#Gilbert would ABSOLUTELY keep the line on his old apron

[faintvibes]

Bakery AU: Electric Boogaloo

drops this

Explanation under the cut!

Every now and then, as is the circle of life, I inevitably come back and redesign/generally remake my bakery au, so I humbly offer its latest reincarnation.

The general premise is that a bunch of dead nations (incl Prussia, because he doesn't live through the cold war this time round) try a risky experiment that's meant to bring them back to life- and it does! But they get reincarnated as humans, with no memory of their lives as nations. The remaining Nation Energy they have joins them together in their new lives through a telepathic link.

The story mostly centers around Beilschmidt Bakery- a business in Magdeburg that Almaric's (Germania's) parents decided to purchase above other candidates because of the coincidental (or so they thought) name match-up. In reality, this is a business Prussia established in the 1880s that he largely left up to locals to run, but would take Germany to as a young boy as an escape from politics. (Germany has not visited it since Prussia's death- but once he does, he's in for a surprise!)

Almaric and Gilbert work at the bakery full-time, with the plan being that Gilbert will one day inherit it. Kallisto, Navid, and Ixchel (Ancient Greece, Ancient Persia, and Thule- an Inuit culture originating in Alaska that spread across Canada for 600 years). Jules and Hazael (Knights Templar and Hospitaller) are Gil's friends from high school, who work part-time at the bakery to help pay for their education to become a music therapist and paramedic respectfully.

**I'm aware, by the way, that Ixchel isn't an Inuit name, but rather a Mayan one! There is a reason for this, both in her nation life and human one!! It's difficult to explain without going into my whole perspective on Indigenous Nations in the Americas- so I'll just say that in her human life, she's named after someone her parents were friends with but lost contact, and this is similar but not the same as the story about her name in her prior life. Hopefully that makes sense :)

Of those not working at the bakery: Romulus (Ancient Rome) is a Roman archaeologist and as a result travels a lot, Lotte (Ancient Gaul) is the Director of the Royal Archives in the Netherlands, and so lives in the Hague, Ephraim (Ancient Judea) works as a history conservator at the Jewish Museum Berlin, and Nermin (Ancient Egypt) travels the globe searching for answers on why they're Like That.

As for why Prussia dies: I'm running with the theory that Prussia becomes East Germany in canon- and that he does not in this au, but everyone assumes he does since he doesn't die/fade/whatever immediately upon becoming dissolved. In reality, his survival is due to being used to changing nature (another headcanon of mine, but I'm of the perspective- first of all, that Prussia was originally the Baltic Prussians- that the representative of the Baltic Prussians, rep of the Teutonic Knights, rep of the [independent] Prussia, and rep of the Prussia that's part of Germany all required reps of entirely different natures. Baltic Prussia/Old Prussia was a collection of tribes operating under one culture but never one organisation, meaning the representative would be more like the ancients typically were, residing over a culture but not one specific nation/tribe/organisation of people. Holy orders like the Teutonic Knights organised in small pockets within countries and territories, so being the representative of that is, again, different. And then, of course, being an independent, fully-fledged nation is another form of representative. And being a representative of territory within a nation is different again. So Prussia (the person) is clearly an adaptable little gremlin and hard to kill, even when he probably should have been- long aside over!) which means that even though he no longer represents a territory, people, or culture, he exists anyway because fuck you. Rather, he adapts to being your average everyday human, losing his immortality and boosted healing factor- but this isn't something immediately noticeable. It IS noticeable, however, when he dies and doesn't eventually get back up again. And starts decaying away.

Russia buried the body and never told a soul what happened. The rest of the world continued thinking Gilbert, as East Germany, was just trapped behind the iron curtain. This fell apart with the Berlin Wall, when Russia just would not cough him up. It became quite clear Russia did something- but no one knew what. Even the other Soviet states hadn't a clue, just that he'd disappeared years ago and no one ever saw him again. Most of them thought he probably escaped, though Russia didn't react as though he'd escaped, because it seemed like the most reasonable explanation. Now, it was clear that Russia had done something- and, they believed, still doing something, because it's not like nations die permanently when they still represent something. The reunification of Germany was partly out of the hope that it would put him out of his misery- though the thought that he might be alone and suffering, somehow managing to survive, continues to haunt Germany.

As a funky little bonus, here's the last time I made a reference for this au:

Left most of the lads as heads this time because I knew that I don't have the energy to do all of them rn.

*Ixchel has the funky little aura thing going on because in this version they all had individual powers, and hers just happened to project outwardly. Mithridates (to memory) is Navid- except the name felt a bit too on the nose, and I didn't realise Ancient Persia had a rep until I came back to the project this time around, so a lot of changes on that front. (Same with Ancient Egypt!)

[aswithasunbeam]

Champagne and Scratch Tickets

[Read on AO3]

Rating: Teen and Up

Summary: Eliza gets up at the crack of dawn each morning to work at the corner store, doing all she can to keep things afloat after her parents' death. The one thing cutting into her profit margin: the cute boy from the barber shop across the street, who she can't seem to stop giving free coffee to.

A Hamilton/ In the Heights Mashup with Eliza as Usnavi, Alex as Vanessa, Angelica as Nina, and Peggy as Sonny.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do, Bess. Maybe I should just drop out.” Angelica heaved herself up onto the checkout counter with a sigh.

“Absolutely not,” Eliza said. “Whatever happens, you stay in school. It’s what mom and dad wanted.”

“When my grades come in, Stanford might not give me any choice.”

Angelica’s legs dangled in front of the alcohol and cigarette age disclaimers, mostly bare but for her high cut shorts. Thomas, loitering around the magazine rack, shot Angelica an appreciative glance, Eliza noticed. James noticed, too, apparently, because he gave Thomas a swift smack with a newspaper. Eliza cut her eyes to her sister, and they shared a look of stifled amusement.

Eliza gave her a companionable pat before turning back to stocking the scratch tickets displayed on the other side of the register. “We’ll figure something out, Ange. I promise. We’ll find some more money for you, so you won’t have to work so much. Then you can focus on your classes, get through finals.”

“You don’t have any more money to send,” Angelica said, eyeing the peeling linoleum floor.

True, Eliza granted silently, thinking of the stack of overdue bills on the kitchen table, their bright red final notices practically glowing on the envelopes, not to mention the broken refrigerator on the far wall, still waiting for the repairman to give an estimate. But their parents would turn over in their graves if Angelica didn’t finish school. Conjuring a smile, she said, “We’ll find a way.”

A long, slow whistle of appreciation came from the front window, where a group of two guys and a girl had their heads tilted, peering over the sign announcing a sale on Doritos. Following their eye line, she saw Alex bent over in the refrigerator, his rear beautifully framed in his tight blue jeans. Eliza felt her own head tilting sideways. Alex glanced to the side and threw up his middle finger at the window, prompting the group to walk hastily away.

“What are you looking at?” Angelica asked mischievously.

Eliza gave a flustered start.  

Just then, Peggy skidded to a stop in front of the counter, still tying her apron around her waist. “What are we talking about?”

“I’m worrying about my future,” Angelica said. “Eliza’s checking out boys and pretending to care.”

“I care,” Eliza insisted.

“No judgment here,” Peggy said, openly staring at Alex, who was now standing upright with his cell pressed to his ear. “That boy is fine.”

“Shut up,” Eliza whispered.

Alex spun on the spot and his voice raised in volume. “No, no! I’ll definitely be there. I’ll see you this afternoon. We’ll go over that lease. Thanks.” He hung up and grinned to himself, a dimple appearing in his cheek.

“Good news?” Angelica asked him.

His head swiveled towards them. “I have a lead on an apartment near campus.” He pointed to Eliza. “You owe me a bottle of champagne.”

“You’re moving?” Eliza heard herself asking. She could only hope the heartbreak didn’t come through in her voice.

“If all goes to plan.” He plopped the Pepsi on the counter to check out. “Your fridge smells pretty bad, by the way.”

“Yeah, it’s broken,” Eliza said, hurrying to pour him his customary morning coffee. “It’s been so hot, they’ve been working overtime. It must have finally given out last night.”

“Oh.” An awkward pause followed as he eyed the coffee. “Is the milk okay?”

“I used condensed milk. You know, from the can?”

“Clever,” he praised, clearly impressed.

“My mom’s old recipe.” She shoved a piece of hair back away from her sweaty face. “You’re good to go. It’s all on the house.”

That sweet, warm smile of his fell on her for a heart stopping moment. “Thanks.”  

“So, you’re going back to school?” Angelica asked.

“Yeah. I got accepted to Columbia. With scholarships and the money I’ve saved up working at Mulligan’s, I might just be able to afford it for a semester,” Alex said. “Watch yourself Ivy League. You’ve got competition.”

Angelica laughed, though Eliza noticed a distinct tightness in her face.

“How’s school going for you?” His voice was colored with hope, his dreams clearly pinned on Angelica’s recent escape from the neighborhood.

“Great,” Angelica replied, strain apparent. “Really great. You know, lots of tests, lots of papers.”

“Right.” He sighed wistfully and sipped at his coffee. He raised the coffee cup in a salute to the three of them. “Well, I should get to work. Mr. Mulligan won’t wait forever.” A patent lie. The fatherly barber would starve to death before letting Alex go.

“Bye,” Angelica said.

“See you,” Peggy waved.

“I love you,” Eliza said.

“What?” Angelica, Peggy, and Alex all asked in unison.

“What?” she echoed, face flushing. Oh dear God, had she said that out loud? Grabbing blindly, she laid hand on the pizza dough for the little personal pizzas she put out at lunch time. “Dough! I love dough.”

“Dough?” Alex repeated.

“Yeah. It smells amazing. Nothing like pizza dough to start the morning.”

“Mm,” he hummed, leaning closer to inspect the lump. She closed her eyes, inhaling the smell of his spiced soap on his skin. “Looks good. Maybe I’ll come back for a pizza this afternoon.”

“Yes!” Too eager, she scolded herself. Way too eager. Pull it back. “Yeah, I guess. You know, if you want to.”  

He smiled again as he backed away. He was so pretty she wanted to cry. When the door swished shut behind him, Peggy punched Eliza lightly on the arm. “Oh my God, just ask him out, you freak.”

“No!” Eliza looked askance. “I can’t do that. Look at him.”

They all watched him crossing the street towards Mulligan’s Barber Shop.

“I don’t see a thing wrong,” Peggy said.

“He’s…he’s him. And I’m me.” She gestured to her stained apron and messy hair falling out of her ponytail. “All I’m good for is taking reports of broken fridges and giving away free coffee.”

“That’s so not true. He should be so lucky as to get a girl like you,” Angelica said seriously.

Eliza fought not to scoff.

**

The door dinged when Alex walked in that afternoon.

“Hey handsome,” Peggy greeted, jumping down off the stool she’d been using to stock granola bars on the highest shelf. Eliza sent her glare across the store, to which Peggy gave a careless shrug.

“Hey Pegs,” Alex replied, heading towards the convenience items near the register.

Be normal, Eliza instructed herself as he approached. “How’s work going?”

“As good as sweeping up hair can be,” he replied, rifling around in the candy bars. “God, I can’t wait to quit.”

“Everything’s moving forward with Columbia, then?”

He crossed his fingers and held them up over the shelving for her to see.

“Good. That’s good.” It wasn’t good at all. Her chest hurt at the thought of not seeing him every day.  

He headed towards the spinning food heater displaying hotdogs and pizzas, and finagled a pizza onto a plate for himself to go with his Milky Way bar.

“Hey, Alex?” Peggy asked, sauntering over to him.

“Yeah?”

“My sister over there with her tongue hanging out? She’s wondering what a gentleman such as yourself might be doing this evening.”

Eliza’s eyes widened and she hissed, “Peggy.”

Alex glanced over at her, amusement glittering in his pretty, pretty dark eyes. “Does your sister dance?”

“Eh.” Peggy tilted her hand back and forth. Eliza felt her cheeks heating up with mortification.

Alex only laughed. “Well, maybe her and I could check out a club tonight. You know, if you think she’d like that.”

“Oh, I think she’d like that.”

Eliza sunk down behind the counter. It was as close to the earth swallowing her as she could get. She heard footsteps approaching, and, peeking up, she found Alex leaning over the counter. “I need to pay for these.”

“Just take it,” she said, waving him away.

“Ok. Thanks.” He sank his teeth into the pizza, chewed, swallowed, then winked. “You’re right, by the way. This dough really is amazing.”

She groaned and rolled forward, her forehead pressing against her knees.

He laughed again. “See you tonight?”

“Yeah. See you tonight.”

Peggy scooted behind the counter as Alex left. “You know, you might be able to afford to help Angie out more if you stopped giving Alex free stuff all the time.”

“I can’t believe you did that.” She stood back up, wiping the dirt off her jeans. “That was humiliating.”

“But now you have an actual date, instead of mooning over him from a far. Progress, Bess. Progress.”

Much more progress, and she was going to have to change zip codes.

           **

The music from the club was so loud she felt it in her ribcage more than a block away. Her legs felt sore and rubbery as she struggled down the stairs through the crowd, and she cursed the damn refrigerator repair guy who’d made her heave the two ton monstrosity across half the store. “I need better light,” he’d said. She’d been half tempted to beat him senseless with his own crappy flashlight.

“Alex!” A platinum blonde called from across the room, waving frantically.

Alex didn’t seem to notice. His hand was warm where it pressed against the small of her back. He probably gave amazing back rubs, she considered, biting her lip in anticipation.

“Do you come here a lot?” Eliza asked.

“I wouldn’t say a lot.”

“Hey Alex!” A different girl shouted from the bar. At the same time, a guy stopped in front of them, gave Alex a full head to toe appraisal, and mouthed, “Nice.”

When she glanced back at him, he shrugged. “I like to dance.”

She winced. “I hate to say this, but I’m pretty sore from work. I don’t think I can do much dancing tonight.”

His smile made her heart skip again. “That’s okay. Want a drink?”

“Yes, please.”

He gestured at a table where Gilbert and Jack were already sitting as he pushed through the crowd towards the bar. The two usually exuberant men looked oddly glum. Taking a seat, she asked, “What’s wrong with you two?”

“The car service is under new management,” Jack said. He handed her a shot.

“Is the new manager bad?” she asked, gulping it down with a shiver.

Jack took a shot too. “Wouldn’t know.”

“We’ve been ‘restructured’ right into the unemployment line,” Gilbert explained.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“It was a crap job anyway,” Jack said with a shrug. “We’ll figure something out.”

Ah, that old, familiar refrain.

She looked out through the sea of people and saw Alex with three different pairs of hands grabbing at him as he leaned over the bar.  Seeming to sense her eyes on him, he craned his head back and smiled again. Her heart felt like it might pound right out of her chest.

“So, you’re here with Alex, huh?” Jack was smirking.

“Yeah.”

“Took you long enough,” Gilbert added.

Her responding look of indignation faded when she remembered she hadn’t actually ever gotten up the courage to do more than hand him free coffee and drool over him when he walked away.

Alex hadn’t even sat down in a chair when someone paused before the table and offered, “Hey, want to dance.”

“I’m here with someone,” he refused.

She winced again. She didn’t want to be the wet blanket holding him back from a fun night out. “You can, if you want.”

“You don’t mind?”

“I’m fine,” she assured him, sipping at the fruity drink he’d brought her. The concoction tasted exactly like a watermelon Jolly Rancher. Was there even alcohol in it?

“You might want to be careful with that,” Jack warned after she’d sucked down half the drink in two sips. “Those things are lethal.”

She scoffed and took another long sip. Alex had four different people attempting to dance with him on the floor. They’d formed a circle around him, and he turned in place, not seeming to care which of them he was dancing with at any moment. Were people that interchangeable to him? Was she interchangeable? Or was he trying to make her jealous?

After finishing the drink, and stealing a few more shots from Gilbert and Jack for good measure, she pushed back from the table and headed towards the bar, the floor a little more unstable than she remembered. Her legs felt better, at least. She swayed her hips as she approached the bar, where she ordered another one of the watermelon-Jolly Rancher-thingies.  

A girl was grabbing Alex’s ass when the bartender slid the drink across the bar to her. Well, she didn’t have to just take that, right? She could make him jealous right back. Turning to the right, she saw a gorgeous guy leaning against the wall near the bar, glistening with sweat,  his shirt unbuttoned all the way to his belly button.  

“Hey,” she said, trying to smoothly get the guy’s attention. Her heel turned under her, and she had to catch herself on the wall next to him. That did the trick—the guy looked down at her with a quizzical expression.

“Sí?”

“So I’m kind of psychic,” she said, tongue clumsy on the ‘s’ sounds. She touched a finger to his chiseled chest muscles. He looked down at her finger, then back at her. “I looked into your future, and saw me on you.”

He shook his head. “No hablo inglés.”

Only then did the full horror of what she’d just said occur to her. “Oh, thank God,” she whispered to herself, cringing as she began to back away. “Sorry!”

When she started back towards the table, she saw Alex had finally returned. He didn’t look happy, though, she noted, sliding back into her seat. He had his head down and he was slowly banging it against the table over and over.

“What’s wrong?” Her voice was still a little slurred. “Was it that guy? Cause that didn’t mean anything.”

Jack slid a piece of paper over to her. “This got delivered today. I promised Mulligan I’d bring it over to Alex. It’s uh, not good news.”

Trying to make her swimming vision focus on the words, she made out Columbia’s logo on the top. The financial aid office, she recognized after a moment’s more squinting. The word “denied” jumped out from the first sentence.

“Your father’s income is too high for you to qualify for the aid package you applied for?” she asked after far too long trying to comprehend the message. “I didn’t know your father was helping you?”

“Yeah, me either.” He picked his head up off the table. A big, red mark stood out prominently on his forehead. “Maybe they could forward me his address. He hasn’t bothered to keep me updated on his whereabouts for the past fifteen years or so.”

“God, Alex,” she sighed, putting the paper down on the table. “I’m sorry. You’ll get it straightened out, I’m sure. Even if you have to wait another year—”

“I don’t want to wait another year!” His voice went up an octave. “I want out of here. Don’t you get it? Don’t you want more from your life then selling coffee and candy bars to people in that money pit of yours?”

She frowned, sobering up immediately at the dig. Plenty of people thought that about her, she knew. Sweet, dependable Eliza, if only she had some drive, some ambition.

Her displeasure must have shown on her face, because he said immediately, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not a money pit,” she said. “That was my parents’ store.”

“I know,” he said. “I’m really sorry. I don’t know why I said that.”

She cast her eyes down at the table. His chair slid back, barely audible over the driving beat. When she looked up again, he was dragging his fingers through his hair.

“I’m gonna go. I’m not really in a dancing mood anymore.” He gave her a pained look. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” she said, voice chilly. “Sure.”

“You should be gentle with him,” Gilbert said after Alex had left. “He’s very insecure.”

“Insecure?” she echoed with clear disbelief. “He got felt up by everyone in the club and then insulted me. And you’re telling me I need to be gentle?”

“He likes you. A lot,” Jack said. “I gave him the letter to cheer him up after he got all weird and mopey because you were talking to that guy at the bar. Though that clearly didn’t work so well.”  

She fought off a wave of lingering humiliation and frowned down at the letter again. “Well, he shouldn’t have gotten all weird. I didn’t get weird when those girls were all over him.”

Jack snorted.

She glared at him and stole another shot.

**

“There’s no power,” Peggy announced, flipping on the overhead light in Eliza’s bedroom the next morning.

Eliza rolled over, covering her eyes with her arm as she groaned. Her mouth was dry and her head felt like she’d been trampled in a stampede of wild horses. Those watermelon drinks had packed a punch.

“I thought you said you were opening for me,” Eliza grumbled. “Go open. And turn off the damn light.”

“Fun night last night?” Peggy smirked.

“Horrible night,” she corrected, tossing a pillow in Peggy’s general direction. “Light.”

The light turned off. “I can’t open. The store has no power,” Peggy explained.  

Eliza rolled back towards her, squinting. “What?”

“No power,” Peggy repeated again, more slowly.

“Why?”

“Well, I found the bill. It’s way, way overdue. That might be why.”

Eliza swore and sat up. As if they hadn’t just lost enough money with the broken fridge, now they risked losing even more product. “I’ll call.”

Sitting on hold with a hangover had to be one of the circles of hell, she decided, holding the phone far from her ear to minimize the volume of the delirious circus music blaring out at her. She laid with her head down on the table for the first ten minutes, then doodled on a pad, and then rifled through the old mail while she waited. Alex’s letter sat on top of the stack, slightly crumpled from her pocket. She must have taken it with her by accident.

She read it over again in the sober light of day. Pissed as she was at him, she couldn’t help feeling a little bit bad. He was so close to getting what he wanted. To have it snatched away at the last second like that, seemed too cruel to bear, even if he had danced all night with other people.

Jack’s words floated back to her, suddenly, the memory foggy as it fought through the drunken haze of last night. “He likes you. A lot.”

She smiled. Did he really like her, she wondered. She had told him it was okay to dance with other people, she supposed. And he had gotten sad and jealous when she’d tried to talk to another guy. (Oh, God, that poor other guy, she thought, humiliation crashing over her once again.) Still, maybe the night hadn’t been a total disaster after all?

She read the contents of the letter again, more closely now, dragging a pen under the most important parts. She’d dealt with a maze of financial aid nonsense for Angelica last year. The ladies in the office had fawned over the young, sweet, orphan girl trying to help her big sister. Alex would probably shout at them. Maybe if she made a call, she could help?

“Ma’am?” A tinny voice cut through the circus music at last.

“Oh. Yes. Hello. I’m calling to get my power turned back on?”

**

Eliza kicked her legs impatiently against the store counter as she waited for the power to flip back on. They assured her it would be back within an hour after she’d made the payment, using money meant to cover rent. (Oh well, one crisis at a time.) It was now going on two hours.  After a crazed morning of having Peggy rush over with coffee pots from their apartment to serve their most loyal patrons, she’d put up a sign announcing cash only sales and hunkered down to wait.

The bell over the door dinged when she was bent over, looking for a chocolate bar to pass the time. “Cash only, no cold goods,” she announced by rote.

“What happened to your power?” Alex, she identified, snapping back up to look at him.

“Went out. Apparently that’s what happens when you don’t pay the bill for three months.”

“Gotcha.” He held up a curvy green bottle and a scratch ticket as he approached. “I got you some stuff.”

“Champagne?”

“Hair of the dog,” he smirked.

“I don’t think champagne’s what bit me last night,” she replied. At least, she didn’t think so. “What’s the occasion?”

“Partly an apology. I’m sorry about last night. That’s not how I meant it to go. I shouldn’t have gone off dancing with other people.”

“I said it was okay.”

“It was dumb of me. I was just so nervous and flustered. I was worried if we just talked I’d say something stupid. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on a real date.”

“Seriously? You practically have to beat people off you with a stick.”

He shrugged slightly, clearly uncomfortable with the topic. “Then, when you said I could dance with that girl, I thought maybe you didn’t really want to be out with me.” He was blushing now, perfectly sculpted tan cheekbones turning pink with embarrassment.

She couldn’t help the snort of laughter that escaped. He really was insecure as Jack claimed last night. At his wounded look, she leaned forward, pecking him on the cheek. “I’m sorry, honey. That’s just ridiculous. I have never wanted to go out on a date with another person more in my entire life.”

Butterflies took flight in her stomach at the adoration she saw in his eyes. “Really?”  

“Yeah. But I appreciate the apology.”

“I’m also sorry about what I said, about you and the store. It’s great, what you do here.”

She sighed. “I know it’s not fancy or impressive, running the store. Not like you and Angelica.”

He opened his mouth, no doubt to contradict her, but she waved a hand to stop him.

“I wanted to go to school, too, you know. Certainly not an Ivy League school, but maybe just community college. Or maybe travel for a year. I don’t know. I hadn’t worked it out yet. But then my folks died. Someone needed to step up, to be the grownup. Angelica was at Stanford already, and they were so proud of her. Peggy’s just a kid, still. So I did it. I stepped up.”

“You’re a rock,” he said. “You keep this place running. You anchor the whole neighborhood. That’s pretty impressive to me.”  

“I’m not curing cancer or anything, but I like keeping my parents’ legacy alive, reminding everyone they were here, giving Angelica a place to come home to. It feels important.”  

“It is. More than I think you even realize.” He heaved himself onto the counter beside her.

“What’s the other part?” she asked.

“Mm?”

“You said it was partly an apology.”

“Oh, right. The other part is celebration.” He smiled at her. “The funniest thing happened today.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I called Columbia to try to straighten things out with my financial aid. I was raring for a fight with them, too. But they told me they’d already talked to my sister, and she’d explained the whole situation regarding my father. So everything’s back on track with my aid package.”

“That’s pretty great.” Relief swept over her that she’d been able to accomplish at least something useful this morning.

“It is. The funny thing is, I don’t have a sister.”

“Weird,” she said, trying for deadpan.

“Really weird.” His hand touched her knee, fingers tickling lightly over her skin, leaving little goosebumps in their wake. “It’s also honestly the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”

“What are you thanking me for? I’m definitely not your sister.” Grinning at him, she grabbed the champagne and started working at the foil. The cork popped with a resounding bang and bubbles rushed up the neck of the bottle. “Cheers.”

She took a swig and handed it over to share. They traded the bottle back and forth a few times. “You didn’t lose that apartment in all the financial aid craziness, did you? The one you were talking about yesterday?”

“No. But, um, I’m thinking about turning it down.”

“You are?”  

“Yeah. I think I’ll stick around here. Mulligan said I can keep living with him, working part time. I can take the train to classes. That way, I might even be able to afford a whole year of school.”

“I thought you wanted to get out of here?”

“I did. I’m starting to see the appeal of this place, though.”

“What changed your mind?” she asked. He’d seemed pretty dead set on leaving the night before.

“I think it was that dough of yours.”

She punched him on the arm.

“I mean it. I think I’m falling for it.” He winked and leaned in to kiss her.

His breath was warm against her cheek, and smelled sweet from the champagne. Their lips touched, chaste at first, adjusting to the sensation. His goatee felt scratchy, but she couldn’t say she cared. She leaned in, placing her arms around his shoulders to pull him closer, her mouth parting to invite in his tongue. She moaned softly when his arms wrapped around her in return.  

They pulled apart minutes later, both slightly out of breath.

His hand landed on the scratch ticket as they disentangled themselves. He held it up to her. “You gonna try your luck?”

“I don’t know. It hasn’t been so great lately,” she said, gesturing to the darkened store. “You sure you don’t wanna try?”

“No way. I never win shit. You go.”

She fished a nickel out of the take-a-penny tray and starting scratching away the gray boxes. As the little pots beneath became visible, she felt her eyes widening. One-two-three pots. She squinted, sure she wasn’t reading the ticket right. Electricity surged back through the store.

Alex clapped at the restored power, then tapped her shoulder. “Did you win?”

She nodded, mouth parted with shock.

“Cool. How much?”

“96,000.”

Their eyes met, gazing at each other in stunned silence.