And Everything Nice

And Everything Nice (2016) Ada Maria Soto

I adore this short story.

“He might not be gay, and he’s probably already got a boyfriend.”

“Prescouted. Single, new in town, currently into Elder Scrolls online, and has a pride flag bumper sticker, so out and proud.”

“Why are you helping me?” Mark had suffered through the two-day seminar along with everyone else, and even before that showed minimal interest in his love life. “I am deeply suspicious, and I’m pretty sure you just want my baking.”

He held out the plate. He’d gone for his chocolate-chip cookies, always a good icebreaker. They weren’t too large, making them harder to justify refusing. He used the vanilla paste instead of extract for a richer flavor, refrigerated the dough for twenty-four hours to allow the flavors to meld, giving it undertones of caramel, dark-chocolate chips to balance the sweet, and baked them just before leaving for work so the chocolate was still semimelted.

Over two months Simon had turned down chocolate-chip cookies, red velvet cupcakes, and warm scones of both sweet and savory varieties. He’d also responded to all of Angelo’s requests for early draft documentation, paid attention to him in meetings, complimented his Welcome to Night Vale T-shirts, and joined in conversations about gaming.

Characters: Mark, Angelo, Simon, Julia

Rating: 9/10

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