The Perfect Gift

Ch. 5

Nini flushes a bright red and texts back that Ricky's just a joky neighbor and tells her drop the matter. She turns off her cellphone to avoid distractions for the rest of the day.

She meets Ricky in the kitchen and sees him carefully move the cookies he'd cut out to the metal pan. She watches as he transports the last cookie, a stocking, to the pan.

He looks at her and gestures to the remnants. "Can't let this go to waste, right?"

She rolls her eyes and steps up to the counter. She rips a tiny piece off of the corner and forcibly stuffs it into Ricky's mouth. "Jerk," she deadpans under her breath as she slowly starts kneading the leftover dough together.

His eyebrows shoot up and he quickly chews and swallows the cookie bits. He stares at her curiously. "C'mon, it was just a joke. Are you mad?" he sighs.

"Was all that really necessary?" she asks as she works out her frustration with him on the dough. She shoots him an unimpressed glare.

Ricky rolls his eyes. "Your friend thinks you're getting laid!" he points out with a sexually implied waggle of his eyebrows.

She reaches for the parchment paper, preparing to roll out the dough again. "How is that helping?" she questions tonelessly.

"This way, she'll think that you're having fun during the holidays!" he grins. "You know," he tacks on with a carefree shrug, "instead of being all alone and sad."

"I happen to have absolutely no qualms about her thinking that I live a depressingly single life," she admits dryly as she starts cutting out more shapes.

He grins at her. "Well, now she thinks you're hooking up with some hot guy. So for that, you're welcome," he says smugly.

She wrinkles her nose in shame and disgust. "I think our fake relationship is starting to get out of hand," she mumbles under her breath as she places the second batch of cookies onto the pan, spacing them out evenly. She takes the pan and sticks it in the freezer, ensuring that the cookies will hold their shape while baking.

"I don't know about that," he frowns. "It's not like we fake-moved in or I fake-proposed to you," he points out mock-seriously. "We just fake-hooked up."

The brunette gives him a hard look. "You're the biggest real idiot I've ever met," she mutters. She exhales sharply to try to gain back some of her patience and keeps an eye on the clock, waiting for five minutes.

Ricky points at the second set of remnants. "Can I have the rest of that?" he asks giddily.

"I hope you get salmonella," she whispers darkly in response.

He sidles along the side of the counter, hip-bumping her out of the way. "Awesome!" he cheers, excitedly eating the last of the bits.

"Hey!" she exclaims as she flails out of the way from his not so gentle hip nudge. She rolls her eyes at him. "Rude," she grumbles. "Now who's the one raised by wolves?" she comments under her breath.

"Raised by what?" he asks around a giant mouthful of uncooked cookie as he turns to look at her.

"Oh, never mind!" she snaps as she takes the pan out of the freezer and walks over to the oven. She slides the cookies in, sets the timer. "The first batch of cookies are finally in the oven!" she cheers in relief.

"About time," Ricky laughs. "How long until they're done?"

"Ten minutes," she answers. "Now I have to roll out the second half of the dough," she says as she pulls out the rest from the fridge.

Ricky watches her unwrap the dough and sprinkles some flour on the counter for her, remembering back to the first batch. "How's that?" he asks, wiping his hand on his jeans.