Jily Oneshots (pt2)

Broken ovens, bad dates and other beautiful things

The best she could say for herself was that she had showered in the morning and put on deodorant. She could only imagine that her recent descent into madness in the kitchen had not done her any favours in the looks department. In fact, she was fairly certain that she had run her flour covered hand through her auburn hair at one point.

Great.

Now Lily was standing in front of her new, ridiculously fit, neighbour with an armful of baking supplies while looking like a living candy cane.

The day just kept getting better and better.

He lifted his phone back to his ear and said slowly, “Sirius, I’ll call you back, yeah no, there’s a bird at my door.”

He ended his call, putting the mobile in his pocket. The hand in his hair lowered to his side to help him lean up against his doorframe. Lily was presently aware that he was waiting for her to speak but she was lost for words besides the ‘ oh no, he’s hot’ ringing through her brain over and over like a broken record.

“Can I help you?” He asked politely, one of his nice eyebrows curving up in amusement.

Lily shook her head and managed a weak hello. This only made his smile widen and that only made her knees go weaker. His gaze dropped to the baking supplies in her arms.

“I thought I heard you banging around the cabinets.” He said conversationally, “I wondered if you were having a late dinner.”

Lily tried to get her heartbeat back to normal, “Right sorry, erm, I heard you talking on the phone and I wanted to ask if I could borrow you?”

His eyes widened a bit, “Borrow me?”

She realized she’d done a bang up job explaining herself already. The bloke was probably halfway to closing the door on her face and she’d have to move on to the next neighbor. Old Mathilda down the hall would kill her if she knocked on the door so close to midnight and he was awake and as he was her age she didn't think he’d mind staying up a little while longer. Lily really needed to get her dough in the oven sooner rather than later. She had to get this man to let her use his oven, even for just one batch.

“My oven is broken and I was wondering if I might borrow yours?” She moved the bowls in her arms to show him her dough, “The dough should only set for thirty minutes and it’s already been forty.”

The bloke looked at her and then down at his watch, “It’s almost midnight.” He stated obviously, “Why the hell are you even up?”

Lily sighed deeply as she admitted, “Linear algebra test in the morning.”

He perked up, “You at the Uni downtown?”

“Final year.” Lily nodded, “My name is Lily Evans.”

“I’m James Potter, I’m in the engineering program.”

“Nice to meet you.” Lily said kindly, shuffling the supplies in her arms so she could shake his outstretched hand.

He laughed when her bowls shook and he instantly reached out to help her by taking two of the bowls piled high in her arms. Her neighbor nodded and pushed back so that his door opened all the way and he motioned for her to come in. Shyly, Lily made her way into his flat.

For a bachelor, he kept his flat tidy and brightly lit by lots of small lamps. Lily’s flat was dirtier, by far, but she also had a cat who loved to leave out toys and Lily’s dirty laundry for unsuspecting guests. It appeared James was spotless, even his sitting room was void of pillows and blankets. Instead of analyzing more of his apartment, Lily made her way across the hardwood floor into the kitchen where he had only one unopened bottle of red wine sitting out. James set his stack of Lily’s bowls on the counter and then motioned to the wine.