Henrik didn’t say anything, he merely glanced up at Ted and Elnaz.
“We’ll cut that,” Ted responded. “Carry on.”
Nora frowned at him. “Sorry? Cut what?”
“There is no last time,” Elnaz explained. “Henrik has only just arrived here.”
Nora sighed. “Okay.”
Jesus,Henrik thought. If every scene was going to turn into a debate, they’d never stick to the schedule.
“Before you go on,” Ted broke in, looking a little uncomfortable. He turned briefly to Don, who looked expectantly at him. Ted cleared his throat and came up to the table. He pointed at Nora. “Maybe you could pull back your T-shirt to make it a little ...” He looked around the café, then beckoned to the stylist. “Sara, can you fix this T-shirt?”
Nora inhaled sharply and her eyes widened. Sara positioned herself behind Nora and pulled at the T-shirt, her expression inquiring.
“That’s it!” Ted exclaimed when the fabric stretched across Nora’s breasts. Sara let go of the T-shirt, unable to hide her skepticism.
“Are you kidding me?” Nora couldn’t believe what had just happened.
“Is that really necessary?” Henrik intervened. Okay, so they wanted more reality, but this wasn’tParadise Hotel.
“A bit more,” Ted said, once again looking at Don, who nodded encouragingly. Sara shook her head, while Nora frowned and pulled the T-shirt back to its original loose fit.
Don sighed, and Ted stepped forward as if he were about to deal with the T-shirt himself.
“Enough,” Henrik and Elnaz said simultaneously. Ted backed away, and Don held up his hands in a gesture of resignation. Ted signaled to the camera operator to resume filming.
“You can’t serve coffee with this amount of tannin in it. You’ll give your customers a gastric ulcer!” Henrik focused on what he wanted to say in an effort to forget the incident. Don had definitely overstepped the mark. Thank goodness he had decided to let the matter go; maybe he had realized how ridiculous it was.
“I am your customer and I want quality coffee,” he continued, relieved to have sidestepped an uncomfortable situation.
“Actually, I’d quite like to give some of my customers a gastric ulcer.” Nora stared meaningfully at him. “A gastric ulcer that bleeds slowly, for a long time.”
Ted was grinning, looking very pleased with himself. Had he deliberately provoked Nora? Don looked equally smug. Henrik clamped his lips together, scratched his head, and waited for Elnaz or Ted to step in. But maybe this was exactly the kind of thing they wanted?
“Can you tell me a little more about the patisserie and what makes it unique?”
For the first time Nora’s eyes lit up. “Nymans is a family business that has been passed down through the generations on my mother’s side. My great-grandmother worked here, then my grandmother, and she eventually took over when the owner got too old. My grandfather had no interest in baking, but he helped out and was kind of there in the background.” She pointed to a black-and-white photograph of a woman standing between two bakers. “It was a big deal for a woman to run a patisserie in those days. Mom followed in their footsteps. WhenI was a kid, we were here all the time. It was my second home.” She smiled at the memory.
“So your parents ran the place together?”
“Yes. Until my father died, seventeen years ago.”
Seventeen years. Henrik did the math. She couldn’t have been very old—barely sixteen?
Her voice was steady, but there was sadness in her eyes. He sensed that she’d had to grow up quickly, a bit like he did, even if it was for different reasons.
“I understand. And now you run the business alone?” He didn’t ask about her mother. When he was doing his research, he had come across an article in the local paper, saying that Nymans’ owner had died of breast cancer eight years ago.
“I do. I have no brothers or sisters, so after Mom died, there was only me.” She gave a quick smile, smoothing over any awkwardness. Then she straightened her shoulders, as if to say,Don’t feel sorry for me.
He nodded. “Were you always going to take over?”
“Absolutely—it’s what I’ve always wanted.” Her tone left no room for doubt. “My great-grandmother lived for her work, and my grandmother had to fight to be allowed to run the business, then Mom carried on the tradition. It was incredibly important to her that Nymans should stay in the family.”
“Okay.” He sensed that there was more to it. It must be tough for Nora to run the place alone, without a partner or relative to share the burden. “What are you most proud of, apart from the fact that it’s been in the family for generations?” he asked, changing the subject.
“Our customers. The sense of community. Some of them have been coming here for decades. It makes them feel secure. They meet up with friends, have a chat, hang out. Or they chat with me.” She smiled again, and he could tell that this meant at least as much to her as it did to the customers. He understood perfectly; that was one of the reasons he wanted his own bakery.
