wander

41|baking

"How do you feel about baking?" She asks me.
Fuck no, "I do not bake." I state.
"Fine guess I'll bake by myself. Just so you know I'm not good at sharing with people who don't help me." She smirks and turns her back to me. Before she can leave I grip her arm and turn her face towards me.
"I guess I can bake for you." She smiles and leaves a peck on my lips.

I watch as she lays out each of the ingredients on the island in the center of the table as she googled a recipe for a cake. She picks a recipe which is a plain vanilla cake but had decorative icing and strawberries circling the rim. She pulls her hair back into a low bun and washes her hands.

She stands next to me and stares intently at my hands. I walk over to the sink and wash them quickly. I then stand next to the ingredients and look at her, asking what to do. She reads the instructions from the recipe and I follow her directions. I let her mix and I tell her to take over so I will do the washing up. Truth was I just couldn't bake and I assume she's had practice unlike me. I wash the dishes and Chiara hums a tune as she pours the mixture into a cake tin.

I put the tin into the oven to not face the risk of her being burnt. I know she's sensible but I would feel as if it was my fault if she had burnt herself. As I shut the oven, she's drying everything I had just washed up and putting it all away. I take over and she sits on the countertop.

"How was today with Rose, you didn't really say much about it?" I question to make conversation.
"Good but it was kinda weird."
"Weird? Why? What happened?" What could have happened at starbucks.
"I don't know really, there was this guy... Marco? I think his name was. Then we left."
"Marco?" Rose's Marco?
"Yeah, Rose was being defensive. I think she knew him." Chiara really has no idea.

What was Marco doing there anyway? I thought he was busy. I mean I wouldn't know, didn't ever speak to the guy. All I know is that he was a dick.
"Who is he?" She asks so innocently.
"Uh I think that's something to talk to Rose about. He's a dick that's all I'm saying." It was the truth.
"Okay, I'll ask her tomorrow." Thank god that conversations over.

She pulls me to the garden. We have maybe 25 minutes until we have to get the cake from the oven. I follow her and she sits down on the perfectly mowed grass. Beautiful flowers circle around us and all the colours against her chocolate brown hair compliment her complexion. I reach out a grab a pink flower from behind her ear. I tug at it so it falls gently into my hand. I trap the flower between my fingers and tuck a fallen hair behind her ear.

I hold the flower in my hand and slide it where I just tucked the hair away. She lifts her hand to hold my hand against her ear, balancing the flower carefully. She gently pulls my hands down to her lap and her hand grabs my other one and they intertwine. My thumbs draw circles over her hands and her brown eyes bore into mine. The birds chirp and the sun angles so it gives her skin a summer glow.

Without realising, my head is crashing towards her and our lips touch. It's gentle at first and she leads my hands around her waist and her hands wrap around my neck. Her fingers pull at the ends of my hair and I let out a little gasp. She takes the chance to slip her tongue into my mouth and I follow her actions. I grip my hands tighter on her sides and lift her up to my lap. Her legs straddle my sides and I lean back to take a breath. I let out a pant and open my eyes.

Chiara's Dad is in the kitchen, he's not looking in our direction but I notify Chi.
"We should stop, your Dad's in the kitchen."
"Okay." She giggles and blushes. How she goes from her tongue in my mouth to blushing is so adorable. I stand up and reach my hand out to help her up. We walk into the kitchen and Leo is taking the cake out of the oven. He got it right in time, if we carried on any longer we would have burnt the cake.

"Looks good, are you icing it?" He compliments her cake.
"Yeah I'll show the recipe photo." She gets her phone from the countertop and shows him the picture she showed me. He nods in approval and pats his hand on my shoulder. He goes back to his office and closes the door behind him.

"That was close... outside." She blushes again.
"Yep, but I know you liked it." She turns her face away from mine, I know she's a little embarrassed but I don't mind. I'm pretty sure Leo didn't see anything because the flowers circled us.
"Hey he didn't see us don't worry." I reassure her and she smiles, "Let's ice this cake yeah?"

She laughs at me and I raise my eyebrow. I don't understand whats funny.
"What?" I ask while laughing because I have no idea why she's laughing.
"We have to wait for it to cool. You can't put icing on a hot cake." She teaches me.
"Oh... well I didn't know that. I'm not the baker here. What are we supposed to do now then?" I know exactly what she wants to do. An episode of friends and then we'll finish the cake.

"You know exactly. I can see it in your face." She giggles.
We cuddle up against the sofa and I watch her as she pays her full attention to the show. Her smile makes her cheeks glow more and more every time she laughs. In this moment I'm the happiest I have ever been. The show comes to and end and she's already ran to the kitchen.

She's making the white buttercream and has the strawberries in a basket beside the cake. I sit on the counter as she had done before and she turns to me.
"Do you want to ice it?" She says so sweetly.
"No, you do it." I smile and she does so.

She places each strawberry delicately on the extra piping of icing. She drops the last strawberry onto the dollop of icy and stands back to look at her cake. She spins it around to check for any imperfections. When she's sure it looks good she takes a photo of it. She even makes me hold the cake stand and takes a photo of me with it. I promise her to not send it anyone because that photo is so embarrassing.

She takes out two slices for each of us and places it on the plate. She grabs a fork for the two of us but I refuse. I take it with my hands and take a bite. The second it hits my tongue I turn my head to look at her and she's watching me, waiting for a reaction. When I swallow the last of the bite, I look to her and nod.

"It's delicious." I compliment and a smile breaks out on her face. I lift her slice from her plate and lift it to her mouth. She hesitates for a second and takes a bite and pretends to bite my finger. I watch her as she swallows as she did the same with me.

"It's good." She goes in for another bite. I laugh as she tosses the forks and eats with her hands. It's good to know she's not one of those girls who pretends to be so polite with their knifes and forks, I've never been one to use my manners. I guess that's what happens when you hang around Leo too much. He is so relaxed, I always liked that about him.