Over the Fence (9 page)

David placed some schnitzel on each plate. “The rest is in the dining room already. Please, no more fighting before dinner.”

Jonas inspected his plate and mumbled, “You forgot the ketchup again.”

Eva took a place next to Leonie and smiled. She and Jonas had the same preference. Breaded cutlets smothered in ketchup.

“You know where the refrigerator is,” David responded and sat down opposite Eva. “He just has to drown everything in ketchup.”

Jonas got the ketchup and tapped on it until a decent amount sat on the cutlet.

“Serve yourselves,” David told them and pointed at the salad bowls.

Leonie served herself. Eva took a portion from both salads, then grabbed the ketchup and squeezed some on her plate. She looked up at David and then grinned at Jonas. “Ketchup and cutlets go together,” she said before cutting a piece of meat and putting a glob of ketchup on it.

“My sentiments exactly!” Jonas exclaimed. “But Dad thinks it messes up the taste.”

Eva chewed with pleasure. “It enhances the taste.”

“OK, you two win. I won’t complain about it anymore.”

Leonie wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “It’s a proven fact that ketchup has stuff in it that’s totally addictive.” She nodded in affirmation before shoving a forkful of cucumber salad in her mouth.

“Whatever,” Jonas said.

Everyone was loose and relaxed. To an outsider, it would look as if a happy family was sitting at the table eating their dinner.

Jonas and David shared another cutlet while Leonie and Eva laughed about their hearty appetites and joked that they would be as round as beach balls if they continued.

Eva glanced at the clock and was shocked. They had been there for over two hours. Time had flown! Rarely had she felt so at home, though she still had butterflies. In half an hour, she would have to take Leonie home, then sit down and put in the long hours needed to finish her work. Despite this, she couldn’t tear herself away. Her sister-in-law wouldn’t worry. It was Friday night and Leonie was allowed to stay out longer than usual.

Leonie and Jonas headed back to Jonas’s room to play more Wii, and Eva helped David clear the table. When he wanted to pour her more wine, she asked for a glass of water instead. “Normally I would love to, but I have to drive Leonie home.”

“Just water? You could also have a nice apple spritzer,” David offered.

“No, thank you. Water is fine. I’ll have to make some coffee later, because I need to work tonight.”

“At this hour? Your boss must be a slave driver.” David brought her some water and led her into the living room.

“Oh, he’s all right. It’s my guilty conscience driving me to the computer. And now that we’re on the subject, I should download those files. Could you give me the password?”

“Of course.” David left the room and came back a few moments later with a piece of paper. “I wrote it down for you. Try to log on now.”

Eva booted up her laptop and saw there were several Wi-Fi access names. “Which one is yours?”

David bent over and looked at the list. “The second from the bottom is mine,” he said, pointing at the display. “Be sure to take the piece of paper with you so you can work next door, too. The range shouldn’t be a problem.”

His nearness stirred up the butterflies in her stomach again, and she had to clear her throat. “Thank you so much.” Eva put the password in and noticed her hands shaking slightly. She opened her browser and went to her company’s website. Everything opened up immediately.

“Wow. Nice website,” David said, continuing to look over her shoulder.

“An ad agency needs to have an upscale presence to land clients.” Eva needed to log on to the company network to download the files but couldn’t while he was looking at her screen. “I don’t want to be rude, but this data is confidential. I’ll need a moment.” She turned to the side before typing in the password.

“Oh, of course. I’m normally not so nosy.” David sat down on the other side of the couch.

In a few minutes, she had the folder she needed and copied it onto her Mac. She logged out and closed the computer. “That was it.” She breathed a sigh of relief. “What kind of work do you do?” Eva asked. They hadn’t spoken about his career yet.

“Still IT. I also write my own programs and apps, which I then sell.” David leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. “I should concentrate more on my apps so that I can build better international contacts. My partner currently takes care of distribution.”

“So, you’re self-employed?”

“Unfortunately not. We design the apps, but because I’ve had so much on my plate lately, I haven’t been able to devote myself fully to it.” He sipped his wine. “But that’s going to change soon.”

Eva hardly knew anything about his business. “I have an app that finds available taxis in London. It’s really useful, especially when it’s raining, but I can’t imagine how to put something like that together.”

“We brainstorm and throw ideas around, then develop them into useful ideas, which we continually follow up on.” David leaned back again. “But enough about my work. It must be terribly boring for you.”

It wasn’t, even though she didn’t exactly understand what he did. She reached for her glass of water and took a big gulp.

“Are you married?” David asked.

She swallowed and began to cough.

“Sorry if that’s a touchy subject for you. Are you OK?” David looked at her with concern.

Eva struggled for air, taking shallow breaths so that she wouldn’t start coughing again. “It’s not a touchy subject,” she explained.

David continued looking at her.

“Not married, not divorced, not in a serious relationship, no children,” Eva said. “Some would call it a sad state of affairs, but I’m fine with it. And when I see the horrible relationships some couples have, I’m glad. Many seem to feel more alone in their relationships than I do being single.” OK, maybe she was painting too rosy a picture, especially when she thought about her lonely evenings in London, but at least nobody was sitting next to her, refusing to speak, making her feel isolated. In hindsight, her previous relationships hadn’t been much more than friendships with sex. When she first fell for somebody, she’d get butterflies, but that wonderful tingling sensation never lasted long. She hadn’t experienced true love, and she didn’t believe in it anyway. “Most people my age are already divorced or planning to get a divorce.”

“That’s true.” David stared past her for a moment, looking at the wall before he turned to her again. “But there are a few who have managed to stay happily married. It’s good to stay focused on that.”

“Yes,” Eva agreed. “Actually, right now, I need to head out.” The subject had become a bit thorny, especially because she really liked David. She felt so alive in his presence—a feeling she’d seldom experienced so intensely—but he was already spoken for and she needed to remember that. She stood up, then picked up her Mac.

“A shame.” David stood up, too. “May I be so bold as to invite you over for another meal?”

“We’ll see. My father is coming home on Monday,” Eva said.

“That’s the reason you can’t eat dinner with me anymore?”

Eva laughed when she realized how lame her excuse must have sounded. “You don’t know my father like I do. But who knows . . . Maybe I’ll be able to escape his clutches every once in a while.”

“I will give you asylum over here anytime you need it. OK?” David winked.

Eva nodded and looked at the floor. She had to get out of here. Otherwise, she’d run the risk of completely falling for David. It would be better and far less complicated to bury herself in her work. David retrieved Leonie from Jonas’s room, and everyone said their good-byes. Leonie waved at Jonas, and he waved back before disappearing into his room again. Leonie shuffled out to the sidewalk.

“Thanks so much for dinner and also for the Internet access,” Eva said. David took a step in her direction, and Eva stepped back. She turned and walked a few paces, then looked back at him. “See you later.”

David looked at her for a long time before saying, “Yes, I hope so.” His penetrating gaze shook Eva to her core.

Eight

After Eva got home around eleven o’clock, she peeked at the folder so that she could at least start thinking about her client’s wishes. Then she sat down on the living room sofa with a glass of wine and stared at the computer screen. She thought about the best way to approach this new assignment. Should she design fresh and fancy packaging for these chocolates? What kind of package would be appropriate for fine chocolates? All of Bailey’s Chocolate’s current packaging was either rectangular or square. Pretty much what buyers expected. But they wanted something comparable to Kinder Chocolate’s or Yogurette’s quirkily shaped chocolates and innovative packaging and design. Why choose a different shape for the packaging? Wouldn’t it be better to simply design something attractive?

She decided to start with the chocolate bars. They were delicious to look at and easy to design a box for. However, after an hour of coming up with nothing, she decided to go to bed and turned off the Mac.

The next morning, she stood in the supermarket and inspected all the candy products. She grabbed everything appealing and put it in her shopping cart. Then she went to the butcher shop to buy a roast for her father. In her mother’s cookbook, she had picked out a complicated recipe, with detailed instructions on how to use the roast’s natural juices to prepare a tasty sauce, but she snuck a few ready-made sauce packets into the cart as a precaution. She could camouflage the sauce with a couple of chopped carrots and onions, if she had to.

Shortly after nine o’clock, she was back at the house. She spread the chocolate packages on the dining room table and studied them. After drinking a couple of cups of coffee while awaiting inspiration, she decided to sweep the street after all, even though she didn’t really want to. But sitting and staring at the chocolate packaging, awaiting divine inspiration, wasn’t all that alluring. Might as well be useful.

With her hair in a ponytail and wearing shorts, a tank top, and sneakers, she went into the garage to get the broom. First, she swept the driveway. Instead of thinking about her client’s design problems, she started thinking about David. She kept glancing at her neighbor’s house but didn’t hear a peep from where she was standing. Was David even home? His car was in the garage. Maybe he was eating breakfast with Jonas. Eva chastised herself for being so fixated on what David might be doing. She shook her head to try to expel his image from her brain and put her attention on the task at hand. She noticed little pebbles on the road, as well as some clumps of dirt, and wondered where they had come from.

Satisfied with herself and her work, she swept everything into a dustpan, strolled over to the garbage can, and dropped the debris inside. She carried the broom back to the garage and closed the door so that everything looked nice and neat.

As Eva reached the front yard, she heard the familiar sound of a rumbling tractor and she looked up. The driver was obviously in a hurry, because he drove without slowing down. Mud from the field sprayed out from the tractor’s tires in all directions. A lump of dirt even smacked her on the head. “Watch out, you fucking idiot!” she shouted. “And clean up all this dirt!”

Unfazed, the driver shot down the road. All Eva could see now were the backs of the huge rear tires. She bent forward and shook her head to remove any remnants of dirt from her hair. Only when she lifted her head again did she see the mess. The tractor treads had left clods of dirt all over the street. At first, Eva felt like screaming, but then she started to examine the wonderfully intricate pattern and an idea came to her. It felt like a miracle—the inspiration she had been waiting for! Without thinking any more about the mess, she ran into the house and pulled off her sneakers without undoing the laces.

Eva rushed into the dining room, gathered the chocolate bars, and arranged them so they formed an arrowhead, similar to the tractor tread. The slogan could be
The Peak of Enjoyment
. Now she only needed a name.

Eva grabbed her Mac and sat down on the terrace, where she immediately started to lay out the packaging. Since the product wasn’t in production yet, it was quite possible to manufacture it in the shape of an arrowhead.

As if possessed, she worked for seven hours on her design and easily ignored the mess that had inspired it. Eva didn’t notice it was late until the sun went down, and she realized she was hungry and her throat was dry. She went to the kitchen and poured herself a cold apple juice spritzer. In one big gulp, she chugged down the spritzer before heading to the garage to get the broom again.

But when she went back to the front yard, she couldn’t believe her eyes. The street was clean again. Had the farmer heard her yell and cleaned up his mess? There were no clumps of dirt in front of David’s or their neighbor’s house across the street either. “Will miracles never cease?” she said to herself, and stowed the broom back in the garage.

After a shower, she cooked spaghetti with pesto sauce to which she added balsamic vinegar and freshly chopped tomato. She sat down with a glass of red wine in the living room, where she flicked on the TV. Normally she would switch to another station during commercial breaks, but this evening she watched commercials for an hour before she turned it off. Felix lay beside her on the sofa and refused to slide over so that she could stretch out. “Well, you selfish little thing. You lie around all day sleeping and eating. Then when I sit down, you try to hog the whole sofa.” She scratched his belly. As if to confirm her words, he stretched out even more, claiming more space for himself.

Eva worked all Sunday morning on the box for the chocolate bars. Cut-up chocolate packaging covered the dining room table. Eva stuffed her mouth full with the goodies as nourishment. She cut and glued parts of the thin cardboard into the shape of an arrow, which ended up reminding her of the red-and-white road signs indicating sharp curves in the road. She finally gave up after five hours. The results looked awful and wouldn’t be any more attractive on the screen, even if she arranged the chocolate into an appetizing layout. Chocolate packages shouldn’t be any shape other than four-sided—practical and proper. Ritter Sport discovered that decades ago. Bailey’s Chocolate wanted an innovative package that would cause a stir in the marketplace? Well, Eva’s packaging would be sensational all right, but for all the wrong reasons. Who was the genius to come up with this silly idea, anyway?

It would be better if she left the whole damned thing alone for a while and regrouped. She decided to prepare a meal for her father, then go to the hospital to visit her parents.

Eva took the roast from the fridge and some aluminum foil from the cupboard. She also pulled out carrots and onions along with a packet of powdered ready-mix sauce.

She diced up the carrots and onions. As the vegetables sizzled in the pot, she put the roast in a hot pan and browned it on all sides.

“Clumsy thing.” She quietly cursed because the roast wouldn’t stay put where she wanted it. She had to stab it with a large fork and keep it in the right position so that each side would brown nicely.

She deglazed the onions and carrots with water and the roast with red wine. Because Eva loved a lot of sauce with her roast, she poured more water in the pot, then whisked in the packaged sauce ingredients. With a satisfied nod, she put the roast in the pot.

Just as she put the lid on top, the doorbell rang. Puzzled about who it could be, she ran to open it.

“Aunt Inge!” Eva exclaimed. “What are you doing here? Oh, I’m so glad to see you.” She stood aside to let her aunt in.

“I thought it might be nice if we drove to the hospital together. Also, I wanted to know how you were getting along in your new situation.” Inge put her purse on the hallway table and sniffed. “You can cook? You really can?”

Eva tilted her head. “Why does the whole world think I can’t cook?” She motioned for her aunt to follow her into the kitchen.

“If your father doesn’t notice that, then I’ll eat my hat,” her aunt cackled, pointing to the torn-up packet of instant sauce.

“If he does notice and says anything negative, he’ll get hot dogs instead!” Eva countered. “What’s so bad about that, anyway? It’s better than lumps of flour in the sauce.”

“That’s right. But your father knows his food,” Inge said and leaned against the kitchen counter. “But this will do that spoiled man some good. I’m not supposed to help take care of him until your mother comes back home.”

Eva arched her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“I offered to take care of my brother, but he adamantly refused. He says I’m too bossy.” Inge shook her head. “I’m not going to let him order me around, that’s for sure. But it would have been a good distraction from thinking about my Udo. After all, what better purpose do we women have to do than take care of our husbands? This is the reason God created us.”

Eva bit her tongue regarding her aunt’s antiquated views.

“And since your mother caters to your father’s every whim, he didn’t want me to help, even though I have plenty of time on my hands. The children are all grown, and Udo, well, you know about that . . .”

Eva felt guilty that she didn’t attend her uncle’s funeral three years ago. She’d had an important test, and even her aunt said the exam was a priority, because her uncle had already left this world anyway. Aunt Inge was very practical.

“I didn’t know anything about this. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have come. Chris asked me to support him, because no one else was able to. I was lucky my boss went along with it.”

“All this because your father thought his comfortable life was threatened under my care,” her aunt griped.

“If Papa thinks he can control me, he is sorely mistaken.” Eva felt betrayed. Aunt Inge had offered her support, but that just wasn’t good enough for her father. “Yesterday he got a lighter cast, and now he can get around on his crutches. If he doesn’t like my food, then he can get up and make himself a sandwich.”

Inge giggled. “I see. You just need to summon your inner Inge, and then he won’t be able to boss you around.” Inge looked at the pot. “You better turn that down or you’re going to burn your roast.”

Eva had forgotten all about it. She lowered the stove’s temperature. “Would you like something to drink?”

Inge shook her head. “I just came over to pick you up. Turn off the stove. You can cook the meat later.”

“How long does it take to cook a thing like this?” Eva asked.

“This is your first roast? If you’re cooking up a special pork roast to spoil your father, then maybe you’re just like your mother.” Inge smiled broadly, then glanced into the pot. “Three hours at low heat should be enough.”

Ten minutes later, Eva was sitting in Aunt Inge’s VW Golf. It bothered her that her father had rejected assistance from his sister. “Did you guys have a fight?”

“Well, we have different opinions about lots of things. Sometimes our conversations get quite heated. But fight?” She thought it over. “No. You couldn’t call it a fight. But your father would get a piece of my mind if he thought he could just park his butt on the couch all day, demanding to be served. And the thought of giving up his cushy lifestyle scared the living daylights out of him.”