Christmas At The Cupcake Cafe (19 page)

The little café was full to bursting with happy cheery people sharing their nut lattes and mince pies, showing each other their big bags of gifts, some with long rolls of red and green paper sticking out. Children were running around pointing at the Advent calendar, which Louis was guarding fiercely, doling out one window a day without fear or favour. The queue was almost out the door and steam was rising from the tea urn, and Issy felt, already, only a few metres
away, a deep and abiding nostalgia for the place. She was on a journey now, heading somewhere else, far away, and she did not know if things would be the same when she returned.

Issy was dashing about the house in a panic. Helena had agreed with frankly surprising alacrity to take her to the airport, muttering something about getting out of the house, but time was running short. Issy
had no idea what to take – cocktail dress? Ballgown? Five hats? – and Darny was point-blank refusing to pack anything apart from his usual hoodie and fifteen DS games. He scoffed at every hat she held up as if it were for a five-year-old and couldn’t seem to get his head around the fact that they were going to a different climate, which, since the only place he’d ever been to was Spain on a package trip, where it had rained every day, was possibly not that surprising but was infuriating Issy.

‘Why are we even going?’ he had grumbled. ‘Doesn’t Austin want to come back here? Why can’t he come and see us?’

Issy had tried to come up with a good explanation. She wasn’t doing very well.

‘Hello!’

Kelly-Lee was delighted to see the rumpled-looking Englishman again. Now that he wasn’t half asleep, she noticed how handsome he was, with a distracted look about him which implied his mind was on higher things. Austin was in fact wondering what exactly to say to Merv if Issy and Darny simply didn’t arrive. He knew on one level that it was his fault for making everything so tricky; on another level, there was a bit of him, more childish, that said it was unfair that he didn’t have anyone – truly anyone – around to say, wow, Austin, that’s just so amazing! Even his PA, Janet, who
was normally his biggest cheerleader, had got very sniffy about the whole thing and was making pointed remarks about how wonderful it was for people who got to go and work in America and how there wasn’t much call these days for old washed-up PAs who got put out of work, and Austin had tried to laugh it off and explain that he wasn’t going, and she sniffed loudly and he remembered how many more things Janet seemed to know than he did and felt guilty.

So no, nobody was happy for him, not really. He did like to think that his mother would have been pleased. But would she? She hated bankers; both his parents had been totally unreconstructed old socialists. She had absolutely adored him going off to study marine biology, had loved the concept of him travelling the world and diving. And if she hadn’t only gone and been hit by a bloody nineteen-year-old driver – well, then he might have been doing just that. At least he was doing the travelling the world bit.

He had a few photos of his parents, but not many; developing pictures was expensive in those days, and they were mostly of him and Darny, which as far as Austin was concerned was pointless and completely unnecessary. Sometimes they were with his dad – tall and with the same mop of unruly red-brown hair as Austin – but there were very few of his mother. He guessed it was always her behind the camera. He tried to conjure up her image, but he still found it hard to believe how young she had been. It became worse the older he got. Sometimes he would imagine her in the kitchen
cooking up something nice, but this was a complete fallacy; his mother hated to cook and would dole up sad-looking vegetable stews or lentil hotpots under sufferance. The fact that Issy actively enjoyed being in the kitchen was something he could never quite understand; his mother used to mutter a lot about Germaine Greer and slavery. He saw so much of her in Darny. He missed her such a lot.

‘You look like you’ve lost a dollar and found a nickel,’ said Kelly-Lee. Austin smiled weakly.

‘Hello,’ he said. ‘Sorry, lost in thought.’

‘Ooh, a thinker!’

‘Well, I don’t know about that,’ said Austin, as she made him a cup of burnt-tasting coffee large enough to sail the QE2 in.

‘So,’ she said in a conspiratorial tone of voice. ‘Did your girlfriend love the cupcakes?’

Austin frowned. ‘Hmm,’ he said. ‘Not exactly.’

Better and better, thought Kelly-Lee.

‘Oh no! That’s too bad. Is she on a diet?’

‘Issy? On a diet?’ Austin grinned at the thought. ‘Uhm, no.’

Kelly-Lee had been on a diet since she was thirteen years old, though she always claimed she wasn’t and was just lucky she could eat what she liked.

‘So what was the problem?’

‘Well, she’s a baker, so …’

‘They’re all made to the highest of standards.’ Kelly-Lee picked up a coconut
cookie wrapped in cellophane. ‘Here, try this.’

‘Actually,’ said Austin, ‘I’m not that crazy about sweet things.’

He didn’t even care for sweets. This was perfect, thought Kelly-Lee. They might as well have broken up already. He was moving here, she wasn’t here, she didn’t like his present, he didn’t like her cakes … No court would convict her.

She quickly glanced at herself in the reflecting side of the cake cabinet. She looked pretty good, her wide mouth painted a nice delicate pink and her teeth very straight and sparkly white. She blinked whilst looking at the floor – an old trick, but a good one, she’d found – then glanced up at Austin through her lashes.

‘Well, if you don’t want anything sweet …’ she said tentatively, pretending to be nervous, ‘maybe a drink later?’

‘Uhm.’ Austin furrowed his brow in confusion. ‘I don’t …’

‘I just thought a friendly thing when I finish my shift … nothing more. Sorry. I’m just … I’m new in town too. I’m sorry, I just … I mean, I just get lonely sometimes.’

‘You?’ said Austin, genuinely surprised. ‘But you’re so pretty! How can you be lonely?’

‘Do you really think so?’

Austin was starting to feel this conversation was getting out of his control.

‘Anyway, I have to go to the airport tonight. My
girl-friend is … well, at least I
think
my girlfriend is arriving.’

‘Oh, great,’ said Kelly-Lee. ‘You must come on by, show her the place!’

‘I will,’ said Austin, relieved.

‘But you don’t know if she’s coming for sure?’

Austin winced a bit. ‘Well, it’s hard for her to get away, you know; she runs a business and everything …’ He checked his phone, instinctively, then put it away when it showed nothing.

Too busy to look after her man, thought Kelly-Lee without a qualm.

‘Well,’ she said. ‘If she decides not to come, you come here and get me and I’ll take you to this little Manhattan watering hole I know where they serve Jack Daniel’s and play jazz. You’ll like it.’

‘I’m sure I will,’ said Austin, gulping down as much coffee as he could handle – about an eighth of the gigantic cup – and heading for the door.

‘Hang on,’ said Kelly-Lee. She grabbed a notepad and pen and jotted down her number. ‘Just in case,’ she said, popping it in his top pocket.

There was a letter on the hall table that looked official. Even though Helena was honking furiously outside in the car and a pair of tights were trailing out of Issy’s gigantic bag like they were attempting to escape, she stopped to pick it up. Darny was wearing shorts,
mismatched socks, a hoodie and nothing else. Issy threw one of Austin’s coats at him – very briefly she caught Austin’s comforting smell of cologne and printer ink – and banged open the door with a clang. Helena was gesticulating wildly, Chadani Imelda howling her head off in the back seat. Behind them, a large white van was also honking, trying to get past on the narrow road that was lined both sides with parked cars.

‘DARNY!’ called Issy in frustration. Darny slouched out as slowly as he dared, pretending to read
The God Delusion
in one hand as he went.

Helena stopped honking when she saw what Issy was wearing.

‘What …’ Her mouth dropped open.

‘Shut up. It’s a favour to a friend,’ said Issy. ‘An acquaintance. Someone I don’t like. Whatever.’

She tried to throw her bag in the boot of the car, but Chadani’s gigantically oversized turbo buggy was already in there taking up all the room, so eventually, crosser and crosser, she laid it on the back seat and made Darny sit on it.

‘We’re going to miss this flight,’ she grumbled.

‘We won’t,’ said Helena, cheerily flicking a V at the irate van caught behind her. ‘And if you do, you can catch the next one, and if you don’t want to, you can come home and have some wine with me and I’ll show you all of Chadani’s new photographs and finger paintings.’