My Alpha Wanted a Graceful Rejection, So I Rehearsed Dating His Rival novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Loaf

Aino's POV

Petra's video reached my phone at ten past two in the morning, and I watched it three times by habit.

On the third run I stopped it on a freeze-frame of Soren drying a very large pot.

He looked terrible, and happier than I had ever seen him.

I did not watch it a fourth time.

I got up from Hilkka's kitchen table and turned on the oven.

I did not write a plan.

I took down the flour, and I did not measure it.

I scooped it out with the cup I had been given at sixteen.

I put in the water, and I put in the salt, and I did not time anything.

My grandmother came to the doorway in her nightgown, looked at the open flour bin, and said, "Is it three in the morning?"

"Yes," I said.

"Are you running it?" said Hilkka.

"No."

"Good," said Hilkka, and sat down in the cedar chair.

It had been carried in through the window two days earlier and now took up half the kitchen.

She watched me knead.

I made the loaf lopsided on purpose, with one shoulder higher than the other, and I scored it with a knife, once, down the center.

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