Page 22 of Becoming His Muse
Olani nodded as she checked the consistency of the chocolate, as Duncan had just instructed before adding the vanilla extract.
“I’ve decided on the next two dates,” she informed him, placing the vanilla down and getting one of the eight-by-eight pans.
“Where are we going?” Elion inquired as he watched her prep the pan for the chocolate.
“I thought we could go to an exhibit Wednesday, and then there’s a comedy show Saturday evening,” she informed him, placing parchment paper over the plastic wrap she’d lined the pan in.
“That sounds like fun,” Elion responded, turning the stove off and pouring the chocolate into the pan. Olani made sure it spread evenly before adding a piece of parchment paper on top of it and folding the plastic wrap over it before sticking it in the freezer.
Duncan gave them a few minutes to clean up their areas as he did the same before they started on the next dessert. This one would take longer to prep, and then they’d have to bake it. By the time it was finished, cooled a bit, and ready to be eaten, the fudge should have set.
Elion figured they could pack their desserts in the boxes instead of eating them there, and he could take her to a nearby park to enjoy it together.
Olani finished packing up the fudge into one of the dessert boxes as Elion dried the last dish and put it away. They’d made the crumble in an eight-by-eight aluminumpan, and once it’d cooled a bit, they placed the lid on it. Elion asked her if she’d go to the park with him for a dessert picnic when they left.
They thanked Duncan for the class, and she carried the box of fudge out while he grabbed the crumble.
“Do you want to ride with me or meet me there? I don’t mind bringing you back to your car afterward.”
“I’ll ride with you. Let me grab my purse from my car,” Olani responded.
Once she had her purse, she made her way over to Elion’s car, where he was placing the crumble on the floorboard of the backseat. He took the fudge before opening the passenger door for her. When she and the desserts were situated, he closed both doors, and she pulled her seat belt on as she waited for him to get in.
They were going to the park about fifteen minutes from the cooking class. There was a smaller one closer in the opposite direction, but Olani knew that this one had vendors several days out of the week, Saturday being the most prominent.
When they made it to the park, they left the desserts in the car for the time being in favor of walking the path for a bit. She also wanted to see what vendors were out. There was usually anything from food to antiques and thrift vendors.
They’d been walking for a while, and she got excited when she saw the food trucks coming up.
“The poke truck is here,” she stated.
“Do you want to get lunch from there?”
Olani nodded in response to Elion’s question, and they went to get in line. Only two people were in front of them, so they didn’t have to wait long. When it was their turn to order, she got the tempting tempura bowl while he got the pork belly bowl along with two boa buns. They each got a bottle of water, andwhen the total was given, Olani reached for her purse only to realize she’d left it in his car.
It didn’t matter, though, because by the time she’d even reached for it, Elion had already taken his wallet out and handed the cashier his card. He took his receipt and both waters, and they went to one of the tables to wait.
“What kind of exhibit are we going to see on Wednesday?” he questioned as he placed a bottle of water in front of her.
“It’s a live art exhibit. There will be people there painted and made up as different pieces. I’ve never been to one, so I thought it would be fun.”
She had looked for something new she hadn’t done that wouldn’t be another adrenaline date. She’d been very close to choosing rock climbing but figured she could hold off on that. Olani could only figure that she was knocking so many things she’d never tried but wanted to check off her list because she knew Elion would do them with her. Even with her being afraid of heights, he’d already shown her that her fear didn’t bother him and that he would help her deal with it.
However, she’d looked back on the dates he’d chosen for them. A pottery class, a wine vineyard, a couple’s cooking class. Olani was coming to see while the date she’d chosen focused on an adrenaline rush and trying something new; Elion was choosing things that were fun for them both but still seemed intimate. He was planning the types of dates she wanted in past relationships, and she wasn’t having to do it herself, not having to made her want to. It made her want to reciprocate his thoughtful dates.
When their food was ready, he went to retrieve it, and this time, while they ate, she shared a story with him about how she and Xola had gotten in trouble when they were younger because her cousin had set the small field behind their grandmother’s house on fire. It’d been dry for the past couple of weeks thatsummer, and for some reason, Xola thought it was a good idea to light a blade of grass because she was bored.
That one blade of grass quickly sparked another and then another, and before long, a fourth of the field was on fire. When Xola panicked and ran to the creek a few yards away, which still managed to have a small bit of water after weeks of no rain, Olani watched from where she’d been seated on the back porch reading.
Her cousin ran frantically back and forth from the creek to the field, trying to put out the fire with no real luck since the bucket she was using wasn’t being filled much with the lack of water. At some point, their grandmother must have looked out of the window and seen the fire because she ran outside frantic.
Olani saw her grab the water hose from the side of the house and pull it as far as it would go. She watched curiously because she knew that the hose wouldn’t reach all the way to the fire, but her grandmother called Xola over and filled the bucket before yelling back at Olani to go into the house and get something else to fill with water.
Once the fire was out, half of the field being burned, her grandmother ordered them into the house and tore Xola’s butt up. Olani even got in trouble as unfair as she thought it was because, apparently, it was not okay for her to watch the field go up in flames.
By the time she finished her story, they were more than halfway through their food, and Elion chuckled as he shook his head.
“So, you just sat there reading your book while the fire spread?”
