Page 29 of The Loophole

“I’ll keep it on the counter from now on, so you can use it whenever you want to without having to wrestle it out of the cabinet. It weighs a ton.”

While Bryson organized the ingredients, I let Dusty back in, pushed back the sleeves of my hoodie, and washed my hands. Then he walked me through his recipe and showed me what to do, one step at a time.

I meant it when I told him, “You’re a great teacher.”

“You’ll have to take that back if these turn out horribly.”

“They won’t. I already know that.”

After filling two large piping bags with our mixture, we stood side-by-side and dispensed perfect, pink disks onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets. “Now for my favorite part.” He raised a baking sheet about six inches and dropped it onto the counter with a loud clatter. “It gets rid of any air bubbles,” he explained, before doing it again.

The sound alerted Dusty, who leapt to his feet. When I picked up and dropped my baking sheet, he started barking, which made me chuckle. “Thank you for trying to save me from the noise by making more noise,” I told him.

Bryson said, “We have a little time before we can bake these. They need to sit for thirty to sixty minutes, so they’ll dry out a bit. Want a snack while we wait?”

“Sure. Which cereal did you end up buying?”

He opened a cabinet, which held at least ten different boxes of cereal. “All of the ones that seemed fun. I made room in this cupboard and the one next to it, so we can fill them with your favorite things. Right now, all that’s in the other one is popcorn and Red Vines, because you seemed to enjoy those during our movie night. I’ll add stuff once I learn more about what you like.”

I startled Bryson by grabbing him in a hug and whispering, “Thank you.”

“Welcome.” I let go of him and dabbed my eyes, and he asked, “Are you crying?”

“No.” After a beat, I admitted, “Maybe a little. That was really thoughtful, and I appreciate it so much.”

He seemed embarrassed as he muttered, “No big deal.”

It was to me, though. It made me feel welcome.

I remembered something just then and pulled a small item out of the pocket of my hoodie. “I got you this while we were in Vegas.” I picked up his hand and placed the colorful magnet on his palm. It featured the Las Vegas sign where we’d taken some photos, along with a cartoony rendition of the Strip, including our hotel and its Eiffel Tower. “You told me once that you used to have a whole collection of magnets. Maybe you could keep this one in your home office or something.”

“Nope. There’s only one place for this.” He crossed the room and stuck it right on the front of his fancy, high-end refrigerator. Then he turned to me with a smile. “Thank you, Embry. It means a lot that you remembered what I’d said and got that for me.”

Honestly, the magnet didn’t match the kitchen at all, and I never thought he’d actually stick it on his fridge. It was silly and kitschy, while everything around it was sleek and expensive.

But the fact that he enjoyed it and gave it a place of honor meant so much. It made me think, if something that off-beat could find a place here, maybe I could, too.

9

Bryson

Even though we got along great while we were in Las Vegas, I’d been worried about what would happen when Embry moved in with me. Was this going to be incredibly awkward? Would we have anything to talk about?

It seemed to be off to a good start, though. We baked macarons on our first day living together, which turned out to be the perfect ice breaker. Both of us had fun, and it seemed to help him relax a little and hopefully start to feel comfortable here. Also, it was nice to discover some common ground.

The next day, he told me he wanted to decorate the house for the holidays. “It looks Grinchy on the outside, compared to the other houses on this side of the street. Don’t you want to do something fun out there?”

My first impulse was to say no. I didn’t like the idea of him doing stuff to my house, so I tried to use money as an excuse. “I don’t want to sound like a cheapskate, but decorations can be expensive. I can’t see spending a lot of money on stuff that’ll only be used for the next three weeks.”

“I can do it for a hundred dollars.”

He sounded confident, but I said, “That won’t go very far.”

“Sure it will. In fact, I can decorate inside and out for that amount. For the front of the house, I’ll include lights, a door decoration, and a fun focal point in that little lawn area. I’ll also put up decorations in the living room and the lounge.”

“It can’t be done,” I insisted. “Not on that budget.”

“Bet me.”