Chocolate Cookies

Mrs. Carter is sitting at the kitchen table, reading a book, when she hears the car pulling into the driveway. A moment later, Aiden and Elise come into the house, talking as they make their way inside.

"Oh, good, you two are back," she says, putting the book down. "Took you long enough," she adds, laughing. "Well, since you're all alive and well, I'll be heading off to bed now." Quietly, she retreats down the hallway and into her room.

Elise and Aiden stand for a moment awkwardly. Elise looks at the time on the oven, which reads well past 1 AM.

"Well, tonight was fun," Aiden remarks.

"Yeah."

"I suppose we should go to sleep soon," Aiden says, and starts heading toward his room.

"Wait," Elise whispers, and he stops. " I know it's probably selfish of me but—I don't want tonight to be over yet. And we're leaving Silverstone Beach so soon… let's just make the most of the time we have."

"Okay, what are your suggestions?"

Elise grins. "You know, tonight's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster, so chocolate sounds pretty good. More specifically, the double chocolate mousse tart from Moose Market."

Aiden blinks in surprise, but smiles. "Sounds like a plan."

~~~~~

"Darn, I was sure that we still had some of the tart left!" Elise groans. They've rummaged through the refrigerator twice, to no avail.

Aiden shrugs. "You know, since we don't have any tart, we could always whip up a baking delectable of our own."

"Oh, no. No, nope. I don't bake. You know I don't bake."

"But just imagine it. The buttery aroma of a pastry in the oven, the delicious crackle of the fire…"

"Fine, fine, you've got me," Elise grumbles. "What are your suggestions?"

Aiden grins. "Chocolate chip cookies. After all, we do have such fond memories of chocolate chip cookies, don't we?"

Elise blinks. "Is this supposed to be a slight? For my failure to bake you chocolate chip cookies?"

"Perhaps." Aiden smiles charmingly.

Elise laughs, thinking back to their second meeting. "Wow, I acted so awfully then. I don't know how you still stand me."

"I suppose it's just part of your charm."

Elise shoves him playfully. "Well, I'll assist you in your cookie making this time, but don't expect me to know anything about it. I hope you've baked enough in the past to make this passably appetizing."

~~~~~

"It's been 30 minutes," Elise says after checking her phone. They hadn't put on a timer so the sound wouldn't wake the others.

"Oh, good." Aiden gets up from the couch, where they'd been watching a movie while they waited for the cookies to bake. Elise follows him into the kitchen, where he's taking the pan out of the oven.

"They smell so good," Elise says, breathing in deeply.

"See? Told you that making cookies would be worth it."

"I guess so." She reaches for a cookie, but Aiden swats her hand away. "Nope, we got to wait for them to cool a bit."

"Who cares?" She grins and grabs a cookie from the pan. "Wow, homemade cookies are really good."

Aiden has also grabbed a cookie, apparently all instructions to wait long forgotten. "Mm, delicious. See, baking is a vital skill."

Elise laughs, but conversation is stalled while they consume the cookies.

"Oh, you've got some chocolate there." Aiden touches the corner of his mouth.

"Where?" Elise lifts her hand to try to wipe off the chocolate, but ends up smearing it further.

"Here, let me." He leans in and kisses her where the melted chocolate is.

"I—" Elise is startled, to say the least, but Aiden doesn't let her train of thought finish as his mouth moves to her lips, and she kisses him back. He tastes like chocolate, not that it's unexpected.

"Well, shall we go finish the movie?" He asks afterwards.

"You really just—" She laughs and shakes her head. "Sure."