by Mary Smith
Suddenly, he was a bit nervous to attempt this for the first time around Lily.
The anxious feeling in his chest made no sense.
“What are you watching?” Spencer’s voice interrupted his thoughts and made him forget all about the odd flutter in his chest.
“Gingerbread house decorating. It’s what we’re doing tonight, and I wanted to get a head start on planning.” Zane got up and searched the kitchen for a plastic storage bag.
“What are you looking for?”
He knew how his cousin would respond, but he said it anyway, “I want to get a little practice in.”
“Of course you do. Zane the perfectionist. I don’t expect anything less from you.” Spencer shook his head with a hearty laugh as he went back to his spot on the couch.
After two hours of trying to make lines and snowflakes with his makeshift icing bag, which was just a plastic sandwich baggie with a corner cut off, he didn’t feel any more ready than he did before he started.
“I’m just going to say this now, and I’m sure you’ll tell me I’m wrong but here goes. Z, you like this girl.”
“What? No. We’re just getting to know each other…and as friends. Only as friends.”
“Why? What’s the big deal?”
“What do you mean?” Zane looked up from his latest icing snowflake, and it looked pretty good if he did say so himself. Could anyone really mess up a snowflake?
“I mean, who cares if you have feelings for this girl? Is that really so bad? You could use a little romance in your life.”
Zane didn’t have time for this conversation, he had to meet Lily in about two hours, and he still wanted to jump in the shower.
He scooped up his mess of icing creations in a ball and tossed them in the garbage.
“Cuz, I don’t have the time to get into this with you right now. Let me say just one more time, we are just friends. We barely even know one another as friends yet. You can’t fall for a girl that fast.”
As he walked down the hallway to his room, his cousin yelled, “There’s no rules on love.”
Zane waited outside of the local culinary school. The wind was chilly tonight as it whipped around his face. He shoved his hands in his jacket pockets and regretted not bringing gloves or a scarf. He paced impatiently and wondered if Lily had changed her mind.
He was ready to text her when an Uber pulled up, and Lily stepped out.
She was bundled up in a winter jacket and hat. “Hey,” she called out of breath as she rushed up to him. “I am so sorry I’m late! I know it’s silly, but I couldn’t decide what to wear. Then once I did, the Uber was farther away than I had hoped. But I am here now. We aren’t late, are we?”
Zane looked back at the school, and there were still folks casually walking in. “Nope, doesn’t appear that we are.”
He held out his arm to her and smiled.
Lily wrapped her arm around his, and they walked into the culinary school.
The aroma of gingerbread filled his nose as they strolled through the lobby. “Wow, that smells delicious.”
Lily didn’t respond. Instead, she seemed to be in awe of every poster and photo that they passed by. She peered into the empty classrooms and paused for a second as she took everything in.
Her reaction to the culinary school was cute, but now he was curious. “You like to bake, right? You ever consider going to culinary school instead?”
Lily’s head spun around in his direction. Her eyes narrowed and her words were sharp and quick. “Oh no.”
She dropped her eyes to the ground and turned away from him.
They continued down the hall, following the signs to the gingerbread class.
“May I ask why not?” She was so adamant about her answer, so he couldn’t help but ask.
“Well…” She paused. “Let’s just say my family has a name to uphold, and therefore, I grew up with a specific plan for my life. And culinary school is not part of that plan.”
Zane wrinkled up his forehead and stared at her. “What does that mean?”
Lily ran ahead of him to the classroom, pointing at the sign taped to the door. “Oh look, here’s our class.”
He could take a hint. They obviously weren’t talking about this now. He knew better than to push. “Great.”
They found an empty workstation and made themselves comfortable. As the room filled up, Zane noticed it was full of couples. Real couples. He didn’t think far enough ahead to realize this would be more of a date-class. Why would anyone think that gingerbread house decorating would be a date night?
Or maybe he was just that out of the dating-loop to think that it wouldn’t be.
A female teacher started the class and began going over what each decorating tool was in the toolbox at their stations. “We’ll be passing out pre-built gingerbread houses and tubes of royal icing in white, red, and green. If you happen to run out of icing, don’t worry, we do have more.”
“Sorry I’m late,” a man who rushed into the classroom said. He dropped his backpack by the teacher’s desk and hung up his coat.
He put on an apron like the teacher.
“Good evening, folks. I am Bryan, Jane’s assistant.” He pointed to the teacher. Bryan began passing out trays that held an undecorated gingerbread house, containers of various candies, and tubes of colored icings.
As Bryan dropped off the cookie house at their table, he lingered a little longer than necessary making small talk with Lily, flashing a familiar smile to her before going to the next table.
Zane knew that smile well. He’d seen it many times from Spencer when he was hitting on a young woman.
The teacher continued to talk about the importance of using royal icing because it will hold the candy decorations on better than a softer icing. She showed photos of different completed gingerbread houses.
“Some folks like to use specific color combinations, red and white, red and green, all white, or multi-colored. Multi-colored can be accomplished with any type of rainbow candies. Personally, I like to use red, green, and white, but that is entirely up to you. The most important thing to do before you start is to have a plan for your design.”
Zane wasn’t paying a lot of attention, instead, the visual of Bryan smiling at Lily replayed in his brain.
“Zane, hello?” Lily said and waved her hand in front of his face.
“Um…what?” Zane stuttered.
“The teacher told us to discuss our ideas for the house design.” Lily took a pencil and drew the shape of a house. She quickly sketched some lines on the roof and laid a few pieces of alternating red and green candy dots on the paper provided for them. “We can do the roof shingles like this, just like one of those photos she showed us. What do you think?”
He nodded his head as her words sunk in. “Sounds like a great idea.” He looked down at the choices of sugar candies they had available to them. There were candy canes, sprinkles—red and green or chocolate—gumdrops, red and green coated candies, peppermints, and candy dots.
“Now, there are two ways to go about decorating your gingerbread house,” the teacher announced. “Some folks like to go all out and fit as many pieces of candy on the house as they can, giving it more of a Hansel and Gretel type feel. Because who wouldn’t enjoy a house made out of candy? Right? Then there are the folks who are more minimalists and take great care in decorating the house with icing versus candies. As you saw in the photos, there is no wrong way to do it.”
The teacher went on to show them how to use the tubes of icing.
Zane confidently began using his newly found icing skills—thanks to the YouTube videos—and didn’t wait for the teacher to finish talking. He used Lily’s design and outlined the roof and walls of the gingerbread house with white icing then carefully made scallops across the cookie roof with the white icing.
He picked up the green icing as an idea popped into his head. He looked up to see Lily watching him. Squeezing the green icing by accident, a bit of icing shot out
at Lily, landing right on her cheek.
“Oh no!” Zane’s face burned. He was sure he was bright red from the top of his head down to his neck. “I’m so sorry! Let me get that!”
Zane grabbed a napkin off their station and wiped the icing off her cheek.
“It didn’t get on your clothes, did it?”
“Relax,” Lily said, laughing. “It’s fine. It was just icing. And no, I don’t think it got on my clothes, but like I said, it’s just icing.”
“I didn’t mean to—”
“Would you feel better if I got icing on you? Then we’d be even,” Lily asked with a smirk.
“No.” He shook his head. Not sure why he was getting so weird about food coloring on his red shirt, but he was. “Nope, I’m good.”
“Aw, you don’t want green icing on your university polo shirt?” She held the tube of green icing in her hand. “Okay, no green icing, this time.”
“Thanks.” He laughed. “So should I be on alert?”
“Definitely.” Lily nodded with a devilish look on her face.
The teacher began to talk again. “Some folks like the look of the peppermints on their house. They think it gives it a Christmas feel.” She explained how to secure them on the gingerbread. “Make sure to hold them for a second so they won’t fall off.”
Zane looked at Lily. “Peppermints?”
Lily shook her head adamantly. “No.”
“I agree.” Zane wrinkled up his nose with a smirk.
“But maybe…” Lily grabbed two candy canes and held them up on either side of the door.
“I like that. It’s a nice touch,” Zane agreed.
“When it comes to your house,” the teacher added. “It’s always a good idea to outline each wall and the roof. For the walls, it helps hide where they were glued together with icing, and it looks really nice.”
A young woman raised her hand.
“Yes?” the teacher said.
“In the one picture you showed us, the roof had candies outlining it. Can we do that?” the young woman asked.
“Absolutely!” The teacher chuckled. “You can add anything you’d like. The photos I showed you were great examples of different types of designs. Use ideas from each if you’d like.”
Lily picked up a handful of hard-shell coated red and green candies and secured them on each shingle. Alternating red and green.
A young woman entered the room to drop off a rolling cart filled with gingerbread cookies.
“Hey, folks. We have a special treat for you. The culinary school made us homemade gingerbread people cookies to use. They are as tasty as they are adorable! Bryan will be around to pass them out to anyone that would like to add them to their house, or just would like a little treat—but if you’re going to eat them, please only one per person until everyone gets what they need.”
The aroma of gingerbread filled the room as Bryan passed out the cookies.
Lily’s face lit up along with the other cookie people. “Gingerbread cookies! They are my favorite!”
She grabbed four from the plate that Bryan held, ignoring his attempts at chatting her up. Which confused Zane with an odd sense of satisfaction.
“Tell me your idea for the gingerbread people.”
“I love gingerbread! I have a few decorations around my apartment that I keep out year-round with these little guys.” Her eyes sparkled with excitement as she spoke. “I was thinking one could stand out front welcoming folks. We could cut the head off one—”
“Woah, that sounds morbid.”
“Wait, hear me out!” She laughed. “We cut the poor gingerbread man’s head off and draw a window on the house. We put the head and arm in the window, so it looks like the gingerbread guy is waving from inside the house.”
Zane chuckled. “I love it! Let’s do it!”
Lily got to work carving the poor cookie. She popped a piece of the carnage in her mouth, handing him one as well. “Delicious! These were baked today. Can’t you taste how fresh they are?”
Zane ate his piece and nodded, agreeing with her even though he wasn’t as sure as she was. “And what about the fourth cookie?”
“Oh.” Lily grinned. “That one is for us to eat.” She broke the cookie in half, giving one piece to Zane.
“I think gingerbread cookies are becoming my favorite too,” Zane added, his tone flirty as if it came naturally to him. She didn’t have to know that it wasn’t.
“Now, folks, don’t forget the most important part. After you are done decorating your house, make sure you put some white icing around the house to make it look like snow for a wintry vibe,” the teacher said.
“And that’s where we’ll put a second gingerbread man,” Lily whispered excitedly.
Zane looked at her confused. “Where?”
“Out in a snowbank. Maybe we could even draw a winter hat and mittens on him. Like he’s playing in the snow!” Her excitement was contagious.
Zane couldn’t help the smile that slid across his lips. “With icing?”
“Yeah, sure.” Her words were nonchalant as if everyone was this talented to do this.
“Be my guest.” Zane watched, impressed as Lily used the red icing and drew mittens and a knit hat on one of the gingerbread men. She even put a little white tassel on the knit cap. “Wow.”
“Oh please, anyone could do that,” Lily said as her face turned light pink.
“Anyone? I don’t think so. I do pretty well at eating cookies. I could be an all-time champ at that. But drawing hats and mittens on them is not something that just anyone can do. That takes talent.”
Lily brushed his compliments off as they decorated the outside of the house, added windows, and a green icing wreath with a red bow above the door.
While the other couples were already finished, Lily and Zane were still putting on the finishing touches as well as some sparkling white sugar like the teacher had directed earlier.
When they were finally finished with their house, Zane stood back and admired their work of art while Lily took their trash up to the garbage can at the front of the classroom. Bryan stopped her. An odd feeling filled Zane’s gut. He couldn’t explain why, but he didn’t like the way that guy was up there hitting on her. It wasn’t his place to step in since he wasn’t her boyfriend. It still took everything in him not to go up there and tell him to back off.
The twisting feeling in his gut disappeared when Lily shook her head and motioned to walk back to their table. When Bryan wouldn’t move out of her way, she flashed a sarcastic smile and pushed by him.
This girl had spunk, and Zane liked that about her.
She smiled at Zane without looking back at Bryan.
However, Zane did look briefly at the culinary assistant. A proud feeling ran through him when he saw the wounded look on Bryan’s face.
“Zane,” Lily said as she pulled on her jacket. “You want to go grab some coffee?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Zane set both of their coffees on the table. “Hang on, let me get that.” He hurried to her and pulled out her chair, scooting it in as she sat down.
“That was fun!” Lily said with a beaming smile.
“Yeah.” Zane nodded. “It really was. I was just happy not being the least talented at decorating in the class.”
He sat down across the table and took a sip of hot coffee.
“Oh, please!” she scoffed. “You did a great job! I think our gingerbread house was very impressive. It was at least better than the one couple that used so many peppermints that they rolled off the house and onto the floor.” She laughed softly.
He couldn’t help but watch her. There was something so delicate and yet strong about Lily. She was so easy to talk to. It was almost as if he had known her his entire life.
“Right. They did go a little overboard with the mints.”
“I thought the teacher was going to burst into laughter when she saw their finished house,” Lily teased.
“Good thing she had a
good poker face!” Zane said with a laugh.
“I think Bryan tried to suggest that they use some other candies on it, but they didn’t want to hear any of it,” Lily added.
Zane held back the desire to roll his eyes at that guy’s name. He couldn’t help but ask, “So, at the end of class, was Bryan bothering you?”
“No, he wasn’t really bothering me. Let’s just say he, like the couple with too many peppermints on their house, also couldn’t take a hint.”
“Oh?” Zane was smart enough to leave the conversation open so if she wanted to talk about it, he was waiting, but if she didn’t want to, he wasn’t going to press her.
“Yeah. He tried asking me out.” She paused to take a drink of her coffee. Now her face twisted up in a repulsed look. “He didn’t even bother to ask if we were a couple. Who does that?”
Zane shrugged.
“Well, it was plain rude. You don’t ask someone out on a date when they are already out with someone. I mean…we weren’t on a date…but…you know…we were out together.” As Lily backpedaled her words, stuttering the whole way, her face turned a deep shade of pink. “Anyways, I turned him down.”
“Oh. You did, huh?”
“I did. He’s not my type. And like I told him, you and I were there together.” She sat back and relaxed her shoulders. “Manners are important to me, and obviously, he has none.”
“You’re right, that was rude of him not to even ask.” Zane nodded, oddly enough he was relieved that Lily turned that guy down. He was really enjoying his time with her and was glad Bryan wouldn’t be in the middle of it. “So, what’s our next Christmas adventure?”
“Oh!” Lily jumped around in her seat like an excited child. “This is going to be so much fun! It is a carriage ride that goes by all of the window displays in town.”
Zane smiled. “Sounds great!” He wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic about this event as Lily was. Horse-drawn carriage rides sounded romantic in theory, but no one talks about the smell that sometimes comes along with it. Or the freezing temperatures of December in Georgetown. He decided if he got to cuddle next to Lily in the cold for a carriage ride, he was thrilled with the idea.