the other side of us | ✓

2.7 | when push comes to shove

2 years ago

Charlotte hadn't expected living with Patrick to be so easy.

When she'd agreed to move in with him two weeks ago, she'd thought it was a temporary thing. That she'd move out and be on her way to owning her own bakery soon.

The idea of owning a bakery that she'd built on her own was a dream that she'd had for a while. A bakery that didn't have any remnants of her mother, something that she'd built from the ground up and had her name on it.

But it wasn't as simple as she'd thought.

Real estate in New York was a lot more expensive than she'd originally budgeted for and finding a location that she liked was tricky. The places she liked were too expensive, and the places she could afford were in bad neighborhoods.

Patrick had graciously agreed to let her crash on his couch until she found a place to stay, and it was looking like she'd need his couch a while longer.

He was proving to be a fantastic roommate so far. Charlotte had never been good at cooking, so Patrick had offered to take care of that while she had taken over the cleaning – not that either of them were particularly messy to begin with.

The two off them were lounging around the apartment now. They'd somehow both gotten the day off – Patrick had gotten Charlotte a job as a barista in the coffee shop where he worked – and they were spending it watching movies. Well, Patrick was watching a movie. Charlotte was working on a scone recipe.

"You done yet?" Patrick called, cramming a fistful of popcorn into his mouth. Charlotte wiped a hand across her damp forehead, pushing aside the strands of newly cut hair that had escaped her ponytail.

"Did you hear a timer go off?" She called.

"No?"

"Then I'm not done."

Patrick groaned and she peered at the numbers above the oven.

"Five more minutes. Don't be a baby."

"But I'm hungry!" He whined, his head falling against the back of the couch.

Charlotte rolled her eyes. "You're eating popcorn right now."

"Doesn't count as food."

She didn't respond, and Patrick turned back to his movie.

When the timer did go off, he barely moved while Charlotte opened the oven and pulled the baking sheet out, setting it on the counter to cool.

"Do you need a taste tester?" Patrick asked lazily over his shoulder, eyes not leaving the movie on the screen. Charlotte wasn't even sure what he was watching.

"Jeez, yes. Get over here."

Patrick eagerly hopped up and skipped into the kitchen, jumping to sit on the counter next to the sink. Charlotte plated a scone and passed it to him, smiling when he immediately bit into it.

"Ah!" He yelled, spitting the steaming piece back onto the plate. "Hot!"

Charlotte laughed and shrugged. "They just came out."

"You could've warned me!"

"You could've been patient." She poured him a glass of milk and handed it to him as he continued to glare at her.

Charlotte smiled – she'd missed baking.

It had been a few weeks since she'd been able to get into a kitchen and bake, and the familiar feeling of flour coating her fingers was comforting.