Page 89 of With Us

“Ready?” Ben asked.

I nodded, pulling my hair up into a messy bun on the top of my head. “I don’t know what I did wrong.”

“I’ll show you.” Creaming the brown sugar, butter, and vanilla slowly together with the mixer, Ben handed me the flour and a bowl. “You’re supposed to mix the wet and dry ingredients separately. If you dump it all in together, at best you end up with dry and cakey cookies.”

“And at worst?”

“At worst, you end up with flour all over your face and an overworked mixer that blows the fuse.”

“Oh.”

Listening hard, I followed his instructions exactly, not trying to take a shortcut. He’d tweaked the recipe by using brown sugar instead of white, and adding a bit of coarse salt. Since he wasn’t the one who’d been covered in flour, I figured it was safe to trust his changes.

I was glad I had, because less than an hour later, all the dough was gone and we were snacking on the best cookies I’d ever had. The outsides edges were crunchy, and the rest was chewy.

“These are really amazing,” I said, finishing my third one. “Where’d you learn to bake like this?”

“My mom.”

Racking my brain, I tried to remember if he or Theo had ever mentioned Ben’s family. Coming up with nothing, I said, “Oh, that’s sweet.”

He lifted his chin, his lips pressing into a tight line for a moment. “She used to love to bake.”

I was still a bit tipsy, but I heard his tone and word choice crystal clear. He wasn’t inviting further conversation about it, and I knew from experience how it felt to not want to talk.

With my alcohol loosened tongue, I blurted in one break-less whoosh, “My mom died when I was a baby, so no one taught me I wasn’t supposed to just dump everything in one bowl. Now I know. So thank you.” I inhaled deeply and smiled. “I’m going to clean up. Want to watch a movie when I’m done?”

His brows shot up as he shook his head. “I’ll take care of it.”

I waved away the offer. “You did more than enough, I’ve got it.” I started the bowls soaking before putting away the rest of the ingredients. “Thanks again for all the help, those cookies came out way better than any I’ve made. Or bought. Or tasted. I like the brown sugar; you can really taste the difference.” I hummed as I did the dishes quickly, putting them on the rack to dry. When I finished, I began packing the cookies away. I split them in half, putting some in the cookie jar and the rest in a Tupperware bowl. I turned and held the bowl out to Ben. “So you work the security side of things at Amaric? Is it interesting? Do you like it?”

Ben didn’t say anything at first, his eyes scanning the counter then moving between the bowl and me.

Shaking the container lightly so I didn’t break the cookies, I waited for him to take them.

He finally did, but he had an unreadable expression on his face. “Thanks.”

I shrugged. “Hey, you made them. I just tried to explode the mixer.” I grinned. “Thank you again.”

Returning my smile, Ben finally answered my questions. “I’m the head of building security, but not the head of all the security. It can be interesting, if you like that kind of thing. I do, so I like it a lot.”

“That’s cool then. It has to make going to work better if you like what you do.”

“It does.”

I rinsed out my milk glass and grabbed my water bottle from in the fridge. “Want to watch that movie?”

He shook his head, but did it with an apologetic smile. “Theo should be here soon, so I’m going to take care of some work while I wait for him. You go ahead though.”

“Okay,” I said before clicking my tongue to call for Gus. “I guess it’ll just be me and the nonverbal Gus. Bye Ben, thanks again.”

“You’re welcome, Dahlia,” he said, grabbing his bowl and heading for the living room.

I walked into the entertainment room and scanned the new movies Theo had gotten for me. Finding my favorite, I popped it in. I grabbed a blanket from the cabinet in the back and plopped down on the recliner.

I was asleep before the title sequence finished.

???

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