Tell Me Not to Love You novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Flour

I sent the message from the walk-in cooler at two in the morning, because I couldn't say it out loud to anyone.

Thursday. Four. The back door.

His answer came before I'd put the phone down.

I'll be there at 3:59 so I don't make you wait.

He was there at 3:58 and stood outside in the cold until the clock turned, because he'd said four.

I opened the back door in my apron with flour to my wrists.

"Hi," I said.

"Hi."

Neither of us had a line, so I handed him a second apron.

"You're going to learn to knead," I said. "If you're going to keep standing in my kitchen, you'll be useful."

"I am very trainable."

"You're very tall. Stand on the mat."

I set a lump of dough in front of him and showed him the heel of the hand, the push, the fold, the quarter turn.

He did it with such serious attention that I had to look at the wall.

"You're being too gentle," I said.

"It looks fragile."

"It's bread, not a baby. Lean into it."

He leaned.

The dough slapped the steel, and a cloud of flour went up and settled on his black hair.

He looked so offended that I laughed out loud, the first real laugh in a week.

He stopped.

He turned his floury hands over, looking at them, and then he looked at me.

"Solveig Ostlund," he said, "I'd like to take you to dinner."

He took a breath.

"Not tonight, and not on a schedule."

He almost smiled.

"In a restaurant with a tablecloth and any number of people watching, if you ever want that."

He shrugged.

"At my kitchen table or yours, if you don't."

"Garrick."

"I'm not asking you to be my secret, and I'm not asking you to be my statement."

He held up his floury hands.

"I'm asking you to eat a meal with me."

"And if I say no?"

"Then I'll knead," he said. "Until the next time I'm allowed to ask."

I walked to the back door, turned the deadbolt, and shot it home.

Then I crossed the kitchen and pulled the cord on the front lights, so the shop went dark but for the oven glow.

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