Pizza

Chapter 14: Dragon Flirtation

Mirabel arrived a few months later. Svend maintained his stoic disposition for approximately 30 minutes after which she broke down all his barriers when she tapped him playfully on the shoulder and declared, “Why the long face, Svend? Anyone would think you don’t want me here.”

Svend could have no such misconceptions persist so he attempted to give her his least fearsome grin (dragons have a hard time showing their teeth in a non-menacing manner, even in their human form), and replied with his cheeks redder than a cherry, “No one would ever despair of your company my lady.”

“Oh my, I’m a lady now, am I? Well this lady declares you much too thin to be slaving away in that smithy all day. Sit down and I’ll whip you up something to eat.” Mirabel, declared magnanimously as if she truly were the lady of a large manner. She proceeded to chat with Svend while she baked some crusty bread and it was immediately like she had never left. Svend felt all the warmth and bubbles her presence previously inspired and was already significantly more smitten than he was ready to admit.

At some point in their lively chat, Leoric and Fiora returned from their check-up with the midwife. They glanced at each other knowingly and retreated to the kitchen so as to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Svend, seeing their knowing glances, immediately lost all the comfort and ease that had permeated the conversation and stood up abruptly, knocking over his chair in the process.

“Fiora! What did the midwife say? When do they expect the baby to come? Is everything going well?” Svend spit out these questions as quickly as possible without looking up from the floor which apparently had a very interesting stain.

“Everything is fine, the baby won’t be here for another two months or so.” Fiora responded with a gentle chuckle at Svend’s obvious antics.

“Well, that’s just great, I’ll be on my way then, and let you two settle in for the night see you at the smithy Leoric!” Svend was out the door before anyone could so much as nod in response to his farewell. “Whew!” He thought to himself once he was out the door. “That was a close call. If Fiora and Leoric see me spending extra time with Mirabel, I’ll never hear the end of it. Maybe they thought I was just waiting around to hear the news from the midwife? Sure. That’s what I was doing.”

Meanwhile, Mirabel was getting casually interrogated by her waddling cousin.

“So, what do you think of Svend, Mirabel?” Fiora inquired a little too innocently.

“Oh, he’s great most of the time, but then he’ll just shut down and leave. I don’t really know what to think of that. Maybe he’s shy? I mean, you saw, just now, how he abruptly left! I was making him some bread and he was so excited about it but then you and Leoric got home and he left without eating any! I hope he decides sooner rather than later if he wants to be friends or this might be an awkward year living with you guys.” Mirabel played with her kitchen towel as she mused over Svend’s strange behavior.

“I really don’t think he’s deciding to be friends with you or not” Fiora could not contain her chuckle at her cousin’s oblivion. “Svend is obviously smitten with you and that is what is making him so awkward and nervous. It sounds like he’s the worst when we’re around to witness his attempts at flirting.”

“Flirting? With me? No. No way, we’re just friends! I mean he’s handsome and kind and funny…. But we’re obviously just friends! Aren’t we? I will admit, I was hoping he was still working with Leoric when you asked me to come help with the baby. He is fun to be around when he doesn’t clam up. Maybe I should invite him to have dinner with all of us tomorrow. I’ll make pizza, I know Svend loves pizza.

So Mirabel invited Svend over for pizza, and this is the pizza she made. (Svend did indeed love it.)