Chocolate Cake or Crème Brule

Part II

“Eggs…..eggs…….eggs.” Mina whispered under her breath to herself as she rushed through the supermarket doors. She had parked her car in a hurry and jumped out, just making it before the store closed.

“Eggs….eggs……eggs.” she continued in a type of cheerleading mode as she rushed towards the back of the store where the eggs were kept.

Ah, Fantastic. Mina thought to herself as she extended her arm to grab the remaining half dozen carton of eggs off the shelf. As she wrapped her hand around the carton, she felt the brush of a stranger’s hand.

She had been so engrossed in her hunt that she had not noticed the tall man standing there.

“Oh, pardon me.” The startled man jumped slightly as he apologized.

“Oh no, totally my fault. I didn’t even see you there.” Mina quickly replied, just as startled.

Despite the pleasantries, neither the stranger nor Mina were prepared to let go of the prized half dozen carton of eggs. They stood there staring at each other. Mina could not help but be swallowed up by the warm kindness of his brown eyes.

“You were clearly here first.” Mina said as she relinquished her grip on the carton.

“Oh, thank you that is so kind of you. Normally, I wouldn’t care but today is my daughter’s birthday and I promised to make her, her mother’s award-winning Crème Brule. Her mother always made her Crème Brule for her birthday. I like to keep the tradition going.” The man smiled as he replied.

The stranger’s lips were full and deep red. His smile lifted all the way to the corner of his eyes. Mina could not break her gaze away from him. Despite her infatuation she could not control the involuntary tears starting to well in her eyes.

“Oh no, please don’t cry.” The man touched her shoulder. “Here you have them. I’ll make the Brule tomorrow, Lisa will understand.”

“No, no. You take the eggs. It’s nothing you’ve done. It’s my late husband’s birthday and I always make a chocolate cake for my son to commemorate his birthday.” Mina waved the eggs away as the stranger tried to hand them back to her.

“You want to make a chocolate cake with the eggs?”

Mina nodded her head as she turned away trying to hide her tears.

“I only need the six yolks.” Mina turned back towards the man. His brow was creased deep in thought. “I don’t need the whites. My wife used to be a chef. She had this fantastic no-yolk chocolate fudge cake recipe. I can give you the recipe if you like.” Mina was once again lost in the stranger’s kind deep brown eyes.

“So, you’re proposing, I take the egg whites and you take the egg yolks?” Mina spoke with a rising intonation that emphasized her words were as much a question as slight disbelieve.

“Yeah, why not? I’d be wasting the whites anyway and if you’re willing to try a new recipe then we both walk away happy. Nobody has to lose.” The stranger’s smile broadened so much that his lips nearly touched his ears.

Well, I won’t be able to make Bill’s favorite recipe without the egg yolks but at the same time Bill was a kind and understanding man and he wouldn’t want this stranger’s daughter to be disappointed either. Why not, she’ll give this stranger’s recipe a try. The thoughts whirled around Mina’s head faster than she could process them.

“Ok, I’ll give your wife’s recipe a try. I’ll take the whites and you take the yolks.” Mina smiled.

“Eggcelent.” The stranger chuckled. Mina did a half frown eye roll. “What, you don’t like my yolks?”

Mina and the stranger stood there for a while both contemplating how to move forward with the egg deal.

“All yolking aside, we need to figure out a way to finalize this egg deal.” The stranger’s brow deepened. “Let me go pay for these.” Before Mina could protest, he headed to the cashier and paid her. “It’s the least I can do under the circumstance.” The stranger walked out into the carpark and beckoned Mina to follow him.

Mina followed him as far as her awkwardly parked car in front of the store door. She was not keen to follow the man any further. In her haste to get to the store before it closed, she had parked almost sideways in the bay.

“Your car?” the stranger motioned with his hand. Mina nodded embarrassingly it was not the best example of her parking. “Nice parking.” The stranger replied lifting a perfectly groomed eyebrow.

“Alright, then. Follow me to my house and I can get the recipe for you and split the eggs.” The stranger must have sensed some resistance to his idea.

“Yeah OK. You probably don’t want to follow a strange man to his house. OK, I’ll follow you to yours.” He instantly regretted the words that had escaped him mouth.

“Yes, yes of course, it’s not a good idea for a strange man to follow a woman to her house either.” The stranger looked around then ran back into the store and then ran back out a few minutes later with two small empty containers.

“Here we can split the eggs right here in the carpark and I can text the recipe to you.” The stranger started to take his phone out of his pocket, then slapped himself gently in the forehead. “Of course, you don’t want to give a strange man your phone number either.” Mina was glad the man had realized that before she had to try and find a polite way out of giving her number.

“Ok, ok. Just wait here 10 minutes. I live five minutes around the corner. I can run home quickly and grab the recipe and bring it back here with the egg whites.” Mina just stared in disbelief. “Ok, here you can keep custody of the eggs as collateral while I’m gone.” Before Mina could say anything, the man had jogged off around the corner.

Why would someone go to so much trouble? It’s lovely of him to go to so much trouble over a chocolate cake and a Crème Brule. Mina did not even realize she was smiling as she stood there thinking about the stranger.

It did not seem long at all before the man was jogging back around the corner with a piece of paper flapping in his hand.

“You waited!” The stranger's face could not hide his happiness at seeing Mina still standing there egg carton in hand.

“Did you think, I would eggscape with the eggs?” Mina was proud at the half flirty joke she cracked.

“Eggcelent, we are back on yolking terms.” The stranger laughed back. He handed her a folded piece of paper and she put it in her purse.

“Thank you.” Mina said, as she watched the stranger skillfully separate the egg whites from the egg yolks using the perfectly cracked in half eggshells.

“Wow, so eggperlty executed.” Mina giggled as she took the container containing the egg whites the stranger handed to her.

“Happy to be of service, m’lady.” The stranger bowed. “Well, I had better head off and get this Crème Brule under way. Nice to meet you and thank you so much for being open to an eggcelent solution.” The man shook Mina’s hand and jogged off.

“You’re welcome and thank you too.” Mina said in a whispered yell after him. She watched him disappear around the corner once more, then got into her poorly parked car and drove home.

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Mina arrived home and rushed straight to the kitchen to start cooking. Danny would be home soon, and she wanted to make sure the cake was waiting on the table for him.

She opened her purse, took out the piece of paper the stranger had given her and scanned the recipe.

Hmmm no flour to speak of. No flour, no yolks. This will be interesting. She scanned the recipe further and noticed the stranger had signed his name.

David. So that's your name Mr. mysterious kind stranger.

Mina started to get the bowls and baking utensils out of the cupboards.

Right, melt the butter and grind the walnuts. Oh, I guess ground walnuts will act like a kind of walnut meal. This recipe sounds extremely healthy for a chocolate fudge cake. Bill would be mortified. Mina felt a pang of guilt as nice thoughts of her encounter with David danced through her head as she prepared and baked the cake.

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“You’re whistling.” Danny said as he walked through the front door and threw his schoolbag down in the kitchen doorway.

“Don’t leave that there.” Mina kissed Danny on the cheek as he picked his bag back up and disappeared towards his room.

“Smells great mom. What are you cooking?”

“Chocolate cake. I was hoping to have it waiting for you on the table when you got home. Had a few hold-ups at the store.”

“Dad’s favorite for his birthday.” Danny smiled.

“It’s actually a chocolate fudge cake. I’m trying a new recipe. I couldn’t get any egg yolks.” Danny looked at his mom puzzled. “Long story.”

Ding. The oven timer announced the cake was ready.

“Dad would’ve loved it anyway mom. Egg yolk or no egg yolk. Just because you made it for him.” Mina knew Danny was right. She took the cake out of the oven to let it cool while her and Danny sat and reminisced about the good old days on the farm. Then they iced the cake together, put candles on it and placed it at the center of the table. Then they sung happy birthday together.

“Happy birthday Dad.” Danny looked towards the heavens.

“Happy birthday darling. I hope you like chocolate fudge cake.” Mina also looked towards the heavens.

She looked back at Danny “You do the honors Danny.” Danny cut the cake and gave his mom a big slice then gave himself a bigger slice. He had a cheeky smile on his face.

As Danny dug his fork into his slice of chocolate cake it crumbled away a little. He shoved it into his mouth and let it melt away.

“Well?” Mina enquired.

“It's probably the best tasting chocolate cake I have ever eaten in my entire life.” Danny shoved another bite into his mouth.

Mina took a bite of her own slice of chocolate cake and let it sit in her mouth. It melted away. Mina and Danny sat there with big smiles on their faces, eating their slices of cake in a comfortable silence. Mina swished every bite around her mouth slowly savoring it.

I really should have given you, my number. She thought to herself as she swished another bite slowly around her mouth.

Back to Part I................................................ Continue to Part III