“Oh—I’m so sorry.”
“I’m just a little bit anxious since it’s their first day.”
Nils nodded. “I understand perfectly.”
He was a bachelor, but his father had big plans for him and his future marriage. Until now he had gone along with those plans, despite the fact that he wasn’t entirely convinced about the marriage.
His father had always favored Nils over his brother, Stig, because Nils was more like Father. They understood each other, they thought along the same lines, and they both shared a burning passion for baking. Stig had never been interested in baking or taking over the business and had gone on to become an accountant. Father was proud of Stig, of course, but Nils was the apple of his eye, the son who would one day inherit the bakery. However, that did involve certain sacrifices.
They continued the tour. “Because we’re a large-scale operation, we deliver to other cafés and stores,” Nils explained. “We’ve just opened another bakery a few miles away, and my father is planning to freeze bread and cinnamon buns so that we can deliver to a wider area.”
Tuula nodded, clearly impressed.
Father’s plans were ambitious to say the least, and included a freezer room for which he had commissioned architectural drawings. A company that supplied berries and vegetables had just started building an enormous freezer room. Nils and his father had found a suitable location, but in order to convert the premises they would need permission from the local council. And this was where Nils and his future came into play. The chairman of the council had a daughter, who happened to be an old school friend of Nils’s. She had apparently taken a fancy to Nils, which suited his father perfectly. If Nils married the chairman’s daughter, then they would get the permission they needed in order to expand both the bakeries and the company as a whole.
Nils wasn’t convinced. Birgit was pleasant enough, but they weren’t in love. He had always thought that you ought to feel something more when you got married. He didn’t know what real love felt like, but he had seen the way his mother and father looked at each other ... And it was obvious that Stig and his wife were deeply in love. Nils wanted his children to be raised by parents who felt that way about each other.
“We’ve just sealed an important deal with a store over in Avesta that wants to sell our bread, so we’re going to need to increase our production rate. So there’s plenty of work for packers; the problem at the moment is the raw materials,” Nils went on, pushing thoughts of marriage aside.
They continued out through the arched doors. “This is the loading dock,” he said with a sweep of his hand. “We have two trucks, and the drivers start in an hour, when the first batch of loaves has been baked and packed.” Tuula nodded as he talked, taking it all in. “We also have a café in the village that sells our bread. You ought to try it sometime—our coffee is very good.”
“I walked past it yesterday—it looked nice.”
He’d been there almost all day yesterday, and she’d walked past? From now on he would keep an eye out for her.
He turned back to the packing room, where Aino had started assembling boxes. “It’s probably easier if Aino takes you through what to do.”
Tuula smiled. “Thank you for showing me around.”
“It was a pleasure.”
Such a pleasure.Nils headed for his office.
He got next to nothing done for the rest of the day. He kept finding himself peering into the bakery through the small window in his office, hoping to catch sight of Tuula. What the hell was wrong with him?
7
Nora had worked day and night all weekend, preparing for the arrival of the TV crew on Monday. According to the schedule she had received, they would spend the day going through the patisserie and would discuss what it would be like once they started filming. When she got up on Monday morning after only three hours’ sleep, she was almost too tired to feel nervous. She met her gaze in the mirror, and like a clichéd advertising slogan, she thought:Just do it.Her blue eyes were dull, and there were dark circles beneath them. Thank goodness there would be no filming today.
Renée would bake most of the bread. Hassan was coming in early to prepare the sandwiches, make the coffee, and set everything out before the TV crew arrived at eight. The store was opening a little later today so that the production team could work undisturbed.
The smell of newly baked bread met Nora as soon as she opened the door. How she loved that smell—which she associated with a deep sense of security, her childhood, and her parents. Renée emerged from the bakery with a tray of warm rolls and tipped them into a basket, the flour swirling up and dusting her curly red hair. She looked at Nora and smiled.
“Isn’t it exciting? It starts today!”
Nora managed a smile in return.Just do it.She said hi to Hassan, then took a cup from the shelf, filled it to the brim with freshly brewed coffee, and took a big gulp.
She helped Renée and Hassan with the final preparations, and soon the patisserie was full of camera people sorting through equipment and setting up lighting, presumably to test things out before filming began tomorrow.
Then Elnaz arrived. “Nora—great to see you.” Then a look of horror crossed her face. “Oh wow ... It’s good we have Sara—she’s fantastic at getting rid of dark circles. Let’s have you go straight to makeup.” She pointed to a corner table, where a tall woman with a big, bushy hairstyle was setting out approximately four hundred different items.
“Makeup? But we’re not filming today, are we?”
“Yes! I thought we made that clear to you.”
“No, I thought you were just doing a rehearsal today.”
“Yes, but then we’re going to start filming.”
