Mercedes is waving a hand in front of Kurt’s face, but it takes him a few seconds to realise that.

“Earth to Kurt, Earth to Kurt!” Mercedes says. She’s still waving. Her chihuahua, weirdly named Poodle, is barking. Kurt blinks a couple of times.

God, he’s slacking!

This is one of the biggest gigs of his career, even bigger than Beyonce’s party, and he’s distracted by a hot baker.

Mercedes shoots him a look that’s a mix between knowing and tired. Kurt’s the blame for that. On their way to the venue, Kurt talked non-stop about Blaine.

“What am I doing, Mercedes?!” Kurt exclaims, “I’ve had a perfect track record from the moment I entered this industry! I’ve always been strictly professional, and now I am failing at my tasks because I can’t stop thinking about a dog baker’s lips.”

Kurt has no idea what they look like. Blaine’s always perfectly masked up and fuck, Kurt cares about pandemic measures, but he wishes the mask mandate could be thrown in the bin just so that he can finally see Blaine’s full face.

Or maybe Blaine should start wearing a visor, like his brother, who doesn’t seem to want to hide his smile.

“Well, Kurt, if it’s any consolation, you can be happy that you’ve only met Blaine so late in the party planning process. Everything except for the cake has been arranged. Imagine if you’d met him at the beginning of all this. You wouldn’t have gotten anything done!”

Kurt lets her words sink in and he nods to himself.

“Yeah. Yeah. But this is a big deal. Our client hopes to inaugurate a new idea about pet wellbeing!” Kurt says.

Mercedes puts her hand on Kurt’s shoulder.

“I thought I was the drama queen-”

“We’re both drama queens, Mercedes!”

“Kurt! To quote High School Musical: keep your head in the game!” Mercedes now had both hands on Kurt’s shoulders and she’s looking at him as if she’s staring right into his soul. “You’re usually Mr. Organised. Before you lose yourself in this, make sure there’s a chance he likes you back! Then, proceed from there.”

“What if he doesn’t like me back? Oh God, what if he’s straight?” Kurt pouts.

Mercedes doesn’t fall for the self-pity.

“Then, remove yourself from the situation. Keep distance and be professional.”

“But you’re saying that if there’s a chance he likes me back, I need to pursue it?”

“Fuck yeah. He’s a hot baker, Kurt! And you clearly like him. So get your sweet ass back to that bakery tomorrow and do some snooping.”

Kurt nods again. Mercedes has a point.

“Excuse me, I need to rehearse for the performance,” Mercedes picks up Poodle, “I still can’t believe I get to sing here, and I toured with Beyonce!”

“Break a leg!” Kurt kisses her cheek and Mercedes’s squints her eyes in delight.

Now that Mercedes has helped sort out his thoughts, Kurt can focus on work just a little bit more. Blaine can wait until tomorrow. Now, he needs to run through the final plans with Artie once more. This event needs to be perfect!