Chapter 5
Maggie stared at the blackened mess sitting on her oven. “What happened this time?” she whispered to herself, fighting back tears of frustration. “I hadn’t even turned on the…!”
She looked at the stove and, sure enough, the oven temperature was still set to where she’d left it. When she’d taken the burnt homemade lasagna to her back stoop, she’d forgotten to turn off the oven. So when she’d put the frozen lasagna into the oven to defrost, the temperature had still been hot.
Thinking back, she tried to remember if the heat had hit her in the face when she’d shoved the frozen lasagna into the oven. But for the life of her, she couldn’t remember anything other than her nerves at seeing Ramit soon.
And now she had no dinner to serve him, nothing to impress him with, and her house smelled like burned food! Looking around, she realized that her house was neat and tidy, but the overwhelming description would most likely be “small and smoky”. Would he actually notice the small details that she’d worked so hard on? Or would he only notice the smell?
Maggie didn’t have a chance to contemplate her options because the doorbell rang. For a long moment, she stared at the closed door, knowing that Ramit was on the other side of it.
She must have stared too long at the door because the doorbell rang a second time. With a heavy sigh, she walked over to the door and pulled it open.
As soon as she saw him, tall and handsome, holding a bottle of wine and a bouquet of beautiful flowers, Maggie burst into tears.