“Does this look okay?” Aurora asks, holding up a cookie.
“It looks perfect, and it smells even better.” The scent of creamy butter and sweet, warm vanilla fills the kitchen. Aurora beams up at me.
She picks up her phone, holding it over her finished tray while she leans in to take a selfie with her finished product.
“You need to get in,” she says to me before she snaps a picture.
“Oh.” I lean down, smiling next to her. Something akin to pride and purpose echoes through me.
“Mum!” I look up and find Maevyn watching us with a sheen to her eyes, but just as quickly, she shoos the reaction away and leans down on Aurora’s other side.
“Ugh, now I can’t fit us all in.” Aurora moves her hand around, trying to stretch it in a way that fits the three of us and the cookies in the picture.
“I got it.” I take her phone from her and hold it in front. “Is that good?” I ask when I fit everything in the frame.
“Perfect.” Aurora’s smile stretches wider, and I snap the picture.
When I hand her back her phone, she looks down at it happily.
“Remember not to post those anywhere,” Maevyn says.
“I know, Mum.” It sounds like something they’ve discussed before, and I wonder why. I suppose it’s not uncommon for parents to limit their kids’ exposure on social media, but knowing how guarded Maevyn is with other things, I wonder if there’s more to the statement when it comes to Aurora.
When there’s a knock on the door, Maevyn answers it, and Aurora runs to the coffee table to set up plates and napkins.
“Chinese food?” I ask, as Maevyn places containers on the table and we all sit on the floor.
“It’s not the main dishes that make this special.” Maevyn removes the lids from containers of fried rice, lemon chicken, and sweet and sour pork.
“It’s these.” Aurora holds up a paper bag, then places a fortune cookie on each of our plates. “Whenever something important or special happens, we mark the occasion with Chinese food, but more specifically, fortune cookies. Whatever message we get in our fortune cookies becomes a new mantra that wehaveto live by. That message is then forever tied to the memory.”
“Such as, you have to make room for control and chaos.” Maevyn crosses her arms over the table. “That’s why we have rules and routines during the week, and we go with the flow on weekends.”
“We got that message when Aunt Pres moved in with us.”
“I love this.” I pick up my fortune cookie. “Do you check the message at the start of the meal or at the end?”
“Always the end.” Aurora takes the cookie from my hand and puts it beside my plate. “We don’t want a bad message to spoil the meal.”
“Have you ever had a bad message?”
“No.” Aurora shakes her head. “But why risk it?”
“So what about tonight made it special enough for fortune cookies?”
“You,” Aurora says simply, causing my heart to jump to my throat. “We’re a pretty exclusive club, and it takes a lot to be initiated in. We gotta know you’ve got our level of cool first, and you definitely proved yourself tonight.”
I throw my head back and laugh. “Well, I’m honoured to have made the cut.”
Sitting on the floor of Maevyn’s living room, the three of us fill our plates and talk for almost an hour while we eat, until I’m damn near crawling out of my skin to finally see my message.
“Are we ready yet?” I ask impatiently.
Aurora holds up a finger, then turns to her mum. “Maevyn Willa Day, do you promise to abide by the fortune bestowed upon you?”
“I do.” Maevyn nods.
Aurora turns to me next. “Westley… what’s your full name?”
