The Piano Man Project Page 0,31

across and felt her handiwork then shook his head and scowled.

‘I said chop them, Honeysuckle. These are the size of fucking house bricks. Smaller.’

‘Have you been taking lessons from Gordon Ramsay?’

He didn’t laugh. ‘Smaller.’ He listened to her efforts for a few seconds. ‘Relax with the knife. Find your rhythm, and keep your fingers behind the blade and out of the way.’

Honey breathed out with relief when he accepted her second attempt with a curled lip, and reached for the garlic when instructed.

‘Break off three cloves and smash them with the blade of a knife,’ Hal said, and Honey turned the bulb over in her hands and stared at it. ‘How do I get to the cloves? It’s sealed up.’

Hal’s mouth opened and then closed, and he rubbed the palms of his hands slowly on his jeans. ‘You’re kidding, right? You just …’ he said, and then shook his head. ‘Give it to me.’

Honey handed him the bulb of garlic and watched as he turned it in his fingers then broke it open easily, feeling the cloves and snapping a few off for her. He offered them to her flat on his palm as if he were feeding a donkey, and she certainly felt like one as she took them from him.

‘Do I need to peel them?’

He sighed. ‘Just smash them with the flat of a large knife. Press down on them until they split.’

Honey reached for her carving knife and tentatively did as he’d suggested, amazed when it actually worked.

‘Well, what do you know,’ she laughed, extracting the raw garlic from the skin. ‘I did it! Do I chop it like the onions now?’

Hal nodded, checking her work with his fingertips when she pushed the chopping board towards him after chopping.

‘Warm the olive oil and add the bacon, then after a minute or so add the onions and garlic too.’ He listened as she sparked the gas beneath the pan. ‘Not that high. Burnt garlic is bitter and will spoil the dish.’

Honey adjusted the flame and tossed in the pancetta.

‘Watch it carefully. We both know you can get in trouble with bacon,’ he muttered, and she rolled her eyes and shook the pan as she’d seen chefs do on the TV.

‘Once, Hal. I’ve only ever burned bacon once in my life, and it just so happened that you were there at the time. I’ll have you know I usually make a killer bacon sandwich.’

‘I’ll bear that in mind if you ever make me breakfast,’ he said, and images of him waking up in her bed assaulted her brain and threatened to make her burn bacon for a second time.

‘Now add the onions and garlic to the pan.’

She scraped the onions and garlic into the pan, excited by the gentle sizzle as they hit the oil.

‘Oh my God, Hal, it smells like an Italian restaurant already in here, doesn’t it?’ She grinned with delight and sniffed the air.

He shook his head, but didn’t disillusion her. ‘How are they looking?’ he asked after a few minutes. ‘Don’t let them brown or overcook.’

‘How will I know when they’re ready?’

‘Use your bloody eyes,’ Hal muttered. ‘And taste them.’

‘What are they supposed to taste like, beside onion and garlic?’

‘Fucking hell, Honey, this is painful. Here, let me taste them.’

She glanced from the pan to the man on the other side of her breakfast bar, and then tentatively forked up some onions.

‘Open your mouth,’ she said, holding the fork out across the bar.

‘You don’t need to spoon feed me,’ he muttered. ‘I can feed myself.’

‘I know that. I just thought it’d be easier from across this side of the bar, that’s all. I didn’t mean to be patronising,’ she said, aware that it probably seemed like it from his perspective. He shrugged, and then surprisingly, he opened his mouth and let her slide the fork in. Watching his mouth, Honey felt the stir of sexual awakenings in her gut that was always close by when he was around. She slid the fork slowly from between his lips and waited for the verdict.

‘They’re ready,’ he murmured.

So am I, she thought. ‘Ready for what?’ she said, flustered.

‘Turn up the heat and add the beef.’

Oh, the heat was already well and truly turned up. Honey was breaking into a sweat that had nothing to do with the onions and everything to do with the man opposite her. She was actually glad he couldn’t see the effect he was having on her right at that moment; she was like