Page 7 of Spoonful

“I guessed on the cookies,” Miyazaki said. “But they’re shortbread, and it’s hard to go wrong with shortbread.” He slid the cup with whipped cream across the table toward Jaylin. “And a salted caramel hot cocoa.”

“Thank you,” Jaylin said, immediately wrapping his fingers around the warm mug. It helped a lot. “That sounds, um, really good. What’s yours?”

“Mint chocolate cocoa,” Miyazaki said, chuckling when Jaylin wrinkled his nose automatically. “Not a fan?”

“It’s okay,” Jaylin said. “I just think a lot of mint stuff tastes like toothpaste.”

“Fair enough,” Miyazaki grinned. “If it helps, this is a mild mint. It’s more of an accent flavor.”

“If you say so,” Jaylin said doubtfully.

Miyazaki opened his mouth, then seemed to rethink what he was about to say. “I’ll buy you one to try next time,” he said after that brief pause. “And then you can just get something else if you don’t like it.”

Next time?Jaylin wondered. He didn't understand why Miyazaki was so sure about helping him out after knowing him for twenty minutes. Aditi must have really laid Jaylin’s incompetence on thick.

“Okay, next time,” he said instead of mentioning any of that. He was baffled by Miyazaki’s smile in response.

It was unfair how nice a smile it was. Warm and open, like he was genuinely pleased by what Jaylin had said. Jaylin wasn’t on the receiving end of smiles like that very often. Sometimes he got encouragement from teachers, but that always felt like it was layered with frustration. Brent wasn’t a smiler. He smirked, had this hard little quirk of his lips when Jaylin said or did something he found amusing. It always felt mean, like Jaylin was the butt of the joke.

Miyazaki felt different from Brent. From a lot of the men Jaylin had experience with. Just from their brief interactions so far, Miyazaki didn’t seem like a man who smiled when someone else was struggling.

Jaylin distracted himself from tripping any further down that thought by unzipping his backpack to extract his business law textbook and the accompanying workbook. It was with some hesitation that he placed them on the table for Miyazaki tosee. There were dozens and dozens of color-coded sticky notes sticking out from the pages.

“Organized,” Miyazaki said when he saw the book, sounding pleased instead of condescending. “That’s great, Jaylin. It looks like you’re really keeping on top of your class.”

“I try,” Jaylin said after clearing his throat. He wasn’t used to being praised for doing the bare basics. “The yellow stickies are for the pages we’re currently studying, and the blue are what we’ve already covered. The green ones are the ones I’ve been able to read ahead on, but the red ones I haven’t managed yet.” Nearly half the chapters were red, Jaylin noted miserably. He was sure Miyazaki was going to notice and comment on it.

“Wow,” Miyazaki said instead, looking surprised. “That’s… Jaylin, that’s a lot to cover on your own. It’s only a few weeks into your semester, isn’t it?”

Jaylin flushed. “I’m going as fast as I can, but there’s just a lot to read, with all of my classes.” Between his fourteen credits and Brent, it got overwhelming. Not that he was in any position to make excuses. “So yeah, uh, any help would be… good.”

“That’s not exactly what I meant,” Miyazaki said after a moment. “But sure, I’ll help however I can. You’ve just got to do something for me, first.”

Of course,Jaylin thought, dread curling in his gut. Of course. He should have seen this coming. No one was nice to him just because. No one treated him just because. “Okay?”

Miyazaki gestured at the mug Jaylin hadn’t touched, except to warm his hands. “You’ve got to try the cocoa and tell me what you think.”

Jaylin blinked down at the mug full of melting whipped cream. “Oh,” he said. That was so far from what he had been expecting that it threw him off balance. “Uh, yeah. Okay.” He took a careful sip, mindful of the steam still wafting up from it.

It was…

It was really fucking good. Deliciously rich and just the right amount of sweetness. Jaylin took another sip, and let his eyes slid shut for a brief second, savoring.

“Well?” Miyazaki asked, and another smile was playing around his mouth as if he could already tell Jaylin was enjoying his hot chocolate choice.

“It’s great,” Jaylin said, stomach flip-flopping. “Thank you.”

“Glad I picked out something you liked,” Miyazaki said, sounding pleased. He pushed the plate of cookies forward. “A cookie too?”

It startled a laugh out of Jaylin. Miyazaki was just… so far from what Jaylin was used to with high powered men. He reached for a cookie. “You drive a hard bargain, Mr. Miyazaki.”

“Hiro,” Miyazaki said with a chuckle. “Please. Aditi wouldn’t let me hear the end of it if she caught you calling meMr. Miyazaki.”

“Hiro, then,” Jaylin allowed tentatively. “Okay.”

That got him another grin, and Jaylin was once again thrown by it, by how easily Hiro doled out smiles. Jaylin knew he wasn’t special, that Hiro must just have an easy-going disposition, but it was still… nice. To be on the receiving end of them.

Jaylin took a bite of the cookie. It was also delicious; crisp and buttery and not too sweet. Jaylin had skipped breakfast that morning, in too much of a rush to get to tutoring after oversleeping from the late night. It was a battle not to shove the entire rest of the cookie into his mouth. “These are really good.”

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