“Sounds like the makings of our own tea party,” I replied as I tugged the throw blanket off the back of the couch, so it draped over my body.
After the earlier events of the day and my current full belly, I was more than ready to relax with a few movies and do nothing but stare at the screen. I passed the remote to Maverick as Briar got cozy in the recliner closest to the fireplace, kicked it back, and sighed contentedly. In no time at all Maverick had the Disney app open and was dialing up the Alice in Wonderland movies.
“Do we want the animated one or the live-action ones first?” Maverick asked.
“Animated!” Briar and I both blurted, turning to one another and laughing, while Maverick just muttered, 'Alrighty then, should have seen that coming.'
“So, is that when you guys met, in fifth grade?” I asked as the first advertisement appeared on the screen.
Did they really think people watched those? At this point, the only purpose they served was to give people the opportunity for a piss break or to grab some refreshments without having to pause the movie.
“Well, technically it was the summer before, when Mav’s family moved from the east side of town to where my family lived on the north side,” Briar explained. “Mav’s mom and my aunt have been friends since college, and she invited Mav’s family to the barbeque she was throwing, but there were, like, a billion cousins there, and slip-and-slides, and four Twister mats taped together, so we didn’t really have the opportunity to talk or anything.”
“We did have a fun day playing together with all of Briar’s cousins though,” Maverick added. “And it was awesome to see a familiar face in class on the first day of school. The Alice in Wonderland bit just sealed the deal. We’d already shared a lunch table each day since the first day of school; after that we were just inseparable.”
“Must make it easy to work together when you’ve known one another for so long.”
“Definitely, especially in the kitchen,” Briar said.
“We fall into such an easy rhythm, especially when we’ve got music blaring from the smart speaker, that it makes the day pass quickly,” Maverick added.
“It helps that we love what we do,” Briar chimed in.
“Running the cookie shop is our dream come true,” Maverick continued. “Before we ever got to the point of actually looking for a storefront, we put together notebooks full ofrecipes that we’d tweaked and polished and taste-tested on our friends and family, but also at fairs and bakery competitions.”
“Having those awards, as well as reviews and write-ups from newspapers and magazines, really helped when we launched,” Briar explained, while Maverick giggled.
“That was our first decor,” Maverick said. “We framed everything and hung it on the walls in between the peel-and-stick cookie graphics we stuck up after we painted. People really reacted positively to being able to read them and get a feel for just how long we’d been working towards the goal of opening our shop.”
The movie was finally about to start, which was a shame, because I’d been thoroughly enjoying the conversation while picturing snow leopards in Keebler Elf hats creating all kinds of yummy treats.
“How long has your shop been open?” I blurted.
I was normally not the type to talk when a movie was playing, but I had a follow-up question I wanted to ask now that I had images floating around in the back of my head. My fingers itched for my sketchpad and drawing pencils. Between the waning light still creeping in through the windows and the glow from the fireplace, I had plenty of illumination to see by, but would they think it rude that I was sketching while watching the movie?
Guess there was only one way to find out.
Leaning, I reached for my art kit, which sat a few feet away since I’d never gotten around to getting things put away after my abrupt meeting with the bedroom floor. That was a tomorrow issue, along with the rest of my things. As I tugged my drawing case closer, I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye that put my fears to rest. Maverick with a pencil, furiously scribbling in a notebook in between glancing at the television.
Nice.
Glad to see that I wasn’t the only one who multitasked.
That image of them in their snow leopard forms curled up in the bed was still burned into my brain, along with the cartoon one of them wearing elf hats and baking cookies. Knowing I couldn’t capture the regalness of their leopards from memory alone, I had fun with the cartoon images. Between the movie, the crackling of the fireplace, and the soft, scratchy sound of my pencil flowing over the paper, everything grew soft and almost hazy.
I drew snow leopard elves holding cookie trays, snow leopard elves rolling out dough, piping on frosting, and even one perched on top of the mixer, napping, and another dipping a claw in the batter.
“See any flakes yet?”
The words startled me, and it took a moment for me to realize that they didn’t come from the movie but rather from Briar asking Maverick a question.
“Nope. Can’t see the moon, either, not even the glow of it. The sky is as dark as a dungeon tonight.”
I nearly spit tea all over my sketchpad when he said that, having never heard that expression before. Now that I had, my overactive imagination kicked into overdrive trying to determine if it was an expression he’d picked up somewhere or if he was speaking from experience.
Which brought up a whole new line of questions. Starting with which kind of dungeon he was referring to. The kind that held prisoners, or one of the kinky variety? If I’d known him longer, I’d have asked, though something told me that if I’d known them longer, I’d already know the answer to that.
“Sad,” Briar muttered, “You alright over there, Leo?”
