Chapter Twelve
Olivier – Inclusions Chocolate Shop, The Lanes, Brighton
Olivier poured the warm, dark chocolate from the metal ladle, filling each of the small moulds on two sets of trays on the kitchen counter, covering the finely chopped pieces of prune already sprinkled into each of the sections.
He’d been at his maman’s shop all afternoon helping her to temper chocolate – getting in practice as she said – and she’d challenged him to make up the chocolate combination he’d suggested the other day.
‘Be careful not to overfill, less to scrape off that way,’ she counselled him softly from behind and he glided his hand onwards a bit faster. He twisted his wrist quickly as he came to the last one and put the ladle back in the bowl of almond-flavoured chocolate, straightening up.
‘Lovely – you’ve got such a steady hand.’ She patted him on the back and handed him the scraper. ‘Now—’
‘Give them a good firm tap,’ he recited and she smiled.
‘Sorry. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you what to do.’
‘You’re not telling. You’re teaching.’ He banged each of the moulds down on the table to remove the air bubbles from inside and then picked up the scraper to remove the splashes at the edges and the places where hehadoverfilled.
The atmosphere in his maman’s kitchen was so different to his papa’s. Of course there was no pressing demand of customers waiting for meals so that was inevitable, but even so there was plenty of work to do and his maman managed it with periods of intense focus, interspersed with relaxed chattering to him and Celeste whenever his cousin came in from the shop for items she needed to restock or just to make cups of tea – which weirdly didn’t taste of chocolate or cherries to her, but of lemon.
He really did try to get his fascination about her muddled-up sense of taste under control but couldn’t help asking her more questions about it and he’d started to compile a mental list of what flavours were substituted for others and how he might possibly cater for that.
They were just putting the moulds into the fridge and cleaning down the counters when she popped her head in again and called out to him.
‘There’s someone here to see you.’
Olivier raised his eyebrows. The only people who would really think of looking for him here were Ashleigh or Romesh. He quickly washed his hands and removed his hairnet and apron before heading out to the shop.
Romesh was standing over by the shelf of assorted pre-bagged truffles, the bright golden stars on the cellophane glinting in the lights.
It made total sense it was Romesh really, because Ashleigh could just knock on his door at home if she wanted to see him. He knew she’d been off work today and yesterday as mid-week worked like her weekend but she hadn’t found any reason to call over. Why would she?
‘Hello, how did you know I’d be here?’ Olivier said as they hugged.
‘Well, you’ve got a display to make haven’t you? I figured it was worth a shot as I was walking past.’
‘Where are you off to?’ Olivier knew Ro’s apartment was in the opposite direction.
‘Parenting class.’
‘Ah. That must be why you look so presentable.’
‘I’ll have you know I am always a vision.’ Romesh smoothed his hands down his navy woollen coat.
Olivier grinned. ‘I won’t argue with that.’
‘“Won’t” is different to “can’t” – don’t think I didn’t notice the word choice there. Anyway, I can’t stop long. I just wanted to know if you’re okay with going ice-skating tomorrow night?’
‘Oh, yes, that’s absolutely fine.’ He looked over his shoulder to Celeste who was polishing the front of the glass cabinet, pretending she wasn’t listening.
‘Excellent. It won’t be until about eight-ish, because of Ash needing to get home from work too. Is that okay?’
His stomach gave a little flip as Romesh confirmed Ashleigh was coming too.
‘Oui, that should be fine. I’m looking forward to it.’
‘Skated before?’
‘No. Not that I can remember.’
‘Then I’m looking forward to it too.’ Romesh laughed wickedly. ‘See you tomorrow.’
