1994~Kai Parker

Closer

   After we finished making the dough, I put it in the fridge to chill for about an hour.

   "Ok, on to the frosting."

I pushed aside the dough ingredients and brought forth the royal icing ones.

   "Can you get the food coloring while I make it?"

   "Sure." he said before he disappeared into the pantry.

I let out a little sigh as I made the royal icing, trying to suppress the butterflies that were flitting around like crazy in my stomach. Enough of that bullshit! Just concentrate on the baking. Kai came back out of the pantry, food coloring in hand, and he set the bottles down onto the table.

   "Alright, so how many colors do you want to make?"

   "All of them."

   "Ok then." I said, laughing a little.

Of course he wants all of them. I got out eight bowls, enough to hold each color. I divided half of the frosting evenly amongst them, leaving the rest plain, and I grabbed the blue first.

   "Depending on how strong you want the hue to be, you can put in 1 to 3 drops of it, like this." I said as I dropped two dots of the blue onto the white frosting, creating a stark contrast.

I took a spoon and swirled the coloring into the frosting until they blended smoothly together, making a cerulean shade.

   "Oooh." he said as he watched the process in awe.

   "Ok, now you try. Pick one."

He grabbed the red, and added 5 drops of it to the bowl. I rolled my eyes as he mixed it all together until it made a deep red, the same shade as blood. Shocker. Smiling at his work, he grabbed the black next, dropping the same amount into another bowl. We kept going until we had all eight colors: blue, red, black, yellow, green, purple, pink and orange. By the time we were done, the dough was ready to roll out and bake. We did so, and soon enough rows and rows of gingerbread figures were baking in the oven.

   "Perfect. Now, we don't have piping bags, but we do have Ziploc bags."

He looked bewildered as I filled one of the bags with frosting before I snipped off the corner and laid it on the counter. I repeated the process with the red frosting, but when I scooped it into the bag, some of it spattered back up onto me-I had done it too harshly.

   "Dammit." I said, pausing to wipe my face and shirt.

   "You missed a spot." Kai said before he licked his thumb and wiped a dot of red frosting off of my neck, eating it.

I balked at the unexpected touch as it sent shivers down my spine. He is making it so hard to concentrate, I thought as I tried to shake it off, putting the rest of the frosting into the piping bags. Kai poked his finger into one of them and stuck it into his mouth, going back for another taste before I swatted his hand away.

   "Patience, Kai."

   "Ugh, fine."

Ding! The timer I had set for the cookies went off, and I put on oven mitts before I slid the trays out of the oven, pleased to see evenly baked, golden-brown gingerbread cookies. Placing them on the granite counter, I smiled down fondly at them.

   "We did a good job!" I said with pride.

A small smile lit up Kai's face at the word "we", and I pretended not to notice as I set the timer for them to cool. How a sociopathic killer could look so adorable, I didn't know. When I turned my attention back over to him I saw that he was eating the frosting again, and I moved over to swat him away from it. He grabbed the red frosting bag and held it up over his head as I crossed my arms at him in frustration.