are also responsible for cooking something to sell. Mrs. Whitehead has been talking non-stop of the banana bread you shared with her the other day. She stated you baked delicious bread. I should think eight or ten loaves of them would bring a nice profit to the school.”

Without another word she seemed to float out the doorway.

Daniel stood there feeling totally at a loss. He only pulled himself together when there was a knock at the door. He looked up to see Ann Vogue standing in the doorway.

“You alright, Dan?” She shook her head and closed the classroom door behind her. “What did the old battleax want this time?”

“Food. I didn’t know I was supposed to bake something too. Hell, if I’d known I would have ordered cookies or something from the bakery. She just sort of appeared and told me what to make.”

Ann raised her eyebrows and stared at Dan.

“Evidently, Cindy must have said something about the banana bread.” Daniel looked down at his desk. “I didn’t even do the baking on that, Peter did.”

“Then I suggest you give him a call and ask if he bake up a few more for tomorrow.”

Daniel nodded numbly as he walked over to the closet and slipped his cell phone out of his coat. He dialed the number and stood there waiting for it to go to the answering machine. Instead, the phone was picked up.

“Hello. Jasper-Watkins residence.”

Daniel swallowed hard. “Hi, hon.”

Alice shook her head and headed to the door. “Good luck,” she mouthed to him as she closed it behind her.

“What is wrong? You sound strange, Dan.”

Dan tried to pull himself together. “Oh I was just hearing from a few of the girls at work how they all loved your banana bread.”

There was a pause.

“Okay. I’m glad they liked it. Wasn’t all that hard to make.”

Dan relaxed as he heard Peter say the breads weren’t difficult.

"Besides," Peter bragged, "I like making things people enjoy eating."

“Oh really?”

“Yeah. What is wrong though? You never call while you are at work. I know you don’t want the head penguin to get on your case.”

“Um … would you be able to make a few loaves of that bread?”

“I think so. I mean I have to look what we have around the house. I might not be able to do more than one or two loaves.”

Daniel shook his head. “Babe, I need a few more than two.”

“Alright. Well I guess I can run out and hit the grocery store to pick up a few things. I’ve been dying to dry a new recipe I have for lemon blueberry bread. So how many do you need?”

“Oh not many.”

“Dan, … how many is not many?”

Dan stood there silent again.

“Dan? Oh lord. What did you get stuck into this time?”

“You know how I told you there was a bake sale tomorrow?”

“Yes. I remember you grousing about it a few dozen times over the last few days. I know it is during one of your turns to watch the cafeteria so you will be there when the kids end up sugared up on all the cupcakes and cakes.”

Dan grimaced as he remembered telling Peter all about the last bake sale and how the kids bounced around on a sugar high all through his afternoon classes. “Yeah, well last time it was the younger grades who had to do the sale. This time it is my grade.”

“Okay.”

“Um … I am supposed to bring baked goods too. I sort of promised them your banana bread.”

There was the sound of a deep sigh on the phone.

“Peter? Honey, are you there?”

“Dan how many loaves did you promise them?”

“Ten.”

“Ten? Ten? Are you out of your mind?”

“You said they were easy to make.”

“Yeah, if you are making one or two. I mean you just turned me into a production company. I am going to have to run out to get this stuff. When is your stupid bake sale?”

Dan found himself swallowing again. “Tomorrow,” he managed to croak out.

“Naturally!”

“Peter, I love you.”

There was a click as the phone went dead. Dan knew he was in for a rough time of it. Hopefully he could find a public school soon. If he didn’t, he wasn’t sure if his marriage would survive.

_ * _ * _ *

Peter looked at the mess and sighed. Three different loaves he had to make because the store hadn’t had enough bananas or blueberries to make ten loaves of anything. He didn’t have enough baking dishes so he had to keep waiting for the breads to cook, slip them out and then begin washing everything so he could start again.

He had spent the whole night in the kitchen, making batch after batch of breads. He wished he could say it was for their kids, but they hadn’t gotten that far along yet. At least Dan had been smart enough to bring home food for them both. After a miserable day dealing with people as they came in to complain or pay their bills, Peter had hoped to get a chance to just relax.

The phone call had altered his whole evening. He figured Dan would be a little late. He had given a test today and didn’t like to come home till he had finished grading them all. Peter figured they would have a late dinner together in front of the television and unwind. Instead he had to go out into the cold night to the local supermarket and try to find all the stuff to pull off Dan’s request.

“I’d really like to have five minutes alone with Sister Mary Masochist,” Peter grumbled as he pulled up at home. “The woman has no idea how much she can screw up other people’s lives. Just once I wish she would give him all the facts at once.”

Dan had walked in as Peter was grouping his ingredients for the different breads.

Peter sighed as he checked his recipe cards.

“How is it going, honey?”

Peter turned and was half way tempted to throw the bag of flour at him, but then noticed the take out bag from Fredric’s.

“You got dinner?”

“Yup. I figured you were doing me the favor of making the breads. I could at least bring home dinner so you wouldn’t have to worry.”

So dinner was consumed in silence and then Dan left Peter to make the breads. At the end of it Peter just wanted to make a large batch of brownies with ex-lax for the nun, but didn’t want to get Dan in any trouble. He left the last batch of breads cooling, took all the dishes and tossed them in the sink.

Yawning he headed to bed to try and get some sleep before the alarm rang off.