“But mum, I’m riding horses! Of course they can walk outside even when it’s slippery. Don’t you understand that?” she said.
The expression in Liv’s eyes told Emelie that she knew nothing about horses and that she was silly for thinking anything could go wrong. Liv was partially right. Emelie didn’t know much about horses, but it wasn’t impossible that something could happen. It had been cold for a couple of days and October had brought freezing temperatures. A car honked outside, and Liv squeezed her trousers and shoes into the bag, yelledbyeand ran out the door.
“Just don’t take any unfamiliar paths!” Emelie yelled after her.
She returned to the sofa and her cup of tea. Today, Andreas would come over with her new kitchen table. The old table had moved out into the glass porch and Emelie had scrubbed the whole kitchen to make the most out of her new piece of furniture. Which was hard with the wallpaper covered with Santas and the wall towards the living room that made the kitchen too small. But after all of Linn’s intense baking, a thorough clean had been necessary. She was standing in the doorway to the kitchen and suddenly she made up her mind; she was going to stop daydreaming about a new kitchen and actually put up new wallpaper and take down that wall. As soon as the Christmas market was over, she would get rid of these Santa walls. It was settled.
Andreas hadn’t let her see the table before it was finished, so she didn’t know what it looked like and had to trust his good taste. Which she did. The one time she had been over to his place to have dinner she had noticed that he was good at matching colours and shapes, which was probably necessary in his profession of planning other people’s flower beds. She sat down on the sofa and started going through her notes. Emelie and Andreas had finished the planning for the Christmas market and now everything was running smoothly. The coming weekend they would clean the community centre, and everyone had offered to help. Birgitta, Stig, Sussi, Stina and Christer. Linn’s baking skills were just getting better and better and now she had gotten a grip on almost all the different recipes from the baking book, and Stig’s freezer was starting to fill up with rolls, Lucia buns, saffron cookies and cream rings. Everything was under control, Emelie thought to herself, shutting down all the Excel-files and opening Netflix instead. Now she was going to watch a movie.
Two hours later there was a ring on the door, and Andreas was standing outside, saluting her and smiling.
“You ordered a kitchen table?”
Emelie laughed and made a half-hearted salute back.
“It’s like you’ve been in the military,” she said, grinning.
“Of course I have,” he said, waving to her to come out into the driveway.
“Aren’t you way too young for that? I didn’t even think you got called anymore?”
“No, it isn’t obligatory as when my old man was young, but you can if you want to, and I did. Almost a year in freezing cold Boden. It was no game, I’ll tell you that” he said and opened the back doors to the lorry that was parked by the side of the road.
She peeked into the car, seeing her table. It was covered and taped with several layers of plastic and all she could see were the legs. She clapped her hands.
“Oh, this is so much fun!”
Andreas pushed a red button, making the platform go down. Then they both got on the platform, and he pushed a black button making it go up again. They grabbed the ends of the table and carried it out into the platform before Andreas pushed them down again. Once again, they grabbed the table again and carried it up the stairs and into the hallway. It took some trying, but they finally made it through the kitchen door and Emelie reminded him about his promise to help her take down the wall.
“And I plan on putting up new wallpaper. As soon as the Christmas fair is over there’s nothing stopping me, she said, shoving the table into its place in front of the kitchen window.
“Good idea. Christmas in the kitchen all year round isn’t that great, I suppose,” Andreas said and started cutting the tape holding the plastic wrapping together.
He peeled layer after layer of the plastic away, and soon the table was standing in front of them. The tabletop was made of four broad planks that Andreas had cut and glued together. The table was rectangular but the corners where rounded and when Emelie stroke a hand over the wood it felt as soft as velvet.
“Andreas, what an amazing table! It’s lovely. Thank you!” she said and couldn’t help but give him a hug.
His embrace was soft and warm and Emelie got a feeling of being home while her whole body tingled. They were interrupted by the beeping of Emelie’s phone. She picked it up and looked at the screen.
“Blimey, it’s time for line dance. I must hurry up. But goodness, this table! It’s so beautiful! You could get rich selling these,” she said to Andreas.
“Before you go, I have something I want to show you,” he said, squatting and pointing to the underpart of the table.
Emelie also squatted and looked. There were letters burnt into the underside of the table:Emelie’s table, by Andreas.
“Christ, that is beautiful! You truly are an amazing guy,” she said.
Before she had time to think, she had placed a kiss on his cheek. She realised what she had just done way too late, and quickly got on her feet, bumping her head right into the heavy table top.
“Bloody hell!”
She rubbed her head and it hurt so badly, she saw stars.
“Whoops, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, it will pass,” she said, teeth clenched.
The truth was that it hurt terribly, but all she could think about was the kiss and how embarrassing everything was.
