Corey hadn’t even bothered to turn on the lights as it started to get dark out. He sat on the couch, blinded by the glow of the banking app on his phone. Every thirty seconds, he’d refresh the page and clench his gut. Another hour had passed.
He refreshed the page again, and the money was gone.
That was that, then. Corey dropped his phone and let his head fall back, groaning. It had hurt as much to see as it had hurt to think about. He wasn’t in danger of losing his apartment, nor would he be screwed if he needed to see a doctor suddenly, but it confirmed that Cynthia wasn’t going to give him a second chance.
It was probably a good thing that he hadn’t gone through with that long, rambling message to her.
In the morning, Corey would have to get up and go back to work. The business world kept on turning. More than that, though, he needed to perfect his recipe. Corey needed to win the baking competition, not just to get his financial safety net back but to prove that all of this effort meant something.
He wasn’t going to collapse because a woman manipulated him.
It was her fault.
It had to be.
Who else could be responsible?
That hurt to think about, so instead he got up and returned to his room for a proper nap. The next day, he put in his eight hours and clocked out as soon as humanly possible. Corey spent some time on the crullers even though he really wasn’t feeling the passion anymore.
He owed it to Clarissa.
***
It was remarkably hot out, and Corey was going to sweat through his makeup. The local festival had been set up off the main road, near the park, but the actual baking competition was taking place on Second Street. Tables and canopies had been set up for all contestants, including “Clarissa.” Corey was all dressed up in his nice outfit but felt like a fraud.
Something was going to go wrong. Maybe he wouldn’t even be a finalist because he’d give the judges food poisoning, or his pastries would be burnt even though he’d inspected each one carefully, or they’d immediately pull off the wig and disqualify him for being a liar who didn’t appreciate the people in his life. It all made his stomach churn.
Corey found himself doing a lot of pacing in anticipation. Every now and then, someone would stop by his table and try one of his sweets, even comment about how good it was. He’d reply with a small thanks and his best approximation of a smile. In between, Corey focused on every breathing exercise he could look up on his phone.
He wanted to throw up.
“I’ve never seen someone look so seasick this far inland.”
It was Cynthia. She wasn’t smirking or reeling from him like Corey would have thought. Actually, she looked a little sad.
“What are you doing here?” Corey asked, only barely catching himself before he dropped the Clarissa voice. “I thought you were moving.”
“I am. It’s a slow process, and I figured that I’d check out the festival while I had the chance. It’d be nice to have one last good memory of this place.”
Corey nodded; of course she wasn’t there for him.
“I see that you went with the lemon bars after all.”
“It was the better recipe.”
There was a very long pause while the two searched for anything to look at but each other.
“Cyn… Can I call you Cyn?”
“I guess?”
“I just… I mean…”
A familiar record-scratch of a voice rang out, “Hey, Cynthia! Fancy seeing you here!”
Jackson was leading the rest of the friend group, all of them clearly a little drunk. Corey looked away while the oaf wrapped an arm around Cynthia’s neck and leaned in so close that she had to wrinkle her nose from the rancid smell of his breath. It was hard for Corey to make out what was being said over the sound of his own heartbeat.
“Go away, jackass,” Cynthia said. “I’m here for the food.”
“Babe, you are a snack.”
“That’s not even– What?”
Jackson just laughed, the rest of the goons following his lead. Then he grew sober and said, “What’s this bullshit I hear about you moving away, anyhow? You think you’re going somewhere?”
Cynthia glanced at Corey, who kept his head down.
Jackson turned to look at him anyway and said, “I think you’re in the wrong century, sweetheart. You make these?” He picked up a lemon bar and shoved it in his maw. “Pretty good. Maybe you’d like to come over to my place and, uh, get close and personal with my kitchen countertop, if you know what I mean?”
The rest of the guys burst out laughing while Corey shrunk down further.
“Fuck off, Jackson.” Cynthia pushed him away. “You’re making her uncomfortable.”
“Hey, she can speak for herself, can’t she? Don’t be so sexist, Cynthia. You don’t own her.” He propped himself against the table and leaned closer to Corey. “You look familiar. Were you part of my fan club in high school? If I didn’t kiss you at the time, I certainly can now.” When Corey didn’t reply, Jackson snarled, “Hey, I’m talking to you. You autistic or something?”
Corey clutched his arms to his chest and whined. It was hard to even form a thought with all their eyes on him. All he wanted was to disappear. He was shaking so bad.
Jackson’s eyes narrowed.
“Wait a minute.”
“Why don’t you shove off before the judges arrive?” Cynthia asked, giving him a light push.
“Shut up.” He grabbed for Corey, who squealed and nearly fell backward. “Come here, you.”
Everyone was watching. Corey could see the other guys’ expressions shift from confusion to realization and horror. The world was spinning even as it caved in. Words fumbled from Corey’s mouth. Cynthia got more aggressive with Jackson but was too small to hold him back.
Somewhere in the scuffle, the wig came off.
“I fucking knew it,” Jackson sneered. “Guess they were right about college turning everyone into queers. Did you have to bring your fetish into public, though? There are kids here, faggot.”
“Back off, Jackson.” Cynthia got between them while Corey scrambled to get the wig back on. “He’s not hurting anybody.”
“I am sick of you treating me like shit!”
Jackson swung his arm, hitting Cynthia square in the face and knocking her back. The table buckled as its legs gave out. Plates topped over and scattered lemon bars all over the pavement. Cynthia reached up to cover the red spot on her face, but she looked more surprised than hurt.
“Shows you right.” Jackson smirked, pleased with himself despite the rest of the guys having scattered, “Now, how about you–?”
“Hey! Stay right where you are. Put your hands behind your head.”
An officer in a black uniform approached, one hand aimed at Jackson and another at his waist.
“Come on, dude. She was shoving me! I was just defending myself! Arrest him! He’s the one parading around in women’s clothes!”
“I said put your hands behind your head.”
Jackson made a face but did as he was told. Another uniform appeared to cuff him and lead him away, reciting something about assault and disorderly conduct. Cynthia stood back up, and the other officer turned toward her and Corey with his hand still on his hip.
“Are you two alright?”
“Fine,” Cynthia said. “Thank you.”
“He’ll face justice for this. I’m just going to need to take a quick statement from each of you.”
Cynthia did most of the talking. Corey was too frayed to even look the officer in the eye, simply agreeing with Cynthia’s version of events. She had tastefully left out Corey not being a real woman, simply using “they” in place of the correct pronoun. When the officer was satisfied, he gave them a curt nod and wished them a good day, leaving them with their collapsed table.
“Shit. I’m sorry, Corey.” Cynthia knelt down to help him stand the table back up. “If I’d known any of this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have shown up.”
“It’s okay.”
“...I only really came to apologize. The truth is I was afraid to get close to you. You seemed genuinely nice, especially in your videos, but there was always a chance that you’d hurt me if I let my guard down. Even though you were never as bad as your friends, I didn’t know if that meant you were better or just more timid. When you started saying all those things about me, it seemed to confirm everything I’d been worried about, so I flipped out.”
“I don’t blame you. Not really.” Corey sighed. “They were shitty friends even in high school, then I get back and all they do is wallow in misery. Being around them only ever made me feel worse about myself. I didn’t even realize that until I started hanging out with you, but I was so afraid that you were going to hurt me when I really needed a friend that I felt like the only way to protect myself was to push you away. Still hurt.”
They stood on opposite sides of the folding table, surrounded by scattered pastries.
“There’s no way I can return the money. I’m sorry. If I hadn’t come here, you might have actually won it back. Feels really shitty for me to ruin your life like this.”
Corey waved his hand and knelt down, pulling a sealed container from a backpack. “I was so panicked that I couldn’t stop cooking. What if people ate all my lemon bars, and there were no more left for the judges?” He placed the container down on the table. “I guess I have a successful future as a doomsday prepper if this doesn’t pan out.”
Cynthia laughed. “Let me help you throw all this away before the birds claim it as their own.”
When it came time to hear the judges’ decision, everyone crowded around the judges table while they conferred and compared notes. Corey stood near the back with Cynthia. Sweat ran down his face and had soaked the back of his dress. His heart doubled in speed when the lead judge stood to announce the winners.
“In third place, winning five hundred dollars in gift cards, is Diane Brown and her chocolate and pear puff pastries.”
There was a polite round of applause. Corey’s vision was swimming. He hadn’t even wanted a bunch of gift cards he probably wouldn’t be able to use, but now there were only two places left he could land, and they were the hard ones.
“In second place, winning one thousand dollars and a voucher for free catering from Gloria’s Tavern on Third Street, is Betty Wilcox with her apple and strawberry turnovers.”
Corey was about to faint. Cynthia took him by the hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. This was it. Everything was over. The sky was falling and the ground was splitting for demons to crawl out of and the wind was howling and darkness was swallowing the sun–
“Coming in first place, winning five thousand dollars, is newcomer Clarissa Claire with her lemon bars.”
Oh, okay, everything was fine.
Receiving the small trophy and giant novelty check was an out of body experience for Corey, as was him getting his photo taken for the local paper. He was surrounded by people he didn’t know until he was all alone again just as quickly. With no one else to go to, Corey walked back over to Cynthia and held up the trophy.
“I did it.”
“You did.” Cynthia leaned in and gave Corey a kiss on the lips. “You make a really cute girl. Perhaps that’s something to look into.” She turned and started walking away. “If you ever find yourself in the city, hit me up.”
***
The oven was nearly ready. Corrie turned on the ring light and shut off the overheads. She grabbed a comb and ran it through her hair. Work had been leaving her frazzled.
“Alright! Let’s see how we did,” she told the camera.
Oven-baked donuts had been Cynthia’s idea. It had taken a bit of research, but Corrie found her enthusiasm pretty quickly. She was nervous, though. The less traditional foodstuff had done well for her TikTok career but left her anxious that each new video could be a bomb that sank her to the bottom of the algorithm.
“Alright, are you ready to try there?”
“Am I ever. The smell is intoxicating.” Cynthia turned to the camera. “That’s the part of the experience you folks don’t get.” She took a bite. “Oh! Oh, hot! That’s hot!”
“I keep telling you–!”
Cynthia, and the dynamic between them, seemed to bring in extra views as well.
Calling it a wrap on the footage, Corrie and Cynthia fell onto the couch together with donuts in hand. Corrie positioned herself so she was sitting on Cynthia’s lap. Food wasn’t the only thing they were experimenting with. One of Cynthia’s conditions for Corrie moving in was the establishment of a friends-with-benefits/non-exclusive-partners arrangement. Corrie liked to think of it as “soft dating,” not quite as structured as polyamory. It was good for her, because ever since Cynthia had entered her life, she’d found herself experimenting a whole lot more.
Bought the collection. Looking forward to (re)reading all these stories.
This story wrapped up really quickly, it felt rushed.
Of the two stories, the time loop one sounds amazing, I really want to see how that works out.
Nice story overall if a little rushed, but nonetheless enjoyable.
Dawwwwww. So sweet.
Oh that was cute!! I wasn't sure how to feel about the MC at first but it turned out really well. Thanks for the story!!
great story!
Awww man, it's a short story! Good ending tho.
Aw I love the happy ending
Aww, that was sweet! (pun absolutely intended)
I think I just did a hard reset due to feeling ~emotion~