Why I Love Singlehood: (41 page)
Read Why I Love Singlehood: Online
Authors: Elisa Lorello,Sarah Girrell
Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Contemporary, #Contemporary Women
“But if people could make all the cookies themselves, then why would they still buy them from me?” I asked.
Tracy gave me an
oh-please
look. “Like I have time to bake. And as if I could ever bake like you!”
“Or anyone else,” added Spencer. “Bake like Eva, I mean. Not to criticize your baking abilities, Trace.”
“What do you think, Norman?” I asked.
“I think we should all get profit-sharing.”
As the Originals began suggesting book titles, I caught myself mentally skimming through recipes in my head, weeding out those that were too simple, too complex, or too similar to someone else’s work. Each recipe needed a story to accompany it, I’d realized, and suddenly the idea appealed to me even more. A cookbook was one thing. But a book that highlighted the hows and whys of the recipes, the reasons for their existence, would capture the
feelings
each recipe evoked.
That was something worth writing. And in sharing my stories with each recipe, readers would, in return, create their own. Years from now, grown-ups would talk about how their mom made Daisy Pick-Me-Ups for them after school when they were kids. Or perhaps a woman would win her hubby’s heart thanks to caramel truffle brownies. Or the lemon torte would be re-christened as a birthday treat.
I was all about writing stories lately, and I found margins of papers and both sides of napkins scribbled with ideas that had been pouring out of me since the start of the new term. Academia agreed with me this time around. More than that, it
inspired
me.
After the timer went off and the muffins had fully cooled, I transferred all but one to a tray and slid it into the top shelf of the display case. I then placed the remaining muffin on a small plate and sprinkled it with red sugar crystals.
Stalling, I felt a wave of insecurity. What if it didn’t work? What if I had gotten it all wrong, or still wasn’t ready? What if I’d missed my chance and there was no going back?
Then unpredictability would win again, and life would go on. And that was OK.
I took a deep breath and entered the café, plate in hand.
Near the window, Kenny was packing up his laptop and pulling out a book. He closed his eyes as I approached, inhaling deeply. “Mmm,” he rumbled, “that smells
so
good.” I stood, as if rooted to the spot, watching him bask in the scent.
I held it out to him. “Split it with me?”
His eyes brightened, then narrowed. “I thought you could eat a whole one of those things by yourself.”
“Oh I can,” I said, glancing first at the outstretched muffin, then at him. “And I want to. But that doesn’t mean I
have
to.”
I counted my heartbeats and waited for his response.
He broke into laughter—warm and rich—and all the apprehension melted away until it was just Kenny, me, and a chocolate chip muffin. And in that moment, surrounded by the hum of friends and customers cradled in familial scents, I swear he sounded like chocolate.
About the Authors
Elisa Lorello is the Kindle-bestselling author of
Faking It
and
Ordinary World
. Born and raised on Long Island, New York, she spent eleven years in southeastern Massachusetts before moving to central North Carolina, where she teaches and writes today.
Sarah Girrell has a background in art history, writing, and rhetoric. After moving to Ithaca, New York, to earn a medical degree, she and her husband returned to her native Vermont, where she is a physician and writer.
Elisa and Sarah met at UMass-Dartmouth in 2002, where they quickly discovered a shared love of writing and a humor for everyday life.
Why I Love Singlehood
is their second collaboration and Sarah’s authorial debut.
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