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Hortensja had been preparing chocolates since morning according to a recipe she found online. She was just finishing when Tadao came without his usual impetus and a stack of notes. He sat down at the table and rested his head on it, staring at the girl who was starting to clean up. He sighed heavily and waited for his coworker to pay attention to him.

“Speak,” he said, not stopping her work. “I'm listening.” She had gotten used to Tadao only talking during work, and she wasn't sure if he would feel comfortable if they talked face-to face.

“You know what day it is. I don't feel like working on romantic scenes. I've never received those stupid chocolates from anyone outside my family.”

“Let them regret it. Will it make you feel better?” She put a package of sweets in front of him.

“A little, because you're probably giving it to me out of pity,” he mumbled, opening the gift.

“No.” She pointed to the note lying on the table. “I was making a list to count how many ingredients I need, and you were on it from the beginning.”

Tadao looked at her a bit embarrassed, mumbled thanks, and took another chocolate to his mouth. He also asked for the less successful ones and wondered if she was okay with him being there because there were more ready-made packages waiting, and she could have specific plans for the day.

“Do you want coffee or tea?”

“No.” Tadao decided that he would use the opportunity to leave without embarrassing himself. “I bet you have some plans with Hikaru. I would like to have some too.”

“If he comes home at a normal hour, as I asked him to.” Hortensja looked away. “Since you work so much, it's hard to find time for dates. As you can see, even when you're already in a relationship, it feels almost impossible.”

“It's fucked up, but when there's so much to do, and you're pressed for deadlines, what are you supposed to do?”

“Let it go, because otherwise you'll go crazy and lose your enthusiasm even for something you love.”

Tadao thought about her words and left shortly after but returned a few minutes later with a box filled with a large amount of chocolate sweets.

“It was from a fan. She wrote a note, but she probably only sees me as an author, since I write under a pseudonym and doesn't know how hopeless I really am,” he announced with a suddenly worse mood. “But how did she know where I live? The publishing house is very careful not to leak my data.”

“Maybe it's someone you know?” Hortensja suggested, hoping that it was really a sincere and nice gesture.

Her neighbor came in all beaming at first, and she was just about to drop off some chocolates at the restaurant, and it was good that they had met again. Tadao guessed that she was just going out somewhere, and he became even more gloomy that he would be left with the box and no idea what to do with it.

Hortensja turned around to make sure that she didn't really need to get an umbrella, and her attention was caught by a girl standing in front of the building, staring at them with a desperate expression. Tadao also looked out into the street. The Pole grabbed the box and made eye contact with her.

“Hey, did you send this?” she asked with a smile. The supposed secret admirer looked at her with horror, as if someone had caught her red-handed.

The neighbor snatched the gift from her hands and asked with a terrified expression what she was doing, forcing her to hide behind the railing. Hortensja found this amusing but tried not to show it.

“Are you crazy?”

“She doesn't speak Polish anyway. Do you know this girl? She seems cute,” she tried to check if she hadn't run away yet. She stood in the same place, paralyzed with fear and shame, but at the same time determined that since she had been caught red-handed anyway, she would face the brutal truth.

“Yes, she's bloody cute,” Tadao replied absentmindedly. “We went to the same class in high school. I met her a while ago in a store, and it turned out that she also lives in this neighborhood. We talked a few more times. What does that have to do with anything?”

“You said you had no plans for today.” Hortensja smiled ominously, which terrified her neighbor. “Well, let's go sort this out.” She grabbed his hand and started pulling him towards the stairs. “Go and invite her for coffee. She's already taken the first step by sending you chocolates. If you like her, try it, then tell me how it was.”

She patted him on the shoulder and went her way, leaving him to make the final decision on whether to take this step. She didn't know if she was doing the right thing or if she was interfering too much, which she was often accused of. Hortensja only wanted to help and hoped that her hunches weren't wrong this time either. And since she had already sorted out the love lives of several people, she could focus on her own. She looked at her watch and remembered with relief that she had already done the shopping for dinner. She only dropped by the restaurant to give some chocolates and went home to cook.

The Pole had been working out a menu for a romantic dinner for a long time, one that she would be sure of but would also be a successful surprise for Hikaru. She checked her phone now and then, each time with a worsening feeling when there was still no news that her beloved was coming home. She had fought for so long not to let herself get frustrated when she hadn't asked him earlier to come back sooner, but that was what mattered to her that day. The hours passed, the food she had prepared with such care was getting cold, and the candles on the table were no longer impressive, having halved their height. She blew them off and sat in the dark.

Negative emotions took the opportunity to surface in her heart. Hortensja had endured it for so long, waited, tried, and didn't have even a fraction of her beloved's time. She didn't ask for much; she didn't have to go on dates every weekend; she would even appreciate the time spent together shopping or doing household chores. She fought with herself, trying to convince herself that she wasn't demanding so much. Still, she accused herself of getting mad unnecessarily, and yet memories of the arguments with Kamil came back, which concerned the same thing. “You tell me to stay home, and you still don't have time for me, and I'm waiting for you all the time!” she accused him, to which he only replied that she was exaggerating and making things up.

Now she was waiting, spending another evening alone, and when she saw how tired Hikaru was, she simply preferred him to rest. It wouldn't have been a problem if not for the fact that the situation that was supposed to end with the new year had lasted for months. She was nervous that he, and she herself, couldn't do anything about it, apart from showing silent support, but even that had its limits. Their conversations were becoming shorter and more general, and instead of getting closer to each other, she had the impression that they were standing still, if not moving away from each other. She knew that the initial phase of falling in love didn't last forever, and yet she felt regret that somewhere what was between them had started to fade. She ruffled her hair in anger; this wasn't how it was supposed to be. Hortensja wanted to start over and build a healthy relationship despite the cultural differences, many of which were still ahead of them, and the damn approach to work already seemed insurmountable. She heard Hikaru open the door, and when she heard him call her name and apologize for being late, she knew she was going to explode.