“We are sorry for arriving unannounced, but we heard you worked here, and we wanted to meet you,” Ingrid told me. “Do you have a few moments to sit down and talk with us?”
“Yes, she does,” Luna’s voice interrupted from behind me. I had totally forgotten she was standing there.
“Wonderful,” Ingrid said with a smile, though I noted it didn’t fully reach her eyes.
Perhaps I made her just as nervous as she made me.
“Could we get some coffees and some of these items as well,” she asked, pointing to a princess cake and cinnamon roll—Axel’s favorite.
She handed me her card, but I shooed her away, telling her that wasn’t necessary.
“Stella, it would be rude of me to walk in here and require free food when we have only just met. Please.”
I didn’t want to make her any more uncomfortable, so I let her pay.
Luna told them to have a seat at any open table and that we would be right over with their order.
I joined them at the table and sat down.
“So, Stella, tell us about you. You own this bakery, yes?” Ingrid asked.
“I do, yes. I worked at a different bakery in Chicago after culinary school but came home to open my own to be closer to my parents.”
“Your family is from Sweden, yes?”
“I’m actually adopted.” I then proceeded to tell her about my ancestry kit and my adopted father’s family being from Denmark.
“That gave my dad and me a bond growing up, and we often made foods from our cultures together.”
“This is very good,” Axel’s dad said, pointing to his cinnamon roll.
“Oh, thank you,” I told him, feeling elated that not only did someone from Sweden like it, but that someone was my boyfriend’s dad.
“Do your parents live nearby?” Ingrid asked.
“They live about an hour away, but I see them at least every other week.” Though as soon as the words left my mouth, I realized I hadn’t seen them as much now that Axel and I were dating.
“And you moved back to be closer to them, yes?” Ingrid asked.
They listened as I told the story about my dad’s health and moving back home, both of them nodding intently.
“I’m so glad your family is close by,” Ingrid said, picking up her coffee, though her gaze stayed focused on me. “That’s why we are excited to have Axel come home. Karl’s health is not so good now, so we are happy Axel will move home when his work visa is up in a few months.”
My heart dropped to my stomach, though I tried to remain calm on the outside. “Oh, I thought everything was okay with his visa.”
I swore Axel had told me everything was all set. Plus, he had already told me he didn’t want to go back to Sweden. But maybe he had made that decision before he knew his dad’s health was bad. Though, looking at him, Karl didn’t seem very sick. Then again, my father hadn’t looked too bad in the beginning either. It was after the chemo that everything had changed.
“I’m not sure, but with Karl’s health, he has decided it will be good,” Ingrid said to me. “You understand. Because your father’s health was bad too.”
She was right. I understood more than most the decisions that Axel would be going through. I even remembered Axel telling me it was very noble that I had moved home to be close to my dad when he became sick.
“Yes, I get it,” I replied.
But what I didn’t get was how he had come to this decision so quickly and without saying anything to me. This now made sense why the trip was such a surprise to Axel. But had he really made a definite decision already? Especially since he seemed so adamant about never going home…
I decided not to get too upset just yet, because I also remembered Axel’s comments about his mother and father’sobsession with control and that being why his sister had moved away too.
I decided to give him the night to spend with his family and then talk to him about it when I saw him tomorrow. But I would be lying to myself if I didn’t admit that I was upset about the idea of him leaving. We were building something between us, and if he moved home, I wasn’t sure what would happen. I didn’t want to leave my father either, or my bakery.
