(AN: Original draft finished 7/02/15)
Max and Clyde were standing together in the kitchen of the bakery. Moving to Max's side, Clyde propped himself off the counter, hands close to Max's. Max unknowingly moved a hand closer to Clyde, meeting one of them. They looked towards each other as it happened, smiling awkwardly before someone spoke.
"Max." Clyde started. He slowly grabbed Max's hand and clasped it with his. Looking into her blue eyes, he gave a weak smile. Max looked worried. Taking a deep breath, Clyde continued.
"There's... something I want to tell you." Clyde said looking into her eyes. Gritting his teeth, he had to choose his words carefully.
"I know you just started, but you have to know..." Clyde informed Max. Max gulped, waiting for the words. The air was tense. Max had put on one of her indie albums on the hi-fi, making the quaint shop feel... serene. They seemed like some leads in a modern love story; small town romantics with brighter futures than where they were. Clyde leaned in, stopping short of her right cheek. Whispering into her ear, he told her his inner conflict.
"I can't make cookies. Like, at all. Terry did it for us; I handled everything else. If you know how to make great cookies, please do. Everyone in town likes our cookies, and we need to keep up a standard." Clyde confessed. Max let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Letting go of her hands, Clyde went to get some bowl and other equipment. Max walked over, watching him get ready.
"I do know a little trick for making different types of cookies. If you want me to, I could write it down." Max offered. Clyde had finished bringing out everything they needed.
"You could write it down, but I'd miss hearing your sweet voice." Clyde told her with a wink. Max smirked at him, slapping his arm.
"Yeah, because me saying 'you mix those wet and dry ingredients. Oh yeah.' That's really angelic." Max said, dipping into a deeper voice to channel the inner angel in her. Clyde was fanning himself.
"Oh, yeah. Don't stop, Max. Keep going." Clyde said, trying not to laugh. They both started bursting into little laughing fits. Then, they get down to business.
"Okay, so what do we do?" Clyde said, walking towards the pantry with Max in tow.
"Well, get some all-purpose flour, baking soda, unsalted butter, brown and granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, chocolate morsels, and salt." Max told Clyde. Grabbing the ingredients, Max continued.
"The trick is in varying the amount of butter and sugar that goes into the cookies. It'll change the texture of the cookie if we do." Max told him.
"So, what type of cookies do you want to make?" Clyde asks, looking over the ingredients.
"I feel like soft, chewy cookies would be good for everyone." Max suggests, grabbing some butter, the sugars, and measuring cups.
"I'll prepare this, you take care of the dry ingredients. We'll need two and a quarter cups of the flour, 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon of salt." Max ordered Clyde.
Max mixed two sticks of butter, 1 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of granulated sugar with an electric mixer while Clyde placed the flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl and whisked it. Max stopped the mixer and grabbed two eggs and the vanilla extract. She cracked the two eggs and put the them in the mixer. She eyeballed two teaspoons (or what she thought was enough) of the vanilla extract into the mixer and turned it back on. Feeling satisfied with how her part looked, she stopped the mixer.
"Alright, bring the dry ingredients over and get two cups of the chips." She said. Clyde brought her the bowl and went to get the morsels.
"Now we combine it all and mix." Max said and proceeded to do. Feeling like the concoction was ready for the oven, they stopped mixing and Clyde grabbed ice cream scoopers.
"Terry left them." He justified their presence. They scooped them onto some cookie trays, set the oven to 350 degrees, waited for it to heat up and placed the cookies in.
"You watch the cookies. I'll unlock the door to let customers in and hold the fort down for a couple minutes." Clyde told Max.
As he walked off, Max watched the oven. Memories of youth flooding back to her. Days spent helping in the kitchen. Oh nostalgia. She couldn't daydream forever. however. The cookie would burn. After a good enough time passed, or in her case three indie songs finished, she took the cookies out. Just then, Clyde walked in.
"Damn, son. Where'd you get that?" Clyde said. Max took two cookies and offered one to Clyde.
"To our jobs." Max toasted, raising her cookie. Clyde did the same.
"Allahu Akbar." Clyde replied. They took a bite in. Max liked the taste. Tasted like mommy's homemade cookies. She looked to Clyde. He looked frozen.
"Clyde? Are you alright?" Max asked, tilting her head to a side. The air was tense.
"Max... I would kiss you on the front counter right now, but I respect your decision to give me consent to do so. Seriously though, these are fucking fantastic." Clyde finally said, taking another bite. Max smiled, seeing Clyde was back to being Clyde. Max and Clyde took the trays to the display case and placed them in. As Clyde took the trays back to the kitchen, the door swung open.
Max looked up and felt her breath get taken away. Two blonde bombshells had walked in and were standing right in front of her. Max could feel a blush on her face and her neck choking up.
"Damn. They're really hot." Max thought. One of the blondes, one with short hair, lowered her sunglasses.
"You're not Terry." She said. Max tried to calm down, but with two hot blondes in front of her, well, it's not hard to imagine her difficulties with that.
"I think you're scaring her, Vic. Quit the cold bitch image, and enjoy yourself for once. We're here to have fun." The other blonde said. Turning to Max, she put a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't mind my friend. She thinks that she has to uphold some image to the world. It's truly sad." She said to Max, in a faux 'woe is her, she had a hard life' manner. Her friend slapped the back of her head.
"Shut up, T. I was just getting familiar with our new friend. Welcome to Arcadia Bay, young one. I am Victoria Chase, and this bimbo is my lackey, Taylor." The short haired blonde said, introducing themselves. Both extended a hand to acknowledge Max. Max returned the gesture.
"Max Caulfield. Pleasure to meet you. Now, what would you like?" Max asked, shaking their hands. Taylor moved to the display case and back to the counter.
"We'll have the tiramisu and three frappes, please." Taylor asked.
Max nodded and went for the tiramisu. Clyde arrived from the kitchen and placed down three frappes in plastic cups. Taylor picked up two of them and went to a table, while Victoria stayed by the counter, taking out her wallet and a pen. Once Max came back with some tiramisu, Victoria was writing something down. Max cleared her throat to get her attention.
"That'll be $8.00." Max said. Victoria rushed what she was writing down, and handed Max a check. The check was worth $50.
"Uh..." Max tried to say something, but Victoria beat her to it.
"It's for what we'll buy later. You can keep the change if we don't use it all." Victoria said rather quickly and a bit hushed.
Grabbing the rest of their order, Victoria walked towards Taylor. Looking down at the check, Max saw a phone number scribbled on it. She took her phone out and texted the number.
"Victoria? This is Max?" She texted.
She looked up, seeing Victoria take out her phone and type something quickly on it. Max's phone did a quick jingle, signifying something was sent to her. She looked down and saw Victoria had answered her text.
"Talk 2 u after we leave." Victoria wrote back.
Looking up, she saw Victoria looking in her direction. Her eyes hid behind the sunglasses, not allowing Max to see whether Victoria was glaring or not. Taylor was texting someone, so she didn't see Victoria staring at Max. When she was done, she looked at Victoria, then at Max, and pouted. Smacking Victoria's arm, they started to whisper to each other. Clyde came out of the kitchen to hang out with Max.
"Yo, Mad Maxxie. Getting used to the slow workday?" Clyde asked, sitting on the counter. Max joined him.
"Yeah, I guess. So far, the girls are mostly nice. I'm fine with that." Max answered. Clyde let out a chuckle.
"Hey, don't leave me out of this." Clyde replied.
Max gave a small smile. Even though it was her second week there, she felt that she had settled in well. Before she could reply, the door swung open loudly and Victoria's and Taylor's voices broke the nice silence.
"Hey, girl! What took you so long?" Taylor said to the new girl, giving her a hug.
"Late as usual." Victoria said to her.
The new girl had settled down with her friends and joined them in the tiramisu. Max watched them, seeing them enjoy the food and company. She felt a little left out. Sure, she had Clyde, but this was different. The three girls looked so happy. She didn't mope long, as a nudge brought her back. Turning around, Clyde had brought her some tiramisu and a frappe.
"Don't want to be left out? Girl's day out. My treat." Clyde said, grabbing his own and settling down next to Max.
Max gave him a warm smile, and Clyde did the same. They ate in silence, with an occasional glance at each other, soaking in Max's music and the chit-chat from the girls. She knew from a distance, it looked romantic. She knew better, however. It was a nice gesture between coworkers. Nothing more. As she finished her food, Clyde picked up the plates and cups and brought them back to the kitchen. She watched him go before hearing something clink behind her. Turning around, she saw the new girl brought some plates and tableware up.
"So, you're Clyde's new girl?" She asked. Max jolted a bit.
"Excuse me?" Max replied. The new girl chuckled softly.
"Don't tell me that he wasn't coming on to you. He can't help himself around pretty girls." She said. Max gave her a funny look.
"He didn't. He didn't even talk to me when we were eating." Max said. The new girl shook her head.
"I know Clyde too well to know he'd gossip about me. Did he tell you about my 'tendencies'? About 'Crazy Court'?" She said a bit louder.
'Court'? Who names their kid just 'Court'?' The brunette thought to herself.
"Your name's just 'Court'?" Max asked. The new girl looked taken aback.
"You really don't know who I am?" She asked. Max shook her head.
"He didn't tell you anything else about himself?" She asked. Again, Max shook her head. The new girl face palmed.
"I guess I overreacted. Shit, this is embarrassing. Well, let's start over. Hi, I'm Courtney." Courtney said. Max nodded.
"Max. Nice to meet you." She said. Courtney gave her a card.
"My friends and I are leaving soon, so we can't talk long, and I fucked up the little time we had. Text me later, and we'll continue this." Courtney said, walking towards her friends.
As she walked away, Victoria approached Max. Max gave her a small smile.
"Did you enjoy the food?" Max asked.
"Good, but not as good as you look." Victoria whispered, looking at the display case.
Max's face flushed a bit. Victoria was very forward.
"Give me all the chocolate cookies there." Victoria ordered, focused on said food.
Max complied, grabbing a box to stuff them in and handed them to Victoria. Their hands brushed briefly, but Max felt the warmth transfer between them.
"Keep the change." Victoria said, turning towards the exit.
Max saw Victoria and Courtney go through the door, but Taylor walked towards Max. Before Max could ask her, Taylor pulled Max into a hug.
"Oh, Max. You looked so lonely." Taylor said, shaking her around.
Max would have spoken up, but her face was resting somewhere 'soft'. That made it hard for her, to say the least. Luckily, or unluckily for her, Taylor stopped.
"I'll make it up to you, Max. Here, this is my number. It's usually for parents who needs someone to babysit their kids, but it'll have to do." Taylor said, grabbing a slip of ripped paper from her bag and placing it in Max's hand.
Closing Max's hand, Taylor leaned in and placed a kiss on her forehead before leaving. Just as she left, the sound of clapping snapped Max from her dizziness.
"Way to go champ, you got another girl's number and scored a kiss. I taught you well." Clyde's voice said.
Max regained control, and remembering what Taylor did, went to feel her forehead. Feeling a sticky substance, she brought her hand down and saw some glitter on her fingers.
"You'll want to clean that off. Who knows where that's been?" Clyde said, walking back into the kitchen.
"Hey!" Max realized what he was insinuating.
...
"Taylor, you're dreaming again. What's up?" Victoria asked. Taylor looked up, seeing Victoria drive them back to her house.
"It's nothing." Taylor answered, remembering Max.
She hoped Max would take her offer. Looking to Courtney in the backseat, she saw her texting someone. Probably a new boyfriend. Then, Taylor heard a ring from her phone. Looking to it, she read the message to herself.
"Taylor? It's Max. I added you as a contact. Save my numbr plz." It read.
Taylor did so, saving Max as a contact. After that, Taylor immersed herself in the lovely music flooding the stereo.
"To all my Dominican girls dem,
all my Caribbean girls dem
All my West Indian girls dem,
I done fucked a million girls, damn"
"Hey, can you change the song, guys?" Courtney asked.
Her request went unanswered.
Max's little tip for cookies came from this video: watch?v=hCzVqaFMlIw. You're welcome to try it out. Truth be told, I messed up on a lot of cookies, so yeah. If it helps, yeah for ya. If it doesn't, well I don't know.