In the Warm and Cozy

Here we are together, dining in the wonder of each other in the Bella Rosa Bakery, oven-warmed, candles flickering, sips of wine mellowing, so that now the table blossoms in conversation. The servers are their own guests, and sparkling eyes glance about, delight in the promise of humor and surprise and sometimes chagrin, of the preposterous and the prim, of what they are together, so strange a fine confection of the human spirit, striving without judgement alive only to its own purpose, as a flower is alive to the sun, nameless in its growth, unaccountable in its beauty.

Roscoe: 'Two weeks to go, huh Snook!'

Snooki: 'Two weeks of fun...'

Roscoe: 'Any acceptance letters yet?'

Snooki: 'It's too early--I hope.'

Roscoe: 'Hmm.'

Nellie: 'So you're going to go far away and leave your Auntie to put up with Miss Perfectionist, Cookie Queen of the Bakery.'

Janie: 'Quit--I'm not the cookie queen of anything. And I'm not picky either!'

Amid the laugher that erupts from the table, Snooki puts her arm around her friend and smiles, 'You might be...' she hesitates before tickling Janie '...just a little bit picky!'

Irma: 'Remember when Janie made me throw out that big batch of dough that Roscoe rescued like a flying trapeze artist, catching it before it hit the can?'

Dessie: 'For weeks we called him 'the Flying Roscoe' and anybody who is picky the 'Queen Jane.' Dessie, smiling at Roscoe, strokes Janie's arm, 'We think you need a lover--the harmony of the bakery depends on it.'

Janie blushing: 'Sometimes...sometimes I get a little distracted but that has nothing to do with my sex life.'

Laughter and giggles, Nellie: 'What sex life, Miss Virgin Lesbian?'

Snooki: 'Leave Janie alone, she's being a good example for me.--Isn't that right, Mom?'

Dessie: 'Yes, my little snoop. I must say she has tremendous will power.'

Roscoe: 'It's cool to have best friends with tremendous will power, unlike some people I know.' And kisses Dessie.

Dessie: 'I have some will power...well at least among friends.'

More laughter, Irma: 'When was that, a few years ago!'

Nellie, watching Janie laying her head on Snooki's shoulder: 'Snooki can always come back to the bakery to keep up her skills, we can't have the Princess of Cookies fail her Queen."

Roscoe, suspiciously changing the subject: "This roast is great, the juices and the caramelized skin are a gourmet treat. We've always wanted to expand our menu and serve a first class lunch and dinner."

Dessie, picking up the thread, eyes twinkling: 'The store next door is going to be vacant soon, maybe we should expand.'

Irma, a co-conspirator: 'A Roman arch between the bakery and the bistro.'

Nellie: 'A B&B, the Bella Rosa Bakery and Bistro.'

Irma: 'Yum, yum...wonder where we could find the talent for a first class bistro.'

Roscoe: 'Probably need some culinary training. They'd have to really love to cook. Imagine the twins, putting on a spread like this for paying customers.'

Janie and Snooky, alert: 'It would be fun for people to have a really great place to eat in town.' Janie says, looking at Snooki. 'And think of all the neat foods we could work with, and we could still make dreamy deserts.'

Roscoe, smiling: 'We would need dedicated chefs...'

Dessie: 'Trained chefs.'

Snooki: 'I guess...?'

Irma: 'Trained chefs are hard to find...especially in the little town of Durbin.'

Roscoe: 'We could grow our own.'

Snooki and Janie, watching Irma and Roscoe smiling and Nellie and Dessie holding hands. They look at each other and risk it: 'We could learn!'

Roscoe: 'Lots of hard work and dedication, Snooki. You might be tied down to a job when you should be away in college partying and...'

Irma: 'Isn't their a famous culinary school somewhere in this state?'

Dessie: 'Lot's of hard work but the training would give someone a skill--what'd they call that the other day on TV, 'a portable skill,' something you could take with you anywhere you want later in life.'

Nellie: 'Or next door.'

Roscoe: 'Chefs need to be very picky.'

Irma: 'Yeah, they could be trained by Janie on the finer points.'

Snooki: 'Janie is a great teacher.'

Janie: 'You are my best student...and I hope I haven't been too hard on you--all of you. I'm sorry if I've been hard to get along with lately.'

Dessie: 'You're going to miss your best friend when she goes to school.'

Janie, a misty eye and a sigh: 'Yes.'

Roscoe: 'In that case, these should come in handy,' and takes two envelops from his inside pocket.

Irma: 'Two white envelops...'

Nellie: 'What's that colorful return address? It looks like a flaming pear.'

Dessie: 'Isn't that the logo of the Masterson Culinary School in Boston?"

Roscoe: 'The big city...' fingering the envelops, watching Snooky and Janie keenly eyeing them, their future suspended in the air, and then they know, as Roscoe adds. '...is not a place for my daughter to go alone.'

Irma: 'She needs a chaperone. I'll volunteer!'

Dessie, laughing: 'Right! Good idea!'

Nellie, wanting to prolong the suspense: 'Irma would be a good chaperone. She would know exactly what to avoid.'

Roscoe: 'But a good friend would be better...chefs need to work together!'

Janie and Snooki are holding hands, looking in wonder at the smiling faces that surround them, eager to share their surprise. Dessie tells Roscoe, 'Don't keep them in suspense!'

Roscoe, handing an envelop each to Snooky and Janie: 'You don't know my friend Joe Masterson, but he knows you and has agreed to provide a scholarship to both of you for their two-year master chef program. The only stipulation is that you need to teach a cookie baking and decorating segment at the school. Remember the white haired gentleman that talked to you for so long a few months ago?'

Janie: 'He was very interested in the cookies so we demonstrated a few techniques for him.'

Snooki: 'He asked a lot of tough questions. Janie and I were maybe a little too playful with our answers because we liked him and he was so interesting.'

Roscoe: 'Joe enjoyed your performance. He said it was the highlight of his trip. The scholarship isn't free--you have to teach, he likes the idea of you running a segment together, a course each semester. In return he will give you a room to share in the dorm.'

Janie and Snooki, more tears and hugs: 'Our own room at the culinary school!'

Dessie: 'He'll also keep an eye on you for Roscoe and I.'

Irma: 'If you misbehave we'll just have to go to Boston...'

Nellie: '...and rescue you.'

In the Warm & Cozy, Part 2

Chapter 1 New Beginnings

With a half dozen bags and Janie's inimitable rolling cart at their feet, they wait. The big silver double decker rumbles in: At last, the train! Almost there! Snooki thinks, excited by the newness of their huge move, of the cooking school where she will test her skills, of Janie and their being together, friends or lovers, any which way they want to be. Of...she sighs, the waiting now at an end, so to begin their fairytales--stories of adventures with unknowable endings amid new beginnings.

'Let's go girlfriend!' Snooki says, reaching for Janie's hand.

In the backward seats, faces pressed to the window, they wave to loved ones left behind: Wistful Nellie, blond hair frilly in the breeze, a 'wish you well, wish you'd stay' smile sweet-sad on her face. Bad, bad Irma, her hand on Nellie's hip, winking at the girls through--could it be?--glistening eyes. There stands Snooky's mother, Dessi, mouthing a single word at the older Janie, her if-only lover, a word on behalf of her beautiful still-too-innocent daughter: "care..." uttered on the curve of a cautious smile, careful not to break my daughter's heart, and the other, a mother's wish, care for her. Papa Roscoe, his arm snug around Dessi, nodding, goodwill wide upon his open face. Goodbye! Goodbye! They wave, bittersweet, but bright in the promise of being off on their own: big city Boston, here we come!

As the train moves down the track, Snooki snuggles on Janie's shoulder, "Us...finally!"

'Finally?'

'You know what I mean, Janie. Now you can turn all of your attention to your girlfriend. Your undivided attention. My Mom will not be at the cooking school to distract you.'

'Dessi and I were only flirting.' Janie says a tad defensively.

'I was there behind the couch listening. Who knew Mom was that hot.'

'Your aunt, of course...and Irma. There's a list.' Janie giggles.

'And you.'

'Only a little...in the moment, but Roscoe hired me off the streets, a broke girl, a stranger. I didn't want to risk messing everything up. Nellie gave me a place to stay and you made me your BFF like a long lost sister.'

Snooki looks thoughtfully at her maybe lover and certainly her best friend. 'You are part of me, part of my family, part of the Bella Rosa Bakery, and someday part of the team of hot girl chief's in the Bella Rosa Bistro.'

Chapter 2 Here, Here at Last

Together they stare at their new digs in the 'dorm' of the Masterson Culinary School. Unfortunately, dorm is a misnomer, but as their benefactor reminded them it is rent free, and with a little elbow grease entirely habitable.

'What does entirely habitable mean?' Grumbles Snooky.

Gazing doubtfully through cobwebs, they step over piles of discarded kitchen equipment. Like a warehouse, it is a big room filled with a sea of boxes. In the eerie half light from windows blocked by unrecognizable stuff, it's a spooky panorama ready to sweep them away into kitchen chaos.

'A little gloomy,' Janie says.

'Ya think!' Laughs Snooki.

'Well,' Janie says, 'it is on the top floor--kind of an attic--and you know how much we love attics,' and hugs Snooki, who's still looking skeptically at the clutter everywhere.

'We might be able to use some of this stuff,' Janie says. 'We'll have to do some rearranging. Mr. Masterson said we could relocate as much as we can fit into the other rooms down the hall.'

'At least we have a big stove, and gobs of pans and, hmm, dinnerware--lots of dinnerware' or so the labeled boxes stacked in a narrow row along the wall advised.

Following a goat trail lined with stuff, they discover the bathroom--well a shower and toilet, anyway.

'What happened to the sink?' Janie asks.

'I guess we have to use that metal monster in what passes for the kitchen.' Snooky giggles. 'You can have a sponge bath while you wash the veggies with your toes.'

Under a tarp in the corner, they find an old cracked leather couch and a rocking chair, its seat sunk low.

'Our own little 'horny couch,' Janie laughs. "Want me to pull it away from the wall so you have a place hide, Miss Sneaky Snook?'

'Careful with the nick names, Miss Virgin Vamp. Don't we want to start fresh in the big city?'

'Yes,' Janie says, nodding at her best friend. 'Let's start fresh--sorry.'

Snooki wraps her arms around Janie and burrows into her warm neck, murmuring, 'Fresh start!' Freeing herself reluctantly, she adds, 'So we have most of the day to find a place to sleep in all this junk. Let's check the other rooms. We need a bed.--And a frig. Maybe there'll even be a little space somewhere to shift things around...'

The door across from them is locked. None of the keys on the big ring Mr. Masterson lent them fit. So they go down the hallway to the rooms at the back of the building. There they find the right key only to reveal--damn!--more junk, lots more. A light switch adds a little depth to the piles and there they spy--way in the back by a window overlooking the alley--an old wooden bunk bed.

'A bed?' Snooki says dubiously, she had dreamed of a queen bed--one big enough to share comfortably with her Janie.

'Maybe we can take it apart to make one big bed,' Janie tickles Snooki. 'Anyway, wasn't the bed at the Bella Rosa about the same size?'

'I guess...' Snooky pouts, then smiles, 'hmm, you can sleep on the top, especially when it's cold and you hog the covers, although I will miss your warm bottom!'

'Yeah that'll happen, but our big problem is going to be moving this heavy thing.' Janie says as they get closer. She giggles. 'It's still neat, like living in a giant yard sale where everything is free for the taking...'

'And we have a week before school starts.' Snooky adds, starting to widen the path to the bed. 'If we stack the boxes more neatly, we should be able to slide it to that door, but the door looks too small. How did it get in here?'

Rummaging through another path, they find a box labelled tablecloths, 'Sheets!' Janie points. 'I hope they don't smell greasy.' Then along the side wall they see a double door. 'Ha! We can get the bed out through there.'

After moving the boxes blocking the doorway, they turn the handle. The door squeaks like something caught and soon to be put out of its misery. Warily, they peak in. The room is pitch black, no windows.

'Ok, Miss Vamp, your territory, I think. Hope your relatives are friendly.' Snooki laughs, as they pat along the wall looking for a light switch. 'I won't go in there without a flash light."

'I'll go get one. You can stay here and guard the spooky door. I hope you're alive when I get back!' Janie grins, poking Snooki in the ribs.

'Ow!' Snooki says, 'You are such a bitch. Wait...' and searches her pockets, until she pulls out a phone, 'the flashlight button!'

Into the dark, down a path created by the silvery beam, they find a room filled with shelves of books, a few more boxes, and an antique chaise lounge. A desk and a light sit in the corner and there on the opposite wall another set of double doors and a light switch.

'Ha!' Snooki says as she flicks the switch.

In the mellow light of a dusty chandelier, they find a half-habitable room, a room that looks used. The desk is neat and not dusty and on its blotter an open book rests. 'Want to check out your master's reading list, Miss Vamp?' Snooki asks.

Janie is looking at the titles of the books, many are classics, formally bound, sometimes in what looks like leather, old, without colorful jackets. Several shelves are folio and quarto-sized illustrated cookbooks.

'Look at all these great cookbooks, Snook!' Janie points. 'We have our work cut out for us.'

'We better get permission before we move anything in here.' Snook says. "I think that chaise would be neat to study on.'

Suddenly, behind them comes a deep voice: "I always thought so, too, until I feel asleep on it too often."

'Oh!' Janie says as Snooki jumps to her side. 'You scared us.'

'How could I scare you, Miss Vamp!'

'Yes, well...maybe by eavesdropping...you and Snooki might have something in common.'

'Sorry! I'm Ernie--Ernie Holmes, I live on the other side of the hall. I just got here or I would have said something earlier. I wanted to see what you thought of the library."

'Hi Ernie! This is Snooki and I'm Janie.'

'Please to meet you, I hope!' Ernie laughs as he smiles at the girls. He's a handsome boy with soft blue eyes and curly locks. Despite the deep voice he is thin and gentle looking, standing there in cutoffs. He looks sensitive but anything feminine is countered by broad shoulders and strong, capable arms. Janie smiles when she spies Snooky admiring his body.

'You look like you could use some help.' Ernie observes. The two girls are covered in dust and their hair is disheveled, but Ernie sees two beauties smiling through the grime at him.

'We do! We want to move that bunk bed down to the room at the end of the hall. Did you say you live up here, too, Ernie?'

'Yep. Just across from you, if that open door down the hall is yours. Hope you're not into loud parties.'

'No worries, we will be too busy studying. So, is this cozy library open for everyone to use?'

"I think so--at least the kids that live up here: that would be just the three of us so far.' Ernie says and goes on to admit that many of the boxes in their room were from his efforts to make his own room habitable. 'That means you have my services for the week to clean up the mess I helped make.'

For the next hour they dig out the big wooden bed. Some rollers help to glide it through the library and down the hallway like a beast lumbering along with its human trainers. Then another hour of junk removal and Janie and Snooky's room is with bed, a big bunk bed in waiting.

'Now what?' Janie says, glancing at the bed in the corner by the big window. 'Maybe we need blinds?'

'Naw...' Snooky says, eyeing the urban landscape outside their window: Old buildings present their brick backs, the gutters and fire escapes trailing along their walls like rusty spiders. They are on the 6th floor and overlook most of the buildings on their block. 'We'll just have to watch for lights and maybe the glint of a telescope from that tall building one block over.'

'Maybe they'll put us on the Internet...two virgins exploring their better halves!'

'You aren't getting cold feet are you, Snook?' Janie says wrapping her arms around Snooki and snuggling against her back.

Snooki turns like a slippery seal to face the mischievous smile of her friend. 'Well, who is this aggressive girl so warm and sweet?'

'Me?' Janie says, her arms tightening against Snooki's back. Before Snooki can lean in for the kiss she most definitely wants, they are interrupted by the boy next door who has simply walked right in to find his two new friends in hot embrace.

'Oh...sorry to interrupt?' He says, his eyes wide at the sight of these two beautiful girls, the 'blush and the blond' as he secretly thinks of them, pressed together, in eager arms like a heavenly vision of male fantasy.

'Sorry Ernie, we just got carried away thinking about...you know...the future.'

'Nice future!'

'Yeah!' They giggle, being the unabashed playful girls they are.

'So, kind sir, whose legs my girlfriend admires...' Janie has to stop as she dodges a serious tickle from a blushing Snooki.

Ernie explains that he would like to invite them to supper.

'Supper! Are you sure you can handle the appetite of two hungry girls?'

'Pasta fills an empty belly and warms a hungry heart.' Ernie intones, smiling as they laugh at his accompanying bow and outstretched arm.

This is how they find themselves, the night upon them, lounging around the scared wooden coffee table on which sit bowls of steaming spaghetti and aromatic meat sauce. Ernie adds some mismatched wine glasses and a bottle of cheap Chianti and brings out a warmed loaf of bread, a dipping dish shiny with garlic butter.

'Hmm...' smiles Janie, 'a feast fit for...ah...movers!'

'Hungry movers!' Seconds Snooki.

'Thank you for your help, Ern.' Janie says, purposely abbreviating his name.

'Ern?' Ernie says, 'Have you been talking to my high school buddies? Ern is for burial. You can call me Ernest or Ernie or...'

'Ernest Ernie?' Snooki smiles, checking to see just how much of a reaction she can get from this calm boy.

Ernie smiles. It is a gentle alert smile, one that acknowledges struggle but steps away, gliding effortlessly left or right to the unseen flow of what is comfortable and at ease, but not always easy.

Snooki watches his smile and pats Ernie's hand, 'OK, no more teasing about names. We'll think of a good nickname for everyone we meet, but,' she pauses and pats Janie's butt as she leans across the scared coffee table for more bread, 'only for the people we like.'

'I can't wait.' Ernie says, watching as Janie smiles at Snooki.

'Careful what you wish for around hungry girls!' Janie says, her eyes smiling in that calm way, comforting like Earnie's, Snooki observes...someone they can be at ease with.

Ernie's space is a lot neater than theirs. It is huge, with lots of old furniture arranged in a rough arc like an impromptu conversation pit. The row of three north facing windows are free of the clutter that still plagues the girls' apartment. They gaze about them admiring the possibilities of how they can transform their own space. Jane is catty-corner to Snooki and has put a mildly provocative ankle across Snooki's thigh as she talks to Ernie. Ernie smiles and smiles, at ease in the comfort of their attention even as he suspects the girls are teasing him.