On Monday morning, I placed the final collection of balloons in the corner of the first floor then stepped back and smiled at Sheila. ‘What do you think?’
‘It looks beautiful,’ she said. ‘I knew it would look good, but this is something else.’
‘It’s pretty impressive, isn’t it?’ I dug my phone out my pocket. ‘I need to take some photos while it all looks immaculate.’
Maria and Marc had chosen a grey, pink and ivory colour scheme for their wedding. I’d hired in some silver chairs with ivory seat pads and ivory voile bows fastened to the backs. Sarah from Seaside Blooms had already been in with the flowers. She’d made large pink and white arrangements on plinths for upstairs and downstairs, a table arrangement for the register signing table upstairs, a matching one for the café counter downstairs, a collection of small arrangements in sparkly silver vases for the tables, and some swathes of ivy and gypsophila for the staircase and round the windows.
‘Anything else need doing?’ Sheila asked when I’d finished taking photos.
Whipping my list out of my pocket, I scanned down it. ‘No. I think that’s all done so get yourself home and changed and I’ll see you back here at one.’
The 2 p.m. ceremony would be attended by a small, select gathering of roughly twenty guests. More guests were invited from 4 p.m. including several of the Castle Street traders, although they’d mainly be joining us from six onwards once they’d closed for the day and had the opportunity to freshen up and change.
Back downstairs, I let Sheila out then checked on Nathan and Molly in the kitchen who’d both skipped lectures for the day.
‘We need about another half an hour in here,’ Molly said, while Nathan removed a couple of quiches from the oven.
‘Okay. I’m going to get changed so can you make sure the door is on the latch when you leave?’
‘Will do,’ Molly said. ‘I can’t wait to see Maria in her dress. I bet she looks stunning.’
‘I bet she does too. See you both later and thanks for this morning. You’ve been amazing.’
‘We’ve enjoyed it,’ Nathan said, smiling. I was pretty certain that part of the enjoyment came from working together. They were such a cute couple, yet they made sure that their relationship remained professional at work.
All the staff were invited to the ceremony and had been told that partners were welcome to join them afterwards. Maria wanted it to be informal and for everyone to enjoy themselves. There was still work to be done, though, so I decided to pay everyone a bonus on the assumption that they would enjoy themselves and be guests, but they would all help out where needed, stocking up the food, preparing more hot food during the evening, clearing away plates and glasses. We weren’t licensed so Maria and Marc had provided several bottles of wine, cans of lager, and soft drinks.
I was showered, changed and back downstairs at 12.30 p.m., wearing a dress. When I lived in London, I wore dresses all the time, but couldn’t actually remember the last time I’d worn one in Whitsborough Bay. I’d chosen a dark blue wrap-around dress with a large floral print. It fell to just under knee-length at the front but was shaped to almost floor-length at the back. The style seemed to fit with the informal wedding vibe that Maria was keen to have – smart and classy without being too formal. I wasn’t convinced I’d make it through the entire evening in the strappy blue heels so I placed a pair of ballet pumps at the bottom of the internal stairs just in case.
My phone rang.
‘Hi, Tara,’ Carly said. ‘Just checking whether now’s a good time to bring the cake over.’
‘Perfect timing. I’m downstairs.’
‘Bethany and I will be there in two minutes.’
I was opening a packet of silver serviettes when there was a knock on the door. Pulling it wide, I expected to see Carly and Bethany.
‘Oh. It’s you,’ I snapped, instantly feeling on edge. ‘What do you want?’
‘Do you greet all your customers like this?’ Jed looked and sounded amused which only wound me up more.
‘No. But you’re not a customer. You’re a…’ I stopped myself just in time. He really wasn’t worth it and I resented how much he’d occupied my thoughts over the past few weeks.
‘I’m a what?’
‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘It clearly does or you wouldn’t have started to say it. Go on. Spit it out. I’m not a customer. I’m a…’
‘You’re just the former owner of this building and an arrogant con artist.’ There! I’d said it. And, my goodness, did it feel good to finally tell him what I thought of him after all these years.
But Jed looked shell-shocked. ‘I’m a what?’
I planted my hands on my hips and narrowed my eyes at him, determined not to feel guilty for calling him on his deception. I wasn’t the one in the wrong. ‘You heard me.’
‘And what am I supposed to have done to be labelled “an arrogant con artist”?’
‘Oh, don’t play the innocent with me. You ripped me off when I bought this place.’
‘How?’
‘Wanting ten grand more or you’d sell to a mystery new buyer. You knew I’d have no choice but to cough up because we’d already started on the refurb. I can’t believe I fell for that no-catch-nothing-in-it-for-me bollocks. Then there was the leaky roof that you’d had temporarily patched. Cheers for that. It cost me nearly ten grand extra to sort that out too. And all because you threw a strop that I only wanted to buy the building and not your failing café.’
He stared at me for a moment, mouth open. Ha! There wasn’t much he could say to that, was there?
‘Coming through with a cake,’ Carly called.
Jed stepped aside to allow Bethany and Carly to shuffle into the café, holding the cake between them.
‘There’s a round table for it over there.’ I pointed then turned my attention back to Jed. ‘Did you knock on the door for a reason?’
‘Yes, but it doesn’t matter. I can see you’re busy. I’ll leave you to it.’
‘Good.’
‘I…’ He shook his head. ‘Forget it. It doesn’t matter.’ He turned away and I closed and locked the door. Idiot.
‘Sorry about that,’ I said to Carly and Bethany.
‘Who was that?’ Bethany asked. ‘He’s dreamy.’
I frowned. ‘Really? Why does everyone keep saying that?’
‘Because he is,’ Carly said, ‘and even you admitted the other day that he was good-looking. It’s only because you can’t stand him that you refuse to admit he’s gorgeous.’
‘But who is he?’ Bethany persisted.
‘It’s Jed. Our new neighbour,’ I said.
‘From the gallery?’ she asked. ‘Is it true that he’s opening a café?’
I nodded.
‘We don’t know that for certain,’ Carly said. ‘He’s not categorically said he’s opening a café, has he? And nobody else seems to know for definite. Right now, it’s speculation because of what he used to do.’
‘What else would he do, though?’
Carly smiled. ‘Tara! He’s been living in Australia for fourteen years. He could have retrained several times over and got a stack of new skills. Just because he had a café before doesn’t mean he’s going to open another one.’
‘Maybe not. But he could have made it clear from the outset if that wasn’t the case.’
‘Maybe he wants to keep what he’s doing confidential, just in case anyone else beats him to it,’ Bethany suggested.
‘Okay. I admit defeat. There is a slim possibility he might not be setting up a café. But I don’t want to talk about him anymore. Let’s see this cake.’
Carly carefully lifted off the tall cardboard box that had been covering it.
‘Aw, it’s gorgeous.’
‘Thank you,’ Carly said. ‘It’s simple but effective.’
It was a three-tier sponge cake and I knew that Maria and the kids had chosen a different flavour per layer. George had gone for chocolate cake, Sofia had chosen vanilla and Maria had picked toffee sponge. Each tier was decorated with sugar ruffles, starting in deep grey, graduating into light grey then steadily becoming ivory as they reached the top layer. Ruffled pale pink roses adorned the various layers and a cute penguin bride and groom wedding topper – chosen by George and Sofia – stood among the roses on the top layer.
‘Do you want to look round before everyone gets here?’ I asked Carly. ‘It might help you visualise how you can use the space for your engagement party.’
‘Yes, please.’
‘I’ve got a few bits to sort out so help yourself.’
The pair of them headed towards the back of the café then disappeared upstairs. Five minutes later, they reappeared.
‘It looks amazing,’ Carly said. ‘Even better than I imagined.’
‘She’s right,’ Bethany added. ‘I love it.’
‘I’d better go and get changed,’ Carly said. ‘See you in a bit.’ She went over to the round table and adjusted the angle of the cake stand then grabbed the cardboard box and I let them both out.
I was about to shut the door when I spotted Jed marching towards me across the cobbles.
‘What now?’ I snapped.
Solemn-faced, he handed me an envelope, then turned to leave.
‘What’s this?’
He turned round again with a sigh. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, a tenderness in his voice I hadn’t heard before. ‘I honestly didn’t know. It explains a lot.’ Without waiting for a response, he turned and headed back to his shop.
Weird. I was about to tear the envelope open when Nathan and Molly arrived back, with Sheila and Brandon just behind them. Nathan put some music on, a few more of the team arrived, and soon The Chocolate Pot was a hive of noise and activity. I shoved the envelope against the coffee machine, out of sight, out of mind.