It wasn’t a promise of romance or lifelong loyalty.

It was a boundary both of us could understand.

When I got home, I put the remaining pastries on Elena’s kitchen table with a note: TAKE THE LEMON TART.

I KNOW YOU WILL ANYWAY.

PART 21

A year after table four, Malcolm asked me to help open a second café.

It would be smaller than the first, with a counter facing the street and a training program for people returning to work after unemployment or illness.

“Are you sure about the training program?” I asked.