Almost Seems Too Late To Turn (Riley)

Janice was right. Riley didn't have any plans and he was glad for it. Having spent an entire weekend with Danny and Griff again at Griff's house, Riley was glad to be home. Not that he didn't like spending time with the GP and the model maker, he did. Lord knows how much he liked spending time with them. But he missed his home where everything was familiar. Was his.

The shower just felt so warm and Riley would have stayed longer had he not heard the knocks. He had thin walls. He hears everything. And knowing that people can easily hear him, it just made sense the giant was a quiet man.

Regardless.

He dried himself off and grabbed a pair of drawstring pants and stepped into it, pulling a shirt over his head. While walking, he dried his hair and wondered who it could be. Opening the door, all five foot eleven of Josh bumped into him in his urgency to get in. His words were English, Riley was sure but it made no sense. Wedding cake?

"Um...okay? Wh...what kind of...wedding cake?" He asked, pulling Josh further in to close the door behind them. "And um...who is it for?"

Riley released a soft sigh and a smile when Josh explained further and refrained from reaching over to ruffle the older man's hair.

"Yeah, sure." He nodded as he walked beside Josh into the kitchen. Taking out all the utensils and ingredients, he paused and looked at Josh. "Is Sean allergic to anything? Does he have a preference for flavour?" Riley asked.

"Whoa whoa, hey slow down." Riley laughed and bit his lip before turning to Josh with a sheepish look. "I don't think I can make any alcohol based cakes. Or chocolate..." he paused and tried to think of something else. "I hope you don't mind." He offered a little smile.

"Oh, okay. I can make a strawberry shortcake and spell out "I'm Sorry" with strawberries?" Riley suggested as he rummaged through his fridge to find some strawberries. Finally finding some, he set it on his countertop and looked at Josh with a smile. "I can pipe in some decorative flowers on it if you'd like. It wouldn't really take long I don't think. We've got time," Riley shrugged, his eyes straying to the clock, already reading 4:25.

Knowing how Elaine reacted whenever Josh was around, Riley was finding it difficult to tell him that getting flowers from her would probably be a bit of a problem. Then again, Riley could just get some of the flowers he worked with and let Josh leave with those. Yeah, that would be better.

"I'm sure Sean would appreciate anything you give him, Josh. So long as it's coming from you." Riley said as he arranged everything just so before starting the process. "Did...did you talk to him about the whole label thing?" The younger man asked softly, not wanting to press if the lawyer didn't want to talk about it.

"Oh, okay. Alright then." Riley beamed at Josh and went about doing his thing. It truly was a sight to see Riley at his most comfortable. Everything he did seemed so thoughtless, fluid. And downright impossible as one hand reached behind to plug in the mixer while the other hand cracked eggs into a metal bowl.

Riley spent a good chunk of his free time baking [and now occasionally picking up his old SLR to snap a few pictures here and there] and so had decided that his kitchen should be well stocked at all times for any purpose. Especially since now he had two more people to think of when he was baking.

The hesitation in Josh's reply was duly noted and Riley felt like he should take whatever Josh gave and that was that. But Riley was Riley and votes of confidence had to be doled out. All. The. Time.

"I'm sure he knows. Don't worry. You've made persuasion your career. He'll see things your way for sure." Riley nodded with a reassuring smile, all the while whisking the eggs to pour into the sugar and butter mixture later on.

And then it was time for a subject change and what better way than to put the man in an entirely different element than his own while baking. "Would you like to help me remove the stems and cut it in half?" Riley pointed to the box of strawberries. "Run it under cold water first." He smiled.

He accepted Josh's reluctant gratitude and popped a strawberry into his mouth in delight. As the lawyer washed the strawberries, Riley brought the bowl of eggs he was whisking over to the oven and switched the machine on with his elbow. His hair was starting to dry now and he could feel the breeze from the window ruffling his hair.

Josh's question snapped him back to the present. "Oh just cut the yellowy part at the top." Riley nodded as he set the bowl of whisked eggs on the counter to stretch out and switch on the radio. The old music playing made Riley smile. "I think my mom used to have this on vinyl." Riley picked up the bowl of sugar and sticks of butter and dumped them into the mixer, turning it on to medium speed.

"So...are you sending this over tonight or tomorrow with the flowers and the wine?"

Seeing Josh's difficulty, Riley stepped away from the mixer and held his hand out for the knife. "May I?" He asked gently, waiting for the other man to hand over the knife. "So cutting small things like strawberries, you hold your thumb near where you want to slice it and then while you're cutting, lay the knife against your thumb. That way you don't cut off your fingers." Riley showed Josh how to do so on a few pieces before handing him back the knife.

Satisfied that Josh was okay with cutting, he went back to his mixing, adding the eggs and vanilla essence into the bowl before pulling out a sauce pan for the strawberry filling later.

"It's a blues record. I can't quite remember the singer but it was practically my lullaby. I'm surprised Janice doesn't put it on in the office." Riley chuckled, humming a few bars of the song before an advert about a book sale came on.

Turning to Josh as he spoke, Riley simply nodded at Josh's concerns. "A card would be nice." He reached across Josh to grab one half of a strawberry and popped it into his mouth. It was a good box of strawberries, perfect for the cake. "Oh yeah. It takes about an hour. Two if you don't want the icing to melt."

Riley chuckled and nodded knowingly. Janice's choice of music had changed since when they were younger. She probably forgot this particular song. "I've been trying to get her to tone down the music choices but she's...hard to talk down." He chuckled once more before grabbing a cake pan and spraying it with grease.

He then poured the batter into the pan and used a teeny spatula to even out the batter, placing the mixing bowl into the sink. Laughing at Josh's 'preference', Riley slid the pan into the hot oven and tended to the dishes.

"Oh no," the taller man shook his head at Josh's question about the strawberries. "They will go to this bowl." Riley shook the bowl in his hand. "I'll be adding sugar so the juices will start to come out." He explained, taking the fruits from Josh, thanking him in the process.

He sprinkled sugar over the strawberries and stirred it around a bit just to mix things in. "Okay, we'll just let it do it's thing. You want some coffee? The cake will have to bake for a bit." Riley smiled at Josh.