“Babe, no.”

“No?” Ellie asked, turning her face to Carmen, so Carmen could see the bit of flour stuck to her nose.

She laughed and shook her head.

“You’re really cute right now. Can we skip this and go to the bedroom?”

“No, you’re teaching me how to do this. I want to learn.”

“But why? I literally own a bakery, El. If you want cupcakes, you can have them whenever you want. I’ll bring you home a dozen tomorrow, or I can make you some right now, and you can watch.”

“You have no faith in my baking ability, do you?” Ellie asked, holding out a spatula and giving Carmen a glare.

“Hey, put you behind an espresso machine - you’re the best in the business. Get you to mix dry ingredients together in a bowl, and… I have some concerns.”

“Why? I did it all right.” Ellie looked down at the big bowl in front of her.

“There’s more flour on the counter than there is in that bowl, so I think your measurements are going to be off, babe. We can start over, though.”

“I spilled a little; no big deal. We can roll the dough on it and save flour later.”

“Ellie, have you ever actually made cupcakes?” Carmen asked her.

“Oh, right: no rolling dough in cupcakes. Brain fart. And, yes.”

“From scratch?”

“No, a box.”

“You’re cute.” Carmen shook her head again.

“Just remember that when these turn out bad,” Ellie replied. “Hey, what about the icing? How do I make that?”

“One thing at a time. Let’s just get the flour off the counter and into your bowl. It was clean before we started, so we’ll hope for no salmonella or anything in our cupcakes.” Carmen held the bowl at the edge of the counter and swept with her hand until all the flour they’d so perfectly measured out, which Ellie then promptly had spilled, was back in the bowl. “Okay. Dry ingredients are ready. Now, let’s get to wet ingredients.”

“That sounds dirty,” Ellie teased.

“Hey, I offered to get dirty with you in the bedroom, but you wanted to bake cupcakes.”

“Did you take care of yourself this morning at your place?” Ellie asked.

“Yes, you know I did. You were here, and I was there.”

“Was it good?”

“It was fine. Back to the wet ingredients, El.”

“Just fine?”

“Eleanor, I’m about to put you on this counter and make it dirty. Do you want that?”

“God, yes,” Ellie replied.

“Wait. Really?” Carmen checked.

“You’re very commanding in the kitchen. It’s doing something to me.”

“Yeah?” Carmen moved until she was standing between her girlfriend’s now-spread legs.

Ellie nodded and said, “The dry ingredients can keep, right?”

“We’ve yet to crack an egg, so we’re good to take a break.” Carmen’s hands moved to Ellie’s stomach under her shirt.

“And after, you’ll teach me how to make the icing I like? The Espresso chocolate?”

“Chocolate Espresso. It’s chocolate Espresso, but damn it’s cute whenever you say it like that.”

“Espresso chocolate.” She smiled at Carmen.

Carmen wiped the flour off Ellie’s nose and said, “I love you.”

“I love you, too, babe. Want to make the counter dirty with me now?”

Carmen nodded emphatically.