I lean my head heavily against the door with a light clunk. Shit Maddy.

I am never having delicious green drinks again.

Granted, the guy was bloody hot, like sizzling, oh damn kinda hot, but come on. I shake the thoughts out of my head. I need cookies. I stroll back into the kitchen and automatically pull out the ingredients from pure memory. Baking has always centered me. It's a calm, peaceful experience that clears my mind. Stirring, mixing and folding the batter, watching the ingredients come together, it's my happy place. I completely love my kitchen, and it's definitely worth the little extra rent. It's on the large size, and a mixture of white cupboards with light brown wooden bench tops. A huge window sits above the sink and stretches the length of the benches, letting in a ton of light. There's bits of colours everywhere with bright towels, coloured flower pots containing herbs along the window sill, and fun little trinkets I've picked up at markets. I love colour and brightness. Somewhere between adding the flour and eggs, my mind wonders back to the good looking guy in my bed this morning. The sculpted body, the sexy grin on his face that I caught when he was looking at me in his shirt. I sigh.

I need chocolate.

Turning, I open the top cupboard and grab the bag of chocolate chips from inside, I definitely need these, and drop them into the batter before folding them in. My phone chimes just as I'm popping the first tray into the oven.

"Hey sis, what up?"

"Don't you 'what up' me, what happened to you last night?"

Nora sounds half annoyed as she replies, making my head ache all the more.

"I have no idea what you mean." I say, mostly because I have a sketchy memory about what actually happened last night.

"You stumbled off to the bathroom when I saw Vincent come through the door, and never reappeared. Just sent me a text to say you met someone, and will talk later."

I stare blankly at my kitchen. Well, that explains a few things. I blow out a long slow breath.

"While that might be the case, the only thing I can confirm for sure, is that I definitely left with someone."

My hand covers my face slightly embarrassed to be telling my sister this. Even if it's not exactly a first. Nora snorts out a laugh, but recovers quickly.

"Was he at least hot?"

It's my turn to laugh now, oh she has no idea.

"Devastatingly. Guy was gorgeous. Makes me wish I remembered more.... Hang on, I need to check the cookies."

"Wait, your making cookies? Wow, he really got to you... Hold up, your making cookies and only just mention this now? Be there in ten."

Her words are a rush as she hangs up. I laugh as I check the oven and pop the cookies, that I know aren't going to last long, out. Soft, gooey and chocolatey. Perfect.

  
     
       
       
Nora strolls into my kitchen ten minutes later, and walks straight over to the cooling cookies, leaning down to deeply inhale the smell. She grabs one and plonks down into a stool, before smirking at me.

"Ok, tell me everything."

I sigh. Yep that's my sister. Let's herself in without a word, and raids my food.

"Sorry to spoil your fun, but there's really not much to tell. I honestly don't remember much. We are never drinking green drinks again, by the way.."

I pause briefly to point one finger at her.

"Agreed, my head still feels like tiny miners are hammering away."

Nora groans, stuffing the last piece of cookie in her mouth and retrieving another one.

".. I woke up this morning next to very fine naked specimen, had a slight panic in the bathroom, then said goodbye to him." I continue on with what I was saying, while Nora studies me for a moment.

"Are you sure that's it? You're baking cookies, Maddy, and not only that, but they have chocolate in them. You only do that when your trying to make yourself feel better."

I sigh, staring down at my feet and shuffle one along the floor, before rushing in head first with my words.

"I may have panicked a bit soon, but it doesn't matter anyway. I didn't get his name or number. I won't see the guy again."

Nora stands and comes round the kitchen island to wrap me in a bear hug. I lean in for a moment, thoroughly accepting her comfort. Oh this is ridiculous, I don't even know the guy. Yeah he was hot, and sexy, and the way he smiled at me made my stomach turn to butterflies. He still smelled incredible.. wait where was I going with this... Ugh, I don't even know him. Nora leans back to look me in the eye.

"You need a cookie."

   
      
   
         
After Nora has made a serious effort, and consumed more than half my batch of cookies before leaving to pop into work, I walk off to the bathroom to take a shower. The warm water feels so good on my skin and makes the fuzziness of last night fade away even more. Each drop trailing delicious searing lines down my skin. Mr Hot and Naked pops into my mind, and I groan loudly into the water as I turn the heat up further to distract myself. The bathroom is steamy by the time I finish and I have to really wipe the mirror off to see myself. I brush my hair out, that looks like a mild tornado hit it, and make it appear somewhat less tangled before throwing it up in a bun on top of my head. Taking just a moment to admire the shade of it once more. I love this colour. Georgie really did an amazing job with the dark tone of red that makes you look twice at the almost flaming effect it has, not to mention the sharp contrast with my blue eyes is incredible. Turning my head side to side, I study my attempt at a messy bun. Knowing that with my hair skills, that's about as good as it's going to get. I make my way back to the kitchen, scooping up my notes into a more organized pile as I go, before I start searching around for what I need.

This week's blog theme is: everything Red Velvet.

Yesterday was a Red Velvet cheesecake with a dark chocolate cookie crumb base, and today I'm thinking Red Velvet Brookies with chunky white chocolate pieces. Brookies are this amazing creation of a cross between cookie and brownie. They're round like a cookie but soft, gooey and cakey like a brownie. My mouth waters just thinking about them.

My mind clears and the day escapes me, as I focus on carefully blending the ingredients together. Once they're in the oven, I gaze down at my collection of funky plates and select the perfect one. A lot of people don't know, but baking blogs are harder than they appear. I got rather lucky and picked up some sponsors early on, that now send me their up coming product and get me to whip up with an exciting new recipe or something irresistible using that product. I'm no Donna Hay or Betty Crocker, and it's been a long road, but I have a pretty decent following now. My blog also lead to this tiny column I now do for a food magazine, 'Blake my day'. I know corniest title ever, but a girls got to pay the bills somehow.

My first love is my blog though.

Not only do you need to keep your audience entertained where they keep coming back for more, but you need eye catching pictures that make their mouth water and present a need to bake it. The pictures are one of the harder parts.

I arrange the plate in the perfect soft light that's coming through the kitchen and go and get my camera. Most people use tripods for this type of thing, but I've always preferred the movement that it gives me with holding an actual camera my hand. And my camera is freaking awesome. It's not super dooper top of the line, but I know it inside out, and it still takes amazing pictures.

I spend the next hour arranging, altering, slightly changing the angle and of course eating, while I get the perfect picture to go with the recipe. Then the next couple uploading and writing out the recipe and the fun filler for the post. When I'm finally finished it's past dinner time. I rummage through the fridge hoping to find something edible, and discover leftover pizza, score.

The rest of the night is spent watching reruns on telly and channel flicking before stumbling off to bed buggered. Dreams of Mr Hot and Sexy and what he might be able to do with that body and his hands, haunt me through to the morning.