Jacob was starting to get hungry. He remembered how he completely ruined breakfast for the both of them, so he looked for something new he and Maria could try. Soon, he stumbled upon a sweets shop. The place itself wasn’t that busy, but the smell coming from it seemed intriguing to him.

"Have you ever had anything super sweet before, Maria?"

"Me and Lidia bake pastries every now and then, but I heard sometimes those don’t count as sweets."

"I think those are still sweets, but I don’t see anything that looks like a pastry in this shop."

Jacob guided Maria inside the small shop. There was an older gentleman behind the counter. He was bald with a grey beard covering his face. He wore small glass that sat on the end of his nose, and he held a smile on his face.

"Is that the prince?! My word, I am honored to be in your presence, young lord!"

"Nice to meet you. This is a cozy little shop you have here. What exactly do you sell? I’ve never seen pastries that look like these before."

"That’s because they are no pastries, my lord. They are cookies. Would you care to try one?"

"How much for two of them? And what is that seasoning sprinkled on top?"

"That is not seasoning, young lord. That is a small bit of sugar."

Jacob gave the old man two gold coins.

"Will this cover it?"

The old man looked like he was about to pass out.

"This is way too much! Please take this back immediately!"

"Sorry, it’s yours now. No take backs. We’re going to try this now if that’s okay."

"A-As you wish."

Maria started looking at the round-shaped dessert, trying to figure out where to attack it from. Jacob started sniffing it and accidently snorted some sugar up his nose. He could oddly taste some of it in his mouth after that happened. Both of them were done inspecting their food and after three moments, finally took their first bite.

Maria froze. Her pupils dilated and she started shaking. Jacob joined her in being frozen. As soon as the taste reached his palate, it felt like he finally found something he was searching for his entire life. It’s crunchy texture, its sweet taste, and its alluring aroma all made Jacob fall in love with this treat. He immediately ran up to the counter like a madman.

"This is the greatest tasting thing I’ve ever had in my life! What is this? Sorcery? Are you casting an illusion on us? What’s your secret?!"

Maria ran up to the counter with Jacob and started jumping up and down with both her hands on the counter. She didn’t say anything, but her eyes were locked on the large row of cookies still left on the shelf.

"Thank you very much, sir. It’s a special recipe I use, and I cook them a certain way to bring out the flavor."

"I’m buying you."

"Eh... pardon me?"

"I’m buying the rest of your store. May I please have the rest of those cookies?"

The old man’s pupils turned white, and he passed out on the floor. Maria jumped over the counter and started slapping and shaking him to try and wake him up.

"Please wake up. I need to try more of these, please!"

Jacob jumped over the counter and pulled her off of him.

"Maria, control yourself! He’s just an old man!"

"I need more!!"

"Hey! You have to share!"

Maria kept squirming in Jacob’s arms then eventually went limp. Jacob gently set her down and patted her head.

"Let me try waking him up."

Jacob went back over to the old man and squatted down by his ear.

"Huh, since when were there a bunch of beautiful old ladies waiting in line."

Almost immediately, the old man hopped back up on his feet and sat by the counter.

"Hello ladies, how may I help you on this fine-"

He looked around and noticed the only people around him were Jacob and Maria.

"Hey, that’s not fair. You tricked me!"

"You were just passed out two seconds ago!"

"I wasn’t passed out! I was... resting."

"Resting on the wooden floor?"

"We all have weird habits!"

"Can we just buy all of your cookies, sir?"

"Why would you want to buy all of them?! There has to be at least a hundred in here!"

Jacob dropped a small bag of gold on the counter.

"Will this cover it?"

Immediately, the old man started grabbing cookies of his shelves and throwing them into a large bucket for Jacob. Maria yanked the bucket from the old man’s hands as he was handing it over the counter and started to devour the cookies inside. Jacob seized her and tried to get himself some as well.

"Maria! Bad, Maria! Give me some too!"

He felt like he was trying to wrestle a monster who just got a hold of its dinner and was not willing to let it go. Jacob was able to spill some cookies on the floor by knocking the bucket out of her hands. He jumped on them and started ravaging through them. Crumbs littered the once clean floor of the small shop. Very quickly, Jacob ran out of cookies and noticed Maria was almost at the bottom of the bucket.

Jacob jumped at her and tackled her to the ground trying to separate her from it.

"Let go! You’ve had enough! Way more than me!"

"Never!! You let go!"

Maria and Jacob continued to wrestle, until the bucket splintered in half and the last cookie flew into the air. They both saw it at the same time and tried to bite it out of the air. However, both of them missed the cookie and ended up smacking into each other’s faces, their lips doing an indirect kiss for a moment. Both of them fell on the floor completely stunned, their faces bright red.

They sat up and stared at each other for a moment. Almost out of pure instinct, Maria’s hand reached out and grabbed the last cookie that had now fell on the floor and ate it with avarice. Jacob continued to just stare at her embarrassingly. They both knew they had technically just kissed, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Jacob was the first to stand up.

"I... Sorry, sir. We messed up your floor and broke your bucket. The payment I gave should cover it. We’ll be back."

Jacob slowly walked over to Maria and helped her up. They were both still too stunned to speak to one another. Maria looked at the old man with blushed cheeks.

"Sorry, sir. It won’t happen again."

The old man simply stared at them dumbfounded, not knowing what to say. After a bit of an awkward silence, they decided to step out of the shop and walk away. Even after this strange altercation, Jacob still found his hand longing for Maria’s.

With that, he slowly wrapped his fingers around hers and they continued walking.