“James. Focus.”
“Right.” He clapped his hands, causing his collection of rings to clink together. “Are you sure it’s okay that we’re baking the cake two days early?”
“Totally fine,” she assured him. “Just keep it in the freezer until you want to ice it.”
He nodded. “And how do I make that?”
“It’s simple. Do you have any powdered sugar?”
He looked up, eyebrows knitted together. “You can powder sugar?”
She opened her mouth, ready to ask him if he had ever baked a cake before suggesting they do this one, when the faint ding of the elevator in the hallway sounded.
They both stilled, listening carefully to the barely perceptible sound of footsteps approaching, keys jangling. Then the distinct slide of the apartment’s dead bolt.
“It’s Ellis!” James yelped, shoveling up all the ingredients from the counter. “Hurry! Grab the evidence!”
“I’m hurrying!” Anne pushed the mixer back into place, then grabbed the lone box of baking soda James had left behind and shoved it in a nearby drawer.
“He wasn’t supposed to be home until five!” James hissed as he threw everything in his arms into the cabinet above the sink. “What are we going to do? All we’ve done is line up the ingredients! I don’t even have batter!”
“We can bake it down at Cricket’s. Just come by later,” Anne whispered.
“Yes! Right! Good plan.”
Anne did a final survey of the kitchen just as Ellis called out. “Honey, you home?”
James looked around wildly, finally pulling a French cookbook from the shelf and pretending to read. But as soon as he cracked it open, he looked up, his face ashen.
“Oh God. What about the powdered sugar?” he whispered.
“I’ll run out and pick some up,” she replied. “It’s fine—”
The kitchen door swung open and Ellis entered. He stopped in the doorway when he saw Anne and James huddled close over the cookbook, covered in flour and looking frazzled.
“Everything okay?” he asked. It looked like he was battling a smile.
“Hi, babe. You’re home early,” James said, his voice casual as he flipped to the next page, like this scene happened every day.
“The Jeselsohns canceled their showing, so I thought I would come home and help in case you were having another one of your tinsel emergencies,” Ellis said warmly, then he turned to see Anne. “Hey, Anne. Are you staying for dinner?”
While James continued to feign interest in the text in front ofhim, Anne grabbed her bag from the counter and headed for the door as she stumbled over her words. “Nope, I have to go. Lots to do… around. You know how it is. Bye!”
“That’s upside down, you know,” Anne heard Ellis challenge James, before she shut the front door and hurried to the elevators.
Even though she knew exactly what she needed to get, Anne felt oddly unprepared when she walked into Helwig Deli a few minutes later. The bodega was her usual go-to for quick grocery items, along with a surprisingly wide variety of Korean snack foods, but usually she arrived with a detailed shopping list, or at least a Post-it. Walking the narrow aisles empty-handed felt unnatural, even though she found herself discovering things she had never noticed before. Had there always been a collection of toiletries on the wall?
Fifteen minutes later she had a bag of powdered sugar in hand at the register. She swiped her card, bracing herself until the small screen announced it was approved, when her phone started ringing in her bag. She pulled it out and saw her mother’s picture illuminating the screen.
“Hi, Mom,” she answered, holding the phone to her ear with one hand, as she grabbed her canvas shopping bag with the other and walked outside.
“Hello, darling!” Bianca replied, then paused. “Where are you? It sounds like a war zone.”
Anne smiled, stealing a quick glance across the street at the workers struggling to control the tall pine tree now standing in the middle of Tompkins Square Park. Their truck was beeping, a steady anxious tone as the men yelled obscenities at one another, each with their own view of how to get the tree level. It was thesame struggle every year, the East Village’s own unique start of the Christmas season.
“They’re putting up the tree in the park.”
“Ah.” Her mother knew the scene well. “Well, very apropos, because I wanted to touch base with you about Christmas.”
