Olivia helps her boyfriend Shayne bake cookies.
Olivia:
The door was unlocked which in the middle of the day was unusual. I knocked a couple more times, then looked down the street in either direction. Cars passed, dogs were walked, kids were playing outside in their driveways. I walked inside to see what was going on. Nobody was in the living room so I wandered around. I wasn't prepared for what I saw in the kitchen.
"Well, well, well," I said putting my hands on my hips.
"What have we here?" I asked.
The counters of the kitchen were full with ingredients and other cooking supplies. It looked like a calm chaos was happening in the kitchen. Shayne had spots of flour all over his jeans and shirt.
"Olivia, hey!" Shayne said distracted.
"Come in!" He said.
My boyfriend walked quickly over to me, kissing me on the cheek before turning back to the kitchen island.
"I'd hug you, but my hands are messy" He said glancing back at her.
"I can see that" I said chuckling
"Whats with the pop-up bakery?" I teased.
Shayne wrestled his eyes away from the counter. I noticed he was looking at a piece of paper with what looked like a recipe on it. It was partially hidden between cans of stuff.
"Damien is bringing over his girlfriend later so I thought I'd help him out" He said wiping his forehead with his forearm.
Damien was Shayne's roommate and our co-worker at Smosh.
"I heard online that baking makes your house smell nice and I figured it would work when you make a first impression. Plus I wanted some cookies" He said shrugging.
"Where's Damien" I asked.
"He's at work right now" Shayne replied.
"So you're doing this to help your Damien, I should've guess that" I said smiling.
Shayne was always a nice guy. He was always trying to help others out and was very thoughtful. Sometimes it suprised me how generous he was. Shayne became engrossed with his baking again. He was double checking the temperature on the already preheated oven. I set my jacket and purse down.
"Let me help" I demanded.
"Oh, uh, you don't have to Olivia, really." He said.
My eyes narrowed at him.
"You don't think I can?" I questioned.
Shayne looked at me and snorted.
"I've never thought you couldn't do something, I just don't want to ruin your outfit" He said motioning to my clothes.
How sweet I thought.
"You have to have an apron somewhere around here, you seem to have almost everything else" I said motioning at the cluttered counters.
"Or you could just take off that shirt you have on" I said grinning.
"And have you put it on over your nice clothes?" He said.
"Not necessarily." I smirked at Shayne.
I saw the blush forming on his face. Without responding, he ducked and started opening cupboard doors, searching through sliding drawers as well. Shayne stood up with a black apron in hand, and handed it it to her.
"I don't know if it fits but this is the only one I could find" He said.
"Aha, someone has good taste" I said.
I slipped it over my head and Shayne gestured for me to turn. After he'd tied it around me, his warm hand squeezed my waist, leaving a fresh flour stain on the apron. Suddenly, I didn't feel like baking. I had already pledged to help Damien though and I pushed those thoughts out of mind for the time being.
"Alright Shayne, where did you leave off?" I said eagerly.
Baking, it turned out, was pretty easy. Then again It helped that Shayne was already halfway through when I started helping. He had everything measured out in advance, and he noticed immediately when I leaned my hip against the oven and accidentally raised the temperature to double what it was supposed to be. Also, I had a feeling that he was making up jobs for me as we went so that I always ended up with the easy stuff, but I didn't mind. It was cute, so gentlemanly that even while he was taking care of his friend, he was looking after me too. Usually, I ordered sweets rather than making them from scratch, and yet with Shayne it wasn't so bad.
While the cookies baked, I spotted a flour mark on the back of Shayne's jeans that I decided to help him brush off. Coincidentally, he claimed to have seen a crumb on my upper lip from where I'd snuck a spoonful of cookie dough while he wasn't looking. Apparently, according to him, only his tongue could reach it. The timer he had set earlier went off a few minutes later, ensuring things in the kitchen didn't get as hot as the cookies inside the oven. Shayne turned off the oven and let the cookies cool on a rack. As the cookies cooled on a rack, I produced a handful of chocolate chips.
"Olivia, those were supposed to go into the batter! You don't add them at the end!" He groaned
I put my finger to his lips and shushed him.
"Relax, Shayne I put the rest in before we baked the cookies, I know what I'm doing" I said.
I shooed him away to get started on washing the dishes. After staring at his back to make sure he wouldn't turn around and spy on me, I carefully arranged the chocolate chips on three cookies. I figured he could spare that many out of the dozen we'd made. Once the chocolate chips melted into the surface of the cookies enough that they wouldn't fall off, I grabbed Shayne by the arm and showed him. He read the message out loud.
"I," a heart, and a "U" He read.
I reveled in his delight and savored his smile.
"What's this for?" Shayne asked shyly.
"I'm just proud of you." I said wrapping my arms around his waist.
"You do so much for others, you're loyal and giving and I don't deserve you." I said.
His eyebrows raised.
"Ok, I do deserve you." I said smiling.
He kissed me and held me close with his arms, keeping his soapy hands away from my back.
"Think we could do this again? I think I'm a natural" I joked.
"Sure," Shayne agreed,
He leaned down to flip a strand of my messy hair out of my face with his nose.
"I think you are too." He said.
