10
E lion pulled up outside of the cooking class ten minutes before it started.
He’d chosen a time earlier in the day because those classes were smaller than those taught at night.
Clara questioned where he was going, and when Elion told her he was just heading out for a bit to get some inspiration, which wasn’t really a lie, she asked if she could come with him.
He had to remind her that he got inspired best when he wasn’t distracted.
At least, that had once been the case. Now, it seemed he got inspired when distracted by a specific woman.
He decided he would take Clara out to dinner tomorrow, give her the gift he’d gotten, and let her know that her little ploy worked because he was doing what she’d set out for him to do.
Date. Elion also knew his niece well enough to know that she would put two and two together, and he’d much rather tell her first. She didn’t catch an attitude with him often, but when she did, it rivaled his older sister’s, and he never wanted any part of that.
Elion had only been sitting in his car for a few minutes when he saw Olani pull into the parking lot. He got out and headed to where she was parking in an empty space a few feet away from his. He opened her door for her as she turned the car off, extending his hand to help her out.
His eyes roamed over her, slowly taking her in. They’d been out several times, and she looked just as beautiful each time he saw her. It didn’t matter what she was wearing; she made it seem like the best thing he’d ever seen on a woman.
Today was no different. Olani was dressed in pale-yellow high-waisted shorts and a black ribbed knit tank top tucked into them.
She’d paired the outfit with sneakers of the same color.
Her coils were pulled on top of her head, secured with a silk yellow scarf.
Elion thought it should be a crime for something so simple to look so good.
“Hello, Sweetheart,” he greeted before leaning down and kissing her. She’d told him she didn’t mind if that was the way he wanted to greet her, and he had no intention of disappointing either of them by not doing so.
“Hey,” Olani greeted with a smile when they pulled apart.
Elion allowed her to lock her car doors and place her phone into her back pocket before he took her hand in his and led the way inside the building.
There were only two other couples in attendance.
This class would have a total of five, and there were still a few minutes left before it started, so he knew others could still show up.
They greeted the instructor and the other two couples, and Elion moved them to a station away from the others. Once the class started, it would give them more privacy to talk to one another.
Elion looked the stations over. All of them were identical and housed a stove, a small refrigerator, a sink, and two counters with drawers on each with open bottoms for the cooking utensils. Olani opened one of the drawers, and they found cookware inside.
One other couple walked in right at one o’clock as the instructor went to flip the class in session sign.
“Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Duncan, and I will be your instructor. Today, we’re going to make two different desserts. We’ll start simple with some fudge and then move on to mini Damson crumbles. Everything you’ll need can be found in your refrigerators.”
They took out the ingredients Duncan listed and showed them along with the necessary cookware.
When he signed them up for the class, Elion didn’t know which desserts they were going to make, but he enjoyed chocolate, so he wouldn’t complain that they were making fudge.
It had also been a while since he’d had any.
As they followed Duncan’s instructions on making the fudge, Olani sparked up a conversation.
“Did you find the tool you were looking for last night?”
Elion turned his attention to her as he continuously stirred the melting chocolate chips into the sweetened condensed milk.
He’d called her the evening before to talk while he sketched the design for a sculpture.
Clara was out with friends, so he didn’t have to worry about her walking in on him mid-conversation while he was in his studio.
He’d been looking for his 4B pencil, wanting to give a softer look to the sketch because it helped him determine how natural or sleek he’d make the actual sculpture.
“I did not,” Elion responded. He’d used the 5B instead, but it bugged him that he didn’t know where the other one was.
He was meticulous with keeping up with his tools.
Whether that was sculpting equipment or his sketch pencils and pens.
“It may be with a random drawing pad somewhere. I’ll buy another one if I can’t find it. ”
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.
O lani 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 aluminum pan, 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, and when 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 that summer, 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?”
She nodded. “Listen, I was minding my own business. Nobody told her to start that fire. Least of all me, and I was not going to look like a guilty party when she eventually got caught.”
“And yet, you still got in trouble.”
“Yes, but at least I didn’t get my ass whooped, and that was all I cared about. Besides, Xola was always doing something she didn’t have any business doing when we were kids. So, I chose what shenanigans to get involved with and which to steer clear of carefully. That was a steer clear moment.”
They finished their food and continued walking the path until they made it back to his car. They grabbed the desserts and went over to one of the picnic tables. Elion went to a nearby ice cream truck to ask for some spoons.
The desserts were delicious. Olani had never been a fan of just chocolate, but the fudge was good.
She enjoyed the crumble far more. So, when it was time for them to go, she told Elion he could take the fudge since he seemed to enjoy it so much and asked if she could take the rest of the crumble, to which he agreed.
When they made it back to where her car was, he got out and helped her out. She was coming to see that he was quite the gentleman, which added more brownie points in his favor that just kept racking up.
Before allowing her to get into her car, he cupped the side of her face and kissed her. Olani allowed him to lead the kiss because she was coming to realize that it didn’t matter how he kissed her; he was always doing so with a purpose, and she enjoyed it.
They said their goodbyes when they pulled apart, and she slipped into her car, starting it.
She backed out as Elion watched and headed home.
She needed to come up with packages for their weekend getaway that was coming up.
While she was a bit nervous about going away with him for the weekend, she was also excited.
She hadn’t been on a trip with someone she was dating in years and was looking forward to it.