Spotlight |h.s|

Forty Two

Aubrey Hart

My kitchen is hot as I hurry to mix the contents of my silver bowl while watching the timer tick down on the cookies I already have in the oven. I have my hair pulled back and apron on, a couple marks of flour on it as well as on my cheek. I'm overdoing it this year with the treats, I guess.

I'm making chocolate chip, sugar, peanut butter, and double chocolate cookies. On top of that, I have fudge sitting in the fridge ready to be cut. I've been baking all day. I'm nearing the homestretch, though, this being the last batch I'll be able to get out of the double chocolate batter.

When the oven beeps, I put on my mitts in a rush and pull out the pan, the brown fluffy cookies being moved with my spatula from the hot pan to one of the many cooling racks scattered across my kitchen. I then use an ice cream scooper to get the perfect size measurement for the batter, balling it up with my hands before placing it on the cookie sheet.

When the sheet is full and I'm conveniently out of batter, it's then shoved into the oven and the timer is set once again. I go to one of the cooling racks, this one being full of different shaped sugar cookies, and continue decorating them like I was before the timer neared its end. I paint on the red and white stripes of a candy cane shaped cookie, then give one shaped like a present some red and green wrapping paper.

I had to make something that everyone liked, and also enough of each thing for everyone. Still, I'm totally overdoing it. I just want my extended family to like me. I don't want them to think I've turned into some snob due to the amount of attention I've been getting recently. I've been in the public eye for years, but the attention from this movie and the PR is much more apparent and talked about than anything else I've been involved in.

I grab my phone, turning on some music to make this less stressful for me. I click on "Santa Tell Me" by Ariana Grande, ready to sing along. My brows raise at the lyrics that come from the small speakers of my phone, not hearing what I expected to in the slightest.

"All you ladies pop yo' pussy like this,
shake your body don't stop don't miss."

I know the song, of course, I just wasn't ready for it when I was expecting a nice happy Christmas song. I then look down to actually read what I clicked on, seeing that it's a mashup of the two songs. I decide to go with it, quietly singing the lyrics to myself and bopping my head as I cover a wreath-shaped cookie in green icing.

"My neck, my back, lick my pussy and my crack." I speak quietly, swaying a little to the beat.

I get through a few more cookies, laughing at myself as I keep singing. If anyone else saw me right now, they'd think I look so stupid. I mean, they wouldn't be entirely wrong, but I'd still be offended.

"First you gotta—"

"What are you doing?" A voice makes my head snap to the side, pausing the music immediately and meeting Harry's green eyes.

Just my fucking luck.

I almost have a heart attack at the presence of another person, having to put my hand on my chest to catch my breath and slow my pulse a bit. I sit down my container of icing along with my cookie, staring at him with big eyes and slightly reddened cheeks over the fact that he just saw me doing that.

"What am I- You're the one breaking into my house." I defend.

"I knocked. You were too busy to answer since you were doing... well... whatever that was." He chuckles.