Read Online Frosting and Friendship by Lisa Schroeder - Free Book Online

going to look around,” I tell him. “If that’s okay.”
    He nods and smiles. “Absolutely. Just let me know if there’s a shoe you’d like to try.”
    â€œWe will,” Sophie says.
    Between the two of us, we must try on twenty pairs of shoes. I’m pretty sure the man with the purple tie regrets ever approaching us in the first place. Sophieends up with a cute pair of wedge sandals, and I buy a pair of polka-dot sneakers, like Zola’s, except black with off-white dots. I love them. As I pay for the shoes at the register, I realize I need to call both Abigail and Zola and apologize again for getting distracted last night. Our song isn’t finished and it’s all my fault. I hope they’ll forgive me.
    We have some time before we’re supposed to meet up with Sophie’s mom and brother, so Sophie and I get two giant cookies and two cartons of milk from the Cookie Shack and sit down at a table.
    â€œYum,” Sophie says as she takes a bite of the chocolate marshmallow cookie. “This cookie reminds me of the piece of pie Isabel and I had at Penny’s Pie Place. It was the pie Jack made for the baking contest. That’s where Isabel met him.” We both take a bite at the same time. “Good, huh?”
    I nod as I wonder if there’s anything that doesn’t remind Sophie of Isabel. I start to say something about it and stop myself. That won’t do any good. If I want to be as good of a friend to Sophie as Isabel, I have to show her how much she means to me. Irealize that one of the best things I can do to make our friendship stronger is to be the person who gives her an amazing birthday party.
    She takes another bite of her cookie and I decide to pick her brain while I have the chance. “So if you had to pick one dessert, and that’s the only dessert you could eat for the rest of your life, what would it be?”
    She sets her cookie down on the plate and wipes her mouth with her napkin. “Well, definitely not brownies. I like them, but after doing the commercials for Beatrice’s Brownies, I’m a little tired of them.”
    â€œAre you done with those commercials for a while?” I ask as I pick up my carton of milk.
    â€œYep. All done. My agent is looking for new opportunities for me now.”
    â€œOkay,” I say, “so no brownies. What would it be, then?”
    She leans back in her chair and stares at her plate. “One dessert. And only one. Hm. I guess I’d have to go with the classic chocolate-chip cookie. I mean, no one ever gets tired of chocolate-chip cookies, right?”
    â€œReally? You wouldn’t want something more special? More . . . complicated?”
    She gives me a funny look. “Complicated? I don’t think something has to be complicated to taste good. Sometimes the best things in life are the simplest things, you know?” She smiles. “Like shoe shopping with a friend. Or reading a good book. Which reminds me, have you started the next book yet?”
    â€œNo,” I say. “I’ve been so busy with school and my band. Hopefully soon.”
    â€œI love the name we came up with for the book club, don’t you? The Baking Bookworms. I think it’s great we all love to bake.”
    Just hearing her say that makes my stomach hurt. After all of my recent disasters in the kitchen, I would be thrilled if I never had to turn the oven on again.
    I wonder what she’d say if I told her. What would she say if I told her that I wish I could bake as well as she and Isabel do, but baking and I don’t seem to get along? Would they kick me out of the book club? I’d hate that. I want to be in the club. More than that, I want to be Sophie’s other best friend.
    â€œWhat about you?” she asks.
    I gulp. “What do you mean?”
    â€œIf you could only eat one dessert for the rest of your life, what would it be?”
    â€œOh.”