49 Cookie Cutters

The holidays passed uneventfully. Justin spent most of his time home lavishing Cookie with the attention he had been missing and looking into a list of promising startup ideas to show Alexa when the new semester started.

Cookie soaked up Justin's affection like a rather spoiled sponge. His dad jokingly asked when he was planning on moving somewhere pet friendly so he could take the cat, not knowing that Justin could have moved whenever he wanted.

The only reason he stayed in his not-so-great apartment was because Emily was there. He really did miss his cat but it was a price he was willing to pay to be closer to her.

Going back to his cold, empty apartment after two weeks with his family was more depressing than he expected. With nothing else to do Justin spent the weekend before school trying to start inventing something.

Searching through all those startups made him realize that there were a lot of tech ideas being brought into the world. He had spent so much time doing simple coding projects for other people, why couldn't he make something for himself?

Justin hadn't built anything in years but he could at least try to brainstorm a bit before he was swamped by homework again. It could be a good way to kill time over his next break.

Aside from exchanging simple holiday greetings over text, Justin didn't hear from Emily again until she met him in the parking lot on the first day of the new semester. He hadn't messaged her as RoboCat either other than saying "Merry Christmas" and claiming he was too busy to chat. Spineless as he may be breaking his resolve not to talk to her so he could get information, he knew he needed to stop talking to her on there so much.

She smiled at him as she climbed into the car. "Did you do anything fun over the break?"

"Does hanging out with my cat count?"

"Definitely! Whenever I wasn't playing games with my siblings, I was chilling with my cats," she laughed. "Did you get anything cool for Christmas?"

Over the last few years his mom had gotten so frustrated with his lack of interest in any material objects that she resorted to mostly giving him gift cards. Sam had given him various articles of clothing ever since she learned how to sew. Lily and Kaitlyn usually got him graphic tees.

"Well, I got a tee shirt with cats riding corn cobs in outer space and scattered popcorn on it."

"No way," Emily giggled, as if trying to imagine what he would look like wearing such a shirt. "You should wear it tomorrow, I want to see it!"

"Sure," he responded with a smile. It was such a small thing he could do to amuse her. "What about you? What was your favorite present?"

She pinched her chin thoughtfully. "Hmm. My mom got me a bunch of cookie cutters shaped like things from a few TV shows I like. That was pretty cool. But as a poor college student, having my grandparents buy all my textbooks this semester was also great."

Justin frowned. The scholarship he had secretly arranged for her covered her tuition but he hadn't even thought about things like textbooks. His usually cost nearly $500 per semester. Why hadn't he thought of that before? It was too late to change the terms now; it would be suspicious.

"You like cookie cutters?"

Emily nodded brightly and clapped her hands. "Oh yes! I already have a huge tub I won in a raffle in high school with generic and holiday shapes but I've been collecting other random ones too. Sugar cookies are a big tradition in my family. As a kid my mom would make them for every holiday!

"Have you ever seen those fancy cookie decorating videos? I actually know how to do that because my mom signed us up for a class they were teaching at the local craft store after we moved to Montana."

"I haven't seen those videos. What exactly is it?"

"What?! Have you been living under a rock? It's kind of hard to explain since you don't know the technical terms…I could show you some time if you want. It could be like a test run for my new cookie cutters."

Justin didn't know anything about baking or decorating but if it meant spending time with her he was down for anything. "Sounds fun! We should probably do it before school gets too hectic."

"I just got my work schedule for the next few weeks. I'm free next Sunday if you want to do it then."

He had absolutely nothing going on then but even if he did he would move it. "Works for me."

Emily grinned at him as they pulled into a parking space. "Prepare to be amazed! See you!" She grabbed her backpack and dashed out of the car before he could even blink.