A bottle of Calvados, and Macarons

"Hurry, Hurry!" Alice begs, "I wanna see it! I wanna see it!" she puts on her best pouty face and locks eyes with him. "Ok, ok." He says with a smile, lifting the heavy briefcase with his left hand and closing the trunk with the other. She wraps herself around his right arm and leads him inside.

They are stopped by a tall, older black man. His emerald green dashiki and his matching kufi are always stylish, "Out scaring the white people again pops?" Malcolm says "I'm stunned you're not on a terrorist watch list or had somebody throw a burning cross through your window or something." He lifts his head from the copy of People magazine in his hand. "Boy, 60% of this state is obese, you seen any fat kids lifting, nonetheless throwing, one of them crosses? Being a racist is backbreaking labor in the real world. People stick to Facebook, .gifs and memes are easier."

This draws a smile from them both and a solid hug. "Welcome back, my boy!" Mr. Lee looks over at Alice. "Hey, Alice. It's been a while, how is school?" Alice smiles back "I'm all done, deciding on college" he returns her smile "A fine girl like you has a bright future ahead of you." He glances back at his boy, sensing that he's in the way. "Well, I'll leave you two to get re-acquainted." With that he shuffles to his leather chair and grabs the clicker.

"Come on, Come on!" She says pulling him up the stairs and into his bedroom. It's just the way he left it, he lifts the briefcase up onto the bed and she races over to his side. He hands her a smaller box and a bigger one. "I made you one, I bought the other." he says, as she plucks the rose inside the box tie, giving it a smell. "That's the one I made."

She slowly undoes the ribbon and lifts the box to discover vibrantly colored sandwich cookies. "Oh, what are they?" He takes a deep red one and shows it too her. "They're called Macarons, their artsy fartsy cookies, really good. This one is rose flavored with raspberry gelatin and cloated creme. Try it." he says holding it out to her "Tell me if I fucked up the rose water."

She takes a solid bite, making a bit of a show of it. But it's heavenly, the bitter rose flavor hidden by the sweetness of the gel and cream leaving only the pleasant smell in the back of her nostrils. The cookie itself is light and airy, a wonderful vehicle for the favors betrayed by the color combinations inside the package. "Oh, my, god, that was so good!" Her eyes light up and it brings a smile of pride to his face. "I don't do much baking over there, but I wanted to make something to show off a bit that would survive a 14-hour flight."

She jumps into his arms to give him a big hug, and he hefts her around like a sack of potatoes. "Not done yet, the other one is a bit more... naughty." He cracks a cat the caught the canary smile as her feet touch the floor again. She walks over to the remaining box. "You gotta promise me you'll hide that somewhere you won't lose it."

She opens the box and inside is a bottle of something called Calvados. "Is this booze?" He looks a bit more awkward now, "Yeah, it's pear brandy, it's only made in France. The legal age is 18 so I've been having some fun with wines and stuff. This stuff is amazing, worried customs would nail me, but they didn't catch it I guess." He shrugs.

She looks at it awkwardly, she's not old enough to drink and she still remembers how she had to let that trailer-park boy, Jim-Bob lick her neck in the closet for seven-whole minutes the only time she went to one of her class parties. "Is it really ok, I have this?" She says holding it in her hands.

"Try it with me" He says coming up behind her "We've got all day, and it'll make catching up more fun." He hugs her in close "You trust me don't you?"