Happiness is Homemade // Albert & Arthur
@leatherandsoil
Arthur was cleaning his cabin… again - for what was possibly the fourth or fifth time. He couldn’t help it. The guy coming in for the next interview was… impressive. There wasn’t a better word to describe the man’s resume or portfolio. Hell, he’d worked for National Geographic AND Discovery! The place HAD to look good. Better than good. Out of all the applications he’d received, this man had the most promise. Everything needed to be perfect!
Silently (and without any real conviction) he cursed Molly for going off traveling. Then again… he should probably be cursing Dutch for convincing her to go. What was so great about Tahiti, anyway? With a grunt of dissatisfaction, Arthur rearranged couch pillows while his mind wandered. She’d be back eventually - last he’d heard, they only planned to stay for 6 months or so. But he needed a videographer now, not six months from now.
Hell, she was the one who’d started all of this in the first place. He just liked to cook. It hadn’t been his idea to start making videos for Youtube - that was all her. Neither of them had expected any of it to go viral so quickly, though. According to Molly, people seemed to like his ‘down to earth’ cooking style, and his openness about the time he spent in prison. She also said being ‘easy on the eyes’ didn’t hurt, though he was pretty sure she was just teasing him. Arthur couldn’t imagine anyone willingly wanting to stare at his dumb mug for more than a few minutes at a time.
Grumbling, he moved into the kitchen and began wiping down counters. It was really hard to stay angry about any of it. Molly had done her best to help him out after deciding to leave. She’d handed most of the social media accounts off to Sean and a couple of guys he knew. Normally Arthur would’ve balked at the idea, but the woman had gotten him this far, and it didn’t seem right - questioning her judgement just because he didn’t want her to go.
After Molly’d settled that, she’d written up a nice ‘Help Wanted’ ad and posted it to Indeed and a couple of other job sites. Then she’d helped him cherry pick the best candidates for interviews. Arthur hated interviewing people. He felt awkward and more than a little stupid asking questions he didn’t always completely understand the answers to. He wasn’t an idiot when it came to working with a camera… but his knowledge was VERY basic. No need to learn with Molly there to make every video come out looking like a million bucks. But now Molly wasn’t here and he felt himself floundering. Cooking wasn’t supposed to be stressful! It was a relaxation… a calming of the body and mind. Arthur tried to tell himself it would be again - just as soon as he got someone hired.
A quick glance at the clock told him his applicant should be arriving… was that the sound of wheels crunching on the gravel? Unable to stay inside a minute longer, Arthur strode to the door and stepped out onto the wrap-around porch. This was also calming. Nothing but forest as far as the eye could see. Taking a deep breath in and then out, he leaned against the railing (in what he hoped was a casual pose) and waved to the indistinct figure in the car. As the engine shut off, the forest’s natural sounds slowly crescendoed to fill the silence and Arthur took another steadying breath. He could do this! Everything was going to be just fine.
