Love, Mystery, and Cookies All Baked Into One

Mystery, Love, and Cookies All baked Into One

                                                                       By Jennifer Francis

“I can’t believe we’re really doing this,” Beth said. Mark took her hand and smiled. His bright blue eyes stared deeply at Beth. His smile made her heart race. They walked through the bakery doors together. Mark grinned at Beth as she signed the sheet for the contest. “I thought you were going to be my partner in this!” Emily yelled at Mark. She stormed over to them. “Beth is the better baker and I can’t deny my feelings for her anymore. Mark caressed Beth’s face. “I’m in in love with you,” Mark said to Beth and kissed her passionately.

           Beth awoke suddenly. Her heart was racing as she sat up in bed. It was just a dream. An amazing dream that she wanted so badly to be true. She took a deep breath and then got ready for the day. She arrived at the bakery for work right as Mark and Emily were walking in. She shot Mark a quick glance. He smiled at her and held the door open as she walked by. Emily rolled her eyes. “Are you signing up for the contest?” Amanda asked Beth. Amanda was Beth’s other coworker and best friend.

           “I wish you could sign up with me,” Beth said sadly. “If I wasn’t going to see my parents in Colorado for the holidays, you know I would,” Amanda replied. “I wouldn’t waste your time,” Emily whispered to Beth as she walked by. “She such a brat, Beth complained, “I mean I seriously hate that girl.” “Then show her up at this contest,” Amanda encouraged. Beth thought about it the rest of the day. As she was closing up, she looked over at Emily and Mark. They were both standing by the contest registration sheet and Emily was leaned against the counter, attempting to be cute.

           Beth walked right in between them and quickly signed the sheet. “Good luck Mark,” she said with a smile. Emily shot her a glare and Beth winked at her and walked away. She could feel the rage coming from Emily. “I wish you weren’t leaving in two days. You’re my good luck charm,” Beth said to Amanda. “How about we have a girls’ night tonight and I can help you prepare for this contest,” Amanda replied. “That would be amazing,” Beth said happily. They hugged and Amanda rode with Beth to pick out ingredients for the big baking contest.

           “So, what are you making?” Amanda asked as they shopped. “My grandmother’s famous chocolate sugar cookies were the best and they were so cute. I’ve tried making them before but without a recipe I’ve never been able to make them like she did,” Beth replied. “Okay well that sounds like a challenge,” Amanda said encouragingly. Beth thought about it. It would be amazing if she could get that recipe. “But how am I going to get the recipe?” Beth asked. “Detective Amanda is on the case,” Amanda joked. They both laughed. “What are we investigating?” Mark asked. He had snuck up behind them.

           “Hey now, you’re the competition,” Amanda said folding her arms jokingly. “I’m pretty good at investigations though. You might need my help,” Mark said with a grin. “Maybe if you change teams, I’ll fill you in on our big investigation,” Beth replied. “That’s tempting,” Mark said. “Are these two bothering you again?” Emily asked as she strolled over. “Actually,” Mark started to answer when he was interrupted by Emily. “I’ll always rescue you,” Emily replied and wrapped her arms around Mark.

           “Let’s go win this thing,” she said and lead Mark away. “Oh, she is so jealous of you,” Amanda whispered to Beth. They laughed as they headed out of the store. “So, we need to make a list of everyone in your family who might know this secret recipe,” Amanda said. After completing the list, the first stop was Beth’s mom’s work. Her mom was just getting off work and headed toward her car when she saw them approaching. “What are you girls doing here?” she asked.

           “Mom, I want to recreate grandma’s cookies and we’re trying to find her recipe,” Beth explained. “She never told me it, but Aunt Alice might know,” Beth’s mom replied. “Thanks Mom,” Beth said as she hugged her goodbye. Beth and Amanda hurried off to Aunt Alice’s house. There were no cars in the driveway, so she wasn’t home. Beth took a step back and stared at the old house. “This was my grandparents’ house,” Beth said. “It’s beautiful,” Amanda replied. A car pulled into the driveway. It was Aunt Alice.

           “I’m so glad to see you girls. Come on inside,” Aunt Alice said. They hugged and headed into the house. After settling on the couch, Beth began asking about her grandma’s secret cookie recipe. “Your grandma was so secretive about that recipe. She loved a mystery,” Aunt Alice explained. “So, you don’t know either?” Beth asked. She was beginning to lose hope on finding this out. “Well, your grandmother would have left clues in this house for that recipe. I’m sure of it. She would joke about it sometimes when I tried to find out the recipe,

 Aunt Alice replied. Beth and Amanda looked at each other excitingly.

           “We’ve got this,” Amanda said and slapped Beth a high five as they rushed to search the house. After a little while Aunt Alice called them to come eat. Beth wasn’t ready to give up. She kept searching. “You can search after dinner,” Aunt Alice said. Finally, Beth gave in and they sat down and ate.

           Her eyes still scanned the room as they ate. “You seem a little distracted,” Aunt Alice said with a chuckle. We didn’t check her spice cupboard!” Beth exclaimed. “Finish your food darling,” Aunt Alice replied. “It’s so good. Thank you,” Beth said as she quickly finished the remaining food on her plate. She helped with the dishes and then quickly went over to the spice cupboard and began searching. She pulled out all the spices and checked every spot she could think of. She didn’t find anything. She put her hand on the cupboard and tried to think of where else to look.

           AS she slid her hand from the cupboard the board slid with her hand. A hidden compartment! She saw a note inside and quickly pulled it out to read it. Aunt Alice and Amanda stood behind her to see what she had discovered. “It’s the ingredients for grandma’s cookies!” Beth exclaimed happily. She hugged Aunt Alice and Amanda. She looked at the list again. There was a small note at the bottom. It read “TO whoever finds my secret recipe: There are 3 ingredients missing from this list. This is to keep you on your toes and see if you can solve the mystery. 😉”

“Of course, grandma would do that,” Beth said. She couldn’t help but smile when she thought about her grandma and the smile she must have had on her face when she wrote this. “We can figure this out. I mean we have most of the ingredients,” Amanda said. “We’ve got to go to the store again. I can’t believe we found it,” Beth said happily. Beth and Amanda headed back to the store to pick up the ingredients. They tried to come up with ideas on what the secret missing ingredients could be. “Looks like we’re going to be making cookies all night until we figure this out,” Amanda said.

           After they returned to Beth’s house, they both started prepping for the cookies. “What could be better than baking cookies with my best friend?” Beth asked. “Well, nothing, but winning that contest is a good second,” Amanda replied. They laughed and continued cooking. After a couple of batches, they still hadn’t mastered the recipe yet. Something was still missing. They started on their third batch of cookies.

“We’ll figure this out with trial and error,” Amanda said. Beth heard a knock at the front door and went to answer it. It was Mark. “You guys are a mess,” he laughed at the flour covering their cheeks. “That’s the fun part,” Beth replied and touched her floured covered hands to Mark’s cheek. “Thanks for that,” he said with a laugh. “So, have you ladies decided you need my help yet?” Mark asked. “Are you trying to switch to the winning team?” Beth asked.

Mark looked Beth over and took a deep breath. “I can’t, even though I would love to be on your team. Next time it’s me and you,” he said. “Good luck at the contest,” Amanda said. He nodded goodbye to her and gave Beth a quick hug before her left. “He has a crush on you big time,” Amanda laughed. Beth’s cheeks flushed. “Okay so we have to let the cookie dough chill in the fridge, and we can start on the icing,” Beth said, changing the subject.

           As they both worked together on the icing Beth asked Amanda about her Colorado trip. “I just wish I could see you win this contest,” Amanda said, “But I am so excited to see my family.” They pulled the cookie dough from the fridge and began preparing the cookies. “Now we just have to wait for them to bake,” Amanda said with excitement. “I’m so nervous. I hope they’re as amazing as grandma’s cookies,” Beth replied. “We’ve got this,” Amanda encouraged and hugged Beth. The timer went off and they allowed the cookies to cool before putting on the icing.

           “Moment of truth,” Beth said and took a deep breath as they both reached to try the cookies. They were amazing. It was like being back at grandma’s house again. The smell, the taste, everything was perfect. The girls high fived in excitement. “You’ve got this in the bag,” Amanda said. After the girls had stuffed their faces with cookies, Amanda headed home to get ready for her trip. The next day at work Emily could not stop bragging about how amazing her cookies were. “I feel sorry for anyone who goes against us,” Emily said, “I mean to put in all your work just to lose.”

           Beth ignored Emily’s taunts and just focused on getting through the day. She couldn’t stop smiling all day about her amazing recipe. She was going to show Emily up this year for sure. When she got home from work, she immediately started prepping. The contest was tomorrow morning. Her heart raced as she finished making the cookies and went to try one. “Amazing,” she said to herself. “Thanks grandma,” she whispered and got ready for bed.

           The next morning Beth was the first one to arrive at work. She had her booth set up for the contest as the others started arriving. Her boss approached the mic in front of the booths. “We’re so excited to try your cookies. Good luck to all of you. The winner of the cookie contest will win $200. I hope everyone has fun and good luck again,” he announced. The judges lined up at each booth and took a cookie from each. Beth glanced over at Emily and Mark’s booth. Their cookies looked pretty good too. Her heart raced.

           “The judges and her boss talked in the corner of the room. Beth focused her attention on them trying to guess what they were saying. Her boss approached the mic again. Beth shot one more glance at Mark and Emily. Mark smiled at her then looked back up at their boss. “We’ve decided a winner,” their boss announced. “The winner is…” he paused for a moment to build suspense, “Beth!” he announced. “Give her a round of applause. Come get your prize young lady,” he said and shook her hand to congratulate her. Emily stormed off to pout. “Congratulations,” Mark said. Thanks,” Beth replied.

           Mark hugged her and whispered, “You’re on my team next time.” “We’ll see,” Beth teased. Mark placed his hand on Beth’s face and ran his fingers through her hair. He leaned down to kiss her. Beth felt lightheaded as he kissed her. She kissed him back and felt the rush of excitement. “Okay, let’s calm it down,” their boss said as he walked over. Beth looked down; her cheeks flushed. “That was the best cookie I’ve ever had. I would love that recipe if you would sell it?” her boss asked. “It’s my grandma’s recipe and I can’t sell it, but I can make it for you guys anytime,” Beth said with a smile.

           “Well I’m definitely placing an order of those for the Christmas party,” her boss replied. He shook her hand again, congratulating her. “Will you be my date for the Christmas party?” Mark asked Beth. “Of course,” Beth replied. Mark leaned in for another kiss and whispered in her ear, “Will you be my girlfriend, beautiful.” She smiled and kissed him passionately. “I thought you’d never ask,” she replied and hugged him. She smiled to herself. She had finally gotten everything she wanted, and it wasn’t a dream this time.

           A few weeks later Mark and Beth walked into the Christmas party together holding hands. Emily had gotten over herself and accepted that Mark and Beth were a couple now. She nodded at them as they walked in. Aunt Alice, Beth’s parents, and Amanda were there too. Beth’s cookies were the talk of the town after the Christmas party. She took a step back and looked at her friends and family.

She couldn’t have done this without their help and support. Her beautiful grandma was the real master baker and Beth was so blessed to have her recipe. She closed her eyes and smiled at the thought of her grandma. She would have loved to see Beth win that contest. Grandma loved cooking as much as she loved mysteries. Beth's next goal is to create a cookie from scratch all on her own and have her own secret recipe. She smiled and headed back to the party.

                       The End