Brandon was emotionally wrung out but too wired to sleep, so instead he put the leftover ingredients away and washed the cookie sheet and used baking tools. He knew he wouldn’t wake Stacey up so he didn’t have to be quiet, which meant there was at least a certain catharsis in getting to bang everything around.
He wondered if he’d ever be able to bake chocolate chip cookies again without thinking of Yannick. Probably not.
He was tempted to call in sick, since at this rate he knew he’d be running on a full day without sleep. But Mel and the others were depending on him, and it didn’t feel right to slack off when he wasn’t really ill. And he didn’t think “sick at heart” would count.
It felt strange as hell, though, going a night without sleep. He hadn’t done it since high school, and he’d
