[✓] 𝐶𝐼𝑁𝐷𝐸𝑅 | 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑 𝐑𝐄𝐈𝐃

𝟏𝟑 | 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐋𝐎𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 | 𝟏/𝟐

— 𝒞 —

"𝐈 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐄!"

"Awesome," Charlie laughed, shuffling aside so that Emily could step into her apartment. "That'll pair wonderfully with the cupcakes I've made."

Emily gave a small gasp. "You made cupcakes?"

"I did!" Charlie exclaimed, carefully taking the wine bottle that Emily was holding out to her. "But there's a catch."

Her eyebrow quirked as she followed her into the kitchen area. "What's that?"

Charlie grinned as she set the wine bottle on the counter. "You have to decorate them with me."

"Can't promise they'll be pretty, but I'll do it," she laughed. "Mind telling me where the bathroom is first?" 

After Charlie had pointed Emily to the bathroom, she passed the couple of waiting minutes by setting things up on the kitchen island. She put out the plate of vanilla muffins that were waiting to be decorated, opened up the containers of icings she had bought earlier in the afternoon, and lined up the variations of sprinkles. The scent of the muffins had already been lingering in the apartment—she had baked them only a half-hour before—and the mouth-watering smell only grew stronger with the sweetness of the candies.

Emily came back just as Charlie was uncorking the wine, and out of the corner of her eye, she could see her guest looking around the apartment.

She grabbed two wine glasses from her cabinet and glanced back to see that Emily was near the back of the apartment, where the living room was. Though there were the thriving plants and handsome piano to admire, Emily was busy examining the photos that were hung up just above one of the couches. Charlie could already tell Emily was especially enjoying the photos of her younger self—where she was pre-braces and unknowing of self-care.

As Charlie poured the wine into the two glasses, Emily came back and slid into one of the stools in front of the kitchen island. "Your place is beautiful."

"Thanks!" Charlie grinned as she slid Emily's glass towards her before sitting beside her. "My mom helped me decorate; she's a real nut for home design."

Charlie reached over to the plate and grabbed two muffins. She placed one on each of their plates before taking a knife and scooping out some chocolate frosting.

"God, these smell delicious," Emily sighed, slathering some vanilla frosting onto hers. "I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish decorating before I start eating them."

"Way ahead of you; I ate at least three of them before you came."

Emily rolled her eyes in amusement and playfully elbowed Charlie, earning a giggle in reply.

Emily set the knife down and grabbed the container with rainbow sprinkles. "It's been so long since I've done something like this."

"What?" asked Charlie before sipping her wine. "Cupcakes?"

"I'm not the baking type." She shrugged as she shook some of the sprinkles onto the cupcake. "Either I put too much of something, or too little, or I leave it in the oven too long . . . I always manage to find a way to make it inedible."

"Well," Charlie giggled as she grabbed the gold sprinkles, "I love baking, so maybe I can teach you sometime."

Emily grinned. "I'd like that."

Charlie giggled, though her smile quickly turned into a frown as some of the sprinkles rolled off the icing and fell onto the plate.

Catching movement from the corner of her eye, Charlie glanced over to see Emily placing her cupcake back on the plate of muffins before grabbing a fresh one. A small scoff escaped her lips as she noticed the smooth icing and—somehow—perfectly placed sprinkles.