Page 48 of Phillip

“I do. But there’s one more thing.” Miranda crossed the room and returned with a tray of small glass pitchers. Each had a label etched into the clear glass: agave, sugar water, honeysuckle nectar, and so on. “Some of these are more acidic. Some can be overpowering, while others you won’t be able to get enough of.”

Miranda took a small bowl and ladled mangoes and bananas together. She expertly crushed them with what looked like a petite potato masher, added a splash of agave, stirred once more, then took a bite. Her eyes sank shut on a quietmmm. After a long moment, she smiled. “If this isn’t on the shelves within a year, I might throw a fit.” She winked. “No Fool’s Gold. That’s what I want to call it, but I haven’t convinced the board of the name.”

Ashley took a small spoon and dipped it into the bowl that Miranda offered. “I think it’s a fantastic name.”

“I’m glad you think so.” Miranda beamed. “Now dig in, and I will be back in a few for our next part of the adventure.”

Miranda left, and the room became slightly awkward. Both Ashley and Phillip hesitated. “I don’t know where to begin.” The amount of possible combinations overwhelmed Ashley. “I feel like I’m going to mess up.”

Her confession was all it took to break Phillip’s unease. “Nah.” He took a bowl and piled it with raspberries. Then he took a second bowl and added strawberries. “Our taste buds are calling the shots. There’s no right way to do this.”

She wasn’t convinced. “There might be. Not everything makes it onto the shelves.” Ashley carefully took her bowl and added blueberries then poured sweet cream over the top of them. “What if I add too little, or too much?”

His fingers flicked her knuckles, splashing more sweet cream than she had intended into the bowl of blueberries.

“Hey!” Ashley placed the pitcher on the table and studied what was clearly more sweet cream than she had intended to pour. “Mess with your own creation.”

He snickered. “I bet it will taste just as good.”

“But it wasn’t what I had planned.” Ashley took a tiny potato masher, stirring and squishing the mixture together. “It doesn’t look very pretty.”

“The looks don’t matter, you know?” Phillip took his spoon and mashed the fruit in his bowls.

“I think we’re supposed to use different utensils for each bowl.” Ashley gestured to the large display of spoons and implements. Carefully, she continued stirring until she deemed the consistency perfect for a sample. Then she dabbed the end of a fresh spoon into it for a taste test.

“Oh,” she groaned over the small bite. “This is fantastic.” She took another spoonful, this time confidently eager for more. The mixture didn’t look like much, but as Phillip had mentioned, appearance wasn’t what mattered, at least not in this room. Taste was everything. Her combination was a winner.

He took a large spoonful from her meticulously crafted bowl.

“Hey—”

With the spoon still in his mouth, Phillip nodded and groaned his approval. “That’s good.”

He came back for a second sample, and she tapped her spoon on his. “Don’t mess with my bowl.”

Her attempts to keep her bowl safe failed. He snagged another dripping spoonful. “Thank you.”

“I had no choice.” She laughed. “What are you doing?”

He mixed the heaping spoonful from her bowl into his bowl of sugary strawberries and swallowed the messy mixture, groaning his approval. “It’s better this way. Try it.”

“No.”

He tried to steal another spoonful from her, and Ashley shielded her blueberry bowl. “Your strawberries are going to mess up my blueberries.”

Undeterred, he took another scoop from her bowl, mixed it with his, and effectively stopped her argument when he pushed the spoon into her mouth.

“Oh…” The strawberry-blueberry combination made her see stars.

“Good, huh?” He took the spoon back. “And to think, ten seconds ago, you were terrified that my strawberries would ruin your blueberries.”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t gloat.”

Then he added, “You should trust me more. This is the part that you always get wrong.”

Ashley stiffened. “Yes, because I’m always concocting new fruit-and-sugar recipes.”

He grinned and laid his spoon down. “No. But you are certain there’s only one perfect way to do something, and any deviation is second best.”

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