Tarin had said that it was fine she’d missed his birthday since she hadn’t even known it had been his birthday. Plusas he had said multiple times, the day had turned out to be just about a perfect day (would have been if not for Robert).

StillLee felt bad that she hadn’t even known to say happy birthday until more than a month after the fact. So she was wanting to do something. A cake didn’t seem to be right for some reason. It wasn’t actually his birthday and other than ice cream, none of them in the apartment were huge dessert people.

Then Lee remembered something they had talked about during their ‘first’ date. Tarin's favourite dessert was blueberry pie with ice cream. Considering that she had seen pie crusts and pie fillings in the grocery store, it couldn't be that hard to make, right?

Two hours later after shopping and following the directions exactly, Lee decided that yes, yes it really was that difficult as she pulled out a burnt pie that set off the overly sensitive smoke alarm in the apartment.

After dealing with teasing from Kevin when he came out to see what was going on, Lee did what she probably should have done to start with: she called Adele for help.

An hour later, following a very specific list, Lee was back from her second shopping trip and back on a call with Adele, who was gracious enough to walk Lee through everything step by step in real time. And at the end, Lee actually had a pie that not only looked edible, it actually looked appetizing.

”I don't know who he is, but he must be pretty special for you to be going to all this trouble,” Adele said once the pie was out of the oven and cooling. ”I'm happy for you, sweetie.”

After many thanks, and not going into specifics about who this ‘special guy’ was, Lee was left with nothing to do except wait for Tarin to get home from the shop.

Today had been an absolutely average day Tarin decided as he closed up shop and got ready to head home.

Nothing particularly spectacular had happened, but nothing bad had happened. It hadn’t been like the other day when he’d been busy from open to close, but he hadn’t had any gaps large enough to make the day drag on.

So, as Tarin was making his way home, he was in an excellent mood.

The walk was as uneventful as the day had been and he entered the apartment building, made his way up the stairs and into the apartment. As he walked in, Tarin frowned a bit thoughtfully. It smelled like someone had been cooking.

That was interesting.

”Hey,” Tarin said as he walked in and dropped his keys and backpack off at the table. ”Has someone been cooking?”

Lee had just ordered pizza for dinner (with the pie, there was no chance that Lee was going to tempt fate and try cooking dinner that night) and had made her way to the living room when she heard the door open. And a few moments later heard Tarin’s slightly confused voice as he asked about cooking.

Instead of sitting on the couch as she had planned, Lee walked over to Tarin by the table. ”I think it’s technically called baking, but yes,” she replied. Then she stretched up to give him a kiss. ”How was your day?”

”Actually, mum, it’s called burning stuff,” Lee heard Kevin say. He must have had his shield up again for some reason as she hadn’t felt him leave his room. ”How long until dinner?”

Baking? As long as he’d known her, Lee hadn’t shown the slightest bit of interest in baking. Something must have peaked her interest today though because here she was, coming out of the kitchen and telling him that it had been baking and not cooking.

Smiling as he returned the kiss, Tarin said, ”Decidedly average. Nothing amazing, nothing awful. I’ll take it.” he said, right as Kevin’s voice rang out in the apartment.

Lee hadn’t pointed out her son was emerging from his room, so Tarin wondered if Kevin had his shield up.

Also, apparently something had been burned? ”Baking is hard. If you haven’ burned something, you haven’t been baking.” Tarin said, deferring to Lee as to when dinner was happening. ”What were you baking?” Tarin clarified.

A completely average day. That was really a rather good day considering what Tarin did in the shop. Lee smiled hearing that. Hopefully dessert would turn that average day into a good one.

But then Kevin needed to chip in his thoughts on her skills in the kitchen. ”I only burnt it once,” she reminded her son, giving him a look. ”That’s definitely not bad. And you still scavenged the unburnt parts, remember?”

“And dinner’s been ordered. So if you think you have any other peanut gallery comments, you should head back to your room till it’s here.”

Then Lee turned back to Tarin. ”Dessert?” she said, shrugging like it was really no big deal. ”A pie.”

Well. Tarin supposed it was a bright side that Lee had only burned whatever she was trying to make once? Like he had said, baking was hard and especially if you didn’t bake a lot, it was super easy to make mistakes since the measurements and timing were generally very precise.

Tarin knew he couldn’t bake to save his life. The most ambitious he’d ever gotten was those rolls of cookie dough that you cut into circles and put in the oven. Those, he’d managed well enough.

Kevin, it appeared, had benefited from the mistake anyway, which put him in an awkward position to be critical.

Dinner, it appeared, had been ordered. Tarin was cool with that. Lee also wasn’t interested in peanut gallery comments so Tarin made a mental note to be sure not to make any. There were some things you just didn’t tease about, after all.

A pie?

”Oooo.” Tarin said, ”I love pie.” he really did too. Pie was an excellent mix of sweet from the filling and a little savory from the crust.

”What kind?”

Lee shook her head as she watched Kevin turn and make his way back to his room. ”That boy has been making comments about my lack of skill in the kitchen all day,” she muttered. And, while the comments were all extremely true, and Lee herself had said most of them on many occasions, she did not appreciate them that day.

But then she heard Tarin’s reaction to hearing what she had made, and she turned back to him with a wide smile. ”That’s good, otherwise I’d have to assume you lied on our first date,” Lee replied, her tone playful and not at all accusatory.

”It’s blueberry,” she then answered. ”The filling at least tasted alright before the whole pie went in the oven, so I’ve just got my fingers crossed it still does.”

”Maybe he should make the next pie.” Tarin said with a little smile. He remembered suddenly being responsible for a whole meal one time as a kid because he’d opened his mouth when he should have. His Mom had eventually bailed him out, but he’d learned a valuable lesson about criticizing a person’s skills when he didn’t have the skill himself.

Lee pointed out that she had already known he loved pie because he’d said so on their first date.

Well that was just sweet. Lee went on to explain that it was blueberry pie.

It’s blueberry too.” Tarin said.

”Did I do something to deserve this or am I just really lucky?”

Lee could not help her smile growing wider when she heard Tarin’s reaction to hearing the kind of pie that she had made. He had told her that it was his favourite, not just his favourite type of pie, but his favourite dessert.

”Well, you are a pretty awesome boyfriend,” Lee said as she stepped up to Tarin now that Kevin was out of the room and wrapped her arms around his neck. ”But no, that’s not the reason.”

Grinning even more, Lee leaned up to give Tarin a kiss. ”I had been planning on it being a surprise after dinner, but happy belated birthday, Tarin.”

Suddenly Tarin’s day had gone from perfectly fine to perfectly awesome.

Had Lee actually called him her boyfriend before? Tarin didn’t think so, at least not in such certain terms. Sure, they’d been at that point for a while now, but he liked hearing her say the words an awful lot. Not nearly as much as he liked it when she wrapped her arms around his neck, but he definitely liked it. Wrapping his own arms around Lee’s waist and grasping his wrist so his hands rested in the small of Lee’s back, Tarin just smiled.

Honestly though, Tarin couldn’t think of anything he’d done that could be considered awesome…he wasn’t going to argue though, not with the way Lee was grinning and leaning up to kiss him. He was never going to get sick of that

Lee spoke again and Tarin leaned down to rest his forehead on hers, ”You really didn’t have to do that, but you absolutely managed to find something spectacular.”

Maybe most people wouldn’t have thought it a big deal to get a pie, but this was the first time anyone, including himself, had recognized his birthday in a more than couple of decades.

”Thank you…” he said.

Lee loved how it felt when they stood like this; her arms around his neck, his around her waist, with Tarin leaning down slightly to rest his forehead against hers. If it was possible, Lee's grin grew happier.

”I know I didn't have to,” she whispered as they stood there. ”I’m sure no one would have ever expected me to. But I wanted to.”

Lee just stood there for a couple moments looking up into Tarin's eyes as her fingers moved idly in his hair at the base of his skull. ”But you may,” she then said slowly. ”Want to hold off calling it ‘spectacular’ until after you try it.”

“You're welcome, Tarin. And if your actually like it, I can try to make it again for your actual birthday next year.”

It was not practical to think that they could simply stand like this for the rest of the evening, but it was a tempting thought. With her arms around his neck like that and his around her waist, they were very close and Lee’s fingers in his hair were sending goosebumps down his back.

”Well, I’m glad you wanted to…” Tarin whispered back.

Lee seemed to think that he needed to wait to call the pie spectacular, but Tarin had a feeling that he was going to very much enjoy it. Lee had even said that the filling had been good before the pie had gone into the oven and that boded very well.

Lee also promised that if the pie was good she’d make one for his birthday next year too. Tarin chuckled at that and kissed Lee again, slower.

”If it’s good you better believe I’m gonna be asking you to make one again well before next May.”

Feeling Tarin kissing her again, Lee's arms tightened slightly around his neck, her hand closing in his hair as she pressed herself closer to him, deepening the kiss slightly.

Until Tarin pulled away slightly to speak again. Warning her that he'd be asking her to bake another pie long before his next birthday. That was something that Lee never in her entire life would have thought someone would say. Not about something she had made, and she blushed slightly.

But before she was able to get them back to that wonderful kissing thing, Lee heard a knock at the door and she sighed. ”I guess I need to go get dinner so you can have your pie…” she said, giving Tarin a quick kiss before reluctantly stepping out of his arms to go get her purse and head to answer the door.

Who needed a silly thing like food? With Lee’s hand in his hair like that, Tarin had almost forgotten about the pie.

Tarin was still wondering why he had stopped all of that kissing to open his stupid mouth and talk when someone knocked on the door and Lee was going to answer it to get dinner.

As she walked away, Tarin sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Yeah. Pie was what he wanted.

Lee returned in a few minutes with some pizza and Tarin made a mental note that he needed to grab their next dinner as he followed her into the kitchen.

”So.” he said, leaning against the counter, ”Do we tell Kevin the pizza is here, or make him take the leavings in retaliation?”

It really didn't take long for Lee to pay for the pizza and make her way to the kitchen, planning on grabbing plates for dinner.

And laughing when Tarin asked about whether to actually let Kevin know that dinner had arrived or not.

So instead of the plates, Lee set the pizza down on the counter and turned to look up at Tarin as he leaned against it just a couple feet away from her.

”That is definitely one option,” Lee replied, her mind drifting back, though much more recently than her son's last venture out of his room.

And as her mind drifted, so did Lee's eyes, dropping down to look at Tarin's mouth. ”Or we could continue what was so rudely interrupted…” she continued, her voice barely more than a whisper, her eyes only moving back to Tarin's as she finished speaking, her tongue darting it to lick her lips quickly, leaving her bottom lip pulled back between her teeth slightly.