“What colors do you go for?” Henrik asked, trying a cheese roll. Nora frowned at him. What kind of a dumb question was that? She was about to give a snippy answer when he smiled at her. “What’s this?” He held up the roll.
“My new sourdough. Made with local spelt flour.”
He nodded. “It’s delicious.”
“The usual colors—red and green, gold. Are you worried about my poor taste in Christmas decorations?”
“No, no, I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Henrik’s expression was cool.
Cool. How could he possibly be cool after that damned kiss? She regretted what she’d said to Elnaz, or rather to the camera.To the entire Swedish nation.
Then she realized that the problem lay not with his reaction, but with hers. The fact that she couldn’t forget about it. She simply had to accept that he’d done it for the cameras. This was about ratings, and she needed to get on board with that. But why hadn’t he involved her in his plans? Was he hoping that she would simply go along with it? And why had he decided to kiss her?
“Don’t tell me you’re in the Melania Trump Christmas camp?” she said acidly.
“Melania Trump?”
“Yes—frosty and ethereal and nothing but white, white, white.” She narrowed her eyes. “You remember—she created a forest of fir trees dripping with plastic icicles that made the White House look like the white witch’s ice castle in Narnia. What she did to Christmas was pure sacrilege. Christmas should be luxurious, warm, and inviting.”
“I understand.” Henrik nodded calmly, but then exchanged a quick glance with Elnaz, which made Nora even crosser. They really wanted her to believe that Henrik was interested in her, but she was smarter than that. She was mainly disappointed because they had talked soopenly and honestly with each other at Harry’s—but then the first thing he did was to manipulate her by flirting, then kissing her on camera.
“Do whatever you like,” he continued in a disinterested tone.
Nora felt vulnerable and exposed, and wished she hadn’t told him so much about her personal life. Elnaz tried to smooth things over. “Have you both read the outline for the Christmas bake?”
“Yes, everything looked fine,” Henrik replied. “You’ve included what I asked for, so I don’t have any objections.”
Nora took a deep breath. “I have some objections.”
“Of course you do,” Henrik muttered.
“I don’t like the fact that I’m supposed to get the saffron dough wrong, and Henrik has to help me fix it. I’ve been making saffron dough all my life—why would I get it wrong?”
“We always have a similar feature, it’s an integral part of the show. Someone makes crispbread that’s too hard, or a gingerbread dough that’s too soft. The viewers expect it,” Elnaz explained. “It’s a way for Henrik to teach both the baker and the audience at the same time.” Nora wasn’t convinced, and Elnaz leaned closer. “You can’t be a super-baker—even though we all know how brilliant you are, it doesn’t work on TV.”
“I have no intention of pretending to fail at something I can do. I’m not going to play dumb on TV.” She could feel her cheeks grow pink with indignation.
“No problem—we can make sure you don’t need to pretend,” Henrik said.
“What do you mean?” Was he insulting her?
“I mean, we can find something else that I can teach you, so you don’t have to pretend you can’t do it.”
“No thanks.”
“Okay, so what do you suggest the show should be about? How fantastic your patisserie is? Why be on the show at all if you can’t learn anything from me?”
Nora remained silent for a few seconds. “I’m just sick of playing dumb on TV.”
But most of all she was upset because Henrik hadn’t kept his promise. Upset and disappointed because he had said that the filming would be better, when in fact he was just exploiting her in front of the cameras. She stood up, grabbed her coat, and walked out.
24
Nora didn’t return to filming that day. Fortunately both Hassan and Emil were working, so she could stay away completely. The accountant had told her that wages took priority when a business went bankrupt, so she felt comfortable calling them in. She messaged Elnaz and explained that she needed a break from filming, which no doubt made her very unpopular. Maybe they could film a few scenes with Henrik on his own; it was his show after all. And she would be spending the whole evening putting up decorations, so she would be making her contribution.
She spent the rest of the day doing housework, then took a trip to the liquor store. She browsed the shelves with the evening in mind, and picked up a bottle of ordinary mulled wine and a bottle of that year’s special—Forest, with a hint of pine needles and birch resin—which sounded okay. She added a bottle of red for when the sweet taste of the mulled wine got to be a bit too much. She’d sent a message about the change of plan to the girls, and to her surprise both Bea and Maryam were free.
She continued on to the grocery store and bought two blue cheeses to go with the gingerbread cookies, plus a bottle of alcohol-free mulled wine in case any of her friends were pregnant again.
