Page 117 of Scandalous

“How did you know that?” I ask.

“For Christ’s sake, we have chairs. There’s no need to sit on the bloody counter, and who in the hell thought mixing champagne and lemonade together would be a good idea?”

“Probably some girl whose husband drove her to drink early in the morning,” Liam deadpans, not moving from the counter.

“Honestly, with the way you two bicker, I can’t say I blame the woman,” I mutter under my breath. “What are you two up to today?”

“I have my standing date with my mother,” Ezra says.

“I need to go pick up some things that I ordered.”

“Do I want to know?” I raise a brow.

Liam smirks. “A little of this, a little of that. Nothing for you to worry your pretty little head about.”

My phone vibrates on the counter. Looking down, I see a text from Aurora.

Aurora: Ready if you are.

Me: Ready. Invite me when you get on and I’ll join.

“Okay, time for you guys to go,” I tell them as I move, placing my phone in the holder on the ring light and turn it on.

“Kicking us out of our home now?” Ezra says as he packs up his stuff.

“I am.”

Liam hops off the counter and heads toward the door and calls over his shoulder. “Tell our girl I miss her.”

My screen lights up with an invite and I quickly accept. While it loads me in, I stand up straight and try to appear relaxed.

I can’t help but smile when Aurora’s face appears. “Hey, gorgeous.”

“Hi. How are you?”

“I’m good. How are you?”

“Better now.” She winks.

People start to roll in and we greet the ones we know.

“All right, let’s get started.” Aurora claps her hands with a smile on her face. “First off, I would like to say thank you to Santi for joining me today.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

“Let’s move on to today’s menu. I talked to my uncle the other day, and he was eating coffee cake. Now I don’t know if any of you have ever had it but it was a staple in my family around the holidays. Needless to say, I’ve been craving it ever since, and we all know I cave to my cravings sooner or later.” She winks. “Along with the coffee cake though, we are making a lemosa. Because why not, am I right?”

The entire time she talks, I monitor the chat. People are commenting about if they’ve had the cake or not. Some share a little story about it. They are my favorite kind of people in her chat. They are here for the food and her, and genuinely care. Then you have the others who are here to see what we say and watch us like we’re eye candy.

“All right, are you ready to get started, Santi?”

“Always. Tell me what to do.”

“I looked it up and I need you to preheat your oven to one hundred and eighty Celsius.”

Moving over to the oven, I do as she says.

“What’s next?”

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