Luke notices my eyes welling up and quickly kneels in front of me. Putting his hands on my knees, he looks up at me like a sad puppy. “Charlie? What’s wrong? I didn’t mean to make you sad. I just want you to be happy, honest.” I opt not to say anything, knowing that any words will cause the tears to start flowing again. He smiles in sympathy and reaches up to wipe away a tear I hadn’t noticed escape. “I promise everything will be alright. I only want to help you. Please trust me on this. He takes my hands in his and pleads at me with his eyes.

I don’t know why but… I believe him. He actually wants to help me. Why? I pull my hands out of his. “It’s not like I have much of a choice, now do I?” It seems he chooses to take that as a victory and smiles wide. He stands up and starts talking to the barber again. Pulling his wallet out, he hands the man fifty bucks like it’s a one. The barber doesn’t even flinch at the bill in his hand, instead he shoves it in his pocket and heads out the door with what I guess is a thank you.

Luke keeps beaming the whole time. “Alright! Now that you’re looking nice and handsome, let’s get you started on your training. First off, it’s still early, so let’s make some breakfast!” He practically skips out of the bathroom leaving me sitting in the chair by myself. I try to take a moment to collect myself until Luke leans back into the room. “Come on!” I sigh to myself and stand from my seat. Limping out of the room, Luke is waiting for me just outside the door. “What do you want to make? Eggs? Waffles? Pancakes? Sausage? Hell, we don’t even have to pick! We can make them all if you want.” He steps ahead of me turn and face me like a little kid excited for their new toy.

I should be mad but his excitement is contagious. “Uh… I guess pancakes are fine.” His joy regains its vigor as he begins hopping down the stairs. He reaches the bottom of the steps before I’m even a third of the way. Gripping the railing with one hand and my side with the other, I slowly hobble down towards him waiting at the bottom with a massive grin on his face. Noticing me struggling, Luke begins to climb up towards me. “No, I’m fine. I can handle it.” He stops four steps up and waits for me to reach him. When I’m almost at the bottom, he wraps his arm around my back and holds my arm to help usher me the rest of the way.

Finally reaching the marble floor of the entrance way, I can finally see the scale of my prison. Across from the stairs is a dining room with an open wall for a door. A crystal chandelier is hanging over a clean wooden table. There’s a cabinet full of some really nice China against one of the walls. Next to the dining room is a doorway that I can see leads to the kitchen. Deeper into the house, the entrance way turns into a hallway that I’m guessing leads to the living room since I can see the back of a leather arm chair. Light is beginning to bleed in from a set of sliding glass doors at the very end of the house and casts the room in a white glow.

“Come on, let’s head to the kitchen!” He lets go of me and walks backwards to guide me. Following him in, the walls open up to a kitchen that’s significantly larger than I expected. Large metallic appliances line the walls with granite countertops and wooden cabinets split them. In the far left corner is a door that leads to a big walk in pantry with more food in it than I’ve ever seen. I wander around the room in awe, opening and closing cabinets and exploring the massive fridge.

Luke’s voice slaps me back into reality with the smooth sound of his voice. “Pretty nice, right? Everything in here is yours now.”

My eyes are desperate as my stomach growls. “Really? I can have anything in here?”

His smile is sickeningly sweet. “Really. If you work with me then everything in this house is yours to use. But first…” Luke disappears into the pantry and returns with a box of pancake mix. “We make pancakes.” He sets the box down on the island and points to the fridge behind me. “Can you grab the eggs, milk, butter, and some bacon if you’d please.” He barely finishes saying this before ducking down to rummage for what sounds like pans. Opening the metal door, the cold air crawls onto my skin. The bright light inside bounces off of the white walls and shelves to illuminates my face. I find the milk easily enough. Looking for the rest, however, proves to be a bit more difficult. Digging through the stocked fridge, I search in desperation.

After a few moments, I feel a hand touch my back as Luke slides in next to me. “The eggs and butter are in the door.” He reaches behind me and grabs a brown carton before opening a plastic case at the top of the door and pulling out a box of butter. “Oh, and the bacon is near the bottom.” He gives me another grin as he walks back towards the middle of the room.

Embarrassed with myself for completely missing that there was more food in the door. I bend down to find the bacon and hear Luke make some sound. Standing up and facing him I place the ingredients on the counter. “Did you say something just now?”

Luke holds his innocent expression. “Nope.”

“Are you sure? I’m pretty sure I just heard you say something.” He shakes his head. “Hmm. Alright.”

“Let’s get started, shall we?” He opens the box of pancake mix and grabs a measuring cup. Just before pouring the mix out, he stops and puts the box back down. “Wait! We need to wear aprons. We can’t let these nice clothes get stained.” Luke walks back to the pantry and grabs two aprons hanging on the back of the door. He slips one over his head and ties it around your waste. He unbuttons his sleeves and rolls them up to his elbows. “Here, you’ll need one too.” Striding over to me, he places the apron around my neck and rests his arms gently on my shoulder for a second longer than necessary. “Do you need help tying it?”

“I-I think I can handle it.” I turn away and wrap the loose strings around my waist, securing it tightly. “OK, now what?”

Luke heads back to where left the box and picks it up again. “Now, we make pancakes!” Pouring the powder out into the measuring cup, he proceeds to dump the contents into the mixing bowl. “Here,” he slides the cup to me, “pour two cups of milk into there for me.” He opens the carton of eggs and starts to crack them into the bowl. I open the jug of milk and look at the measuring cup. Several red lines mark different measurements along the side. A line near the top says ‘2 cups.’ Seems easy enough.

Placing the cup down, I kneel down to be in eye contact with the marks. Slowly pouring the milk in: I watch the liquid fill towards the top. I start to barely pour as it nears the two cup mark and try my hardest to bring it to a stop right as it lines up. Standing up, I lock eyes with Luke who’s quietly chuckling at me. “What?”

He grabs the measuring cup and dumps it into the bowl with a grin. “Next time you don’t have to worry about getting it exact like that.” He brings his eyes back to mine with his head tilted. “Though it was pretty cute to watch.” My eyebrows furrow in confusion at his comment but my cheeks burn. I suddenly can’t look at him. “Everything we need is in here now, so let’s get to stirring.” He slides the bowl to me with a large spoon in it. “Your turn! Just stir until it’s nice and liquidy. We don’t want any of that powder left.”

I look down at the concoction and grab the spoon. The contents start to blend together and make a thick peach liquid. While I mix it all together, Luke walks behind me and looks over my shoulder. “That looks perfect.” He wraps an arm around me to grab the bowl from in front of me. “I’ll take that! Next, we make the actual pancakes. Come with me.” He grabs the pan from the other side of the island and heads to the stove.

Luke turns a knob and the center of one of the four circles on the top begins to glow red. He places the pan on top and cuts a section of butter off the stick. Dropping it in the pan, it sizzles and melts. He uses the knife to slide the butter around and coat the heating metal. “OK, Charlie. Grab the bowl and pour our mix onto the pan.” I do as instructed and tilt the bowl up. Luke grabs a spatula and helps scrape the mix out. “... And stop.” I put the bowl back on the counter and Luke hands me the spatula. “You’re going to do the honors of flipping them. It is your training day after all.”

I take it from him and assume position in front of the stove. We watch the pancake form in silence. Over time, the edges begin to form a golden ring. “Time to flip it. Show me what you’ve got, Mr. Butler.”

“I’m not your butler.” I don’t even cast a glance his way. Sliding the spatula under the golden circle, I lift the whole thing carefully before quickly flipping my hand over and watching it slap back down to begin to cook once again.

Pancake after pancake, we repeat the process until we’re out of batter. I have some failed flips but Luke is quick with a word of encouragement each time. We continue on to bacon and scrambled eggs - collecting each batch on a different plate. Luke grabs another pair of plates from a higher cabinet and hands me one. “Let’s eat! The food looks delicious, don’t you think?”

I can’t stop myself from nodding as my mouth waters. The two of us grab a share of each item and start to dig in. “Wait!” Luke slams his silverware down making a loud crash. “We need syrup!” He jogs into the pantry and returns with a bottle full of thick brown liquid. I watch, hungrily, as he drizzles it over his pancakes. “Here you go.” He holds the bottle out to me expectantly. I take it from him and mirror his actions. Cutting into the pancakes is like cutting through clouds. I take a bite and I’m brought back to heaven. The taste rivals that of the steaks from last night. I lose all control again and start to devour the food.

Luke laughs at my ravenous eating. “Charlie, look at me for a moment.” I pause my assault on the meal and look up confused. “You’ve got a little something right…” He licks his thumb and reaches out to me. Before I can back away from his reach, he rubs his thumb next to my mouth. “There. Much better. Now finish up and we’ll move on to the real training. But don’t forget what we did here, I’ll expect you to do it by yourself tomorrow.”