Winter Bakery

20. Canvas

Jigi woke the next morning to Fumiko hovering over her.

"Good morning." She said singing out the words. Jigi shrieked pushing Fumiko off, leaving Fumiko to fall to the other side of the mattress and Jigi in her jolt to fall of the bed.

The moment Fumiko heard the thud of Jigi fall, she began cackling hysterically like a hyena.

" I give you to much credit. Are you out of your mind!" Jigi tried to speak calmly but exclaimed from the rude awakening and her ultimate embarrassment. Fumiko had stop laughing yet as she clutched her arms of her tummy desperately trying to draw some air into her lungs from withholding oxygen for some time.

"I-I should have captured your face." Fumiko wheezed from her frantic laughter.

"It's golden." Fumiko finally said after her breath slowly began to return back to normal.

"Oh shut it!" Jigi said after speechless glaring menacingly at Fumiko whilst pointing at her with her right index.

Jigi huffs and lays on her back, closing her eyes and placing her left arm over her forehead to calming her racing heart. Fumiko inches closer to the end of the bed to look at Jigi with a sly smile.

"For someone who just woke up, you don't have such a bad morning breathe." Fumiko states.

"What?" Jigi immediately opens her left eye looking at Fumiko to see whether she is serious. She noticed the sly smile on her face but she couldn't get the wo out of her head and checked her breath.

"You're such a tease." Jigi said as she stood up and walked to the bathroom to do her morning routines while she soothing her injured bottom, arms and elbows.

Jigi walked into the bathroom next to her room. Jigi had a very cozy 2 bedroom apartment. Lucky she got them for for a thousand euros or less a month an with Fumiko paying half it was really helpful.

The apartment had it has a homey living room with a spacious open kitchen fully equipped, one bedroom with storage cupboard and a desk, a bathroom with a toilet.

It had the necessary day to day items both in the kitchen and the living room. Jigi opted out the TV, it was just costly and she rarely watched it anyway.

It had a neutral theme and feel of colour with grey and beige colours. Basically, tints and shades of white and black, harmonising peaceful giving a home feel and a hint of professionalism.

It wasn't all that bad neither was it allowed that go either, but she could peacefully reside there. When she came to Asnières-sur-Seine, she found out her childhood home had been sold and a family of four resided in it.

She only planned to stay to the end of December. It was now late November and the days gradually walked into December. She is very far from her initial plan with all the issues of bakery hanging over her head.

She also come back back to holidays in her birth place but she was very far from that apparently. Her session with Dr. Olivia just opened up something that had been unveiled for fifteen years.

She had been kept in the dark for quite sometime. She has no idea what actually happened to her father. Her mother whisked her off after her father's death and forbade her from talking about him or questioning her about anything concerning her father.

She disappeared herself after a year of trying to coax the information out of her.

"I cleaned up after you." Fumiko said, leaning of the door frame and crossed her arms.

Jigi hums as she brushes her teeth, an attempt to clean the morning breath away.

"When did you wake up?" Jigi asked, mouth full of toothpaste and her toothbrush in her mouth in her hand. She turned towards the mirror to examine her face after she spoke to Fumiko.

"In the hours of five. Oh, I had some of your Gruyère soufflés, they're good." Fumiko commented. She began to walk down the corridor in the living room area.

Jigi rinsed out the toothpaste and examined her face again. She was exhausted even though she had just woken up. Her piercing yet consuming green eyes stared back at her.

She also wondered how she had green eyes. Both of her parents had brown ones. She was told it was a recessive genetic that had skipped generations and had finally shown itself in her.

She closed her eyes and opened the compartment behind the mirror and took her medications. She really wanted to stop taking these.

She run her fingers through her crow nest of a hair and tied it in a low messy ponytail. Jigi walked back into her room to get her phone.

She noticed a few messages. She looked through her emails, her news feed and socials.

Wyatt ⛸️❄️: Hi

Jigi's face lit up in a smile and she replied the text. She walked in the kitchen to find Fumiko slurping on French onion soup. Fumiko had a foodie side to her personality.

Jigi begins to brew herself a coffee. Fumiko place her bowl in to the sink and rinses it clean.

" I want to show you something." Fumiko said adjusting her glasses. She grabbed Jigi wrist before she could ignore or argue.

Fumiko took Jigi to her painting and unveiled the canvas. It was a oil painting of cliff landscapes depicting the hues and contrasting of the setting sun and the inconceivable vast and dark seas and precipitous crashing against the rocky and steep cliffs.

"It is beautiful, Fumiko." Jigi said awestruck.

"I knew you were good but not this good." Jigi continued gushing.

"Stooop." Fumiko blushed.

"Tell me something I don't know." Fumiko said cockily, smiled. Fumiko face turned serious all signs of playfulness leaving her face.

"Is it really that good?" Fumiko asked rubbing her right arm. Fumiko had an evidently had a lovely relationship with her mother. Unfortunately, her father didn't approve of her life choices.

" Of course it is." Jigi gleefully responded. Fumiko mood became sour thinking about her father. As a prominent figure in the technology and business industry, Fumiko's father was really disappointed.

"I'm not so sure about that." Fumiko said and walked out of the room leaving Jigi in the room alone. The room was cleaned out and the went no signs of the paint and takeout remnants.

Jigi felt her phone vibrate in her hand and heard it ping. She looked up at it and smiled.