When It Rains In Ocala

25- Remember My Birthday

And if we climb this high, I swear we'll never die.
-Of Mice And Men, My Understandings

Cake mix

2 eggs

1 ½ cups water

¾ cup oil

Blend

Pour into pan

Bake

Simple, right? It’s just some step by step instructions. Easy to understand and very, very hard to mess up. Except for me. Turns out, I’m not much of a baker. Maybe it’ll help if I give you a little back story.

It was Evan’s birthday and the first part of the surprise was his birthday cake. So I snuck into the house, with Jason and Laura’s knowledge, in the morning to start on the cake. I used a good pan and I didn’t forget to spray it with non-stick stuff either. And I was quiet enough, making sure not to wake up Evan who was still sleeping upstairs. Jason and Laura had gone out to run some errands, so I was working on this cake by myself. I successfully poured the chocolate batter into the pan and successfully put it in the oven with the preheated temperature set and ready. So the cake was baking as I was in the living room setting up Evan’s present. That is until the whole house had a panic attack and all of the fire alarms started beeping like crazy and very loud.

So there I was, racing into the kitchen to see that the kitchen was submerged in a thin layer of smoke. In complete panic mode, I hurried for the oven and turned it off when I realized that I missed one very crucial step in the baking process: Turning the timer on.

I didn’t know how to shut the fire alarms off, though and they continuously beeped for about five minutes until they just stopped. Either they got tired of freaking me out or…

Evan.

“Are you okay?” His tired voice mumbled, hurrying into the kitchen from the living room.

“I ruined it.” I wailed, motioning towards the oven.

“Were you making a cake?” He asked with raised eyebrows.

He was shirtless and wearing basketball shorts since he’d just woken up, thanks to me, but he looked really nice in that moment. “Yes, but I burned it and it’s all ruined.” I pouted.

He moved over to me and pulled me into his arms. “Baby, it’s okay.” He murmured, his voice still thick with sleep. “We can go get an ice cream cake later.” I could hear the amusement in his voice- he found this a lot funnier than I did because I wasn’t laughing at all. Now the cake was ruined and his kitchen was full of smoke. Way to start a birthday.

“Fine.” I sighed, hugging him tightly.

“It’s early, why are you baking so early?” He asked with his chin resting on the top of my head.

“I wanted to surprise you.” I mumbled admittedly.

“Well, I’m certainly surprised.” He chuckled softly, his body rippling with the soft burst of laughter.

“I still have your presents though.” I told him, not lifting my face from where it was nestled in the crook of his neck.

“Good, I’ve been dying to see what you got me.” Evan chirped.

“Wait, I got up really early this morning for that stupid cake. Can we just maybe go sleep for just a little bit longer?” I asked sheepishly.

He laughed with a slight smirk as he playfully rolled his eyes. “C’mon, we can go back to sleep if you want.”