In the time it took her to intervene with the wreck in the oven, and to clean up the considerable mess L had left from his trial-and-error with various ingredients, nearly an hour and a half had passed.

The urge to laugh had dwindled to nothing as the badly-scorched truffles were fed down the garbage disposal, and the equally-scorched bowl was placed in the dishwasher in hopes it would come clean with the rest of them. That done, she approached his door to knock gently.

"L?"