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Leighton decided the crook of Alicia’s shoulder was her favorite place in the world. There were many other places on Alicia Leighton was fond of but this was one of the most comfortable ones. Her head was perfectly cradled and she loved the way Alicia’s arm automatically came around and secured to her side.
They were watching The Great British Bake Off which Leighton was only half-listening to, the people were too nice (she preferred Chopped) but hearing Alicia’s cute little laughs made her acquiesce every time.
Leighton wasn’t one that was typically into cuddling. She wasn’t touchy-feely with her friends. Her mother never hugged anyone but Nico and always embraced him a little longer than socially acceptable for their mother-son relationship and her dad gave okay, brief one arm hugs.
She also couldn’t remember the last time she liked cuddling with someone she was sleeping with, then again she didn’t hadn’t met anyone she had wanted to keep having sex with until Alicia. Did monogamous sex automatically turn you into a cuddler? Leighton furrowed her brow as she watched a blob of icing slip off some sort of cookie pile on the screen.
“Hey I’ve got a question for you.” Alicia’s voice interrupted her trailing thoughts.
“Mmmhmm.” Leighton shifted, pressing herself closer and hooking a leg over Alicia’s hip.
Alicia laughed, Leighton felt the vibrations and smiled.
“I would have never guessed Leighton Murray is a stage five cuddle bug.”
“Shut up.” Leighton grumbled pressing her nose into Alicia’s tank top and sighing contentedly. Alicia always smelled good to her. A mixture of the jasmine green tea she always drank and her lemon laundry soap.
“As cute as you’re being right now my arm is falling asleep babe.” Alicia continued, shifting and slid down onto the pillow so she and Leighton were facing each other.
“Would you be interested in going to a cooking class with me? My mom got tickets for her friend's birthday but her friend just found out she’s allergic to gluten so she offered them to me.”
Leighton stared at her.
“It’s in the next town over at this woman’s house. She used to write for the NY Times and then moved here to take care of her mother and apparently no one in Vermont makes good fresh pasta so she started teaching. She only holds small classes and also there will probably be a bunch of older people considering it was my mom and friend originally going so I'm fairly certain no one from Essex will know who we are.” Alicia finished in a rush.
She and Leighton had talked briefly about Leighton’s wish to keep their relationship a secret for now although at the time Leighton had been naked and Alicia looked like she would have agreed to just about anything, the conversation was brief.
Leighton blinked. “It’s not that. I’m not worried about that.”
“What is it then?” Alicia asked.
“No one’s ever asked me out on a date before.” Leighton confessed, she felt heat rising in her cheeks and averted her eyes, her hands fiddled with the blanket.
She felt Alicia’s warm hand caress her cheek and tilt her jaw upwards. When she lifted her gaze Leighton found Alicia’s face filling her field of vision. Impossibly dark brown eyes looked at her with an overwhelming amount of love. Leighton felt like her heart skipped a beat.
“Well I guess it’s time to pop that cherry then.”
Leighton laughed and then squeaked as Alicia rolled on top of her covering her with kisses.
*
“Now go ahead and roll your dough out so it’s about 1 inch thick.” Their instructor, Maria announced and started walking around to each couple’s table.
Maria lived in a two story condo and had converted the downstairs into her classroom setting. Wrap around wood shelves surrounding the room weighed down with ingredients and various kitchen supplies. At the front of the room an impressive island counter sat where Maria performed her demonstrations facing four workbench tables.
As Alicia had predicted the three other couples in the class were in their fifties or older and were all delighted to have Alicia and Leighton in their midst. Maria’s mother, Valentina, a regal looking woman who only spoke Italian was also there to assist but mostly held court at the front making tomato sauce (their other business selling jars of it at the farmer’s market Maria explained) and would occasionally walk around passing nonverbal judgment on each couple's progress.
““She made a dent in your dough!” Leighton complained.
Valentina had finished at their table. After tasting their tomato sauce she had prodded their dough Alicia had just uncovered and clucked at her before taking it swiftly and putting it back in the proofing drawer.
“Altri sette minuti.” Valentina had proclaimed before stalking away.
“She could probably fit in a proofing drawer.” Leighton muttered which earned her a playful smack from Alicia’s flour dusted hand.
“This is silk, have some respect!” Leighton exclaimed, shaking her sleeve.
“Absolutely not.” Alicia declared stirring their tomato sauce with vigor. “You proclaimed this to be your “cooking outfit” so in that case you shouldn’t mind getting it a little dirty, no?”
Leighton glared but allowed Alicia to feed her a sample from a tasting spoon. More salt was the verdict.
“Okay fine! I don’t cook.” Leighton said, brushing salt crystals from her hands.
“I know.” Alicia said shortly and then smirked. “Remember when we made cookies and you didn’t know what “fold the flour in” meant?”
*
“Not too thin girls!” Maria said, passing by their table. “You can go ahead and set up the pasta roller.”
“Leighton, can you hold this in place while I adjust the clamp?” Alicia said fiddling with roller. “Leighton?” Alicia looked around and catching the look on Leighton’s face she straightened up and drew close.
“Babe,” Alicia said quietly with a wide smirk on her face. “I know my arms look spectacular and I appreciate your appreciation.”
“Have they always been this toned?” Leighton said a little breathlessly, her hand twitching like she wanted to run it along Alicia’s arm. Alicia wished at that moment that there wasn’t another half hour to this class.
She stepped closer and rose up on her tiptoes to whisper into Leighton’s ear. “I’m going to need you to pull it together or I’m going to end up pinning you down on this table instead of the pasta.”
Leighton inhaled sharply and then ducked away to sneeze and then turned back and gasped, “You have flour in your hair.”
Alicia snickered and handed her the pasta roller. “Hold this down please.”
*
“Well I suppose it could have been worse?” Leighton said as they walked back through the town's plaza to the parking lot.
“Only half of our pasta came out, the other half dissolved upon being cooked.” Alicia said mournfully.
Leighton glanced around and then took a breath and caught Alicia’s hand in her own, interlacing their fingers. They fit together perfectly of course. She could still feel some of the leftover flour that had stuck to her fingers. She heard Alicia’s breath catch.
“Our pasta strands were too thin.” Leighton said nonchalantly.
“You have flour on your hand Leighton.” Alicia said softly. Leighton began to pull away but was immediately stopped by tightening fingers and a thumb making small circular motions against her own.
“So it seems.” Leighton replied, glancing over to see Alicia’s mouth curved into a soft smile as their intertwined hands swung gently between them.
As Leighton looked at her girlfriend briefly illuminated by the passing streetlights she came to the solid conclusion that it was official. She, Leighton Murray, was most certainly, hopelessly, terrifyingly, and profoundly in love.