Page 59 of The Complication with the Best Man

Fuck. There goes my dick again.

That scent throws me right back to the night we spent together. It was all over the sheets after she left the hotel room and had me reliving everything we’d done on said sheets until I checked out the following day.

“You coming?” she calls from the front door.

Not at the moment, but I have a feeling I will be later tonight to thoughts of you.

“Yup.” I grab the truck keys off the counter. “Let’s do this.”

* * *

An hour later,we pull into a parking space at the community college.

“Newsflash, I sucked at school the first time around, Finn. I’m not keen to do it again.”

I turn the truck off and shift in my seat to look at her. “I thought you liked surprises?”

“I do, but not the kind that involve school.” She’s frowning, and there’s something more behind her reaction, but I want to keep this light.

“We’re not here for class. Well, not really.”

Her head tilts. “Not helping.”

“Come on. It will be fun, I promise.”

With a sigh, she puts her hand on the door handle and exits the truck. I meet her at the front, and we head inside.

“I know I said I like surprises, and I do, but I’m feeling a little anxious now. Can you give me a really big hint?”

I stop her with a hand on her elbow. She turns and looks at me before we enter the building.

“We’re just doing a cooking class. I noticed that neither one of us is even close to line cook status—no offense—and I thought we could brush up on our skills.”

Her shoulders relax, and she smiles. “That I can handle. No promises I’ll be able to do anything more than boil a pot of water by the end though.”

I chuckle and hold the door for her, then tell her the classroom number we’re supposed to find. It takes us a few minutes, but we do locate it.

The classroom is for the culinary arts students and is essentially a large kitchen with all the cooking equipment running in a large U shape along three of the walls and rows of stainless-steel tables in the middle of the room.

There are already some other people in the classroom when we enter. It appears that it’s mostly couples, which I guess I should have expected, but I didn’t really give it a lot of thought.

“Welcome, welcome.” The instructor, an older woman in her fifties with curly dark hair to her shoulders and glasses on, waves us inside. “Just pick any station you want. We’re going to get started in a few minutes.”

When she starts the class five minutes later, it’s us and five other couples.

She claps her hands together, and the quiet conversations going on around the room trail off. “I’d like to take a moment to welcome everyone to class. We’re going to focus our efforts tonight on preparing a meal from start to finish, including an appetizer and a dessert. And the best part is that you get to take everything with you to enjoy.”

A few yelps and woohoos ring out through the class.

“My name is Ellen, and I’ve been an instructor here for more than twenty years. Before we get started, I always like to get a quick introduction from everyone so we know who we’re working with tonight. So when I point to your group, please let me know your names and what brought you here tonight.”

She points at the couple farthest from us, who are here to celebrate their anniversary. Next up is an older couple who have been dating a while, then a couple who thought it would be something fun to do to have a night away from the kids.

It’s not until she points in our direction that I realize we probably should have talked about what we were going to say. Harper looks at me wide-eyed, waiting for me to answer.

I raise my hand in greeting. “Hi, everyone. I’m Finn, and this is Harper.” I clear my throat and decide that I’m just going to be honest about the reason I brought us here, minus some of the details. “We’re expecting a baby in the spring, and neither of us is particularly adept in the kitchen, so I thought this would be a fun way to better our skills.”

“Can you put chicken nuggets and fries on a baking sheet and turn on the oven? If so, you’ll be all right,” says the woman who said she was here with her husband for a night away from her kids.

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