After Seeing the Comments, I Forced the Male Lead to Love Me novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Top Comment

The top comment tells me to cook his favorite dish, which turns out to be Noelle's, and Tobias eats every caper he hates, until I find a photographer in the hedge.

"She told me your marriage was a business arrangement," Noelle said in the hallway.

"She said he was lonely, and that I should stay through the Founders' Dinner."

"What did you say?"

"That I'd think about it. I came to see my friend, Hallie. I didn't come to take anyone's husband."

The comments disagreed with her loudly.

"noelle_stan_4ever: SHE'S STAYING. IT'S HAPPENING. (2,610 likes)"

I thanked her and took the empty tray.

Then I went to find the top comment, because the top comment always knew more than I did.

It was waiting for me in the kitchen.

"bookbabe_91: Way to a man's heart. Cook him pasta primavera with capers. (1,950 likes)"

I asked Dennis, who was eating a banana at the counter, what Tobias's favorite dinner was.

"He doesn't have one," Dennis said.

"Everybody has one."

"He eats what's in front of him, ma'am. He says thank you. He has done it for three years."

I decided that was a four-star answer for a three-star problem, and I went shopping.

Beat one was the capers.

They popped in the pan and flew. One hit the ceiling, one hit the window, and the smoke alarm went off.

Pearl stopped at the kitchen door with her cane.

"One star," she said. "Cooking, not you."

Beat two was the pasta.

I had bought a pot with 4.9 stars. The reviews said nothing ever boiled over in it.

I looked into the reviews later. They were from a man in Ohio who owned a very big stove.

The water went over the rim and across the burner.

The sauce on the next ring began to climb the wall.

Beat three was the dessert, which I did not cook.

I bought a lemon tart from the bakery on Delancey, put it on my own plate, and told no one.

The next evening at seven o'clock the whole family sat down at the long table.

Rosalind had set it herself, with place cards.

Pearl sat at the head, Tobias at her right, and Noelle across from him.

My card was at the far end by the sideboard.

I looked at the card for a moment. Then I looked at the capers, which I had somehow also put in the salad.

"Hallie made dinner," Tobias said.

It was the first thing he had said since he sat down.

"It's wonderful," Rosalind said warmly. "So brave of you, dear."

Noelle took one bite and went very still.

"Tobias," she said, "isn't this the pasta from that apartment on Lowry Street? With the capers?"

"I wouldn't know."

"You made me promise never to cook it again."

"Did I?"

"You said you'd rather eat the dishwater."

Every eye at the table turned to Tobias.

He picked up his fork, took a full bite of the capers, chewed, and swallowed.

"It's good," he said.

Pearl put down her cane.

"He hates capers," she said. "He's hated them since he was six."

"I like them now," Tobias said.

He ate all of it.

He ate the capers one at a time, with his eyes on his plate.

Then he took a second helping of the salad.

I sat there with my fork in the air.

The comments were having a field day.

"pagefive: He's eating capers. THE MAN IS EATING CAPERS. (3,010 likes)"

"tea_and_spoilers: He's being polite, babe. Don't get excited. (1,420 likes)"

"I'm sorry," I said under my breath, when everyone else was passing the bread. "I got the wrong recipe."

Tobias looked at me down the length of the table.

"Hallie," he said, very quietly. "You didn't have to cook."

"I wanted to."

"I know you did."

He said it in a voice I had not heard from him before. It was low, and it did not sound like politeness.

I did not know what to do with it. I looked down at my plate.

He got up when the plates were cleared.

He came around the end of the table and took the napkin from beside his plate.

Then he wiped a smear of sauce off my thumb.

His hand stayed. It was warm, and a little rough at the knuckle.

He let go.

"Goodnight," he said, and went upstairs.

Pearl watched him go. "Two stars," she said, to no one. "He can do better than that."

I took the trash out myself, at ten.

The yard was dark, and the hedge at the back by the gate was tall and very still.

A box rose out of the dark and hung by the hedge, bright white.

"tea_and_spoilers: Hallie. Behind the hedge. That's a camera. Rosalind hired him. (4,200 likes)"

Something glinted in the leaves, a round piece of glass the size of a coffee cup.

I stood very still, holding a bag of burnt capers, and the lens turned and looked at me.

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