Honey and Spice | ✔️

Chapter 15

Nathan

“Sorry, I’m late.” Ryder arrives at our table in the library. He runs a hand through his dark hair, pushing his fringe out of his face. “Mrs Shapiro wanted me to stay back for some stuff.”

“That’s fine,” I say.

Ryder smiles sheepishly at me, then his gaze travels to the book in front of me. “Hey! Cake book!” He grins and sits beside me. My heart swells with happiness at the familiar comforting warmth of his body beside me.

“Yeah,” I say, “have you ever baked one before?”

He shrugs. “Nah. Felt like too much work for me.”

“Well, maybe I can, uh, bake one with you?” I suggest, feeling oddly jittery. “I mean, if you, um, don’t mind me coming to your house again. . .” 

Ryder has gone quiet.

Ryder

Huh? Is he asking me out? But technically, it’s my house so. . . it’s not a date? Maybe it’s a baking date? Does that exist? Bake date, bake date, bake date. . .

Get a grip on yourself, you gay donkey, he just probably wants to hang out, my conscience says. Hm, that’s true. What am I even thinking? My cheeks burn again. To think that he’s asking me out is just plain embarrassing and desperate of me. Oh my god, the humiliation. I bet my ancestors are laughing their asses off at me.

Nathan’s still looking at me, his beautiful doe eyes (they’re teal with curiosity) trained on me, head slightly tilted in expectation. I gulp and try to keep my heart rate normal.

“Uh, y-yeah, yeah,” I stutter, trying to hide the ever-present blush on my face. “Yeah, I d-don’t mind, uh. . . I would actually like that. . .”

He gives me a bashful smile. “Okay, so um, the usual timing?”

“1 pm?”

“Yeah,” he says.

Despite my flustering, I grin. “Yeah,” I say, “that’s cool.”

He lets out a shy laugh. “Okay.”

“So. . . which one?” I begin to flip through the book, but Nathan stops my hand and he flips to a page, pointing.

“This one.”

“Strawberry cake?”

He ducks his head shyly. “I thought it would be nice. . .”

“Yeah, it is,” I reassure him.

“Um. . .do you want to go buy the ingredients with me?”

Again, cue the panic attack.

“I mean, if you already have them, then it’s f- ”

I cut him off. “I, uh, don’t have strawberries. I have to check later if I still have flour and butter.”

“Okay.” He smiles and I smile back too.

Oh my god, I can’t wait for tomorrow.

*

We just came back from the supermarket with the ingredients. I couldn’t stop thinking of how adorable Nathan looked when he was looking for strawberries. We also bought a couple bottles of toppings because we couldn’t decide if rainbow sprinkles looked better on the cake than silver balls.

Together, we set up the things needed for the cake. I preheat the oven while Nathan takes out the printed recipe (he told me last night that he’d found a simpler recipe) and we stand together at the counter.