120 Blind Dates... And Other Short Stories

Breaking Chocolate Hearts

"First of all, it is not hard to make your own chocolate candies. All you need is the right sort of form, and there are dozens out there, and they come in various shapes. I've once seen one with which you could make chocolate candies that had the form of Darth Vader's helmet. Then you need to buy a lot of chocolate or a big jar of Nutella spread. I've obviously done this before, so I've used different brands. I guess in the end it is a question of your personal taste, but I personally liked the chocolate candies I made with Kinder chocolate best. If you want the candies to have a crispy taste, melt a few Kinder Country bars. Then you heat water in a pot on your stove and put a smaller pot in the hot water. That small pot then contains the chocolate, which you need to break in pieces if you aren't using Nutella spread. Et voilà, that's basically how you do it, how you melt chocolate and make chocolate candies. Oh, and you have to put them into the fridge for two hours afterwards. The chocolate needs to get hard again," Harriet's mother instructed her on the phone.

"Oh, Mum, you make it sound so easy! I could barely follow you!" Harriet exclaimed. 

Until recently, she had always relied on her Mum to bake a cake or even chocolate chip cookies whenever there was a friend's birthday coming up or a celebration at school. There was a good reason why her parents had always asked her to help out Dad in the garage: Whereas Harriet was an ace at repairing a car, she was hopeless in the kitchen. Ever since a summer barbecue in their garden had ended with thirteen-year-old Harriet setting more than just the meat on fire, her parents had kept her as far away from the kitchen as possible.    

But right now, all that counted was that it was very important to her to impress Scott, her new boyfriend, on Valentine's Day. They barely knew each other as they had just met when they had both started their studies at the same university last fall. Due to the state the world was in with the COVID-19 pandemic, they had met in an online seminar and started following each other on their social media channels. They had started to chat quite a bit with each other because they didn't have much else to do during lockdown. At some point, they had started to meet in person and hang out together, watching Netflix or YouTube. 

That's how they had fallen in love... during an argument about the racy parts of Bridgerton, which had actually made Scott laugh, whereas Harriet had loved the series. Someone should update that old David Bowie song about Modern Love!

A romantic at heart, Harriet had not been able to resist buying a form with which you could make heart-shaped chocolate candies when she had seen it at the grocery store earlier. The obvious problem was that she had never made chocolate candies before. On the other hand, she  didn't think it was possible to set chocolate on fire. At least she had never heard about a person who had managed to do that. 

So she set about to make the heart-shaped chocolate candies at about noon, which was a challenge, considering that she had never made them before and her Mum had told her they needed to be put in the fridge for about two hours. Scott had said he would be at her place at about 4 p.m. and that they would then spend a lazy evening watching old romantic comedies and enjoy a romantic meal including the heart-shaped pizza they had bought at the supermarket the other day. 

After about half an hour, Harriet felt confident that she could make the candies. The water was hot and bubbling, and the chocolate was melting as it should. She hadn't told her Mum that she had bought expensive fair trade chocolate though and that these would be the most expensive chocolate candies she had ever eaten. As she was stirring the chocolate and quite happy with herself, she suddenly realized that her Mum hadn't given her any instructions on how long she should do it and what the chocolate was supposed to look like when she put it in the form. Perhaps it didn't matter?

Nonetheless, she wanted to be on the safe side and called her mother again. 

An unknown male voice who was most definitely not her father answered the phone. "Yes?"

"Sorry, I must have dialed the wrong number. I wanted to speak to Evelyn Carter."

"Then you've got the right number. Hold on a second, she is taking a shower!" the man said.

Indeed, she could hear someone taking a shower in the background, and the man was saying something like, "Honey, there is someone on the phone." There had to be a rational explanation for this. Her mother wasn't having an affair. No, her parents' marriage had always been perfect. They had met at school, married shortly after their graduation, had her eight months later and were still very much together. 

Her mother answered the phone after what seemed like an eternity, but probably hadn't been more than just a few minutes. She sounded a bit out of breath. "Evelyn Cater speaking."

"Hello, Mum. I wanted to ask you a question about the candies I wanted to make for Scott today. But I think we should talk about the guy in your house first."

Her mother sighed when she said this. "All right, this isn't going to be easy. Your Dad and I have been wanting to tell you this for some time, but we thought you should get settled at university first."

"Well, I'm obviously settled now. What's going on?" 

Harriet knew what her mother was going to say before she said it. Nonetheless, she needed to hear her say the words to believe them. "Your Dad and I have decided to go our separate ways. He has already moved out."

"And the man in your house?"

"That's Bob, my co-worker. Remember, I told you about him the last time you were here?"

It was true that Harriet vaguely remembered that her mother had mentioned a funny man that made everybody laugh at work. He had just moved here and started working with her mother after he had lost his wife, which is why her Mum had thought it was admirable how funny he could still be despite his wife's death. "I don't think I could be this funny so soon after your Dad's passing," she had said. That statement sounded ridiculous now, given the fact that she had started an affair with Bob. 

"Look, Mum, I think I need some time to digest this," Harriet said because she had never felt this upset in her entire life. Parents weren't supposed to divorce. They were supposed to stay together and be a perfect example of true romance to their kids, no matter how absurd that sounded in the 21th century.

"That's understandable," her mother said.

It was only when she hung up that Harriet discovered that the chocolate could indeed burn. At least it looked thick and muddy and had lost its shiny color. But making chocolate candies wasn't really on her mind anymore. She had forgotten all about her little project, with which she had wanted to impress Scott, during her conversation with her Mum. How ridiculous it seemed now that a few minutes ago, making chocolate candies had been so important to her!

Scott found her in bed that afternoon, wearing her pajamas and looking really dreadful. The kitchen was still a mess. She hadn't bothered to clean up after she had abandoned her chocolate project. "Hey, what's the matter? Are you sick?" her boyfriend asked Harriet after he had taken in the gloomy atmosphere.

Harriet looked up at him. "Are we going to make it? Like, really make it?"

Scott sighed. "I don't know. We haven't known each other for a long time. Perhaps we will, perhaps we won't. Who knows. Why are you asking me this on Valentine's Day?"

"Because my parents are getting a divorce."