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“I think there’s flour on my nose. I can feel it.”
Carol looked to Therese for a half moment. She laughed. “Yes, you do have flour on your nose.” Not just on her nose, Therese suspected. When she laid the flour out on the board, she ended up letting out half the bag in just one jostle. Not exactly the greatest thing she’d ever done, accidentally or not. Though most of it was recovered, a fair bit of it had clouded up and made way just about everywhere. Most notably, her hair and the better portion of her face.
They were in the middle of baking cookies, something that Therese had suggested just a few hours earlier. Half because she was in the mood for cookies and half because they still hadn’t done very much in terms of Rindy’s Christmas. Therese explained that at the school, the girls would leave cookies out for Santa. Though she figured out that it was really just the heads of the school coming in to eat the cookies, the girls enjoyed making them.
Which left them to where they were now.
“I can’t wipe it off, my hands are covered in dough,” Therese complained. She supposed she should have added more flower to the dough as well, it was incredibly sticky. Fun to play with, maybe a little nostalgic. Carol plucked a tissue from the box across from them and wiped at Therese’s nose.
“Alright, are you feeling better now?”
“Better.”
Carol let out a contented sigh. “You know, it’s been a while it’s genuinely felt like Christmas. Nothing troubles me, time seems to move slower, happier… Can you feel it too, Therese?”
Kneading the dough further, Therese thought about it for a moment. “Yes, I do.” The year they met was just about the closest that she’d come to a genuine Christmas, dreamlike and wonderful. It wasn’t like she particularly thought much of Christmas before having met Carol. But now? She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t been looking forward to wintery skies and warmth by the fire for a long, long time. “I think it’s because I have you with me.”
“Really?” Carol pulled out two bags and weighed them in her hands. “Therese. Chocolate or walnut?”
Therese didn’t even miss a beat. “Why not both?”
“Good answer.” God, Therese loved Carol’s laugh, carefree and strong and beautiful. She could think it time and time again and yet it would always be just as powerful as the first time Therese heard it. “I think you’re right about Christmas being made better because we’re with each other. It’s nice to have your loved ones around over the holidays.”
“Better because it’s you,” Therese said. She pulled back from the dough while Carol poured in the chips and nuts into the dough. Then Therese went back to kneading. “I mean, you’re right, of course. I think it’s because I’ve never really had anyone to love over Christmas. Not my mother, not the school, not Richard, not anyone. And now I’ve got you and Rindy. Hell, even Abby makes Christmas feel just a little better.”
“Oh, you’re finally warming up to her?” Carol asked with a smile. “Alright, I think we’re good to start putting these on the pan.” While Therese had been kneading, she had bent over to grab a tray as well as some parchment paper they picked up around a week ago. “I didn’t think I’d be getting any use out of this.” Her tongue clicked.
“If these turn out any good, we’ll be getting a lot more use out of that. Or at least I will, anyways.” Therese began to take blobs of dough and patted them out on the sheet. “Too bad we didn’t think to get any cookie cutters. Though I paint, I’m not a sculptor and I don’t even think I could make a convincing tree out of these.”
Carol reached over to help Therese with laying out the cookies. “We’ll go out and get cookie cutters sometime this week, how about?”
The cookies were laid out as best as they could. Carol suggested that they might have added too much walnut and chocolate, but not enough dough. Therese shrugged. Soon enough, they were in the oven and Carol was setting up the alarm.
“Now we just have to find something to do for the better part of twenty minutes.”
“Something that isn’t horribly distracting,” Carol agreed with a nod and an impish implication behind it. “Because these cookies are of the utmost importance.”
“I spent more time cleaning up flour than I did making any cookies, so I’d better hope they are,” Therese laughed. “Here, help me clean up.”
Admittedly, Therese spent more time flicking bits of water at Carol playfully than they did cleaning up, though it did eventually get done. Therese tried to pick up one of the treats as soon as it was out of the oven (arguably not her finest moment either) and Carol laughed in utter disbelief.
The cookies turned out nice, at least.