When I heard the notification sound, I thought it was something my delusional mind came up with. Fool me a hundredth time, shame on you, brain.
But still my hand reached to grab my phone. Were any there part of me in my control?
"Thanks for the dinner and movie. I like spending time with you". It was from Dean. Was I seeing things now?
No, it seemed real. The pinch was really painful and I made a mental note to go easy next time if I wanted to check if it was a dream.
Can you tell me if I could stay sane after reading this text?
Was he planning to deprive me of my precious sleep? Nowadays I have been trading my game time for some quality sleep. But now I was going to stay up thinking about his words.
But I must have been more tired than I thought and fell asleep after few minutes of replaying the message on my mind. What did I think would happen? Would the message magically make sense?
I heard the alarm when I was dreaming something about Dean. Stupid clocks. I couldn't remember the dream exactly but we were on a campsite watching stars.
Should I go camping to distract myself? Should I ask Dean to tag along?
I decided against it so that I could hold on to the remaining shred of my sanity. At this point, you might need a microscope to even take a glimpse at it. My sanity, I mean.
I reached office and I could sense something was going on as people were animatedly talking among themselves.
Right on cue, our boss announced that we were having potluck lunch for the next day. We all needed to bring one dish each and to avoid repeating of dishes, each person was requested to bring a specific dish.
I opened the email which had the fateful list. I scanned for my name and it said 'cake' against it.
Sounds easy. Right? I could buy something on my way. But to my disappointment, something was written below. "This is a team building activity. You have to bring the one you made. If we find out it is store-bought, you have to buy coffee for everyone".
Wow! Were all the people in my office had a flair for drama? How in the world was I going to become a baker overnight? I have tried baking a few times before and it never turned out well.
Look at Rose, she got sandwiches and she was happy. Knowing her, she would buy it from the store and convince people that she even made the bread from scratch.
I heard a notification coming in at that moment and it was from Dean.
"Do you want to come over? I would like to cook dinner for you. You know, for yesterday".
"Are you taking revenge or something?" I replied immediately. I knew he didn't mean it that way. Still I liked to tease him.
"Your humor sense know no bounds. I am lol-ing. So, pick you up at 5?"
"Sorry, can't. I have to prepare a cake for potluck in my office tomorrow".
"Cake, huh? Need help?" He might know how to bake. He would at least help me buy one. I had to take his help, for obvious reasons.
"Yes, please. You can come to my house around 6 if that's ok". I told myself it was for the office. I wanted to make a good impression.
Just between us, I didn't really care about the cake. Don't tell my friends. I was happy that Dean was coming over. Again.
I was in the grocery shop near my home and looking frantically through a blog post which promised to teach baking to suddenly become viral overnight. Ok, hold your horses, blog people. Let me look for ingredients to buy first.
Why on God's green earth were these many types of cake? I didn't know which to choose.
No. The question should be, "Would people be able to eat it once I was done with the cake?"
Dean called me and I started complaining immediately. "How could someone learn baking and become viral overnight? God, I don't even know where to start. Should I choose dairy free and gluten free so that 'healthy people' could eat it? Can we call people healthy if they don't want to eat cake? What about vegans? I don't know everyone's preferences. I can buy from a shop but what if they ask me to buy coffee for everyone? I love my friends but they order expensive stuff if someone else is buying"
He was laughing like a maniac. Was I funny? I didn't intend to be. Not at that moment. "Baby, calm down. Breathe. Where are you? I will come and help you to buy things".
I told him that I was at the grocery store and he was there within 10 minutes. I was just picking random stuff and filling my cart until he showed up.
"Ready-made cake mix?" He raised his eyebrows. "Aww, you don't trust me? I'm hurt, baby".
"N-no. It's not like that. This is just a back-up. In case we need something extra". Did I offend him?
He poked my ribs. "Chill. I was just teasing. Keep it. Might help. I am not great at baking either".
We decided to buy the ingredients for a normal cake. Not vegan. Not healthy. Not anything. A simple cake. There would be other dessert options for people to choose from.
We checked out everything and we drove separately to my home.
It suddenly hit me that Dean would be in my home again. Baking a cake. Would the cake turn out good? Frankly, I didn't care. Would I do anything I might regret? Probably.
A/N: Will that cake bring out a confession? Let's see ;) And frankly, I don't care if the people in office get any dessert or not. Confess soon, or I am going to do it for you, Alex.
Have you guys tried cooking or baking? Which is your favorite?
Here are some desserts to sweeten YOUR day :)