Summary: With the holiday season upon them, MC (Lydia) goes a little overboard with baking.
Zig unlocked the front door of their apartment and pushed it open. He was immediately greeted by the sounds of Christmas music and the smell of cookies. Zig smiled.
“Hey, gatita,” he called as he shrugged off his jacket and hung it on a hook by the door. “Something smells really–” His voice faltered as he came around the corner and saw the state of the kitchen. “Oh … my … god.”
Every available surface in the kitchen was covered in cookies, piled high in precarious towers. Sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin, snickerdoodles, rocky road, and God only knew what other kinds.
“Hey!” Lydia exclaimed, her hair wild and a smudge of flour on her cheek like war paint. “I know things are kind of tight this year with it being the first year of the coffee shop, so I thought we could just give cookies to everyone!” She picked up an open container of frosting on the table and dug in with butter knife.
“That’s … a nice idea,” Zig said slowly, still trying to process the chaos in front of him. “Exactly how many people are we giving cookies to?”
Lydia blushed sheepishly.
“Well, at first it was just going to be for our core friends: Abbie and Tyler, James and his girlfriend, Kaitlyn and her girlfriend, Zack, and Chris. But then I figured Gabriela and Rico should get some, and then I added Arjun and Brandon and Darren and Amara …” she trailed off as she looked around the kitchen, seemingly for the first time. “I … may have overdone it.”
Zig smiled and held out his hand.
“Come here,” he said.
“But I have to frost the cookies,” Lydia protested as he pointed to the tub of frosting.
“It can wait a second,” Zig said.
“But–”
Zig reached over and gently took the frosting from her, carefully setting it beside a particularly tenuous pile of sugar cookies. He took her hand and led her over to the couch.
“So, gatita, what’s going on?” Zig asked.
“I told you, I just got carried away with the cookies,” Lydia said.
“I know, but this isn’t like you,” Zig said as he smoothed down her flyaway hairs. Lydia sighed.
“I know, I just … I want our first Christmas as a married couple to be perfect,” she said. “We already have to cut back on so much because of the coffee shop, but I don’t want anyone to miss out on anything.”
Zig smiled and brushed the flour from her cheek.
“Babe, I really don’t want you to stress yourself out like this,” he said. “I know things have been crazy with the shop, but everyone understands that we opened a new business. I mean, come on, Chris is pretty much singlehandedly keeping us open while he works on his Masters.” Lydia laughed. “And as for me, you know that I’m pretty easy to please. As long as I’m with you, Christmas will be perfect.”
“Really?”
“Really.” Zig leaned over and kissed her softly. Lydia sighed.
“I’m sorry I got so cookie crazy,” she said.
“Hey, it’s why I love you,” Zig said as he squeezed her hand. “I love that you want to make sure everyone has a good holiday, especially me. But it’s my job to make sure that you have a good Christmas, too. Let me be your elf.”
Lydia laughed.
“Only if you promise to wear those elf shoes with the curly toes,” she said. Zig grinned.
“For you, anything.”
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