A Sweet Surprise

“Audrey! This is an emergency!” Meya’s voice exclaims from my voicemails. “I need your help immediately. Call me back?”

I scroll through the rest of my missed messages: all from Meya, and all probably vague, frantic, pleas for help. 

I dial her number and wait for her to pick up. What has my overexcited girlfriend gotten into now?

“Audrey!” Meya cries out on the first ring. “Thank god. Are you free? I need you to come over!”

“What did you do this time, Meya?” I ask, amused. I’m not far from her apartment, and set off for it at a brisk pace. “Please don’t tell me you need to hide a dead body or something.” 

“It’s not that!” Meya says. “I just lost something really important. Or maybe it was stolen. I don’t know.”

“What is it?”

“It’s….um, it’s a secret.”

“A secret?” I laugh. “How do you expect me to help you find it if you can’t even tell me what it is?”

“A secret ingredient, that is,” Meya adds hastily. “You, know, for Sprinkle Magic? I wanted, um, something different for the holiday sale so I decided to make a special cake.”

“Wait. Someone broke into your bakery?” I ask, alert now. “That’s serious, Meya. You can’t just call me. You have to tell the police.”

“I kept the ingredient in my house, so…”

“Not funny.”

“Well…” she says. “Maybe I exaggerated a bit. I don’t think anyone broke in; maybe someone just took it by accident?”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah! There’s no sign of a break-in, the tin’s just missing. It could just be buried somewhere in the junk around my house.”

I sigh. “Okay. I’ll be at your apartment in two minutes. Hang tight, and we’ll find it together.”

When I get there, Meya flings open the door and immediately pulls me in for a hug. 

“Thanks for coming, Audrey. You’re the best.”

“Yeah I know,” I say, pulling off my coat. “So what was this secret ingredient?” 

“It was a spice from somewhere exotic, I think. It’s not rare, but it took like five days to get here and the sale is this weekend. I had it in this silver tin; all shiny and smooth, like as big as the palm of your hand. I didn’t need a lot, and it was kind of expensive and--”

“Alright, slow down,” I say. “Did you ask Cherilee and Leo about it? Maybe you brought it to the bakery and forgot?”

She shakes her head. “Cherilee is taking the week off until the sale starts, and Leo said he hasn’t seen it. It has to be somewhere around here.” She looks around her rather messy apartment. “I was hoping you could help me look?”

I glance at the clothes, books, and trinkets scattered around. 

“Fine,” I sigh.

She exhales in relief.

“Thanks, Audrey. I asked Lee and Veronica, and they helped me search for a while but they have a class now and I can’t do this by myself and I didn’t know who else to ask…”

“You’re lucky I like you,” I grumble, tossing her clothes into the laundry. “Why didn’t you ask me first, then?”

Meya laughs awkwardly. “Ah, well...I know how busy you are around the holidays and I didn’t want to bother you. But I hate cleaning on my own, and I really want to find this before our trip to Longwood tomorrow, so come on stop talking let’s look for it instead.”

She’s acting funny, but Meya does get like this when she’s stressed. Maybe the spice is more important than she’s letting on. 

We scour the entire apartment from top to bottom, but by the end of the day, we still don’t see any sign of it it. Meya looks close to tears.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay,” I say, wrapping my arms around her. “Are you sure it’s not too late to order some more?”

“Yeah,” she says. “If we don’t find it, then I can’t go along with the schedule I planned.”

I frown. “Well, I’m sure your cakes will be just as great without it. What spice was it, exactly? Maybe we can find a substitute?”

“No, that’s good,” Meya sighs. “You go home. It’s late. I’ll just have to make do.”

“Are you sure?”

“Just go,” Meya says. “You’re right, my cakes are good. I don’t know why I wanted the special spice anyway…”

“Okay, well. See you tomorrow?” I ask.

“Yeah. Tomorrow,” she says, turning to close the door. At the last second, I swoop in and give her a kiss. 

“Hey. It’ll be okay, Meya. Don’t stress out about it. Sure, you may lose things willy-nilly, but it’s part of your charm,” I say, winking. “You’re an amazing baker, and Sprinkle Magic is so successful already. The holiday sale is going to go great, and so is our date at Longwood Gardens tomorrow.”

“Thanks,” Meya says, turning a brilliant red. “I needed that.”

“Anytime.”

--

The next morning is beautiful and clear, a cool crisp breeze tossing leaves around as Meya and I stroll through the beautiful flowers of Longwood. I’d expected Meya to be more cheerful today--she loves this place, after all--but she seems rather dejected the whole time.

I grab onto her hand and lead her to the snack bar. 

“Want to get ice cream?” I ask.

“It’s so cold today,” she smirks. “You’ll freeze your tongue off.”

She relents, though, and she seems much happier as we both lick mint ice-cream cones. 

“You ever find the ingredient?” I ask carefully, not wanting to upset her again.

She shakes her head but smiles. “I didn’t. I still need it, but I don’t want to let it ruin my day.”

I open my mouth to say something, but instead she wraps her arms around my neck and kisses me deeply.

Our lips still sweet from the ice cream, the heat of her body offsetting the sharp wind, the sweet scent of flowers hanging in the air--it’s perfect. 

She pulls away and smiles sheepishly. “I really wanted to do that today,” she says. 

“Why stop at just one?” I ask, and we back to the greenhouse together, sharing kisses along the way.

--

Pleasantly exhausted at the end of the day, I drop Meya off and go home. Settling on the couch, I make a cup of hot cocoa and scroll through the pictures that we took today. 

We’ve been together for five years. I wish I had pictures to capture every moment, every laugh, every exchange. I want to save our life together, create a life together. 

It’s part of the reason why I was so excited when she started Sprinkle Magic, which is growing beautifully. But this ingredient...she’s never done anything like this before. Usually, whenever she adds a new dessert to her menu, I’m the first to taste it, to see it, to squeal over it. And what’s the use of a special ingredient if nobody knows about it?

She didn’t mention a thing about it when I went over a week ago. In fact, she was babbling about buying too many new ingredients and asking me if she could store some at my house…

I sit up. It would be just like Meya to give me the secret ingredient and then forget all about it. Running to the kitchen, I rummage through the cabinets and--there it is. 

A plain silver tin, hidden among the bags of flour and measuring cups. 

Grabbing it, I run out the door, hail a taxi, and get to her apartment as fast as I can.

I’m gasping for breath, cheeks red with the cold, when she opens the door.

“Meya,” I say, and hand her the tin, expecting her to smile.

Instead her eyes widen, and she looks at me, confused. “You’re giving it back?”

I blink in surprise. “Was i not supposed to? We literally spent all day on Thursday looking for this spice.”

“You mean you didn’t open it?” Meya asks, astonished.

“Was I supposed to?”

“Nevermind,” Meya says, beaming. She takes the tin from me and pops it open before getting down on one knee.

Inside rests a shimmering ring.

My breath catches in my throat.

“Audrey. You are the most beautiful, wonderful, extraordinary person I’ve ever met. You put up with my insane ideas and silly antics and somehow mangae to love me anyway, just like I love you. I love you so much, and I will, now and forever. Marry me?”

“Yes,” I breathe, tears forming in my eyes. “Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.”

We kiss, embrace, and she slides the ring onto my finger.

“You were going to do this at Longwood, weren’t you?”

“Yeah. Until it went missing.”

“I can’t believe you lost my ring, you idiot,” I whisper giddily in her ear.

“It’s part of my charm,” she winks back.

It is. It definitely is.