“What am I, five?”she mused even as she headed for the kitchen sink.
Michael stopped rummaging through the fridge and looked over his shoulder at her.“Do you usually handle food with dirty hands?”
“No.”
Michael’s head darted back in the fridge.“I didn’t think so.Since we are kneading dough, clean hands is a good idea.”
“Now I have to knead dough?What’s next, churn butter?Milk a cow?”
Michael hip bumped her to wash his own hands.“One, butter is not needed for this, and two, I don’t have a cow.I’m sure not only the neighbors but the HOA would have something to say about that.”
“Fine, but why do we have to knead dough?Can’t you just buy dough or better yet, a pizza crust?”
“It doesn’t taste as good.Trust me.It’s going to be worth it.”
Michael kept telling her to trust him.Andrea wasn’t so sure about that but remained silent.Michael grabbed flour and sauce from the pantry.The already small counter space felt overcrowded now.
“So what do we do first?”
“First, you put on an apron.”He pulled one out of the pantry and held it out for her to take.She slipped it over her head.It was much larger than her own, and she had to fold it almost in half to fit before tying the strap around her waist.
“Aren’t you going to wear one?”
“I only have the one.It’s fine if I get some flour on me.”
“Alright, what’s next?”
“Making pizza,” he announced as he went back to the fridge and pulled out a glass bowl full of dough.“I was nice enough to already make the dough ahead of time.”
“How thoughtful,” she replied dryly.So he had planned this ahead of time.Was this how he lured all the women?Was it like the Ghost movie with the pottery wheel?He showed you how to knead dough and dragged you to bed.She would not become the next victim.
“It would have taken too long to do everything from scratch.It would need time to rise.”
“Was this always your grand plan?To have me over for pizza.”She suspected but wanted to hear it from his own lips.
“I like to plan for all scenarios, but I like to make pizza anyway, so it would have eventually gotten eaten even if you hadn’t come over.”
Michael sprinkled flour on the counter and pulled a chunk of dough from the bowel and set it on top of the flour.“There you go.”
“There you go what?”She looked down at the dough.It wasn’t like she knew what to do with it.
“You work it,” he said as if it were a simple thing when it was anything but.“Have you never made bread or pasta that you don’t know how to knead?”he questioned when she just kept staring at him.
“No, that’s what stores are for.”She liked to cook, but she preferred the store to sell it premade so all she had to do was cut it up or heat it.It was just her; there was no reason to do everything from scratch.
Michael shook his head.“Fresh is so much better.Watch.”Michael sprinkled some flour on the counter in front of him from the flour bag before tearing off a section of dough and rolling it over the flour before flattening it and rolling it several times until it started to form a smooth ball.
Andrea started rolling her ball, glancing over at Michael’s work to make sure she was doing it right.“How often do you make pizza?”
“Every couple weeks.”
“Wow, you eat pizza that often and stay as fit as you are?Must be nice.”
“You think I’m fit?”He sounded mildly surprised.Whether because she admitted she’d noticed or felt that way, she didn’t know.
“Now you’re fishing for complements?Please, you know what you look like.”She was not going to feed his ego.The man knew he was gorgeous, but she wasn’t going to say it.“As if you don’t have enough women fawning over you all the time.”
“I do know what I look like.I may avoid the mirror most days, but there’s nothing wrong with my memory.Most overlook the scars, but they don’t care enough to know the man underneath the skin.”
