Recipe for a Sweet Christmas
S: Annie gives an online baking lesson to Bonnie and Molly.
Annie placed the tablet on the kitchen counter, putting extra attention that its camera perfectly framed her and every move she would make. All the ingredients were already out and weighed, and every needed tool was handy. The only missing thing was her students.
"Mommy…" Lila appeared with her pastel-pink pajamas, rubbing her eyes. "What are you doing?"
"What are you doing, honey? I thought I'd tacked you in half an hour ago."
"You're making a cake? Can I help you?"
Annie smiled, but her tone reminded firm. "No, it's too late for you. You need to get back to bed, come on."
Lila's lower lip curled. "I heard you tell daddy you were doing something with the girls… I'm a girl too! You don't want me here?"
"Oh, Lila, sweety. It's not that." Annie put a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Tonight I'm going to spend some time with the big girls. But I promise you we will make a gingerbread house tomorrow, just me and you, okay?"
Lila kept staring, her eyes big and glinting.
Annie glanced at the hanging clock. "Let's do it like this, then. I warm us both some milk, we drink it together, and then you go straight to bed, leaving mommy to her stuff, okay?"
In between preparing the mugs, Annie shot a quick text message, then turned her whole attention back to her daughter. Once Lila was satisfied, Annie tucked her in again, rapidly checked on the other kids, and went straight back to her tablet.
As soon as she opened the zoom app, Molly appeared on the screen, shortly followed by Bonnie.
Annie greeted them. "Sorry for the delay."
"Don't worry." Bonnie beamed while collecting her hair in a ponytail in the right corner of Annie's tablet. "Ready for our girl night?"
"Just remind me again why we're doing this." Molly's voice came from the left part of Annie's screen.
"Because our men are on shift tonight and left us home alone. I'm used to dealing with the children without David, but sometimes I need some recreation too."
"And this is your idea of recreation?" Molly asked, pointing at her green apron.
"What she's trying to say is that we got you, Annie," Bonnie intervened.
"Of course. You can call us anytime," Molly continued. "I was referring to this," she aimed the camera of her phone at the ingredients on her counter.
"This is because I wanted a little revenge on Victor, and you said it would be fun fooling Jim, too."
"It's good to play with our partners," Annie confirmed. "I don't see the harm in making them believe a homemade fruitcake is your only gift for them before taking out the real present.
"Isn't this our only gift for them?" Molly asked. "Well, they already got us, don't they?"
The three women laughed. Annie knew that Molly had already got something that would be a little more welcomed than a silly fruitcake and that she felt lucky to have Jim at her side as much as he should feel lucky to have her.
"Actually, David truly loves this cake, to the point that eating it on Christmas Day it's a Kay's tradition now." Annie rolled up her sleeves. "Should we start our online class?"
On Annie's directions, they all started mixing the ingredients into the pan, both Bonnie and Molly paying extra attention to every single move their teacher made.
"Now, I do not put the brandy in since kids are gonna eat it, but if you'd like to add it, this is the time."
"Oh-oh…"
"What's up Bonnie? What did you do?"
"The dropper cup fell off..." Bonnie shrugged, her face scrunched in a I-messed-up-already face. "Guess we're lucky there aren't any children in the house yet."
"Oh, anything you want to tell us?" Molly dropped her spoon to get closer to the camera.
"No. Not yet." Bonnie hurried back, all reddened. "Can we just go back to the cake?"
Step by step, Annie guided the other two women until it was time to put the mixture into the oven. "And now we just wait for a couple hours."
"Clean the kitchen and see you back in half an hour to gossip our way to the deadline?" Molly hopefully threw in.
"It will take me a little longer." Somehow, Bonnie had flour all over herself. "I may need to take a shower too."
The other two chuckled. "Deal."
Used to cook for and clean after six people, Annie didn't take long to set everything up like it was new. By the time the girls were back online, she had played a few card games on her tablet and made herself some hot chocolate.
One minute, they were having a blast chatting and gossiping, the next, the timer was going off already.
As soon as the cakes were out of the oven, Bonnie tried to peek at Annie's while holding up her own in front of the camera. "It's not too bad, is it?"
"It looks perfect. And it's your first time! What about you, Molly?"
"Well… I'm grateful Jim has a steel stomach because this thing it's dangerously close to being made of bricks."
"Oh, come on," Annie encouragingly said, even though the appearance of Molly's fruitcake—so flat and darkish—wasn't encouraging at all. She forced a smile. "I'm sure it's alright."
"Well, one thing is sure," Molly sat heavily on her stool, her desolate face big on the screen. "If Jim dares to eat that, I'll be sure he truly loves me."