Riley stared at the ice cream machine she’d bought for her wife the previous Christmas. It had been Kinsley’s request because she had an industrial one at work and loved trying out new flavor combinations for the guests of the hotel. She’d wanted one for the house that would easily fit on the counter and take fifteen minutes to churn out a batch of ice cream for the two of them. She’d made ice cream at least once a month ever since and, sometimes, made more to share with their friends. Recently, she’d made maple bacon for Morgan and Adler, who hadn’t asked for maple bacon ice cream but had taken it all the same.

Kinsley had been working extra-long hours recently, but since Riley was useless in the kitchen, despite Kinsley’s many attempts to teach her how to cook, Kinsley usually ended up making them dinner or breakfast, depending on the day. Riley could handle grilling chicken and making pasta, but - as her wife had told her - there were only so many nights a week she could eat that combo. Since Kinsley was bringing home pizza for dinner tonight so that neither of them had to cook, Riley thought she’d make them some ice cream using Kinsley’s ice cream maker. It was supposed to be simple.

She’d watched Kinsley do it several times, but Kinsley made it the long way where she mixed ingredients on the stove, let them cool, and then added them. Riley had no clue how to do that, and they had these ice cream starters that came with the machine, so she read the instructions and dumped the packet inside the silver cylinder. She added the heavy whipping cream and the milk. Then, she dumped ice around the cylinder and turned on the machine. It started mixing, so she figured she’d done it right, but then she remembered that she hadn’t added the rock salt that made the ice colder or something, so she dumped a bunch of that in there.

“Oh, no,” she said, and her hand went over her mouth.

She’d accidentally dumped at least a teaspoon of the salt into the ice cream mix. Surely, that would be okay. Salt probably went in ice cream; just not a ton of it. There was so much sugar in this stuff, Kinsley wouldn’t even be able to taste it. Not being a pro, Riley didn’t know what to add to help cover up the salt a bit more, but they had a thing of yogurt with strawberries in it in the fridge.

“Frozen yogurt,” she said and checked the clock on the microwave.

She dumped that in the mix, too, and let it do its thing.

“Hey, babe,” Kinsley said when she walked through the front door thirty minutes later.

“Hey,” Riley greeted and hurried over to her wife, who had entered the kitchen, to take the pizza box from her. “How was your day?” She kissed her hello.

“Decent. The breakfast and lunch shift is easier than doing dinner every night, so it was a lot of prep. What is that sound?” Kinsley looked around. “Is that the ice cream machine?”

“Yeah, I thought I’d surprise you with some… strawberry ice cream,” she said and watched Kinsley as she dropped her keys on the counter and walked over to it.

“Uh… Riles?”

“Yeah?”

“How long has this been going now?”

“I think about thirty minutes.”

“Thirty-” Kinsley stopped herself and turned off the machine. “And how did you make this, exactly?”

“I used the starter and followed the directions. I checked on it at fifteen minutes, but it still seemed like it wasn’t mixed enough to me, so I let it go on.” Riley put the pizza box down and walked over to Kinsley. “Why?”

“Um… Well, I think you might have over-churned it.”

“You can over-churn ice cream? It’s just mixing.”

“No, it’s not exactly just mixing.” Kinsley shook her head. “You know what? I’m sure it’s fine. Let me taste this little surprise.” She kissed Riley quickly and grabbed a spoon from the drawer next to them. 

“Are you sure? If you think it’s over-churned, maybe I just ruined it and you shouldn’t eat it.”

“No, I’m sure it’s fine.” Kinsley dipped the spoon into the silver cylinder that was very full with what looked like solid ice cream to Riley.

Like, overly full, and maybe the ice cream was a little too solid. Kinsley’s face said it all.

“Uh… did you put something else in here?” Kinsley asked as she tried to chew the ice cream, which shouldn’t be chewy.

“Yogurt. Strawberry.”

“Yogurt?”

“Yeah. Like, frozen yogurt.”

“Oh, yeah.” Kinsley finished and said. “It’s… uh… good.”

“It’s terrible. Kinsley James, don’t lie to me.” Riley laughed and shoved at her shoulder playfully.

“No, I mean, it’s an acquired taste, but it’s good.”

“Acquired?”

“Okay. It tastes like yogurt-flavored butter.”

“What?” Riley laughed. 

“Sorry, babe. I can… still eat it, maybe.”

“I made butter?”

“Strawberry-flavored butter with a little tart kick to it.” Kinsley placed the spoon in the cylinder, and it stood up and didn’t move. “Yeah, butter.”

Riley cackled and wrapped her arms around Kinsley’s waist.

“I’m sorry. I thought I’d do something nice for you.”

“You did. It just will not be our dessert tonight.” Kinsley wrapped her arms around Riley’s neck and pulled her in for a hug. “Why don’t you get out of my kitchen, and I’ll start some real ice cream after I clean this thing out?”

Riley admitted defeat and went to set the table for their dinner as she watched her wife, who always looked like an adorable scientist in the kitchen.

“Hey, babe?” she said.

“Yeah?” Kinsley replied, looking over at her.

“I love you.”

“Love you, too,” Kinsley said and went back to work.