She cracks the beer open and sips it, before leaning on the counter next to me. “I just had my dreams snatched away from me today.”
I raise an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“I always wanted to own my own bakery, to be able to make my own special cookies, as well as donuts, breads, and everything else. I just wanted to make sweet and delicious things to bring a little bit more happiness to the world.”
“Ah, that makes sense. The way you look at your ingredients, you’re a professional.”
“Not so much, no. Just self-taught and well-studied. I wanted to go to pastry school and I heard some of the ones around here were the best you could find.”
“So you rented a cabin?”
She shakes her head. “I wouldn’t have been able to afford to go to school but my long-lost, crazy old uncle just died.”
I cock an eyebrow. “Long-lost crazy old uncle?”
“I know it seems like something out of a sitcom, but my mother and I are the last living relatives of some eccentric Bulgarian count who recently passed away. He was legit, we checked, because my mom and I were as suspicious as you would expect, and the money was transferred to us. Without us having to give anyone our banking passwords or anything.”
“Wild. What happened to your sudden windfall?”
She sighs, and sips her beer. “It was technically my money, but I was sharing it with my mom in a joint account. Because she needed it too. It was a lot, enough for both of us to live on and spoil ourselves to boot.”
“Hence the cabin instead of a Motel 6.”
More nodding. “My mother was supposed to join me up here, but as I was doing my grocery shopping, I got a call from the bank saying that every last cent of our joint bank account had been drained.”
I’m stunned, my eyes going wide.
“She took it all. She bought a villa in Italy, and is already gone. I don’t know what I can do about it, if anything. I had agreed to share it with her. She’s my mother. I’m supposed to be able to trust her.”
My fists ball up. That’s disgraceful. A mother treating her own child like that. For what? Money?
She keeps talking. “I called her up. Asked her to explain herself, hoping it was all some big misunderstanding. She told me off, saying she wasn’t going to let me waste this money to go to a baking school. Not going to let me blow the money on starting my own bakery. She knows what’s best to do with this money, she said.”
“What does she expect you to do? To go to Italy with her and do nothing?”
“Maybe? I guess. I never got that far. I hung up on her. I tried to finish my shopping. I broke down when I pulled a bag of sugar off the shelf, and that’s when you found me. I don’t know what I’m going to do now.”
I growled, angry for her. “And now you’re set to spend Christmas all alone.”
Yet another meek nod. “Why did she have to be like this? Just because she didn’t think there was money in baking? Did she think my cookies were bad all this time?”
I walk over to her, and place my hand on her shoulder. “No. No one as sweet as you is capable of making something bad, Sugar.”
At least, that’s my gut feeling. It is highly unlikely she’s some cursed cook, but you never know. It’s about as likely as long-lost uncles dying and leaving people fortunes.
“Maybe I try too hard. Maybe I experimented too much.”
“Make your cookies. I promise an absolutely honest evaluation, but I’m telling you right now, I’m betting they’re delicious, Sugar.”
“Thank you, Rainier.”
She looks down at her feet.
“Anything I can do to help you, Sugar?”
She giggles suddenly, shaking her head. She raises her eyes to look at me, a smile on her face. “Maybe... maybe a kiss will make me feel better.”
I smile right back, liking that she’s telling me what she wants. “A kiss to make it all better, eh? I think I can do that.”
So I go for it.
I kiss her.
And goddamn, it’s as beautiful as she is.
4
SUGAR
I withdraw from his embrace, feeling more embarrassed than ever before. I turn away from him, pacing, exasperated with myself.
“What’s the matter?” he asks, as if he did something wrong.
“I can’t believe I just went and told you exactly what I wanted just now. And that you just gave it to me.”
“You asked for it, Sugar, and I saw no reason to deny you.”
Tears fill my eyes, I’m feeling like an anxious mess because of it. Today has been one hell of a ride of highs and lows, and I’m struggling to figure out how to go forward.
“Why are you so embarrassed? I like a girl who is open about what she wants, Sugar. I find it sexy.”