The Search for Lily Myers ✓

13 | A Twist of Fate

She hoped Henry liked chocolate chip cookies.

They'd texted back and forth a little bit over the past couple of days to check that they were still on for dinner on Friday. He'd assured her that she didn't need to bring anything besides herself, but she felt compelled to contribute something to the evening despite her lack of cooking skills beyond the bare basics. She already had some dough in the fridge that she hadn't baked yet, so chocolate chip cookies it was. If nothing else, her kitchen smelled amazing now.

Her day had gotten off to a bumpy start in a rather literal sense—she wound up with a flat tire after hitting a pothole on the way to Nat's for work. Fortunately, she'd finally figured out how to change a tire after years of procrastinating on learning how to do it, so she was up and going again after just a few minutes. Driving any distance on those flimsy spare tires made her more anxious than it probably should have, but when she mentioned what had happened to Henry, he offered to pick her up for dinner so that she didn't have to be worrying about it before she could go buy a replacement tomorrow. She almost declined out of the desire not to inconvenience him, but Nat nudged her to not bail on dinner and offered to come get her from Henry's place afterward so that he wouldn't have to drive her both ways.

So here she was, sitting at her kitchen table while she waited for him to arrive and forcing herself not to start snacking on any of the cookies that had just come out of the oven in the meantime. Amelia had people ringing her doorbell so rarely that the sound of it managed to startle her even though she'd known it was coming; she hopped out of her seat to answer it.

"Hey," she smiled when she opened the door for him.

Henry was looking endearingly disheveled, having thrown on an old college sweatshirt (Amelia was fairly certain she had the same one lurking in the depths of her drawers somewhere) and letting his hair be a mess as if he'd rolled out of bed and barely attempted to tame it. But she liked the lack of formality wrapped up in him coming to her door like this, so casually, like they were friends who had known each other longer than they had. Then again, she had already cried in front of him, so she should have known that formalities had already been thrown far out the window.

"I made cookies. I know you said I didn't need to bring anything, but..."

"I'm sure they'll get eaten," he returned her grin. "They smell great, at least. You ready to go?"

She nodded and stepped outside, twisting her key in the lock behind them. A chill was hanging in the air that hadn't been there for the past couple of days and a sweatshirt suddenly seemed like a better idea than the thinner sleeves she currently had on. But it was only a very brief walk from her doorstep to his car, the interior of which was still warm from when he'd had the heat running in it just a minute ago. It resumed, pleasantly mild, with the turn of his key in the ignition, and it also didn't hurt that the fresh container of cookies resting on her lap doubled as a free leg warmer.

Henry was quiet for a moment while he pulled up the directions back to his place, but she found the silence with him to be surprisingly soothing considering how quickly anxious thoughts had been popping up in her head the instant she let her world get slow down too much. He glanced over at her before moving the car out of park.

"You look nice," he said, still with a soft smile on his lips, then looked down at his own outfit. "Maybe I should have tried a little harder."

Amelia felt a small burst of pink rush to her cheeks as she laughed. The long-sleeved dress she'd put on was nothing over the top—she thought the most exciting thing about it was that it had pockets—but it did make her feel good about herself, so she felt some satisfaction about the fact that Henry had noticed even if that wasn't her goal. She hadn't felt an obligation to dress any certain way, but she'd found in the past that putting more effort into her appearance boosted her mood on days when she didn't feel great mentally.