A Curious Bag

How is the experience of seeing an ex? Last week on my way back home I was approached by the rep officer of my apartment and she told me that someone tall, fair, and handsome came to look for me and being unsuccessful to get permission to access the building, he finally left a message. Who is it??? I wondered. A short chit-chat later, she handed a small piece of paper with a handwriting that looked like scribbles. Well, it was P, ex from 4 years ago, and funny to say, his handwriting hasn't been improved ever since. The message was asking me to give him a call.



Two hours later we had a phone conversation. A pleasant one. Afterall there wasn't any hatred or unresolved issues left hanging. 4 years was more than enough to get over hiccups of a six-month relationship. We ended the phone nicely just like 2 ordinary friends catching up. Bye friend, take care!

Then something surprised me the following day. The next morning P called and suggested he should take me out for dinner - to a nice place with live music and not far from our areas. I wasn't prepared and had an evening yoga class. So I told him so and he said it was fine since he could stay on at his office for some paperwork and when my class was over he would come to pick me up. I agreed with my mind filled with all this curiosity “What does he want?”



He was on time. There in front of Starbucks dressed in deep blue polo shirt and jeans, he was waiting for me. Awkward enough, as we both walked to the parking lot, he was doing this subtle hand gesture of offering me a bag with a bakery brand on it, Saint E'toile - assumed it must be bread or something. But I was uncertain about accepting cause frankly speaking, he never really did anything like this before when we were together. So I didn't do anything and he did swing that plastic bag to my direction one more time but I was still not taking any action. And there was no affirmation sentence like "This is for you" or "Please accept it" or anything like that. Finally we entered his car, he put the bag beside his seat. And yes, he totally forgot about the whole thing or should I say the offer was never being verbalized.



Along the drive we had enjoyable conversation - about Public Relations, Insurance, and work. Felt it has been so long since the last time I actually had a quality talk to someone in a that intellectual level. And then out of the blue in one of the turns that he made, he claimed that our past breakup was due to all his faults.

Dinner was fine and the conversation topics changed to family, boyfriends, and friends. We openly shared the fact that both our family members had on several occasions asked about each of our whereabouts and wellbeing. Interesting highlight was that he talked about karma and depicted the fact that a one-and-a-half-year relationship he had after our breakup had put him through the situation similar to the one in which he had caused me so much pain and that he had realized how it felt being in my shoes.



Two hours later we left the restaurant and he insisted on sending me home. Entering my residence, my mind was trying to settle with a conclusion: "It was a friendly dinner, nothing else!" But there was this very tiny bit of it wondered: “Was it really?” Besides I was still curious about the hand gesture. I couldn't help but wondered: "Did I misread the hand gesture or he really meant to give that bag to me non-verbally and finally forgot about it altogether?"



LEMON TART
Makes 8 tarts

1. Crust
Makes 290 grams
Need: 8 tart cups size top diameter 7cm, bottom 4 cm, height 2.5 cm

Ingredients:
- Cake flour - sift > 125 grams
- Icing sugar > 45 grams
- Ground almond > 18 grams
- Eggs > 30 grams
- Salted butter – soften in room temperature > 75 grams



Method:
- Combine cake flour, icing sugar, and ground almond in a big bowl. Make hollow in the center. Pour in eggs and butter.
- Use hand bring the ingredients into the center and knead until smooth.
- Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 160C.
- Remove dough from fridge, roll out with rolling pin to 2mm thickness.
- Line tart cups with dough and press thoroughly until neat.
- Poke some holes at the bottom with a fork. Set aside.



2. Lemon Filling

Ingredients:
- Whipping cream > 70 grams
- Granulated sugar > 90 grams
- Eggs > 2
- Lemon – grate rind, squeeze juice > 1

Method:
- Preheat oven to 160C.
- Bring 50 grams of whipping cream and 90 grams of sugar to 70C.
- Combine eggs with 20 grams of whipping cream. Add into the preheated whipping cream mixture.
- Sift mixture. Add lemon juice and rind.
- Pour lemon filling into the tart cups until 95% full.
- Bake at 160C for 30 minutes.
- Leave to cool.