So Much More

Let's Bring out the Bubbly

On a rare Sunday, her family would come together at Dad's house for a family dinner. It was a joyous affair; with the whole family from Dad's side and even Mom's side with Antonio and his kids. There was an abundance amount of food, jokes and all-around laughter.

Mel would cook and brought over her infamous lasagna and chicken pie, Kelley would whip out her delicious pies, Dad would be manning the grill for some steaks, Grace's in charge of the salad, Jasper would make some mouth-watering tomato soup and both Jesse and Deacon would be in charge of drinks. Stella and Alex would set the table, bringing some flower arrangements to spice up the dining table. And Dakota would bring over a large batch of tiramisu.

No, it was not store-bought either. She made the whole thing from scratch. From the espresso, to the cream and even the ladyfingers, she would spend the whole day before to concoct her tiramisu.

So that was what she was doing on a Saturday night; making her tiramisu.

She had stacked her espresso-soaked ladyfingers on a glass baking pan. She put a generous layer of the cream she had made before stacking another layer of ladyfingers. Another layer of cream before dusting the top with generous amount of cocoa and a bit of coffee powder, powdered-sugar and edible gold glitter.

She made some chocolate shards and domes before letting it all chill in the freezer till she needed to take it out the next day. She would decorate use the chocolate as a decoration for her tiramisu to make it more presentable for dinner.

"That looks delicious," she heard a voice from behind her as she finished arranging both of her pans in the freezer.

She turned to find Emily leaning against her kitchen island, a spoon in her mouth as she devoured her Chunky Monkey ice cream from its tube. "And you'll get to have some tomorrow."

"Did you only make that one pan?" Emily complained.

Dakota rolled her eyes. "If you forget, I'm on a strict diet so I can't just go around eating pans of tiramisu."

"You don't have to eat it all," the other woman said as she stuck her spoon to the ice cream tube once again. "We would help you eat some of it."

"That's why I made such a large batch, so there would be plenty for everyone."

"You know everyone loves your tiramisu. If you just made one pan and we had to share it together, we would only get to eat a small piece."

"Nobody ever complained before," she teased Emily.

Emily rolled her eyes. "Well, I'm just saying," came Emily's sour reply. "I'm sure Kelley and Don would appreciate it if you make some extra for them."

"Them or you?"

"Does it matter?"

Dakota grabbed a spoon from one of her drawers before scooping some of the ice cream from Emily's tube. She was feeling playful that night so she wanted to mess around a little. "Well I did make some extra ones, I suppose I could give it to Dad and Kelley."

Emily glared at her but she remained silent as she kept scooping up more ice cream before shoving them into her mouth. Whoever invented Chunky Monkey was a certified genius.

When Dakota was busying herself with the ice cream, Emily finally relented. "Alright, I give up. Will you please let me have some of the extra ones?" She begged.

"I made extra small ones for you in the freezer," she said with a grin, knowing how much her best friend loved her tiramisu.

The smile Emily had on lit up her whole face. "Yay! You're like the best best friend ever."