She stood there with her legs trembling. What the hell had come over Henrik Eklund?
“The light is so good today that we thought we’d start out here.” Elnaz nodded to the camera operator to start filming.
It was the following morning. They were standing outside the café, and Nora was about to see the results of the renovation for the first time.
Henrik was standing right behind her; she could feel his presence, like a warm barrier. She hardly dared look at him, which annoyed her. That kiss ... She had felt something, so how could he behave as if nothing had happened? She had been so overwhelmed that she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it. What if it wasn’t just for the TV show? What if he’d kissed her because he wanted to? And then she got annoyed at herself for thinking about it so much. She never brooded over anything as trivial as a kiss. Then again, she had never kissed anyone she had to see every day.
They unlocked the door and she stepped inside, full of anticipation. The first thing that hit her was the smell of fresh paint and sawdust. She ignored the camera that was following her and looked around. What she saw made her gasp and forget her agitation over Henrik.
Everything was reminiscent of the way the café had looked in its early days, but with a fresh, modern twist. The wallpaper was still there, but the vanilla trim that had yellowed over the years had been painted a crisp white, and the wall behind the counter was now covered in small square tiles. Black shelves affixed to the wall provided space for the bread to be displayed, and beneath them a pale wooden countertop ran the length of the entire wall. The long glass counter had been replaced by three freestanding glass cubes framed in the same pale wood. The cubes contained glass shelves and wooden trays where all the cakes, cookies, and sandwiches were laid out.
Renée stood behind the counter, beaming with pride. “Isn’t it wonderful?” Nora nodded in agreement.
The café area was now equipped with rustic wooden furniture. The benches that lined the walls had been varnished and reupholstered in strawberry-red fabric.
Blown away, Nora turned to Henrik. “It’s fantastic!”
He pulled off his hat. Once again the dampness had made his hair curl, and she felt a strong desire to touch it. She remembered the feeling of his rough beard on her chin when he kissed her, and suddenly her whole body was tingling.
He looked around. “It is, isn’t it?”
Nora cleared her throat and pushed aside all thoughts of Henrik’s beard, which she also thought was fantastic. And that kiss, which was more than fantastic. “I love it,” she said sincerely.
Henrik went over to a table and sat down, and she took a seat opposite him. Someone had already made coffee, and a production assistant brought them each a cup.
“We found pictures from the opening in 1940. The wall was tiled, and there were black shelves,” Henrik explained.
Nora nodded. “The place has been renovated a few times over the years, and not always for the better.”
“We thought we’d give you something new that felt well planned and classic. The fact that we did it all in one go meant we could bring a coherence to it that it lacked before.”
Elnaz came over and asked Nora to record a piece directly for the camera. Nora practically skipped into the bakery. The renovation was better than she could ever have imagined.
They sat down in front of a static camera. Elnaz was grinning.
“So can you tell us what actually happened yesterday?”
Nora stared at her. Of course they were bound to ask about the kiss. She cleared her throat. “Henrik kissed me yesterday—I’m assuming it was for the TV cameras.”
Elnaz frowned. “You can’t say that.”
“But it’s true.”
Elnaz shook her head. “I don’t know anything about that, but I do know there’s a spark between you two. How was the kiss?”
“The kiss was ...” Nora looked down at the floor. Why lie? It wasn’t as if she was swearing her undying love for Henrik by telling the truth. “The kiss was good. Absolutely amazing, in fact. But don’t tell Henrik,” she said with a wink, which made Elnaz smile again.
“That’s great—we’ll save the rest for tomorrow.”
They returned to the café, and Nora sat down with Henrik again.
“Are you putting up the Christmas decorations this evening?” Elnaz asked as she joined them with a cup of coffee. Renée brought over a tray of cheese rolls baked according to Nora’s new recipe: sourdough made with spelt flour from a farmer a few miles to the north.
Nora took a bite. It was perfection. “I was going to do it later in the week—I thought that was what we’d agreed on?” She’d already arranged to decorate the café with her friends as they did every year, with mulled wine and Christmas music to set the mood.
“We really need to get it done tonight if we’re going to fit everything in,” Elnaz insisted.
Tonight? Well, she would make it work, but it would be impossible to gather all her friends on such short notice.
