“Good.”
“Okay, first up, this nasty-looking shard near your heel. Coming in hot. Three... two... boom.”
I felt a sharp pinch followed by relief.
“There we go,” Luke said, holding up the piece of glass in the tweezers. “Look at that beast. That was a boss-level shard right there. You’re a champ, Ollie. You hangin’ in there?”
“Yeah, it’s not so bad.”
“Okay, next contestant, this jerk by your arch. Three . . . two . . . one.”
“Ow.”
“Hoo boy, that one had an attitude. Don’t worry, I got ’im. He’s off the team.” He dropped the shard into a paper towel. “Need a timeout?”
“I’m good, you can keep going.”
“Alright, champ’s call. Next up, we got the mighty troublemaker near the ball of your foot.” His brow furrowed in concentration as he maneuvered the tweezers. “This one’s being a bit shy, but I’ll coax him out. Ah-ha! There we go.”
With painstaking care, Luke worked to get all the glass out of my foot.
“Good as new. You won’t even lose the foot.” he said, patting my ankle as he finished rubbing antibiotic ointment over the cuts and applying a gauze bandage.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, with a new lesson under our belts in what not to do, what do you say to a do-over? I’m talking full reenactment so I can redeem myself from my screwup that led us here. I go back outside, act like I just got home, we greet each other, this time you take one bag while I keep the other, we bothwalk to the kitchen where we unload the groceries, and I show you the other goodies I plan on surprising you with. Everything goes off without a hitch.”
Luke didn’t need a do-over; he’d done everything right. The real lesson he’d shown me was that I could mess up without being punished for it; my imperfection could be met with patience and understanding. But I saw value in being able to try again. I’d never had that with Vincent. Once I’d done something wrong, in his eyes, I couldn’t be redeemed.
“I mean, we can’t do much worse, right?” I said.
“That’s what I’m sayin’. We can only go up from here. So, what do you say? Try again?”
“Yeah, why not.”
Following Luke back out to the front door, I waited while he picked up the bags, took back the milkshake in my hand, and with a wink, exited the room.
A second later the knob turned and he stepped inside, greeting me with a dimpling grin. “Hey, you.”
“Hi, looks like you’ve got your hands full. Can I help you carry anything?”
“If you’d be so kind as to take this bag and this one-of-a-kind peanut butter milkshake ordered for the man of the hour who returned to work today.”
I accepted both the proffered items.
“Look at us, only the second attempt and we have flawless execution. Ten out of ten. Even the Russian judges wept. Greatest duo in history in the making right here,” Luke said as he led us both to the kitchen and began unpacking. “Now for the real fun stuff. You made me realize I’m missing a critical and useful utensil.” He pulled out a double-sided melon baller, handing it to me.
I stared at it. When had someone in my life gifted me something so personal and thoughtful without any occasion todo so? Never. It had never happened. Not even with Vincent. Sure, he got me things, sometimes things I wanted, but his gifts came with ulterior motives, and only when they specifically benefited him in some way. It had taken me far too long to figure that out. But this was a true gift, presented with no other reason or purpose than to give me something I’d enjoy.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“Hang on, there’s more.”
From one of the larger canvas bags, Luke pulled out a boxed eight-piece stackable bakery set. He turned the box so I could see it better. The set came complete with muffin, sheet, square, round, and loaf pans.
“I looked up baking essentials. I realized my jenky supply of a single mixing bowl and a warped cookie sheet wouldn’t cut it if you wanted to get ambitious. I found this blog post, ‘Top 10 Things Every Baker Needs,’ and I grabbed what they recommended.”
One by one, he lined the items up on the counter. A set of glass mixing bowls, a glass measuring cup, a silicone spatula set, a cooling rack, piping bags, and a starter set of fancy extracts and cocoa powders. Golden sugar, powdered sugar, various flours, and chocolate chips.
