Page 44 of The Sweet Talker
She sets her dish in the sink, and I put mine in with it. “Come with me.” Without putting our winter coats on, she leads me to her door, but I quickly realize we’re not going outside, we’re going to her store downstairs. It’s quiet this time of night, all the shoppers are home, and the staff finished their workday.
“You’re thinking a box of chocolates or something.”
“Or something,” she jokes, and takes me to the back room, where the big machines are set up and all the magic happens. “I thought we could make a batch of fresh bark. It’s my favorite, and I thought maybe you’d like to see the process.”
“Yeah, I would.”
“You sure it won’t bore you?”
“Nothing you do can bore me, Josie.” She smiles, but I’m not lying. I’m really interested in what she does, and it’s easy to tell how much she likes it by the way she lights up whenever she walks into her ‘lab.’ “But you’ll have to watch our next game.”
“I already planned on it. Now I have someone else to watch besides Declan.” My chest expands at the thoughts of her watching me, as she moves around the room, pointing out her massive amount of equipment. I listen intently, amazed by her knowledge and fascinated as she explains the process for the different kinds of chocolates she makes.
“For the bark, we have to use tempered chocolate, which I have here, otherwise the bark won’t have a smooth glossy sheen and a crisp snap, and tempered chocolate won’t turn dull and fuzzy if stored for a while.”
“Tempered?”
She ties an apron around her waist and rolls up the sleeves on her sweater. “When chocolate is melted, the molecules of fat separate. Tempering brings them back together, and if done properly, you get a network of stable crystals. That’s what makes it glossy, with a crisp snap.”
I scratch my head. “I didn’t realize I was going to get a science lesson. Can you say that again, using shorter sentences and smaller words?”
She laughs at me. “How about I show you instead?” She grins at me, throwing my words back at me, and my body reacts, wanting her in my arms again.
“You know I do prefer show over tell.”
Grinning, she fills a pot with water and puts a bowl over it. “Today, we’re only going to melt it, and this is how I like to do it, so it doesn’t burn.”
“I didn’t even know you could burn chocolate.”
“Grab me those bars over there,” she says, and points. I walk over to a table, and lift the parchment paper to find rows and rows of chocolate. The rich cocoa scent fills my senses. “Can’t we just eat this?” I break off a couple bars of chocolate and hand them to her.
“Trust me, the bark will be much better.” She gestures with a nod as she turns the stove on and puts the bark in the bowl. “Go over to that fridge, and pick out the ingredients you might want in your bark.”
I open the fridge to find peanuts, coconut, cranberries, peppermint and every kind of candy under the sun. “I think I’ve just died and gone to heaven.” I grab a mixture and carry it to her. “Can we put all this stuff into one batch? Wait. Do we have any popcorn left? I bet the sweet and salty would be amazing.”
Her jaw drops. “Are you kidding me?”
“About what?”
“Popcorn is my number one favorite thing to add to the chocolate. I don’t have it on the shelves because it doesn’t store well, but I make it for myself sometimes.”
“It’s almost like I know you.”
She angles her head and eyes me suspiciously. “How did you know that?”
“I didn’t.”
“Did you ask my parents?”
“No, I just thought it would be delicious.” She goes quiet for a second, lost in thought as she stirs.
“Hey, was it something I said?”
She shakes herself from whatever it was she was thinking. “Why don’t you run upstairs and nuke a bag of popcorn for our bark which we can eat during movie time.”
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nbsp; My heart jumps. I love that our evenings have become our movie time. “I’m on it.” I hurry upstairs, greet a happy Mabel, who quickly begins to drool over the popping corn. I give her a handful and hurry back downstairs.