No one at rehab would eat cookies. Most of the girls screamed at the sight of sugar unless they were a binger, then they’d eat the whole thing only to throw it up. Dane didn’t want to do either. He was craving an apple something fierce, though. Maybe an apple with peanut butter?
Hungry. Huh. When was the last time he’d been hungry?
He began tucking the second batch of cookies into the remaining bin and thought about the time cooking. He’d measured all the ingredients himself. In fact, Bas had touched nothing but the cookie sheets to lift things into and out of the oven, and the lemons. Dane had done the rest, even pushing the button on the mixer as told. So technically he’d made these cookies for his friends pretty much all by himself.
Bas pulled out a bag and loaded up the final batch of cookies. He put three in a smaller paper bag and pushed them across the table to Dane.
“Keep these. You don’t have to eat them. But they should at least remind you that you’ve done something nice for your friends.” Bas tapped the buckets. “I’ll be sure to get these to Tommy and Ru. They will love them.”
“Don’t tell Ru I’m here.” Dane felt stuck on repeat, fearing everyone finding out.
“I won’t.”
Dane took the little bag and stared at the three cookies like they could bite him. They were his. He’d made them. He had no reason to be afraid of them. He wondered vaguely what they would taste like. Bas had been pretty quiet the entire time, only issuing instructions from the recipe and occasionally saying encouraging things like how good they smelled or looked. Dane held on to the bag and got up. Was it over? Did he have to go back to his room? He hadn’t been out this long since he’d gotten here, nor felt as relaxed, even though he’d spent the entire time baking with a guy he didn’t know at all.
It was a lot to unpack.
“Let me walk you to your room,” Bas said as he stacked everything into a couple big bags, and gathered them up in his hands.
“I can find my way back,” Dane said. If the orderlies outside didn’t escort him back. “You get those cookies to Tommy while they are fresh.” He glanced at the cookies he’d been given again. If Bas came back again, would he ask to see them? Make sure Dane still had them?
Bas put the bags on the counter and sorted through one of them until he came up with two things. The first was some sort of small tablet.
“This is preloaded with books, articles, and some TV shows all approved by your doctors. You’ll have to give it to the orderlies to be charged and checked every day, but it’s yours. Tommy got it for you. He wanted to give it to you, but...”
“I told him to go away.” Dane pushed everyone away.
“We all say not nice things when we’re hurting. Tommy understands. That’s why he called me.” Bas pulled a rainbow-colored plush horse out of the bag. “This is from me.”
“A fairy pony?”
“Your future unicorn. Think goodness, luck, purity, love.”
“It’s not a unicorn.”
“Not yet. But maybe someday. You gotta evolve to be a unicorn. It takes lots of fumbling, some falling, admitting mistakes, and embracing those who love you even when you feel lower than a snail.” Bas smiled at him.
Dane felt himself smiling back; strange since he hadn’t felt like smiling in ages, and definitely not at a man as odd as this Sebastian Axelrod was.
Not unappealing, just different. Dane liked the idea of becoming a unicorn. Could he really evolve into a better person? Someone that good had to be magical, right?
“The plush is approved too. Now, it’s late, and I need more than cookies to sustain all my queenliness, so I have to go.” Bas picked up the bags again.
“You’ll be back tomorrow?” Dane said before he could think about why he wanted to know.
“Yeah. I’ll be back tomorrow. Get some sleep, Dane.”
Dane nodded to Bas, clutched his cookies, and made his way back to his boring room, fairy pony and tablet in hand. There was no Internet connection and everything on the tablet was very PG, but he got lost in some TV show called My Little Pony. He nibbled the edge of a cookie just to try it and was surprised by the burst of sweet butter-lemon that warmed his tongue. And he laughed hard when a large male pony ran after a doll with hearts floating around his head in the show. He didn’t realize he’d eaten all the cookies until he glanced down at the bag and found it empty.
He waited for the pain in his stomach, a growl to warn him, or even a flash of guilt. But there was nothing. His stomach was quiet and, for the first time in months, so was his head. He fell asleep clutching his rainbow pony like a lifeline and thinking about the strange, friendly man who’d given it to him.
