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Isaac is running late.
Cora sighs, tucks her phone in her pocket and goes back to tapping her foot off the ground. She’s sitting at a table in the corner of the cafeteria, stomach churning from the cold pizza she had for breakfast, getting more and more annoyed by the minute. Isaac was supposed to meet her at noon so that they could grab something to eat before their one o’clock class.
She looks at her phone again. Only a minute has passed since the last time she checked. Isaac is nearly half an hour late and he hasn’t answered any of her texts.
She gives him exactly two more minutes. When her phone ticks from 12:30 to 12:31 with no sign of him, she rolls her eyes and sends him one last text.
i’m not buying you lunch this week. or letting you copy my notes.
Unsurprisingly, the threat doesn’t get her an answer either. Sighing, she makes her way out of the cafeteria, effortlessly weaving through the crowds of students waiting in line at the various food kiosks. Her class is in a building on the other side of campus and if she hurries, she should be able to make it before the professor actually starts lecturing.
She intends to cut through the history building but before she can make it inside, she stops in her tracks. There’s a table set up just outside the doors and even from a dozen feet away, she can smell fresh baked goods. Admittedly, she’s never really been one for cakes and donuts and cookies; when she was younger, her sister Laura liked to try and bake without following recipes, which resulted in rock hard fudge and muffins filled with chunks of baking powder. But the table smells so good and breakfast pizza won’t be enough to get her through her class, so she wanders over.
There’s no free space on the table; it’s crammed with containers of red velvet cupcakes, platters of raspberry squares and peanut butter fudge. In the middle, there’s a huge plate piled high with chocolate chip cookies, which look like they were just pulled out of the oven. On the other side of the table sits a girl, staring down into her lap at what looks like a comic book.
“Hi,” Cora says. The girl jumps about a foot and tosses her comic book under the table.
“Hey!” the girl replies, flashing a wide, bright smile. “See anything you like?” Cora looks over the table again before pointing at the container filled with blueberry muffins.
“Two of those, please.” She digs some money out of her pocket while the girl wraps the muffins up in a small paper bag.
“Did you make all this yourself?” she asks after the girl has handed her the muffins.
“Not at all!” the girl says with a laugh. “My friends did most of it, actually. I only made the chocolate chip cookies.” Cora stops with the muffins halfway towards her bag.
The cookies do look incredible.
“Give me one of the cookies too.” Somehow, the girl’s smile grows even brighter as she slips one of the cookies into another bag.
“We’ll be here all week,” she says, handing Cora the cookie. “My friends and I are raising money for the animal shelter downtown.”
A cute girl selling good food for an awesome cause. It sounds like one of Cora’s daydreams has sprung to life.
“I’ll definitely be back then,” she mutters, feeling a sudden wash of warmth spread across her face.
“See you then! Enjoy the muffins!” the girl calls before turning to someone else who is approaching the table.
Cora makes it to her class with a single minute to spare. Isaac is sitting in the back row, looking like he just rolled out of bed. She slides into the seat beside him, face still warm.
“Why are you so late?” he asks with a raised eyebrow.
“Says the guy who apparently doesn’t know how to reply to a text,” she retorts.
“I sent you one five minutes ago,” Isaac says. For a moment, Cora thinks he’s just being a smartass but the quizzical expression on his face actually looks legitimate. She yanks her phone out of her pocket and sure enough, there’s a message from Isaac.
sorry, ally and i slept in. meet you in class.
“So, you gonna tell me why you’re late?”
“Fuck off Isaac,” Cora mutters, shoving her phone into her bag just as the professor brings up the first slide of his PowerPoint.
Half an hour in, Cora gets hungry. She tries to ignore her rumbling stomach but the harder she tries, the hungrier she gets. Finally, when her stomach is rumbling loud enough for Isaac to elbow her in the side, she reaches under the table and grabs her backpack. As soon as her fingers touch a paper bag, she yanks it out.
As it turns out, she’s grabbed the bag containing the cookie, rather than the muffins. She has a feeling it won’t be enough but their prof is known for calling out students who rummage through their bags or text in class. So she sets the bag on the table beside her notebook and slowly breaks off a piece of the cookie.
From the very first bite, she’s hooked.
The cookie is still soft and the chocolate melts against her tongue. There’s something extra too, a hint of cinnamon maybe and she actually has to force herself to hold back a groan of pleasure.
The second bite is just as good. And the third. And the fourth. By the time she’s on her last bite, she realizes that Isaac is looking at her, eyebrow raised.
“Where did you get that?” he whispers. Before she can answer, the professor stops mid-sentence and glares at Isaac over the top of his glasses.
“Am I interrupting something, Mr. Lahey?” he asks.
Cora laughs so hard that she chokes on the last bite of the cookie.
&.
While Cora’s only class on Tuesdays is nowhere near the history building, she takes a detour and sure enough, the bake sale is set up again. Thankfully, there’s another platter of chocolate chip cookies sitting in the middle and behind it is the same girl, long dark hair pulled into a messy bun. When she looks up, she immediately smiles.
“You again!” she says.
“Me again,” Cora replies, feeling ridiculous as soon as the words leave her mouth. Before she gets too embarrassed, she switches topics. “The muffins were really good. The cookies were amazing.”
“Thank you! I made fresh ones for today. I’m Kira, by the way.” She says it all in one breath, which is definitely impressive. So impressive, in fact, that it actually takes Cora a moment to realize that the girl just introduced herself.
“Cora,” she finally replies. “I’ll definitely take more cookies. What else do you recommend?”
She ends up leaving the table with two more cookies and a red velvet cupcake. The cupcake isn’t bad (it’s definitely way better than the ones Laura tried to make in high school) but it's forgettable when compared to the cookies.
After her class, she takes a quick walk by the history building again. The bake sale table is still there, but there’s a different person looking after it now and the platter of Kira’s cookies is empty of all but crumbs.
She turns back around and heads towards the nearest ATM. If she’s going to come back tomorrow, she needs to get some more money.
&.
Wednesday is the busiest day of Cora’s week. She has classes all morning and in the afternoon, she works for her health nut brother at the coffee shop he owns. Normally, she’s so busy running from school to work that she doesn’t stop to eat until the afternoon rush at the shop is over.
But after her classes finish, instead of walking off campus, she turns the opposite direction. The table is set up again and, thankfully, Kira is there as well. She’s wearing a sweater illustrated with what look like comic book panels and she’s nibbling on one of her own cookies.
“Hey,” Cora says. Kira jumps about two feet in the air and her cookie goes flying onto the ground.
“Hey!” she says. “Sorry, I didn’t sleep well last night. I’ve been jumpy all day.”
“Up too late making cookies?”
“Chemistry, actually,” Kira sighs. “I’m usually really good at science and stuff, but this assignment is just killing me.” She holds up the notebook that’s in her lap with a shrug. The page is littered with diagrams and notations in a cursive script that Cora can’t quite understand. Suddenly, an idea pops in her head and before she can weigh the pros and cons of it, she blurts it out.
“I took chemistry last semester,” she says. “Got a pretty decent mark. I might be able to help.”
“Really?” Kira exclaims. “You’re not too busy?”
“Not really,” Cora says with a shrug. It’s not technically true, but she’s sure that Derek will be able to handle things without her for a few minutes. “What’s the assignment?”
They end up sitting on the grass underneath a nearby tree, Kira’s notebook and pens spread between them. Their progress is hindered slightly by Kira having to leap up and head over to the table, but by the time Cora’s phone rings for the fifth time, Kira seems to have a better grasp of the material.
“Someone really wants to talk to you,” Kira says, finishing off another calculation and nodding towards Cora's phone, which is sitting on the ground beside her.
“It’s my brother,” Cora says. “I should probably head out.” She really doesn’t want to leave; sitting beside Kira for the past half hour has revealed that the girl is more than just an amazing baker. Sometimes, when she talks, her words rattle out so quickly that Cora can barely understand them. She laughs and smiles freely and she is nothing less than absolutely adorable.
“I didn’t mean to take up so much of your time,” Kira says as she closes her notebook. “But I really appreciate the help! Maybe I’ll actually be able to get some sleep tonight.”
“If you want, I can give you my number,” Cora blurts. She can feel her face turning red slightly, but she forges onward. If she ignores it, the blush will go away quicker. “In case you have any more questions.”
“That would be awesome!” Kira says, dropping a pen and a piece of scrap paper into Cora’s hand. “I’ll try not to bug you too much, I promise.”
“Bug me all you want,” Cora absently murmurs as she jots down her number. When she looks back up, Kira is smiling again and Cora swears that she can feel the warmth from that smile spreading all the way down to her toes.
Before she leaves, Kira gives her a bag containing three chocolate chip cookies. All three of them are gone by the time Derek finishes yelling at her for being late.
&.
On Thursday, Cora has class in a lecture hall near the history building. As soon as she gets out, she heads over, sending off a quick text to Isaac saying that she’ll be late. When she looks up from her phone, she realizes that it isn’t Kira sitting behind the table. Instead, it’s a young man but before Cora can turn and walk away, he catches her eye and waves her over.
“Hey! Are you Cora?” he asks.
“Yeah. Is Kira going to be here later?”
“She’s got class today,” he says with an apologetic smile. “But she told me to give you these, in case you stop by.” He reaches beneath the table and comes back up with a small plastic container with a pink lid. There’s a note taped to the top of it and it takes Cora a second to decipher the writing.
sorry I missed you! I’ll be back tomorrow!
There’s even a slightly lopsided smilie at the bottom of the note and if there was any doubt about Cora having a crush on Kira, that little smilie face erases it.
“How much do I owe for the cookies?” she asks, reaching into her pocket. The guy behind the table just laughs and shakes his head, flopping back into his seat.
“Nothing at all. But if you wanted to buy something else, we’ll definitely take your money.”
She ends up buying a few raspberry squares for Isaac. She tucks her cookies into her backpack and slowly munches them throughout her afternoon classes and her quick two hour shift at Derek’s shop. She’s just changing out of her apron and reaching for the last one when her phone vibrates in her pocket. She has a text from an unknown number and by the time she manages to get her fumbling fingers to press the open button, she feels like her face is burning.
hey it’s kira! are you busy? i’m at the library. chem is killing me.
Cora doesn’t think twice. She haphazardly folds her apron up, shoves it in her cubby and dashes out the door with a quick wave to her brother and older sister. She texts Kira along the way, runs into a few people and makes it to the library in fifteen minutes. Kira is on the second floor, sitting in a padded chair pulled up to a wobbly table covered in notes. Loose strands of hair are dangling in her face and her bottom lip is pulled tight between her teeth.
“Thank you for the cookies,” Cora says as she pulls up another chair. “They were delicious. Are you sure I don’t owe you anything for them?”
“Positive,” Kira says with a firm nod and a small smile. She pulls her chair even closer to Cora’s and turns slightly, so that their knees are touching.
“Please say you remember this assignment,” she groans, passing Cora a rumpled piece of paper. “I feel like I’m missing some huge piece of information.”
The assignment is a long one and they work through most of it together. Cora mainly serves as a sounding board for Kira, giving her hints or helpful tricks when need be. In between, Cora works on some of her own homework and fends off texts from Isaac, who has been bugging her all week about the “adorable baker that she has a crush on.”
Telling him to screw off hasn’t worked since Tuesday.
It’s nearly dark out by the time Kira slams her textbook closed.
“Done!” she says triumphantly, dropping her book into her backpack. Cora closes her notebook and tucks it away. Kira’s cookie container is still at the bottom of her bag and she pulls it out. The last one has broke into a few smaller pieces but she’s sure it’ll taste just as good.
“Looks like I’ll have to make more,” Kira says, taking one of the pieces when Cora offers. “I really didn’t expect anyone to like them this much.”
“They’re the best cookies I’ve ever had,” Cora says, brushing some crumbs off her pants. “Seriously. They’re awesome, Kira.” Kira grins at her and takes another piece. She stays quiet for a few moments, leg jittering but before Cora can ask if something is wrong, Kira leans even closer and blurts out the question Cora has been toying with asking all night.
“Would you like to make some sometime? Together, I mean?” As soon as the words leave her mouth, her face turns red and she starts hurriedly packing up the rest of her supplies. “I mean, only if you want to. I can just send you the recipe, if you’d like.”
“Kira,” Cora says quietly, gently dropping her hand on top of Kira’s. “I’d love that. Really.” Kira lets out a deep breath and turns her hand over, moving until their fingers slot together.
Cora’s heart definitely skips a bit.
“I know it’s late,” Kira says quietly, “but what about tonight? I have to make some more for tomorrow. For the bake sale.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Cora says, hoping to God that she doesn’t look as nervous as she feels. “Just let me send my roommate a text.”
By the time they finish the batch of cookies, it’s approaching midnight. The kitchen smells like melted chocolate and Cora’s hands and wrists are covered in flour. Kira has a clump of sugar stuck to the corner of her mouth and when her tongue misses it, Cora steps forward to brush it away with her thumb.
After that point, it just seems a shame to drop her hand from Kira’s face, especially since Kira is looking at her with bright eyes and a warm smile that widens more the farther Cora leans in.
By the time Cora finally leaves, it’s nearly one o’clock in the morning and she has definitely learned one thing.
Kira’s cookies may taste amazing, but Kira tastes even better.