Rising Love

For The Rest Of My Life, For The Rest Of Yours

"Wait - so I do it like this? Moving it back and forth like that?"

"I - no, Camz, you have to press into it, add some pressure, don't be afraid to be rough with it."

"Can I flip it like this?"

Splat.

"No, no! That - I - it cuts off the air so it'll end up flat and droopy."

"I just don't get it," Camila pouts, slapping the ball of bread dough with her hand, which is coated in dough and flour. "How are you and Zayn so good with bread dough?"

"Practice," Lauren's face crinkles into a grin, before letting her eyes close as she kneads the dough, something she can do in her sleep. "It takes a while before you get the hang of it."

"It's not fair." Camila crosses her arms, which ends up staining her brown apron with streaks of flour. "It's a blob of - of flour and water and some olive oil and I can't even make it into the right shape!" She raises her arms in the air in a gesture of exasperation.

"Camz, it's a little more complicated than that, give me some credit. It's a science, it's an art -"

"It's too hard." Camila says as she continues pouting with gusto, and Lauren can't help but break into laughter while she reaches over Camila's arms molds and forms the dough between her hands.

"Babe?" Lauren asks, still kneading the dough. "Can you get the glass bowl over there and rub the inside down with olive oil? It's gonna be ready to rise in a few minutes."

"No."

"Okay, I'll do it then." a husky voice replied, and Lauren turned to see Zayn enter the house, groceries in hand. He sets them down by the dining table and goes to the cabinet, preparing the bowl for the dough's rising from muscle memory. At least, that's how Camila sees it. Lauren and Zayn's whole personas seem to shift when they bake. They become more focus-oriented, more meticulous, oftentimes a lot more blunt as well.

Zayn places the bowl in front of Lauren, who is cradling the dough in her palms like the way one holds water. She lowers her hands into the bowl, coating them in a light layer of olive oil, and releases the dough gently, letting it slide into it's temporary home for the next three hours.

"They're out of the good popcorn, so I had to go get it at another shop, that's why I was gone for so long." Zayn told Lauren, quickly washing his hands so he could put the groceries away while Lauren watched the bread rise and Camila pouted.

Lauren chuckles. "You should have seen Camila while I was kneading the bread."

"Lauren -" Camila interjects, but her words are ignored.

"Before this lesson where I'm teaching her about bread, Camz was so sure that she'd be able to pull it off easily. The tables have now turned."

"Laurennnnnnn, stop, baby." Camila whines.

The baker shakes her head. "We've been together for a few months now, Camz, and I really just want to relish this moment. I never knew you could make bread baking so fucking adorable."

Zayn grins at his friends. He had known Lauren longer than Camila but since the two spent so much time together, it was easy for Zayn to get a strong friendship with Camila, and it didn't take too long for them to become close. He turns his head when the door opens again.

"Who fucking missed me?" Rosa says as she walks in, spreading her arms wide, her brown hair cascading over her shoulders. She's wearing a pink tanktop that has the words 'our sex has meaning' and a leather jacket with jeans. Cole walks in with a sandwich in his mouth, which doesn't surprise the trio watching from the kitchen.