21 | Happy Songs and Runny Eggs

Holly scoffed. "Of course I knew, I'm a licensed therapist."

Everett and I could only stare at her with our minds reeling and jaws hanging open until we recovered from the whiplash of her casual words. Remembering that I had insisted upon the fact that any therapist would be able to see through our ruse, I glared at Everett who just shrugged and scrambled back onto the couch.

"I figured it out pretty early on," Holly continued, "But you seemed well suited so I let it play out."

Everett was the first to recuperate from the mind-bending admittance, and at Holly's request started regaling her with the tale of how we had met and the bet we had made.

Holly found it hilarious. She laughed until tears ran down her face, chuckling so hard that she was gasping for air by the time Everett's story was over.

"Technically, I suppose Clementine won the bet." Holly grinned, wiping residual tears from the corners of her eyes. "But you both thought you were fooling me, while I was playing you all along."

"You even gave us couples activities and made us go on dates!" I accused.

"Please. I didn't hear you complaining." Holly snorted. "You went through so many boring couples counseling sessions just for cupcakes? You must actually be in love."

My cheeks stained pink and even Everett looked shocked, although he couldn't stop smiling.

Holly teased us a bit more before she let us leave. I suppose it was payback for wasting her time with all the sessions, but she seemed to be enjoying our mortification.

"In my professional opinion, I daresay this bet was subconsciously just a ruse for you both to get close," Holly added, pointing two fingers at us as she finally shooed us out of her office.

"She's right, it's a lot to go through for cupcakes," I admitted to Everett as the door shut behind us, "Maybe I did have some ulterior motives."

"Oh, I definitely had ulterior motives," Everett assured as we walked in the direction of his house.

I stopped walking. "What do you mean?"

"I've always dreamed of getting roped into couples counseling with a hot stranger. I hoped something would come of it." He dramatically cast his eyes heavenwards as if his prayers had been answered.

I snorted. "Don't lie."

"No, really...I've definitely fantasized about it." He laughed, his nose getting scrunched up all cutely. "Honestly, I think I just read way too many Wattpad novels."

"Wattpad?" I asked in amazement, "You read that crap?"

"Hey don't diss the Orange Site!" Everett paused, cocking his head to the side as he considered the ghastly repercussions that too much Wattpad could bring to a person. "To be honest though, I can't stop shipping every single movie and anime character I see now, it's a big problem."

"Sounds awful." I paused. "So when you claimed to have stayed up reading recipe stories all night that day, were you really just on Wattpad?"

Everett laughed. "Yeah actually! But to be fair, that was just a really long recipe story I was reading on Wattpad. It was a whole fifty thousand word novel but there was a recipe in like chapter twenty-six. That's where I got my really good brownie recipe from."

I stared at him, aghast. "That might be taking the whole 'longer the story, better the recipe' thing a bit too far."

"It was a cute story though; I thought the characters were similar to us." Everett grinned. "It's by the same author."

"Are we the plot of a Wattpad story then?" I joked, interlocking my fingers with his as we continued walking.

"I think it fits all the requirements of one—it could be tagged as grumpyxsunshine," Everett teased.

I laughed as he tugged me by the hand. "Well, you are sunshine."

And he was. The days were colder now but he still beamed as bright as ever, the setting autumn sun casting streaks of golden light over his delicate face. His midnight eyes sparkled under the streetlights as he pulled me in for a kiss.

We finally made our way to his house, our footsteps meandering and wending with the many distractions delaying us. He clamped a hand over my nose and mouth as soon as we got through the front door, dragging me up to his room.

"I can't breathe, idiot!" I finally gasped, smacking his hand away as he closed the bedroom door.

"Sorry! I just wanted you to be quiet cause my parents are home now."

"Am I not supposed to be in here?" My eyes widened. "Everett! You snuck me in!"

"Sorry for not explaining beforehand." He grinned. "I thought you might be a stickler for the rules."

I huffed, knowing full well that I wouldn't have agreed to coming over had I known. "How am I supposed to leave now? You're lucky enough they didn't see you dragging me in."

"You'll have to go out through the window," Everett breezily replied.

"Absolutely not."

"It's not that far off the ground."

I leaned over the cushioned window seat to take a look, peering down through the large bay window. There was a well-positioned tree with sprawling branches that could be quite useful—but I did not sign up for this.

"First you kidnap me and then you expect me to silently scale down the side of your house?" I demanded, trying to sound serious but unable to help the smile that slipped into my voice.

Everett laughed sweetly, pushing me till I fell onto the cushioned seat. He straddled my lap, looping his arms around my neck as he pressed his lips against mine.

All my consternations flew out the window that I was supposed to climb out of. I yanked his hips closer as I kissed him back. Everett pushed me down into the throw pillows, cupping my face gently in his hands. The air between us was steamy with soft sounds as his lips moved on my face and neck. My breaths were getting shorter and more rapid.

I tried to wriggle into a more comfortable position as I felt something pressing against my spine. Everett lessened his weight on me as I shifted, yanking one of his many plushies out from under me.

"We should dance," Everett declared as I huffed and threw his huge plushie of a runny egg across the room.

Ignoring my protests, he dragged me up to my feet, turning on his sunny Spotify playlist. It was bright and happy, just like him.

He grabbed my hands and danced around the room. His feet moved in quick steps and hops, jaunty and cheerful. I stumbled against him but he slipped his arms around my waist and uprighted me.

I got into the hang of it after a while and was soon dancing along. His smile was infectious and I couldn't keep the silly beam off my face. I spun him around and he lost his balance, crashing into me and laughing.

"Woah!" I tried to regain my footing whilst also trying to keep him from having a date with the floor.

He was smiling like he was remembering something, his eyes glazed over and glistening. The music softened in the background as I stared at every star in his midnight sky.

"I was just thinking about how we met," he whispered in my ear, "We were really two idiots, making a dumb bet."

The curve of his lips had me catching my breath, trying to come up with something to say while I fought to keep from getting sucked into his burning sun. It had upended my center of gravity, replacing every starbeam with his beaming smile.

"I guess we were," I finally joked, smiling at the memory, "Just a couple of fools who came up with a terrible idea."

"On the contrary." Everett pulled me in close. "It was the best idea I've ever had."

A/n: The recipe story is titled Hell's Angel on my profile in case you're interested. There's some cute baking in that too, and that chapter was where I initially got inspiration to write a full on baking story :)

I'll drop a link in the comments right here if you wanna jump to it, just click on my username —>