Page 44 of All I Want for Christmas

Darcy gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.

‘What’s wrong?’

She looked up, to find Max already watching her. ‘Sorry.’

‘What is it?’

‘It’s nothing. Just a slightly shocking anecdote from a friend who’s a vet.’

‘Oh?’ He looked intrigued.

‘He’s been regaling me with horror stories in his clinic.’

‘I see.’

She looked back at the screen, typing quickly.

‘Will he be ok?’

‘Yes, just very sore.’

‘Poor thing.’

‘I’ve had to put him in the cone of shame. Now he’s really feeling sorry for himself.’

She smiled. Aksel was warming up nicely. Much more of this and she might actually start to foster some hope for their date on Tuesday.

She glanced up, thinking of a reply, to find Max still watching with an intense stare.

The doorbell rang, breaking his focus, and he got up. She watched him disappear downstairs. He had changed into grey trackies and a t-shirt after working out. Sunday Max, part II. He returned a moment later with some steaming bags of food.‘Lunch,’ he said, walking past, but she sensed a twinge of irritation beneath his usual brusque demeanour.

She got up and joined him, watching as he put the bags on the counter and lifted out some boxes with a distinctive name on the side. Noma might be iconic, but Geranium had just been voted the number one restaurant in the world...

‘Geranium does takeaway?’ she asked in amazement.

‘No.’ He shrugged. ‘But I have a friend who works there.’

He didn’t look at her as he set out the boxes, a sharpness to his movements. He was definitely being testy with her. Had she done something wrong? Outstayed her welcome, in spite of her best efforts to be invisible? She bit her lip at the contradiction; it wasn’t like she’d asked for lunch.

‘Max...do you want me to go?’

He sighed, planting his hands down on the counters as he fixed her with a hard stare. ‘No, Darcy, I don’t want you to go. I want you to eat and I want you to stop apologizing for being here.’

She looked back at him, wanting to leave now more than ever. She sensed they were having an argument and she didn’t even know why. ‘Okay,’ she shrugged, bewildered. ‘No more apologies, then.’

‘Good.’ He reached into a cabinet below and brought out some plates and bowls. He was silent for a moment as he began decanting the dishes. ‘I wasn’t sure what you’d like, so I asked for a selection.’ It was more considerate than Erik had been at dinner the other night, ordering with impunity.

‘It looks incredible.’ It smelled even better. She couldn’t believe Geranium had delivered to him. Was this who she’d heard him talking to on the phone earlier? ‘But you really didn’t need to go to this trouble. I could have popped out and got a sandwich. Or burger.’

He smiled at her then, as if she’d said something funny, and she felt the bubble of tension that had floated up between them so suddenly burst just as quickly. ‘No. I wanted you to try the scallop.’ He opened up the smallest box – it had been secured with a ribbon – to reveal a tiny cake sitting atop a small white fluted porcelain dish.

‘Oh! That’s making my mouth water just looking at it.’ The top of it was a shiny glazed marble of vanilla into red.

‘It’s good. It’s a cake made with seeds, apples, elderberries and apple brandy.’

She looked up at him with a conspiratorial smile. ‘It would be wrong to try that first, right?’

His eyes locked with hers. ‘Very wrong. You have to wait, Darcy.’

---