What in the hell was he going to do with a mango splitter? How was it supposed to help him get James back? He’d been agonizing over this for days now, waiting for some sort of sign, some sort of instruction.

There was a knock at the door and Shelly, his assistant manager, poked her head in. “Fred, there’s someone out here who wants to speak to you.”

“I’ll be right out.” Fred grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair and put it on.

When he went out, he saw Shelly talking to a man standing by the wine racks. She pointed to Fred, then walked away. The man was Steve Marcus, a culinary instructor from Orion College. They’d had some good talks over the years about food and recipes. It took a moment for Fred to make himself walk. The last thing James had said to him was that he should go out with Steve. This had nothing to do with that, he told himself, but he still found himself hating every step he took. He didn’t want to date Steve.

Steve extended his hand. “Fred, good to see you.”

Fred shook his hand. “What can I do for you?” That doesn’t involve marriage.

“I wanted to invite you to join a free community class I’m teaching, sponsored by the university,” Steve said affably. He was a stout, good-natured man. He wore his chunky college ring on his right hand, and Fred had always liked that his nails were neat and shiny. “It’s going to be a fun course on making cooking easy with gadgets and shortcuts. You’d be a real asset to the class, with your knowledge of food and what’s available locally.”

This was all too much. It was too soon. Fred felt like someone was trying to wake him up too early in the morning. “I don’t know…my schedule…”

“It’s tomorrow night. Are you busy?”

“Tomorrow? Well…”

“I’m asking everyone to bring any tricks they’ve learned and gadgets they use that most people wouldn’t know about. No pressure, okay? Tomorrow night at six if you can come.” He reached into his back pocket and brought out his wallet. “Here’s my card with my number if you have any questions.”

Fred took it. It was warm from his body. “I’ll think about it.”

“Great. See you later.”

Fred walked back to his office and sat down hard in his chair. Bring any tricks and gadgets most people wouldn’t know about.

Like a mango splitter.

He’d waited so long for Evanelle to give him something. This was supposed to make everything right. Fred picked up the phone stubbornly. He would call James. He would make this the thing that brought them back together, no matter what.