Chapter One
“Okay, so first, we do dry ingredients,” Anna said, gesturing to the small pinch dishes set out in front of each station.“The first five lined up in the upper left corner of your stations, to be exact. In order, they’re going to go, flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and then the little one is baking soda. Go ahead, and pour those into your bowl and get a decent stir going. You can use a spoon, or the whisk. Really any of the instruments provided. The key is just to get them nice and mixed in.”
Brooke was afraid that she would somehow mess up what sounded like such an easy step. It felt maliciously simple. She looked over at the station next to her as Christine dutifully picked up a small bowl of flour and poured it into her bowl. Just past Chris, Vivienne was already looking frustrated. Brooke watched for a second, trying not to laugh when she realized Vivienne had already dumped everything into her bowl and was already mixing vigorously.
Oddly, seeing that Vivienne was already clearly off book—full blown rogue—made Brooke figure that she couldn’t do anything that crazy, so she copied Christine’s actions and slowly poured the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl.
“Perfect. Good work, Honey,” Anna said softly, leaning into Brooke’s personal space as she made her rounds through La Fourchette’s open kitchen.
Not long after they had returned from London, one of Anna’s friends had suggested that Anna throw a cooking class as a way to introduce their friend groups all at once. Though, some of them had already met. Maddie and her wife, Shannon, had already met Chris and Vivienne. Nick, Anna’s roommate, had even joined Brooke and her friends for dinner just the Monday before, but they had never hung out all at once like this.
This gave them an opportunity to get to know everyone a little better. Christine had brought Todd along. Although, to be quite honest, he didn’t seem to be doing much other than cracking jokes with Hunter. Hunter and Allegra were paired up just past Vivienne, though Hunter was about as useful as Todd.
Brooke rolled her eyes, they were both decent enough guys. She couldn’t blame them for just tagging along to get to taste test anything that came out of Anna’s kitchen. She herself had absolutely developed a new hobby which was quite literally just sitting on a stool out of the way in Anna’s apartment kitchen, watching and hopping in to help when Anna occasionally didn’t have enough hands, or too many timers were going off at once, or when she made suggestive comments about liking Brooke’s forearm muscles as she stirred. The jury was still out on if that was the truth, or if Anna just didn’t want to have to stir any more. Brooke didn’t really care which was Anna’s reason, she would help regardless. The best part about her new hobby was that she was Anna’s new and official taste tester.
Her eyes found her girlfriend. Brooke knew that she looked like a cartoon character. When it came to looking at Anna, Brooke was the epitome of heart eyes, but she couldn’t help it. Anna Fourchette was perfect. She realized then that Anna was also trying to help salvage Vivienne’s bowl of poorly mixed ingredients.
“Why’d you put them all out if you didn’t want us to mix them?” Vivienne asked, her tone a little sharper than necessary.
Anna didn’t look phased in the slightest.“Some of these were for icing, Viv,” her tone was soft, but firm.
There was something about Anna controlling a situation that made Brooke’s cheeks heat. She would have looked away, doing her best to convince herself that the dry goods in her bowl were very important and needed every ounce of her focus, but Allegra slid over to Vivienne’s station and Brooke couldn’t help but watch as the interaction morphed into something else.
By all objective standards, Vivienne and Allegra were both insanely attractive. They also both knew that about themselves. Allegra had even done a few modeling gigs and when that little piece of information had been shared, Brooke hadn’t even been surprised. In fact, she was pretty sure her first thought was just, yeah, that makes sense.
“Here,” Allegra said, leaning into Vivienne’s space.“Why don’t we share.”
“Thank you, Allegra. That’s a great solution,” Anna said, her voice back to light and airy. She didn’t seem surprised by the interaction at all.
Brooke watched, curious. She knew that Vivienne was bi, and she knew that Allegra would absolutely be her type if the opportunity presented itself, but she didn’t know if Vivienne would say or do anything about it in such a group setting. Her eyebrows lifted though, when she saw Vivienne let her hand rest on Allegra’s forearm, just a gentle squeeze, but Brooke saw it. She couldn’t hear what Vivienne said in response, probably because it had been whispered so close to Allegra’s ear.
She shook her head and turned her attention to her dry goods, for real this time. She would never understand how flirting and connecting was that easy for people. She and Anna had been together for two solid months at this point and she still found her brain just completely short circuiting around her. Especially if Anna was in any state of undress. Words just disappeared from Brooke’s vocabulary the second Anna even removed a sock.
“Okay, so now that we have that all under control,” Anna said, loud enough for the whole group to hear her again,“we’re going to mix in the eggs, and vanilla extract.” She waited, watching closely this time, making sure that Vivienne didn’t kill another batch.
Though, upon following her gaze, Brooke saw that Allegra was—while teasing—definitely in control of the situation. If Brooke didn’t know any better, she’d think that Vivienne might be kind of into that arrangement. She glanced at Christine to see if Chris was seeing what she was. Thankfully, Chris was watching them with equal interest.
Anna broke Brooke’s concentration by easing herself into Brooke’s station. She let their hips bump playfully.“Well,” Anna said, so softly only Brooke would be able to hear.“I think it’s going well.” She dared a glance at Vivienne.“I’m still not sure I’ve truly won Vivienne over yet.” She looked a little nervous, the exact opposite of how she had looked just moments ago calmly squared off against Vivienne.
Brooke immediately wrapped her arms around Anna’s waist and pulled her in tight.“You have, I promise you have. If you’d known her as long as I have, you’d be able to see the difference between you and someone she doesn’t like.”
“Hmm,” Anna hummed. She rocked up and kissed Brooke’s cheek.“I’m a big fan of you in this apron,” she whispered, before throwing Brooke a wink and wiggling out of her hug.“Back to chef mode.”
“Yes, Chef,” Brooke flirted, reveling in the way a blush immediately crept up Anna’s neck.
The smell of brownies permeated the open kitchen. As they all waited for them to cook, they got to hang out and get to know each other a little better. Anna had opened a few bottles of wine from the restaurant’s wine cellar and filled everyone’s glasses just a touch past normal etiquette would allow.
Getting to attend such a fun gathering at La Fourchette after hours would have never crossed Brooke’s mind even six months ago, but now, sitting at her usual table, with two others pushed against it, making room for her friends and Anna’s alike felt like the most natural thing in the world. So did the way that she and Anna found their legs tangled together under the white linen table cloth, and the way that her arm sat so naturally along the back of Anna’s chair. Not to mention how comfortable it felt to have Anna curled into her side.
Anna had finished her own glass of wine, and as was their unspoken custom, had taken to sharing Brooke’s. It was something they had done ever since Mel’s bachelorette party a few months ago. Brooke smiled as Anna took another sip from their shared cup. She never wanted her own glass again. That thought settled in her chest as she surveyed the room. Todd and Christine were sitting next to Hunter and Allegra. Brooke was thankful that Todd and Hunter seemed to be bonding. She knew that Todd had always reluctantly joined their group activities as he had always been the only guy present. Him having both Hunter and Nick as outlets seemed to help bring him out of his shell.
Vivienne and Allegra seemed to be more than a little interested in what the other had to say, and Brooke couldn’t help but watch them for a moment in rapt fascination, wondering yet again how some people could flirt and engage so easily.
Christine was lost in a deep conversation with Maddie and Shannon. A conversation that Brooke had missed the beginning of, leaving her a bit lost and fuzzy on the details, but she didn’t mind. The sounds oftheirfriends filling Anna’s restaurant left her feeling warmer and fuzzier than alcohol ever could, and more full in a way that food could never replicate.
She leaned over and pressed a gentle kiss to Anna’s temple.“This makes me happy,” she murmured into Anna’s ear, nuzzling against her to articulate the sentiment.
Anna shifted so that she was more turned towards Brooke in her seat.“Yeah?” She asked, her voice low, only loud enough for Brooke’s ears.
