Page 63 of Ordinary Secrets

Have any of my life decisions been my own?

19

ARELLA

Trey’s bruisessure healed quickly. When he comes to pick me up, the shiner on his face is gone. The gashes on his knuckles have disappeared, too. His injuries were worse than mine, yet my face isstillpurple. It’s only been three days.How did he heal so fast?

“Did you drink some magic potion or something?” I joke as he ushers me into his kitchen with a hand on the small of my back. I barely flinched when he placed his hand there, and I’m pretty proud of myself for it.

“Magic potion?” He drops his hand from my back, and I kind of wish he hadn’t.

“Yeah, to heal your knuckles.”

He flexes his fingers, staring at the places where the gashes used to be. “They weren’t that bad.”

Maybe, but his hand looks brand-new . . .

With a waggle of his eyebrows, he says, “So, am I allowed to classify tonight as a date?”

“Is that what you want?” I smile back and set my purse on his black countertop.

“I only want to call this a date ifyouwant to call this a date.”

I nod a little too eagerly. “I’d like that.”

“Great!” He flashes me one of the biggest grins I’ve ever seen on a man. “For our date, do you wanna teach me how to bake?”

I perk up. “Really?”

We spend some time picking out a recipe online. After we decide on something easy, I teach him how to correctly measure out flour.

“When baking,” I say as I dump the spooned white fluff into a mixing bowl, “you usually want to put the dry ingredients into the bowl first. Then you add the wet ingredients after you make a well.”

“Make a what?” He’s cute when he doesn’t have any idea what he’s doing.

“Here, I’ll show you.” After I measure out a few more dry ingredients into the bowl, I show him how to make a well.

He scoffs. “That’s it? It’s just a hole in the middle with a fancy name.”

I laugh as I pour in the wet ingredients, and then I gesture for him to mix it all together. “You don’t bake very often, do you?”

He takes the bowl. “I’ve never baked anything at all.”

“Um...” I gesture at all the baking supplies scattered across his countertop. “You sure have a lot of baking tools for someone who never bakes.”

“I just bought all this shit last night.”

“Why?”

“Because I read on Google that baking can be a fun date activity. You love baking, so I figured you’d like this.”

I laugh, slapping my palm against the counter. “Wait! YouGoogleddate ideas?”

“Yeah...” He looks away sheepishly. “I’ve never done this before. I’m clueless, and Professor Google has never let me down.”

“You’ve never done what before?”

“Date.”

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