Chocolate Conundrum by Tammy Beck

Author:Tammy Beck [Beck, Tammy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2024-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

The next morning, someone knocked on my door while I stirred a pot of oatmeal on the stove. I’d eaten the same food the whole week this week. I’d lost my appetite completely and it was all I could do to get it down so that I could make it through a day working hard on my feet.

When I walked to the door, it was Isaac. He was bundled up against the morning chill.

“Isaac,” I said, surprised.

He hadn’t dropped by for morning coffee in a while. It had been our tradition for months, but lately, everything seemed to have changed.

“I need to speak to you,” Isaac said.

I nodded and stepped aside to let him in. Mittens came to greet him, rubbing herself against his legs and purring wildly.

“Hello, dear cat,” Isaac said and scratched her behind the ears.

Mittens walked to the kitchen and jumped onto the counter, where she watched us with big, green eyes.

“Coffee?” I asked. “I just made a pot.” I took it off the stove and poured us each a cup when Isaac nodded. “It’s very early for you to be here.”

I was usually unlocking the bakery long before Isaac’s classes were in session.

“I had to talk to you,” Isaac said. “I knew you’d be up and this couldn’t wait until after work. I didn’t want to discuss this with you at the bakery in front of everyone.”

“That sounds ominous,” I said cautiously. My stomach turned. What could be so important? My mind immediately jumped to something bad.

“I told Evelyn off,” Isaac blurted out.

I blinked at him. “Excuse me?”

“Last night, after droppig you off. She was in the car, talking like she always does, acting like nothing was wrong and nothing was out of the ordinary when everything was wrong. So I told her in no uncertain terms that you and I are together, and that she can’t impose on our quality time the way she did. I can’t babysit her.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“I won’t babysit her,” Isaac added. “I realized that she’s looking for attention. She was like that our whole lives, but because she was Isabelle’s best friend—like a sister, almost—I allowed so much of it. In fact, my late wife would encourage it and bad habits are hard to break.”

I shook my head slowly. “I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t need to say anything,” Isaac said and he stepped a little closer to me, leaning his forehead against mine. “I just wanted you to know that I noticed what she was doing and I know it’s not acceptable.”

A weight dropped off my shoulders and I felt like I could breathe again.

“You have no idea how much that means to me.”

We stood together like that, just drinking in each other’s closeness. It felt like the barrier that had been put up between us was crumbling and we could reach each other again.

Finally, we broke away from each other, and I turned back to the partially made coffees. I added cream and sugar, and handed Isaac his cup.

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