Page 20 of Becoming Cinderella

“Okay, it looks like three cups flour.”

I slide the book between us so he can see it too as he opens up one of the bags of flour and starts scooping it into the bowl.

He works on the dry ingredients while I get the butter and eggs. We work in sync, and I’m thankful he’s here, but I just don’t feel like myself.

Rejection, even in the smallest form, is not easy.

Liam reaches for a wooden spoon that he had included in the bowl but I stop him.

“Wait, a mixer will be easier.” I step into the walk-in pantry and grab the electric mixer that my mom keeps stored on one of the top shelves. I plug it in before handing it to him.

He starts it off on the highest setting, a mix of flour and sugar shooting out of the bowl. His eyes go wide but he doesn’t turn it off, the ingredients continuing to go in every direction. He stares at the mixer like it’s betrayed him.

“Liam!” I shout over the mixer as I reach over to turn it off. “You have to start it off slow.” I can’t help but giggle at the flour that’s on his left cheek and in his hair.

He does what I say, turning the mixer on its lowest setting and slowly placing it back into the bowl.

I’m not sure how much of the ingredients are even left in the bowl anymore, and I stand on my toes to take a peek, to see if cookie dough is actually forming or if we need to start over. To my relief, and slight surprise, there’s dough. I preheat the oven before pulling out cookie sheets and spraying them with non-stick spray as he finishes mixing.

Liam glances at me before turning it off. “Like that?”

“Just like that.” I hand him a spoon. “And now we place the dough on the sheets.”

I place a couple of spoonfuls of dough on the pan, trying to picture it had been Jared here instead of Liam. Nothing so far about making cookies tonight has me thinking this would have helped me romantically.

“What are you thinking so deeply about?”

I look up at Liam, realizing I had stopped working. “What makes you think tonight would have helped Jared’s feelings for me? I mean, you said earlier it was quality time, but surely there’s more to it than that.” You don’t fall in love with every person you spend quality time with.

Liam sets his spoon down and steps towards me. “Look at you doubting me again.” He looks down at the balls of cookie dough I placed on the tray, his eyebrows furrowing. “Carter, you’re doing it wrong.”

I look at the tray, surprised. How do you scoop cookie dough onto a sheet wrong? “I am?”

“Yes, let me show you.” Liam steps behind me and takes my hand, helping me scoop up some dough before guiding it to the tray.

His head is only inches from my own and I have to lean against the counter for support, worried my knees are going to buckle out from under me.

“That’s exactly what I was doing.” I tell him, although it comes out airy.

“But maybe Jared would have done it wrong and needed help.” He says into my ear, making the hairs on my arms rise, before taking a step away from me.

He’s still close enough that I’m worried he’ll be able to hear the rapid rate my heart is suddenly going at.

“Then I imagine you’d lean into him like this,” he turns to face me, leaning in so our faces are mere inches apart.

If I really wanted to all I would need to do was push up on my toes to kiss him.

Whoa. Where did that thought come from?

I give my head a small shake like that’s all it will take to shake the thought away.

“And you’d say something like, ‘you’ve got something right-’” he swipes his finger down the bridge of my nose and if I thought my heart beat was irregular before, I don’t know what to consider the way it’s beating now. “‘-there.’ You know, an excuse to touch him.” He pulls back with a smile. “Except I really did just get flour on you.”

He wipes his hand on his jeans before he swipes his finger against my nose again.

Is it hot in here all of a sudden?

“Jared wouldn’t have known what hit him.”

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