The way the cookie crumbles

"Can I lick the spoon, pleeeeaaaaassee?" the seven year old girl let out a long whine, tugging at the hem of her older brothers shirt, her squinted eyes going wide, pleading with the elder.

Andre`, who was unamused with the little girl, rolled his eyes and said "There's raw eggs in here, you already have a cold, I don't need you getting more sick. After about three minutes of her wines, he sighed and walked over to her little station. She was helping im out by wrapping the delectable warm cookies into clear tissue paper, and tied them up with a bow and a price tag.

The duo were making and selling cookies to neighbors, relatives and pretty much anyone else in the area. They enjoyed baking together, but Andre` was truly divine with all things cooking and baking, while little Cherise` just liked to help her brother, by wrapping up the treats for him. She mostly liked the job because she could snag a cookie or two 'secretly'.

Her pristine black little tap shoes tapped in a quiet, quick paced rhythm against her metal bar stool, as her slender legs dangled off the edge, humming a tune she came up with. Her brother subconsciously tapped his fingers against the hem of the bowl, along to the soft tune. The two were wrapped in the aroma of baking cookies that encouraged the children to keep going.

Andre` was covered in flour, egg whites and powdered sugar, the simple blue apron barely keeping his large 'wonder man' shirt clean, while his large black jeans were very messy from all the times he would mix with the bowl in his lap, His glasses rimmed with white from all the times his sister blew a puff of flour in his face. Meanwhile, Cherise`'s dyed purple hair was tied into two short straight pigtails, her brother had lent her his dark green jacket, on top of of a bright pink dress and black leggings, that were littered with crumbs from her secretive snacking.

Andre` would always be there to support and play with his sister, and they weren't perfect, from all the times they would tease and mess with each other, but argumentably, made them perfect. He never missed one of her pageants, and Cherise` would always go to his bake-offs, which he would always win the gold or silver. He didn't care about the loss, as long as he had his sister to support him, he was the best baker in the world. And he was happy, And she was happy. This was all a much simpler and easier time than it was twenty two years later in the future.

...

"Hey, hey, hurry up! I'm not paying you to play candie crash on your cheap phone! Get to work!" The screams of an assistant manager rang through the factory. It turns out that Andre`s cookies were so amazing that a company had been sprouted around them, packaging them into plastic tins like girl scout cookies.

"Thank you, Loren, I'll take it from here." The blonde moved aside, to let the boss enter the room. "So, congratulations everyone, we're seventy-two percent done with the cookie! We have almost a whole acre completed! Yay!" A chorus of 'great' went through the room, with tired, overworked, underpaid workers.

"Don't sound so bleak, think about this, think how much of a boost this company will receive if we work this out? " The blonde woman boomed, twisting the bottom of her curled ponytail around her fingers. The assistant manager had the mentality of a boss, but nobody would ever want her to have that place.

"Thank you, Loren, I'll take it from here." The woman had long, wavy hair, that was tied into a loose braid, squinted eyes, and a pristine outfit. She put her finger and thumb on the bridge of her nose, pushing her sunglasses up a bit, as the took a deep breath, so she could deal with her assistant's tomfoolery. She repeated that line, almost every time her assistant flapped her lips about anything besides offering her coffee.

As Cherise` walked away, her flats tapped against the smooth tiled floor. She heard the all too familiar clack of Loren's heels coming up to her. She sighed and looked back at her, raising an eyebrow. "There's someone at the front desk for you, Mrs. Archambeau."

"There goes my lunch break, Thank you Loren." Cherise walked over to the desk, wondering who it was. She didn't schedule any in person meetings for this day. As she raked her brain for a conclusion, she saw somebody who was unexpected.

It was the delivery man, with a small box. She hadn't ordered anything. Her boyfriend had never been into giving gifts like this, she would just give her things at home. Cherise` brought the box with her and didn't open it until she got home, to her studio apartment. Her lover wasn't home yet so she gently opened the old box, and when she saw what was inside, her eyes teared up.

It was a stack of cookies and a note. The note read 'I'm pretty sure you can take a guess of my identity, anyways, meet me at the doors to your factory at 7 tonight.' She looked over to the stack of cookies and with trembling fingers, unwrapped one and carefully inspected it for razor blades or anything evil, before delicately sinking her teeth into it.

Nostalgia hit her like a wave. All of her childhood memories came back to her. All of the times she helped him bake, wrap the cookies up and cheered him on to greatness.

She ruined all that when she stole his recipe and passed it off as her own, and cut all ties with him. She decided to meet him and then she looked back to a memory.

...

"Why'd you bring over Ryan, again?" The twelve-year-old girl asked her now seventeen year old brother. She was just kicked out of the kitchen because she was 'too young to help.' She was really starting to hate Ryan. He took her job, and now he was getting super close with Andre`. He was replacing her! She wanted to hurt him like he hurt her. When Cherise` was older, she plotted a plan, and sold the cookie recipe, before starting her own business around it.

...

She walked over to the doors of her factory, heels clacking at the concrete, as she kicked some trash aside. The chains surrounding the handles broken open. She had pepper spray in her bag, if she got robbed or attacked. She nervously opened the doors to see somebody that was familiar and foreign at the same time. She took a deep breath, but before she could say anything, he did "Did ya' like the cookies?" He had a red jacked and ripped jeans on, his almond-shaped eyes wouldn't look at her.

"Andre` how did you not get mad for what I did? I literally took your future." She didn't want to waste time after not talking to kim for nine years. A business strategy is to find the problem, and fix it, before things get worse.

He just out a sly smile and gave a simple answer. "I did at first, but then I actually tasted your cookies. Then I realized that people liked it for the convenience, and not the real cookie recipe. Your cookies suck, and I bet your big cookie tastes like pure dirt. If you're trying to make people eat it, they'd hate it, but go for it."

She rolled her eyes and composed her self for a moment before saying, "Well, what did you come here to tell me?" She was growing impatient at this point.

"Oh, I actually wanted to run this business with you."

"And why would I actually say yes to that?"

"Because you and I both know that your cookies are garbage with my help and my recipe, I could completely fix your entire company and your sales rate."

She considered this for a moment and said "Fine, if my sales rate is boosted in the next two months, I'll let you stay.", before stretching her hand out to him to make a deal.

...

The next month had gone by in a flash, the sales had gone up and nobody could explain how. The only explanation they got was how Cherise` had gotten inspired when her giant cookie 'magically and mysteriously ended up in a dumpster, broken up into millions of crumbs.'

...

The end