It was official: the end of the semester couldn't come soon enough for my liking. As I left the room after taking the first of my finals, I was more than a little worried about the grade. Despite attending all of the classes and doing the homework, I was not at all confident that I had scored well on my math final. Hopefully, I had managed a high enough grade that I wouldn't need to repeat the class.
Since math had been my only final for the day, I planned to head to the library to get some studying done before meeting Dylan for dinner tonight. I was kind of zoning out, so when someone came up behind me and put their hands over my face, I nearly jumped out of my skin in surprise.
"Guess who?" a familiar voice asked.
I whirled around and came face to face with none other than Luke Carters. He was dressed in a University of Ohio sweatshirt, and a confident smirk danced across his face.
"Luke!" I cried, pulling him into a hug. "What are you doing here? I didn't expect to see you until tomorrow."
Luke shrugged. "I finished my exams a little earlier than I thought I would, so I drove here early to see you. I hope that's okay. Dylan told me where you'd be."
I smiled. "It's more than okay. It's so good to see you."
And it was. In fact, right now, my life seemed just about perfect. I had my best friend back. I had a second chance at getting to know Luke. I had received confirmation from the university that starting next semester, I would no longer be sharing a room with Avery. Honesetly, I couldn't imagine how life could get much better.
Luke grinned. "I was kind of hoping you'd say that."
I fiddled with a strand of my hair, wondering what to do or say next. I had been imagining all of the things I might do with Luke while he was here, the things we might talk about, but now that he was standing in front of me, my brain shut down and refused to work.
"So...umm...what do you want to do?" I asked, then cringed. Gosh. Could I be any more awkward? Gulping, I added, "Do you want to go back to my dorm room? I'm sure you probably have stuff you need to bring in."
"Sure, we can do that," Luke agreed easily. "And then I thought you might like to show me around campus, so I can see what you like to do and where you like to hang out, maybe meet some of your friends."
Great. The last thing I wanted was to admit to Luke that I was kind of a loser who had spent most of my semester hiding out in my dorm room or the library to avoid running into Dylan or Avery. Talk about pathetic.
"Okay," I agreed reluctantly, because surely I would be able to point out at least a few noteworthy spots on campus. I had been living here, after all. I wasn't completely oblivious, after all.
I followed Luke out to his car, where he grabbed a small bag out of the trunk. Then, I led him to my dorm room, still unable to believe that I was going to have my very attractive ex-boyfriend staying with me from now until the end of the semester. It was completely surreal.
Much to my disappointment, Avery was in the room when we got there. Ever since the Thanksgiving debacle, I had taken great pains to avoid her. I only had to get through the next week, and then I wouldn't have to share a room with her any more.
"Well, hi there," Avery greeted, a huge grin splitting her face as she eyed Luke up and down like a predator sizing up her prey. Apparently, she liked what she saw, because she turned up the charm, battering her eyes flirtatiously and pulling her shoulders back to display her breasts to their best advantage.
I fought the urge to gag. The girl was seriously transparent.
"Hi," Luke said, waving in greeting. "I'm Lilly's boyfriend, Luke. You must be her roommate, Avery. I think I met you briefly at Thanksgiving dinner, but we never really got a chance to talk."
Umm... come again?
I eyed Luke warily, wondering what the heck he was talking about. I liked him, sure, but he was definitely not my boyfriend. We were barely even friends at this point. So why had he said that?
Avery gave him a naughty smile. "Well, that's too bad," she pouted. "You could do so much better than Lilly. If you ever decide to trade up, I'd be happy to show you how a real girlfriend treats her man."
Luke stood behind me, wrapping his arms around me in a possessive hug. "I'm happy with Lilly, thanks," he said. "You might try being a little nicer. Being a bitch is such a turn off. Besides, if you're going to be two faced, you should at least make one of them pretty."
Avery narrowed her eyes, noticing for the first time that Luke was carrying a bag. "Umm, you can't stay here," she sputtered. "Lilly didn't get my permission, and I am definitely not okay with coed sleepovers."
I smiled cattily at her. "Actually, there's no rule that says I can't have guests stay over, with or without your permission. I checked. Nice try, Avery. Luke is sleeping here. Emphasis on sleeping. And there's nothing you can do about it."
Avery sputtered angrily before storming out of the room., slamming the door behind her.
I turned toward Luke, quirking an eyebrow at him. "Really Luke?" I teased, planting my hands on my hips. "It's kind of presumptuous to call yourself my boyfriend without asking me out first, don't you think?"
Luke grinned sheepishly, letting out a small laugh. "I just thought it would get Avery riled up," he said with a smirk. "Besides, it was a self-defense measure. That girl was sizing me up like she wanted to eat me for breakfast, and I am not interested. If she thinks I'm dating you, she'll back off."
I laughed, shaking my head. "No, she won't," I informed him. "Avery's not real clear on boundaries. I tried that when she was making a move on Dylan. We claimed he was my boyfriend when he first met her, and she still threw herself at him. The girl is shameless."
Luke smirked, raising an eyebrow at me. "So let me get this straight... you have fake dated both me and my cousin this year? I hate to say it, but I think you're the shameless one, Lillian."
"Oh, whatever Lucas," I sputtered, rolling my eyes at him. "You're the one who told Avery you were my boyfriend. I think that makes you the shameless one."
Even as I said the words, though, I couldn't quite stop the grin that was spreading over my face. Bantering with Luke was a lot of fun. It was almost like old times.
"Look, I know you wanted me to show you around campus, but I'm honestly not sure where to take you," I admitted. "Not to mention, I really don't want to risk running into Avery while we are out. I'm supposed to meet Dylan tonight for tacos, which you're more than welcome to join us for. Do you have any ideas for what you want to do until then? We could probably watch a movie or something."
Luke winked at me. "Movie dates are so cliche," he said. "Does your dorm have a kitchen?"
I nodded. "Yeah, there's a huge public one in the basement that has a couple of ovens and some microwaves and stuff."
"Great," Luke said with a smile. "Then I think we need to go to the store."
I watched him carefully, waiting for him to explain what he wanted to do. When he didn't, I asked, "Why? Are we going to bake something?"
"You'll see," Luke replied. "It's a surprise."
At the store, I watched in amused wonder as Luke filled the shopping cart with all of the baking staples: flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, chocolate... the list went on and on.
"Luke, seriously, are you going to tell me what you're planning to do with all of this?" I asked as Luke added several types of coffee, chocolate covered coffee beans, and mocha powder to the cart.
"Not yet."
"Come on," I whined. "The suspense is killing me."
"Not yet, Lillian," he repeated. "Be patient."
I pouted, but since Luke didn't seem to care that I was practically dying of curiosity, I let the subject drop.
An hour later, Luke and I stood in the dorm's basement kitchen, all of the ingredients spread out over the counter.
"Now are you going to tell me?" I asked, eyeing the cupcake tins that Luke had bought. I still didn't get it. Did he want us to bake cupcakes? That was random.
Luke grinned. "Have you ever seen Cupcake Wars?"
I shrugged. "That TV show where they bake cupcakes? I've seen parts of it, I guess." It wasn't really my type of show.
"Well, Lillian, I'm going to set the timer on my phone for two hours. And using at least two different types of coffee, we're going to see who can make the best coffee flavored cupcakes."
I giggled. "Seriously, Luke? Do you even bake? Because I sure don't."
Luke grinned. "That's part of the fun. I printed us each off a basic cupcake recipe for guidance, but the flavoring and decorating is all up to us and our imaginations. If they turn out disgusting, it will be even funnier."
"You're crazy," I laughed. "Besides, how are we going to decide who wins? You'll just vote for yours, and I'll vote for mine."
Luke winked. "You said we're meeting Dylan for dinner, right? We'll make him do a blind taste test, and he'll decide which he likes better."
Setting the timer, Luke called out, "3...2...1...Go!"
I dashed over to the cupboard, pulling out a large bowl for mixing, and dumping in the flour, sugar, and other ingredients as I followed the basic recipe Luke had given me.
Figuring out how to incorporate the coffee was a bit more of a challenge. I decided to try to recreate the flavor pallet of one of my favorite winter coffee drinks: a mint chocolate mocha. So for flavor, I crushed up some of the chocolate covered coffee beans, added some mocha powder, and added a bit of mint extract for flavor.
Once I put my cupcakes in the oven, I set to work on making the frosting. I wanted the frosting to taste sweet and minty, so I added more of the chocolate mocha powder and more mint extract, and a bit of green food coloring to make the frosting a pretty green color.
Across the kitchen from me, Luke was hard at work on his own cupcakes, his brow furrowed as he taste tested whatever flavor concoction he had come up with. He must not like what he came up with, because he made a face, then reached for some caramel sauce.
I smirked. Baking wasn't my strong suit, but I was pretty sure my cupcakes were going to taste awesome. How could you go wrong with mint chocolate?
When the timer beeped two hours later, Luke called out, "Time! Bakers, step away from your cupcakes."
I laughed. "You're one of the bakers, you dork," I teased, sticking my tongue out at him.
I surveyed the six cupcakes sitting on the plate in front of me. I wasn't sure how they would taste, but they sure looked pretty. I was proud of how good my frosting job had come out. It looked almost professional, and I had dribbled chocolate sauce across the top for an extra flair.
Looking across the table at Luke's cupcakes, I had to admit that his cupcakes looked good as well. Honestly, it was much better than I was expected, and I wondered if Luke was secretly into baking. That was a strange thought. I'd always thought of him as a jock, and baking was so...domestic.
"What?" Luke asked, noticing my smirk.
"Nothing," I said, shaking my head. "It's just...how did you even come up with this? Are you secretly hoping to open a bakery or something?"
Luke smirked. "No, but if football doesn't pan out, maybe that should be my backup. You'll have to let me know if you would buy my baked goods."
I rolled my eyes. "Come on, dork. Let's get this mess cleaned up before we go meet Dylan. I'm dying to know who won."
In no time at all, we had the kitchen cleaned up, and when Dylan texted letting me know he was here, I told him to come down to the basement kitchen.
"Did I miss something?" Dylan asked, crossing his arms and quirking an eyebrow as he surveyed the cupcakes spread out on the counter before him. "Did you guys sign up for a bake sale or something?"
Luke grinned. "Just a little friendly competition. We need you to taste one of each cupcake, and tell us which one is better. It's our very own Cupcake War."
Dylan nodded solemnly. "Fair enough. What ingredient are you supposed to be highlighting?"
I snorted, because of course Dylan knew the rules of the TV show. He seemed to have an endless encyclopedia of useless trivia.
"Coffee," I said. "We had to highlight coffee as the ingridient."
Dylan reached for his first cupcake, one of Luke's, and took a tentative bite. "Interesting," he said after swallowing. "You were going for caramel macchiato, right? The frosting is fantastic—just the right amount of sweetness from the caramel compared to the bitterness of the coffee. But I'm not tasting much coffee in the cupcake itself. The caramel adds a lot of sweetness, so you needed to add more coffee or less sugar to compensate for that. But overall, not a bad attempt."
I snorted, because Dylan sounded just like one of the judges on those baking TV shows. He was taking this pretty seriously.
Dylan reached for one of my cupcakes next, and I held my breath in anticipation, nervous about what he was going to say.
"Hmm," Dylan said after swallowing. "So, the cupcake itself is great. It's very moist, and I really get the coffee flavor with just a hint of mint." Then, Dylan scraped the frosting off the top of the cupcake before popping the rest into his mouth. "The frosting, however, is disgusting. There's way too much mint, and not enough coffee. It tastes like toothpaste."
"So?" Luke asked.
"So?" Dylan repeated.
"Who won?" I asked, unable to contain my suspense any longer.
Dylan shrugged. "It's a tie. Cupcake A had great frosting but missed the coffee flavor in the cupcake, and Cupcake B tasted great, but had gross frosting. Honestly, neither of you should quit your day jobs."
We all laughed. "Did my frosting really taste like toothpaste?" I asked, shaking my head.
Dylan grinned. "That was the nice way of putting it."
Luke reached over and grabbed one of my cupcakes, taking a huge bite of it, frosting and all. "It's great, Lillian," he said, but as he chewed, he made a face, and I could tell he was really struggling not to spit it out.
"Okay, okay, I get it, they're disgusting," I giggled, handing Luke a paper towel so he could spit it out.
Even though the day hadn't turned out at all like I had expected it to, I had to admit, it had been a lot of fun. Spending time with my two favorite guys had been exactly what I needed. For the first time that semester, I felt like my life was pretty great, and I wouldn't change a thing.