Influx (Book Four)

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Seriously?" He asks, breaking character.

"Click and I made a double batch of my grandfather's homemade pizza," I say and something inside me almost feels giddy.

"You know the recipe? Your dad lost the recipe card and Cathleen hasn't been able to recreate it!" Alexander says and that surprises me. My dad was always the organized one out of my parents, it's a part of the job of being a financial advisor.

"I do know the recipe, down to the ingredients in the sauce. If you want to bring Cathleen and Aviva too... I can give her the recipe," I say, and Click pops her head around the corner and she looks pleasantly surprised. She gives me a big smirk before hoping in the shower. I may have flicked extra flour at her at some point and it all ended up in her hair. 

"We'll be there," he says excitedly before hanging up.

I get to work crushing all of the tomatoes and writing down the recipe as I go. Staring at all the spices on the counter, I try to remember the exact measurements, I guess as I go, and everything turns out correct. I put estimates down on the index card, before writing the dough recipe down perfectly, that sauce's measurement's are flexible, but the ones for the dough are not. Popping the cheese out of the freezer, I slice it up now that it isn't so slippery and rubbery.

"Hadley, are you feeling okay? You just willing invited your family and ex-boyfriend over to our apartment to celebrate your birthday," Click says with a twinkle in her eye.

"I am perfectly fine Click, I am trying to be more civil with them it's my new year's resolution," I say as I flatten the dough out.

"There is a difference between being civil and wanting to be close with them again," Click points out and I just ignore her remark and start placing pizzas in the oven.

"I invited Faith, Orion, and Cabe up too," she follows up while starting to decorate the cake.

"That's fine, this should be enough food for all of us," I say, and I put the music back on and hum along, occasionally singing. Click dances around the kitchen grabbing things to decorate. When I turn around, the cake is fairly well frosted but the piping on top is borderline illegible. She bursts into laughter at my expression and I join her and pull the first pizza out and drop it onto a large plate before putting the next one in.

I don't even notice the elevator dinging and the doors opening to release a herd of people into our apartment until someone else starts singing with me. Faith walks over and gives me a big grin and opens the oven for me as I flip another set of pizzas. Calling to my phone, I order it to pause the music and grab something to cut the pizza. Cutting it with ease, I grab the first slice before everyone starts digging in.

"You nailed the recipe," Cathleen says excitedly, and I search around for the index cards I was writing on. Finding them, I fling the cheese off of them and hand them to her and her whole face lights up.

"You know it well enough to write it down?" She asks and takes them excitedly.

"You are going to have to figure out the exact measurements in the sauce, but those are the approximates. I don't measure it, I usually just throw it in," I say, and she just smiles and sends photos of the cards to our dad happily. I am thankful when I don't see any gift bags or presents in hand.

"Oh, we didn't come empty-handed,' Alexander says, and he hands me a gift card.

"Twenty-five hours at my favorite archery range," I read, and Click bounces excitedly.