One
Clementine Baker rushedup the steps to her apartment. Her arms burned from carrying six bags of groceries, but she didn’t have the time for multiple trips up and down three flights of stairs. She readjusted her grip and thought in dismay that she should have double bagged a couple of them, though. The new sack of sugar bumped up against her leg, far lower than it should, and Clem sucked in her breath. Grocery bags were not meant to stretch that much.
Before she could make the decision to stop and readjust, the grocery bag split, and the bag of sugar tumbled down the stairs, bursting open in a spray of white.
“No!” she wailed. Sugar poured out of a tear in the bag and Clem let her head fall back. She looked at the spiderwebs on the awning of the outdoor staircase as she listened to the rest of the sugar leave its package. “You have got to be kidding me.” Now, on top of everything else she still needed to do, she would have to clean that up.
For a moment Clem considered letting it be, but she thought about her neighbor across the landing, who was a ballerina nursing a broken foot. It was already rough enough for her to navigate outdoor stairwells — not to mention the rocky pathto the parking lot. Crutches on sugar was just asking for an accident.
“Gah!” Clem growled as she clomped up the rest of the stairs and dropped her items outside her door. Frustration settled on her, lowering her brow and leaving her feeling positively Scrooge-like. “Bah!” she corrected.
Clem’s expression was dark as she shoved open her door and stomped through her tiny apartment. God, all she wanted was to spend the evening with a bottle of wine and a cooking competition show. For one brief moment she considered texting her friends to cancel and just leaning into couch time. Then she wrenched the broom from its place tucked next to the fridge, grumbling curse words as she returned to the stairway. It was too late to cancel now, and besides, there hadn’t been any other evening that her friends could come over for their annual Christmas cookie making party. She could have her couch time after they left.
Resigned, she picked up the paper sack, which was now mostly empty. All the sugar was in a mound on the step. She glanced over one shoulder, then the other — then over the railing to make sure no one was on the steps beneath her — before sweeping it off the edge of the stairs.
“I guess that’s one good thing about outdoor stairs,” she allowed. She took some satisfaction in watching the sugar rain down to the grass at the base of the apartment building. It was short lived, though, when her phone dinged and she read a text from her best friend, Lily.
On my way! Need me to get anything?
Clem groaned. She was just about to ask Lily to bring sugar — how can you have a cookie making party without sugar? — when her gaze landed on all her things still sittingoutside her apartment door. Her lips pressed together in a flat line of annoyance. The office Secret Santa exchange had happened today —after work —and Tanzy McGregor had given her a kitschy canister with the wordsThe Secret Ingredientemblazoned across it. There had been something in it, but Clem had been so taken aback by it that she had just nodded when Tanzy had held an arthritic finger up to tap the side of her nose and given Clem a knowing smile. It had not gone over well with Clem, especially after she had sent out an email to over three thousand people in which she had misspelled a student’s name. Even though she had sent out an immediate correction and she knew her boss would be over it by the next morning, he’d made his displeasure apparent by glaring at her whenever he looked her way. It had pulled a storm cloud over her head, and Tanzy’s “mischievous” gift had not helped matters.
Now Clem did wonder what was actually in the container. She trudged up the rest of the way to her apartment, thumping the broom on the steps behind her. When she got to her door, she crouched, then wrenched the lid off the cylinder. She took a pinch of what was inside and tentatively touched it to her tongue.
Sugar.
She closed her eyes and dropped her chin to her chest. Relief and annoyance warred within her. This definitely solved the immediate problem of not having enough sugar. She could let Lily know she didn’t need anything.
But what the heck, Tanzy?
A canister of sugar as your Secret Santa gift? Who did that? It screamedI don’t care!more than almost anything else could.
Clem looked down at the offending sugar canister now where it sat beside her doormat and sighed. She needed to get things together before her friends arrived.
The knock on her door pulled Clem from her fridge. She paused for a moment to see if the door would open or if she would have to go and answer it. Sure enough, she heard the knob turn and the door open with a friendly, “Hey Clem!”
Lily Gordon stepped into the apartment and turned to hang her coat on a hook. She ran a hand through shoulder length brown hair, then straightened her red Christmas sweater. Clem grinned at her, feeling glad for the first time since lunch.
“Hey, I’m glad you’re here.”
“I know I’m early, but I figured I could help with any last minute set up.” She looked around Clem’s apartment. “Not that you need any help.”
Clem followed her gaze and let some smugness creep into her grin. Her place was small, only bigger than a studio because it had an official bedroom, but it was homey and cozy and already decorated for the holidays. Christmas lights twinkled along her balcony outside, and inside a small tree was set up on an end table. A Christmas throw was tossed over the back of the couch. Her table was set up with dishes of snacks and finger foods, and her kitchen counter was lined up with all the ingredients they would need for their recipes.
“Damn,” Lily said. Clem heard the admiration and appreciated it. “You really do know how to get yourself set up for a party.”
“And that’s on planning ahead.” Clem’s laugh turned into a sigh. “Lils, you will not believe the day I had.”
Lily looked up from where she was scrolling through playlists on her phone. Her eyes were wide and a laugh bubbled out of her. “Dude. What was with Tanzy McGregor’s gift?”
“Thank you!” Clem noted the music Lily had selected and nodded in approval. “I thought I was going crazy for a minute when I opened it.”
“It just felt like she didn’t put any thought into it at all,” Lily said, totally validating the disappointment Clem had felt when she opened it.
“Well, thank goodness she didn’t, because guess what we have to use for our sugar tonight.” Clem did her best Vanna White to highlight the sugar canister on the counter.
“Shut up,” Lily laughed. “Are you for real? So it really was sugar in there? And you’re actually using it?”
“I mean, there’s a very good reason to.” Clem relayed her distress about losing the new sack of sugar.
