“Your choice. But after that, I want champagne and maybe some Belgium chocolate truffles sprinkled with gold flakes.”
She shook her head in obvious confusion.
“Something billionaires would eat.”
She moved to the wall to unplug the steamer. “That’s a thing? Gold flakes on chocolate?”
“Real gold, apparently.”
“And you eat it?”
“Well, I’ve never tried myself. But I hear tell it’s expensive.”
She coiled the cord. “Alright, Midas. You take diaper duty. I’ll check the wine rack and pantry for things that are expensive.”
“We can send out,” he offered.
He didn’t want her to go to any work. That was his whole point. Christmas Eve wasn’t the time for cooking and cleaning.
“You’re going to send out for gold chocolates?”
“For whatever you want.”
“Let me see what we have first. And you might want to get the kid into a diaper before too long.”
Cole glanced down at Zachary. “Right. Good advice.”
Realizing the risk, he wasted no time in getting to the nursery. His diapering job was awkward but adequate, and he easily found a new pair of soft, stretchy pajamas.
Soon, they were back in the living room, then into the kitchen in search of Amber.
She turned from the counter, obviously hearing them arrive. “This brand comes in a wooden box and a gold bottle.” She opened the lid of the champagne case to demonstrate. “It should be expensive enough to meet your standards.”
“I was only joking.”
She gave a shrug. “There’s nobody around to drink it but us. And I don’t think champagne keeps indefinitely.”
The microwave oven beeped three times.
Amber pointed to the sound. “Zachary’s Chateau Moo 2014 is in the microwave.”
“Got it,” said Cole, crossing the kitchen.
“We have fresh strawberries. And I found a few bars of dark chocolate. The label’s in French, so I’m guessing they’re imported. And this...”
Cole approached with the formula bottle in his hand.
“Gold-colored sugar sprinkles. Yellow, actually.”
“You take me way too literally.” But he couldn’t help but be impressed by her ingenuity.
He perched himself on a stool, used his best guess on how to position Zachary and offered him the bottle.
Fortunately Zachary knew the drill. He snagged the bottle with both hands and relaxed into Cole’s lap.
“I’m going to melt the chocolate, dip the strawberries and sprinkled them with gold.”
“You clearly did not understand my point.”