There was flour absolutely everywhere. Leena grinned and crossed her eyes to look at her nose. Yep. Everywhere. But Claudia was dancing and singing, her iPod dock plugged into the nearest socket, blasting out The Runaways. "Okay, now what?" Claudia asked, smearing some of the flour from her fingers onto her apron.
"Sprinkle some water and fold." Leena smiled, watching as Claudia rolled the pastry gently, then did what she was told. Leena twirled in a little circle on the bar stool, waiting for the agent to finish.
"Ooookay, now what?" Claudia asked, looking down at the lump on her work surface. Surely that stuff wasn't ever going to be edible.
"Now…" Leena hopped off the stool and approached the kitchen counter, brushing up lightly against her friend. She cringed when Claudia tensed and moved away before she cleared her throat and pointed at the lump of pastry. "Really, really gently roll it out."
"'Kay…" Claudia spent a long time making sure she didn't put too much weight on the dough as she rolled it out. "Like that?"
"Perfect." Leena smiled, nodding when Claudia looked her in the eye. "Really good." Begrudgingly, Claudia smiled back and a gaze was caught… just for a moment. Leena cleared her throat again and moved uncomfortable eyes down towards a bowl next to her hand. "Wanna make the parcels?"
"Sure…" Claudia bit her lip and grabbed the bits of marinated, oily zucchini and eggplant, slivers of tomato as she followed Leena's instructions and continued to make their dinner. It would just be the two of them tonight; which was weird enough. Weirder still, was that Claudia was actually enjoying cooking with her friend. It was like pulling apart appliances and various instruments. You had to time everything perfectly, you had to be careful and you had to make sure you were delicate enough with your project.
"Good!" Leena praised again causing Claudia's face to flare slightly. Was that a blush? The inner voice came from Claudia's gossiping grandma side of her brain - the one that was always digging for more info, even if it was her own business. Had to be from the preheated oven, right? Claudia rolled her eyes. Nope, definitely a blush. "Ooh, sorry…" Leena apologized as she squeezed passed her, one hand on her hip to keep her balance. She reached out for the baking tray and grinned, straightening up to place Claudia's carefully made parcels onto the oiled tray. Claudia still felt the woman's fingers on her waist even though they were long gone and frankly, felt like banging her own head against the kitchen counter. Blush and a crush. Darn.