Emma's POV
Celeste adds two extra shifts and asks me to take one of them, which I do without hesitation because the kitchen in December is extraordinary. Everything smells like citrus and spice and there's a focused intensity that I've missed without knowing I missed it.
Dominic notices I come home energized instead of tired.
"Good shift?" he says Thursday evening when I walk in.
"We did four hundred mignardises today. Celeste didn't correct me once."
"Is that a record?"
"For me, yes."
He hands me a glass of wine and I sit at the island and tell him about the citrus tart variation Celeste let me develop and he listens with the attention he gives things that matter to him, which now includes whatever matters to me.
I still notice it. I don't think I'll ever stop noticing it.
The g
