“You want me to grab you something?”
She nodded, and as Cherry turned toward the door, she could almost hear her sister’s voice in her head.
Being in love looks really good on you, Ellie.
Ellis reached down and squeezed Mikey’s arm. “It’s the best, little sister. It really is the best.”
Epilogue
Fifteen months later
“Hello, loves, and welcome to Cherry on Top: Holiday Edition,” Cherry said into the camera. “Guess what season it is. That’s right!” She held up her green and red striped apron that saidSanta’s Little Helperon it, then dropped the top strap over her head. “Christmas cookie season! And for those of you who don’t celebrate Christmas, it’s just hell-of-a-lot-of-cookies season.” She tied the apron around her waist. “Today, we’re coming to you from a new location, my mother’s house in North Carolina, because her kitchen is to die for. First, we’re going to start with a basic cookie that many, many families make—your basic cutout cookie. And my lovely assistant Ellis is going to help me. Right, honey?”
“Yes,” Ellis said as she slid into view.
“What…” Cherry looked at her and reached out to brush the flour streaking her cheek. “Already? We haven’t even started yet.”
“I had an itch,” Ellis said quietly, rubbing at the same spot but only adding more flour. “You can edit that out, right?”
“Absolutely,” Cherry told her, and when Ellis looked away, Cherry shook her head at the camera and mouthednot editing that, then winked.
Behind the camera, Lila covered her mouth, presumably to keep from laughing out loud.
“Okay, bring that mixer over here, would you, Lovely Assistant?”
Ellis hauled the KitchenAid to the counter and dropped it, notquietly, in front of Cherry. “Sorry,” she whispered, with an exaggerated grimace.
“No problem. Now, do you have our ingredients?” Cherry read off the measurements, mixing and adding and stirring until they had a dough, which she rolled out of the bowl. “Okay, here we go. You wanna roll?” she asked Ellis, holding up a rolling pin.
“Hell yeah, I do.”
As she watched Ellis roll, have the dough stick to the rolling pin, sprinkle flour—too much flour—then remove some, then blow her hair out of her face, then wipe her flour-covered hand across her forehead and shoot a look of frustration at the camera, she couldn’t hold back the grin. Ellis was good TV. She’d edit this together in a series of fast clips, and it would be awesome. She glanced at Lila, who was looking back at her with the same gleam in her eye, and she knew they were on the exact same page.
God, who knew her life would turn out like this?
She slid back into the frame once Ellis had rolled the dough out, and they began cutting out the cookies and placing them on a prepared cookie sheet.
“What do you think, Mom?” she asked when the sheet was full. “Do they look right?”
“They look perfect,” Lila said from behind the camera.
“My mom, loves. Behind the scenes, as she prefers, but when we mix some holiday cocktails, she’s gonna join me in front of the camera.” She lowered her voice. “She’s nervous about that, so be gentle.”
They would. She knew that. Since the Disaster of Lying Liars Who Lie, as she’d not-so-affectionately dubbed that span of time the previous year, she’d taken a different direction with her socials, and her following had gradually increased. Slowly but surely, she’d built her brand back up. She didn’t really get mean comments any longer—well, except from the trolls, and there would always be trolls, unfortunately—because there was nothing to be mean about. Her posts were real. She’d stopped using filters altogether. She was honest with her followers about everything, from makeup to clothing to public places and how they handled LGBTQ clientele. She was open and honest, and there was something about that. She let miscues and dropped items and flubs stand, and that ended up being smart because it wasfunny. Who knew?Something about being unabashedlyherselfwas utterly liberating, and she couldn’t believe it took such a crisis to make her see it.
Well. A crisis and a wonderful woman.
And a long-lost mother, apparently.
“Why didn’t you tell me I have frosting on my face?” Ellis said later as they were decorating the baked cookies.
“Because green is most definitely your color,” she said, swiping a smear of frosting off the side of Ellis’s nose. “Also, seriously, how do you get so much stuff on your face?”
“I don’t know, but we’re editing it out, right?” Ellis was focused on the snowman cookie she was decorating.
“Of course we are,” she said, then looked to the camera and shook her head and mouthed,No way.
Her followers loved Ellis.
