Even wearing a simple shirt and cotton shorts, she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on. She breaks eye contact and looks at the container I’m holding, curiosity covering her face.
“What’s that?” She points to it.
“What’s what?” I keep my eyes on her.
“The container in your hand, dummy.” She points again and laughs.
I blink and pull myself back to reality. I look down at the container and remember what it was that I brought her.
“Oh, shit, yeah. I made these for you.” I hold out the container to her.
“Oh?” She grabs it, then gently shakes it. “What’s in it?”
I shrug. “You need to open it to find out.”
She bites the corner of her lip when she looks back down, pulling the lid off. She lets out a small gasp and looks back at me with a bright smile. Her eyes are soft, pure, and beautiful, like the ocean.
“You made me cookies?”
I nod and smile.
“Is this to make up for the interesting ‘date’ we had?” she teases.
I shrug. “I’ve wanted to make you cookies for a while now, and I looked up a recipe the night of the bonfire. I wasn’t sure when I wanted to until the terrible ‘date’ we went on.”
She angles her head and says, “It wasn’t terrible.”
I look down to the floor, smiling, trying to hide the blush that's creeping up on me because I’m a fucking teenager all over again.
“Now, I’m going to try one of these, and I’m sure it’s going to beamazing.”
I peer back up at her and scrunch my nose. “They’re probably going to taste like shit. I haven't tried one yet.”
She smells inside the container. “You didn’t poison these or anything?”
“No, but they’re definitely coated with a lot of love and apologies.”
She picks one up and inspects it and I’m suddenly extremely nervous. I watch her carefully as she takes a bite out of it, a generous one at that. Maybe too generous. Probably should have stuck with a nibble.
I watch her start to chew slowly, and her eyes squint but then open back up, and I’m almost positive she’s going through the five stages of grief.
“Mmm.” She looks up at me, plastering on the fakest smile I’ve ever seen her make. “Ro, these are delicious,” she says with a mouthful of half-chewed cookie.
I narrow my eyes at her and start to laugh at how ridiculous she looks, trying to lie through her teeth. I grab a cookie, desperate to see how these taste, and holy shit, these are atrocious. I walk to the garbage can and spit the cookie out of my mouth. It doesn’t even deserve to be swallowed.
I motion to the garbage. “Ellie, spit it out.”
She furrows her brows, trying to finish the cookie because she has a heart of gold. She shakes her head and waves me off.
“Ellie, please spit it out.”
She waves me off again. “It’s fine.”
I cross my arms and look at her. She’s smiling at me the entire time through slow chews and small bites.
“The best cookie ever.” She points to it and still has an entire half left.
I watch her in pain, trying to make me happy and not hurt my feelings. She puts the entire other half in her mouth like she’s trying to get it over with and chews furiously like she’s angry.
