Sorry I'm a bit late today. I moved countries 3 weeks ago, and I'm busy with classes. I haven't been able to finish this chapter before today. I hope you enjoy it though! Let me know what you think!

Chapter 21:

"So, I'm curious. What were you and my parents talking about yesterday when I left to look for Augusta?" I ask as I brush my teeth. Claire is standing by the French doors looking at the yard.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she answers, mischief in her voice.

"Come on." – I spit the last bit of toothpaste out of my mouth – "I know you were talking about me."

I hear her steps coming closer to the bathroom. She appears on my line of sight and leans against the doorframe. "What makes you so sure we were talking about you?"

I turn to look at her. "Weren't you?"

She lifts an eyebrow. "No, you diva. We were not talking about you."

I lean backwards on the sink and cross my arms. "What were you talking about then?"

"Oh my God. Who knew? Owen Grady is a gossip!" She turns around and walks away. I push myself forward and follow her.

"I'm not a gossip. I'm just curious of what you and my parents were talking about. That's all."

Claire opens a drawer and starts looking through her clothes. "Fine! If you really want to know; after you left, your mother was telling me how pleased she was I had accepted the offer to stay here while I healed, then we talked a bit about Karen. After, your dad came home and we started talking about the whole frenzy with the media. That's it. Nothing juicy for you, honey." She looks over her shoulder and smiles at me.

I know she said it to mock me, but I quite liked that she called me honey. A witty response is about to escape my lips, when my phone rings. I walk the few steps to my bedside table and pick up my phone. I see nonna's name flashing on my screen. I answer the call.

"Ciao, nonna." I turn around to look at Claire. She's still rummaging through the drawer. I listen to nonna Francesca and start smiling. I nod. "Okay. Give me a second; let me ask her."

At that, Claire turns around and looks at me; she raises her eyebrows.

I keep my phone against my ear. "Nonna wants to know if you would like to go to the bakery today? Some time after lunch? She says they're baking panettone today."

Claire smiles and nods. "I would love to go."

I smile at her. "Nonna, she says – oh, you heard. Okay. See you later. Bye." I hang up and put the phone down. "You know, she truly likes you. She's never invited anyone to her kitchen before. Ever. Only Isabella and I, of course. She hasn't even met you. That's very impressive."

"Well, I don't know what you've been saying about me, but you've definitely made me look good." Claire walks to me and puckers up her lips. I lean forward a give her a peck on the lips.

"What do you have there?"

She raises her hand and shakes, what I realise now, is her bikini at me. "It's a beautiful day today and my back is hurting a bit, so I thought maybe we could get in the pool today? Do you feel like it?"

I look at her bikini probably for a second too long, and then I lift my gaze to her. "Do I feel like getting in the pool with you wearing that?" I say nodding to the bikini. "Yes. Yes, I feel like it."

She smacks me on the arm with her bikini. "I really don't think you're going to feel like that once you see the ugly bruising, the stitches and the burn. All at once."

I can see the insecurity in Claire's face, so I make sure she knows I don't care.

"Just so you know, the bruising, the stitches and the burn only make you look hotter in my eyes. Those are your battle wounds. Those wounds that are healing, means you survived. You're a badass woman, Claire Dearing. Now go on put that bikini; I'll put my swim shorts on and we will get in that pool!"

She gives me that look again, like she's talking to a 5 year old. "Hold your horses, buddy. Before we get anywhere near that pool, first I need you to help me change the bandages to the waterproof ones."

Right. I walk to the coffee table and pick up the plastic bag with the bandages. She shakes her head and walks to the bathroom to change.

I throw the bag on top of the bed and open the drawer to look for my swim shorts. I find 2; a navy blue one and an orange one with bright blue flowers; very Hawaiian looking. I don't even remember where I got it, but it's hideous. I consider wearing them, just to see Claire's face, but I decide against them. I change into the navy blue shorts and sit on the bed. I take my shirt off and put sunblock on. I don't put my shirt back on.

"Owen?" I hear Claire calling from the bathroom.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I just – I can't tie off the top part of the bikini. I can't raise my arms."

Oh. I raise an eyebrow. "You need some help?"

"Stop it."

I frown. "What? I just offered to help!" I chuckle. She totally knows what I was thinking.

"You know exactly what you thought. Now come in here and help me!"

I laugh. I stand up from the bed and open the bathroom door. I poke my head in and see Claire holding the top part of her bikini with her left hand against her chest.

"I didn't think this through." She says looking at me through the reflection of the mirror.

I step inside the bathroom and walk to stand behind Claire. I look at her body and then at her face. "You're absolutely stunning."

She looks at me thorough the mirror for a second, then she turns and lifts her head a bit so she's looking right at me. "You're pretty stunning too."

I lean forward to close the small space between us, but she pulls back. "First tie up the bikini, Owen; 'cause if you don't, I'm afraid we'll end up in a very precarious position."

I swallow hard. She has broken ribs. She had broken ribs. She has broken ribs. That's what I remind myself of, as I take the straps from her and tie a knot behind her neck. What I would give right now to pick her up and make love to her. (She has broken ribs!)

I tie a double knot and put my hands down by my side. "Is that too tight?"

She shakes her head. "No. It's perfect. Thanks."

We look at each other. We both want the same thing, but unfortunately, we won't have it today. Or in the next couple of months.

Damn you, David Castell!

She takes my hand and guides me out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. I'm brought out of my dream like state by the strong rays of sun that are coming in through the French doors. It is a beautiful day.

I sit down on the bed and open the plastic bag with all the bandages. I look up at Claire. "Burn first?"

"Okay." I disinfect my hands with hand sanitizer and I pull out the waterproof sleeve for the burn. I read the instructions on the package.

"Oh, we don't have to touch the bandages at all. You just need the sleeve to cover all the section of your arm that is covered by bandages. Arm, please."

She stretches out her left arm and I open the package and pull out the sleeve. It's a silicon-type material, but not exactly. It stretches easily and it's very thin. I put it through Claire's arm and let go of it gently, making sure it's covering all that has to cover. There are 2 pieces of tape that have to be pasted around each end of the sleeve to prevent any water from going in.

I run my forefinger across the tape to make sure it won't come off and I look up at her. "How does that feel?"

She looks at it, moves her arm around a bit and smiles at me. "Not bad. Now stitches."

I nod and open the plastic bag again looking for the bandages to cover the stitches. I pull out a bigger package and read the instructions. "To cover up this one, I will need to pull out the bandages that are already there."

She groans. "I haven't even seen that one. Every time the nurses changed the bandages, I just laid there quietly looking at the ceiling. I don't even know how many stitches I got."

"I don't either. Is it big? I can't really tell from the bandages."

She runs her fingers along the bandages and grimaces. "I think it is. After all, they had to stitch up my lung. I don't think it's small. I'm going to have 2 horrible scars for the rest of my life."

She whines a little. Can't blame her. She's going to have 2 reminders of what happened to her.

"Come on, you don't know that. Maybe you're like Wolverine and you'll heal up to the point that you won't even see anything. Come on, get a little closer so I can change the bandages."

She looks down at me and smiles a little. She moves to stand sideways in between my legs. From this distance I can really see Claire's injuries from up close. The bruising is quite impressive, and not in a good way. The whole right side of her torso is an angry purple and the bandage covering her stitches is a big one; at least 5 inches long.

"Ready?"

She nods. I start pulling off the tape holding the bandages in place, one by one, until I get to the gauze. There's a lot of it. Once I take off the last bit of tape, the whole bundle of gauze falls off. I catch it as soon as it leaves Claire's body. There's some blood on it, but not too much. I look at the cut then.

The first thing I notice is the stitches. I look at each one of them. 12. 12 stitches she has on her side. I can see the clear incision the doctors made to close up her lung. A perfect straight line. I look up to see Claire looking anywhere but me. I start working with the bandages. I don't want her to think I'm grossed out by it or anything stupid like that.

"Have I ever told you about the time I got peritonitis?"

That got her attention. She looks down at me and frowns. "You got peritonitis? Owen, that's very serious."

"I know, but you'll end up laughing by time I finish telling you how I reached that life threatening point."

I proceed to tell her the story of how I ended up in the ICU when I was 11 years old. I tell her that I really was the actor when I was a kid. I created all of these excuses not to go to school and I would play them out masterfully.

One day, after convincing mum that I had a stomach bug, she told me to stay in bed and rest. She left for work that day and I started my day of fun. I would watch tv, eat sweets, play around and just enjoyed my day off of school. Turns out, that I had really convinced her, to the point that she had left work early to be with me. Of course she came home right at the moment that I was running like a mad man around the yard with a bag of cookies in hand. She was pissed. And I mean really pissed. I think that was the first time in my 11 years of life that I had seen my mum that mad. Now, you have to remember that I did this a lot. Of course I would make sure I didn't do it too often, just in case she got wind of what I was doing. She clearly realised this, so she yelled at me some more and grounded me for like a month.

Two months later, I woke up with a horrible stomach ache. The pain was so bad, it was actually kind of hard to breathe properly. I stood up and went down to the dining room and told both my parents that I wasn't feeling well. Neither of them believed me obviously. That's when I realised I must've been a really convincing actor.

I went to school and I couldn't even think properly from the pain. Mum picked me up from school that day, by that point I couldn't even stand up straight. The pain was ridiculous! When I got into the car, she didn't say anything. She looked up at me for a second and then put her hand on my forehead. I had closed my eyes, but I remember opening them when I felt mum's hand on my forehead, and I remember very clearly seeing her eyes widen.

From that point on, everything is a blur. I remember mum driving quite desperately. Telling me she was so sorry that she hadn't believed me. Promising me that I would be okay. I remember a pair of arms lifting me up and lying me down on a gurney. I'm not quite sure, but I think I passed out at some point.

Turns out I had appendicitis, and throughout that day at school, it got bad enough that at some point during the car ride to the hospital, my appendix burst. The doctors said that in a way, I had been lucky. It burst when we were practically in the hospital and because of my age, my body was actually quite good at preventing the infection from expanding anywhere. I was in the ICU for 5 days. I got a fever at day 2, which was scary for everyone, because it was obviously not a good sign. But I got better and a week later I was home.

"This is how I got this." I say pointing to the scar on my right side. Right on top of my hipbone, I have a long, pinky finger wide scar. I see Claire's eyes travel to where I'm pointing. Her head tilts to the side, like that of a curious child.

"I hadn't realised you had that scar."

"Of course you didn't. You were distracted by my killer bod."

She rolls her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say."

I continue. "So, from that day on, I never missed a day in school. I was the kid who cried wolf. I learnt my lesson."

She shakes her head and laughs a little. "Moron."

"Yeah, I was. Well, all done here. Now let's get into the pool!" I stand up and grab a couple of towels. I take her hand and we walk to the pool through the French doors. The pool looks cool and inviting. I let go of Claire's hand and stick my foot in the pool to test the temperature of the water.

"I think it's perfect. I guess it'll be cold at first, but the sun will keep warming things up for us." I take my foot of the water and throw the towels on the pool chairs. The pool has steps all the way down to the bottom of it and a rail, so Claire won't really need my help to get into the pool. I ask her nonetheless.

"Are you going to need help getting in the pool?"

"I don't think so. Let's see I guess." She walks to the edge of the pool and lowers herself a step.

"Ah! It's cold!"

I smile. "Of course it is. Your body temperature is higher than that of the water. You'll get used to it once you're all the way in. Now keep walking."

"Okay, Mr Know it all. Why don't you get in? You're just looking at me, keeping yourself warm and everything."

I look at her and then to the other side of the pool. I start walking to the other end of the pool, take 4 steps back and run. I dive in like I'm a lifeguard in a Hollywood movie. The pool is not extremely long and I jumped far enough for me to be able to swim underwater all the way to the steps. I come back up and do and exaggerated version of Justin Bieber's hair whip to take the extra water of my hair.

"You were saying?"

Right there, her characteristic deadpan look. "Show off." She continues to come down the steps until she's standing right in front of me. The water reaches us up to our shoulders. "Oh. Yolanda was right. The water does feel nice against my ribs." She closes her eyes and enjoys for a moment the relief the water gives her.

"Do you feel like there's any water coming in through your sleeve or the bandages?" I ask.

She opens her eyes. "No, I don't think so. It all feels dry. Good job, Dr Grady."

I give her a small kiss. "Ready to start walking?"

She nods. I move to stand next to her and we start walking. When we reach the end of the pool, I look at her and see a small grimace on her face. "Are you in pain?"

"I think I'm walking a little too fast. My ribs hurt somewhat."

"Okay, let's slow down then. You want a minute?"

She shakes her head; determination shining through her. "No, let's keep going."

As we start walking, I remember that we are Thursday, which means Karen and the kids are coming tomorrow. "Hey, has Karen written to you? She's supposed to come tomorrow with the kids."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you. She emailed me last night. She said she was sending us both an email today with all her flight information. She also said that we have a lot to talk about. The lawyers and her have been talking a lot and she says things are moving along nicely. Which reminds me - " She lays her hand on my forearm and we stop about a meter from the steps. "Karen told me you were paying for the lawyers. You don't have to do that. I can pay for the lawyers myself."

I shake my head. "No. I want you to focus on getting better. I know you, if you pay those lawyers, you're going to be constantly talking to them, discussing things, thinking about the accident again. That's going to generate extra stress that you don't need right now. I know that you're more than capable of paying them yourself, but I'm just thinking long term here. Please, at least think about it. Please?"

I can see her thinking. Analysing what I've said. "Compromise?"

"What are you thinking?"

"Let me pay half of it."

Now it's my turn to roll my eyes. "How's that different?"

"I wasn't finished. I want to pay half of it to you. You pay the lawyers the full amount, I'll stay away from them and I'll trust in you and Karen to update me of anything of importance. I checked, Owen. Those lawyers charge $350 the hour. Karen has been talking to them the whole week! I can't let you spend that much money, especially because I can pay for it. Please, let me do this. 50/50. I think it's fair."

I look at her. "Would that make you feel better?"

"Yes, it would."

I breathe out. "Fine, you can pay me half of it."

She smiles victoriously. We continue walking. About 2 hours later, we decide to stop. It's close to lunchtime anyway. We climb up the steps and I see that none of Claire's bandages came off. I nod to myself proudly. We walk to the room and I tell her to shower first, but she says she will take longer than me and that I should go first.

I go in and take a quick shower, so she doesn't have to wait long. When I come out of the bathroom, I hear the television and I walk to the small living room to let her know she can go in now. I see Claire standing in front of the tv, but looking away from it. I see shock in her face and the shine of tears in her eyes.

"Claire?" I walk into the living room and see what Claire saw. I see the car of David Castell hitting the taxi Claire was in. The crash was so brutal, I actually take a step back when the car hits the taxi. I see the taxi driver come out of the car stumbling and falling, to continue crawling away from the car. I see a man running towards Claire's side of the car and struggling to open the car door (that must be Dr Fukunaga). The door is completely smashed in. After maybe a minute, he, by some miracle, manages to open the door and pulls Claire out of the car quickly, but delicately. I see the car catch fire. I see the fire igniting, following the trail of gasoline, until it reaches Claire's sleeve. Dr Fukunaga realises that Claire's sleeve has caught fire, but he continues to drag her away from the car. I'm assuming he wants to get as far away from it, in case it exploded. He stops and suffocates the fire. Then, he starts rolling Claire from side to side. I can't tell why he's doing that, until he stops for a second to push something out of his way.

That's when I see the way Claire is breathing; like she had hiccups. I remember then my days in the navy; when I was on a mission and a bomb went off. One of the guys went down, and the doctor ran towards him to check him. He found a hole diagonally from his belly button, somewhere around the left side of his chest. He started rolling him to keep blood from filling his lung. To stop him from drowning in his own blood. That's what Dr Fukunaga was doing to Claire.

I walk numbly to the coffee table and grab the control remote and turn off the tv. "Claire?"

"Had you seen that before?" She asks, still looking away from the tv.

"No. I heard there was CCTV footage, but I didn't see it."

She raises her eyes slowly towards me. A tear slides down her cheek. "How the hell did I survive that?"

I step closer to her and hug her gently, minding her ribs. I feel her left arm come around me. "I don't care how you survived that. All I care is that you did. You're so much stronger than you think, Claire. We're going to make sure that son of a bitch never sees the light of day again. I promise you that. Hey - "

I pull back and hold both sides of her face. "That – " I point at the tv. "That's part of the past. Don't think about it anymore. Look forward, lean on the people who love you and are always going to be here for you. I don't want you focusing your energy on something that already passed. I want you to focus on getting better, okay?"

A few more tears come running down her cheeks, but she nods. "I will. I promise."

"I love you."

"I love you too." She presses her head on my chest and I hug her one more time.

She pulls away and walks to the bathroom to take a shower. Seeing that footage only makes my hatred for that man grow even more. I wish I had him in front of me so I could punch him again. I walk to my night table and pick my cell phone up and text Karen.

*Claire and I accidently saw the CCTV footage of the accident. We have to make sure that piece of shit forgets what the word freedom means. *

*Damn it! Zach and I saw it last week accidently too. Thank God, Gray wasn't in the room. Don't worry, it's all ready to go. There's no way he's getting out of this. We'll talk more tomorrow. Just send you guys the email. *

*Okay. See you and the kids tomorrow. *

*See ya! *

I open my laptop and check my email. I open Karen's email and read it. She says her and the kids are going to be landing at 10am tomorrow. She also mentions that Claire has to sign a couple of documents so we can start the process of putting that asshole in jail.

I hear the bathroom door open and I look up. Claire comes out of the bathroom in her robe and sits down on her side of the bed next to me.

"How do you feel?"

"I'm still a little upset by what I saw, but you're right. That already passed; I shouldn't be focusing on that."

I smile softly at her. "Good. Now, get dressed and let's have some lunch, 'cause I'm starving."

"When are you not?" She stands up, grabs some clothes and goes back into the bathroom to change.

I put on a shirt, close the laptop and wait for her to be ready. I don't know how the hell she manages to have her hair perfectly done, when she can't raise her arms. But she comes out of that bathroom looking as perfect as ever. I stand up, I offer her my arm and we walk to the dinning room.

When we walk through the doors, we can hear Isabella laughing hysterically. Claire and I look at each other and we walk until we reach the table. Isabella is almost falling of the chair laughing at something on her laptop.

"What are you laughing at?" I ask her, laughing a little too.

She turns to look at me and laughs even harder, if that's possible. "What?" I ask her.

She manages to regain some composure and turns her laptop towards us. Claire laughs and winces, her hand flying to her side. She sits down carefully on the chair and continues laughing. Claire and Isabella look at each other and laugh more.

I am not laughing though. It's a paparazzi picture that we're looking at. In it, Claire and I are in the car heading home after her release from the hospital. She's looking at me, her eyebrow raised minimally, but there's this look she has, almost as if she was daring me. I, on the other hand, am basically drooling. I mean, I look borderline special needs.

"I don't think that's funny at all! Everyone is going to see that picture!"

Claire is trying to contain her laughter, but she's failing epically. "I told you I would get you back!"

My eyes widen. "What?!"

"Oh my God, you planned this?!" Isabella asks Claire.

Claire nods.

"Oh God, I knew I loved you!"

They continue laughing. "What do you mean you planned this?! Claire, stop laughing!"

Claire covers her mouth and starts breathing in and out slowly. "Remember how you kissed me in front of all those paparazzi?"

"Yeah."

"Didn't I tell you something along the lines of : 'I know exactly how I'm going to get you back?'"

"I remember."

"This is what I meant!" She says pointing at the picture. Isabella bursts out laughing again.

"I can't believe this!" And I thought she meant… gaaaah!

I sit down next to Claire and wait until they stop. I don't even know how Claire is laughing this much without her ribs hurting. After about 10 minutes, their laughter dies down. I have crossed my arms and stared at them.

"You both done laughing at me?" I ask like a sore loser.

Claire nods and Isabella responds with a 'yup'.

"Oh, Claire that was genius. Just perfect." Isabella tells her.

"Thank you. I will take pride in that for the rest of my life."

I turn my head and stare at Claire. "Just so you know, I don't appreciate what you did."

"And I don't appreciate you surprising me with kisses in front of the paparazzis."

"Oh yeah. That's why I clicked on the link in the first place." Says Isabella moving the laptop in front of her and scrolling up. "There." She turns the laptop towards us again.

There are at least 10 pictures of us of that day. The first is of Claire and I leaving the parking lot of the hospital, then like 4 pictures of us driving through the crazy crowd and the last 3 pictures are the ones of Claire and I just looking at each other with so much love, my breath catches in my throat a little. Then there's the one were I kissed her. Unlike the one I took on the car on our way to Phil's restaurant, Claire does look very much surprised.

"See, I look like an idiot in that photo too. There, we're even." She says.

"Ah, no. You don't look like an idiot, you just look surprised, whereas in this photo –" I scroll down to the last photo where I look stupid. "I look like a drooling catatonic!"

Isabella and Claire resume their laughing session. I close the laptop and push it away from them, just in case they're tempted to look again.

We are served our lunch, quinoa quiche with poulet à la moutarde. Which is just French for chicken with mustard sauce. It was delicious though.

"Isa, are you going to be heading out today?"

"No. I'm going to be staying home practicing with my guitar. I was planning on going to the bakery later in the afternoon though. Today is panettone day. I always go and see if I can steal some. Why?"

"Nonna, invited Claire and I to go to the bakery in about an hour. I wanted to know if you needed your car."

She looks surprised at Claire. "Wow, she invited you to her kitchen? You've officially won her over then, Claire. Take my car, no problem."

"That's what I told her."

"That's what he told me." Claire says.

"Well, sis. See you later then."

"See you guys. I'll kill you both if you eat all the panettones!"

"Then don't get there too late!"

I help Claire stand up and we walk to the pool house to brush our teeth. We go to the driveway and head to the bakery.

"Karen already sent us the email. She's going to be here tomorrow at 10am with the kids. I'll go pick her up. She also said we had a couple of things to talk about and documents for you to sign."

"Okay. I'm glad she's coming. I've missed her and the kids. I was so stupid to push them away like that. I lost so much precious time. I was so stupid."

I look at her briefly and look back at the road. "What matters is that you're willing to try again. And you won't lose any more time with them. You're stubborn, if you say you don't want to waste more time, then you won't."

She nods. "Yeah, I won't lose more time. They're the only family I've got left. Did I tell you that both of my parents were only kids?"

"Really? That's unusual. When were they born?"

"Early 50s."

"Mm. That's weird. Especially if it was the 50s. Couples used to have kids like crazy."

"Yeah, that's why Karen and I were so close as kids. We didn't have cousins, aunts or uncles to get close to. That's also why we felt how we felt when they both died. We only had each other really. Then Karen met Scott in university, they were really happy, until they weren't. And then Patrick and I, that also went to hell fast… or not that fast actually."

She says that more like an afterthought.

"Well, you definitely don't have to worry about us. I'm in it for the long haul, babe."

She turns and smiles at me. "I know. Me too."

I look at her sideways. She's perfect. Forever is the least amount of time I want to spend with her. I turn left on the next light, and there it is. Panificio Vernelli occupies at least half a block. I haven't been here in years! God, it feels good.

I park the car on the blue zone and turn off the car.

"It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be." Claire says.

"Yeah, since it's the only one in the country a lot of people come in. About 15 years ago they had to buy the 2 businesses next to them in order to expand. The kitchen's at the back Thursdays the bakery's closed. They have stuff meetings and a bit of R&D goes on too. It's also the day they make panettones for the local shelter. Ready?"

She nods. I unlock the doors and go to open mine, but Claire stops me.

"Wait. Is there anything I need to know about your grandmother?"

I look to the side and back at her. "What do you mean?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. Is there a political party she hates and can't stand someone talking about them? That kind of thing…"

I smile. "Claire, she's an 88 year old Italian woman. The only things that will insult her, is if you refuse to eat whatever she gives you. So, no. There's nothing you can't say around her. She's the coolest nonna ever. Now come on, let's go!"

I get out of the car and walk around the car to open Claire's door. She stands on the step and I lower her to the ground. We walk to the main door, I go to open it, but it's locked. "Well, the bakery is closed. But I need an access code to get in through the back door. You know what? Just let me call her." I pull out my cell phone and dial nonna.

"Nonna, we're here but we can't go in through the main door. Should we walk around to the back door?"

"Yeah, that would be great. Okay. Bye." I hang up and put the phone back in my pocket. "She says they're still in a meeting, but that she'll send someone to open the door for us and we can look around until they're done. They won't be long though."

"That's nice. My own personal tour of the facilities? I'm not complaining."

We stand for about a minute outside the bakery, when the door is opened. I see the big pregnant belly of a woman before I even see her face. "Well, nice of ya to show your bloody face around here, you big git!"

"Wh-" I'm about to ask this woman why she's insulting me, but then I see her face.

"Anna?! Oh my God! What the hell are you doing here?! And pregnant!"

"First at least give me a hug, before bombarding me with questions. That is, if you can even manage to hug me. I'm huge!"

I step forward and hug Anna. She's my childhood friend, we went to the same school for a little bit, but then her family went back to Ireland (she's Irish). We kept in touch, she even came with her family from time to time, but then she stopped coming at all. We lost touch and reunited one last time, when she went to New York to do a semester in the Institute of Culinary Education. I haven't seen her since. 13 years since the last time I saw her.

"You're working here?! Why didn't you tell me? I would've come and see you. And since when are you here?"

She raises her hands. "Where the hell are your manners, bloke? Hello there, I'm Anna." She stretches out her hand to Claire, and she shakes it.

"Oh, sorry. Claire, this is Anna. She's a childhood friend. I haven't seen her in almost 13 years." I noticed Anna stretched out her left hand. I'm absolutely sure she's right handed. She must've noticed Claire's cast. She's that kind of person.

"Oh, wow. Nice to meet you, Anna. Congratulations!" Claire says pointing at her belly.

Anna puts both of her hands on her belly and drums her fingers. "Thanks. I have 2 more months of this crap. Being pregnant is bloody torture, especially if you are in this business and have to be standing all day long. Well, come on in! Let's start with the tour. And yes sham, I'll answer all of your questions."

We step into the bakery after Anna.

"Sham?" Claire asks near my ear.

"Irish slang for friend."

"Oh."

"So, start talking. How did that happen? Don't tell me you broke my little 12 year old heart for nothing." I say pointing to her distended stomach.

"Yes, Owen. When you told me you liked me, I told you I was a lesbian because I couldn't think of any other way of telling you that I didn't like you like that. Don't be daft! I met someone about 3 years ago, and when marriage became legal in Ireland, we got married. We decided to have a kid, we tossed a coin, and I lost. Her name is Helena and she's an absolute fleek."

"Fleek?" Claire asks Anna.

"Yeah, what is that?" I ask Anna too. No clue what that means.

"Gorgeous girl. She's a gorgeous girl. Smart too."

"When did you move here?"

"About a year ago. Helena and I decided to move to the US, experience new things, you know? I sent out my resume to several companies including this one, turns out Fran recognized my name, she remembered my love for baking, how I used to ask her questions about this and that, and she decided to give me a chance. So here I am."

I smile. It's never been hard to go back to the way we were when we were kids when I talk to Anna. She has a magic of her own. She's one of the coolest chicks I've ever met in my life. A true friend.

"Do you have any more questions for me?" she asks playfully.

"Just one. Boy or girl?"

"Boy."

I laugh. "Good luck."

"Ugh, shut up."

We go and get to know the bakery. Anna shows us around. She tells us the demand for packaged goods has grown exponentially in the last 6 months, so mum decided to upgrade all the machinery to make sure they keep up. We go to the fridge, which is humongous! There are all types of ingredients in there, milk, cheese, chocolates. It's like being inside Willy Wonka's factory. I look at Claire and see the wonder in her eyes. She loves business; she's in her haven. We continue walking towards the 'torta' section (cake section). There is a group of 6 people working on a specialty cake. "Star Wars cake for a 7 year old kid's birthday." Anna tells us. That BB-8 cake looks so real, I wouldn't know to eat it if I saw it.

"And this is my section. 'Cioccolato' section."

"You became a chocolatier?"

She turns around and looks at me. "No. I became a chocolatière. Small difference."

I roll my eyes. "Same thing!"

She looks at Claire. "Claire, do you speak French?"

"Un peu, mais je ne parle pas couramment."

"Pas important. Est-ce-que tu peux dire ton petit ami le difference entre chocolatier et chocolatière, s'il tu plait?"

"Bien sûr." She turns to me. "There's a difference, Owen. If you were a policeman, it wouldn't be correct to call you a policewoman, because you are male. So don't call Anna a chocolatier. Got it?"

I breathe in slowly. "You speak French too?"

"Like I said to Anna, a little bit, I'm not fluent."

I look at both Anna and Claire. "You two are going to team up against me, aren't you?"

Anna and Claire look at each other and then at me. "Probably." They say at the same time.

"Jesus." I secretly love this. One of my dearest friend and my girlfriend are getting along super well. I couldn't be happier.

Anna gives us some chocolate samples she's been working on. While she was on the cash register, filling in while the cashier got there, she discovered, by eavesdropping, that there was a potential market with bach flowers. Extract of this flower with a 50% mix of brandy, is used by homeopaths, they believe this flower has healing properties.

Turns out, a lot of this people like buying desserts at nonna's bakery. Anna told nonna of her idea and they both went to talk to my mum and they decided to give it a go. Mum told Anna to make a small badge of it and see how it would sell. It was a huge hit. They even made a special section of it in the store. Anna is now trying different extracts and seeing how the flavours are absorbed by the chocolate and all of that.

"I don't know if I believe in the whole 'healing powers' thing, but this is good chocolate. Really nice flavours." Claire tells Anna.

"Thanks. I actually talked to a naturopath, the experts when it comes to these flowers. Emilia thought it would be a good idea for me to talk to one of them. She didn't want any problems with the homeopathic community, so she wanted to make sure we were respecting the process. Turned out pretty good. Over h- Oh, sorry." She picks up her phone and answers. "Hello? Yeah, we're almost done. I'll take them to the offices. Okay." She hangs up. "The meeting's over. Fran says to finish showing you around and to take you two to the other kitchen."

"There's another kitchen? The one we were just in is huge!" I say.

"That's the new kitchen. The one your grandmother is in right now, is the old one. There we do the 'smaller things'. Cookies for the store, any small orders, that kind of thing. And on Thursdays, we all help to make the panettones for the shelter. Your grandmother is adamant every single person help, plus she says that no one working in her bakery is not not going to know how to make a panettone."

We laugh and Anna takes us to the last leg of our tour. She takes us to the offices. "This is my favourite place right now. See those couches? Those are the most comfortable couches I've ever sat on, and I'm pregnant so that's saying something."

We sit on those couches and I swear, I could've fallen asleep right here, right now. We talk for a little bit more and then we walk to the kitchen. I see nonna kneading the dough and adding the candied fruit. The love for baking comes out of her in massive waves, and everyone around her has that same smile.

"Nonna!" I call her. She raises her head and her smiles widens.

"Amore! Give your nonna a hug!" She cleans her hands on her apron and envelops me in a hug.

I pull out of the hug. "I have a bone to pick with you, nonna. Why didn't you tell me Anna was working here?"

"Ah. I thought it would be a nice surprise. I knew you would come home at some point."

"Well, it was a very nice surprise." I turn and stretch out my hand towards Claire. She takes my hand and walks until she's standing next to me.

"Nonna, this is Claire. Claire, Francesca."

"It's very nice to meet you, Mrs Vernelli."

Nonna claps her hands together. "It's very nice to meet you, Claire. I see you look good. You gave my grandson here the fright of his life! I must say you don't trigger that reaction on anyone unless you're special to them. And if you're special to him, you're special to me! And please, call me Fran. Nobody calls me Mrs Vernelli unless they want my money!" We laugh and I can see Claire relax.

"Well, Owen get ready to get your hands dirty. You're making a panettone today. Jacob, bring another piece of dough!"

"Yes, ma'am." A boy that can't be more than 18 years old, runs to the back and brings with him a bowl filled with dough that has already been risen.

"Nonna, I haven't made panetonne in years! I don't even think I remember how to make one anymore!"

I told Claire before that nothing could offend my grandmother. Apparently, I was wrong. Her face transforms when I tell her I don't think I remember how to make panetonne.

She walks closer to me and smacks me on the arm with a hand towel that I have no clue where she got from.

"Ow! Why?!" I say holding my arm.

"Your nonno taught you how to make panettone and you made hundreds of them. Don't tell me you don't know how to make one anymore. Go. Make your favourite one, all you need is right over there."

I hold Claire's hand and walk to the empty station with the bowl of dough in hand. I look at her and see she's containing a smile. "Again?! You're going to laugh at me again?! Wasn't the whole situation with the photo enough?!"

She stops trying to contain her laugh. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Turns out you were right, there was nothing for me to worry about. Your grandmother is very, very nice. Now, make that panettone before she comes back and smacks you again."

I put the bowl down on the table and grab a chair for Claire, one of those tall ones and I put it on the other side of the table, so she's right in front of me.

"Have you ever eaten panettone before, Claire?" Nonna asks her from 2 tables over.

"I've had it once. I think it was the traditional one. With candied fruits."

"Did you like it?"

"I did, but back then I was counting every single calorie that went inside me, so I only had a small piece. So I don't think I got the full experience."

I throw some flour on the table and turn the bowl upside down. The dough lands with a thud on the table.

"Owen makes really good panettones. You'll have a proper slice, when it's done. You'll feel like you've missed out. It's something quite wonderful; almost impossible to describe."

"Other than it tasted really good, I remember being very fascinated by the fact that it dissolved in my mouth."

"Yes, that's because of the 2 day rise. It does wonders to the dough."

I start kneading the dough. I don't talk at all. Claire and nonna talk and talk, getting to know each other. Nonna Francesca asks her the basic questions; where she's from, where did she go to school. Then they start talking about business. Even though nonna's true love was and will always be baking, she has a secret affair with business every once in a while. She knows her terminology too. Nonna even asks Claire for some advice to convince their box supplier to donate some boxes so they can package all the panettones and ship them to the shelter without cost.

By the time Claire remembers I'm here, I'm already putting the dough on the special panettone tin.

"You all done?" she asks.

"Yeah, I didn't come prepared for back breaking work. I'm sweating."

She smiles. "I'm sure your panettone will be delicious."

I raise an eyebrow. "Are you seducing me, Claire?"

She rolls her eyes, and the people working around us chuckle. Claire blushes a little. "Really? You just say whatever comes to your mind, you don't care where you are or with whom?"

"Why are you even asking me that question? You already know the answer."

"Ugh, yes I do. And I still love you. What the hell is wrong with me?"

I walk around the table and stand next to her. "Oh, nothing. Trust me. There's nothing wrong with you." I lean forward and give her a peck. "Let me pop that bad boy in the oven."

She nods and I take the tin and put it in the oven next to the other 30 panettones. It usually takes about an hour for the panettones to cook. In that time, everyone in the kitchen serves themselves some tea or coffee and eat cookies. We all clean our tables before doing that of course.

"I thought you said you could barely remember how to make panettones. You finished at the same time as everyone else, and you started after them." Nonna says while I'm cleaning my table.

"Okay, okay. Apparently, it's like riding a bike. I haven't forgotten at all how to make panettone. I really enjoyed that though; like the old times." I say hugging nonna sideways.

"I told you. Maybe we can teach you Claire how make some, once you get better."

She smiles. "You can try. I'm not very good in the kitchen. Never have been, actually."

"Oh, come on. You're a smart woman, I'm sure you can follow a recipe."

"Yeah, I thought that too. I tried baking Betty Crocker cookies and I ended up with pieces of charcoal and scrambling around trying to turn off the smoke alarm. But, I can give it a go."

We both stare at her. Who the hell burns pre-made cookies?

"Maybe you can teach her at home, Amore. I don't think I want my business to burn down to the ground."

"Yeah, you're probably right."

Claire looks a bit offended, but she knows we're joking. She laughs. We sit down and have some tea with cookies and we talk some more. It feels incredibly comfortable to talk like this for some reason; with the smell of the nearly done panettones and a cup of warm tea.

"You're favourite panettone eater has arrived!" Isabella announces to the whole kitchen. She walks around saying hi to everyone. She takes a peek at the ovens and smiles. Then she comes towards us and hugs us all.

"How did it go, bro? Did you manage to make something decent?"

"Yeah, I did pretty good, fyi!"

She raises her hands. "Hey, you never know!"

Isabella tells us she's mastered the guitar chords for the song she's going to sing with Alexander at the Youth Centre. I ask her about the song she's going to sing by herself and she tells me, she's brought it down to 3 options. She's not quite sure which one yet.

"Isabella has promised me she's going to sing whichever song she picks for the presentation in 1 week." I tell Claire.

"You are? Are you also going to play it on the guitar?"

Isa shakes her head. "No, the song I sing by myself I'm going to play it in the piano."

"I always wanted to play the piano, but I never had the time to learn. I love the sound that it produces, that and the cello. Absolutely love it."

We hear the ding of the oven. We stand up and proceed to put the tins up side down, and let gravity do its work. Once the panettones drop, we package all of them and load everything into the truck, so it's taken to the shelter. All except one, of course. I bring my panettone to the table and start cutting slices for everyone. I give Claire the biggest piece and she smiles at me. She rips a small piece and pops it into her mouth. Her eyes close immediately.

"Oh my God, Owen. This is so much better than I expected it to be!"

"Thanks, I di- What?! What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means, bro. You don't exactly look like the kind of guy who can bake anything good."

I look at Isabella. "Gee, thanks."

"Hey, it's really good though!" Isa says taking a bite out of her slice.

"It is, amore. Congratulations!"

We stay there until all the staff has finished eating their piece. I receive congratulations from everyone on my good job. Before, we leave, I exchange contact info with Anna and ask her to come and have lunch someday and to bring Helena, so we can meet her; she agrees. We say our goodbyes and Claire, Isabella and I head home.