Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop (20 page)

Jon took Anna in his arms the moment they stepped through the door, and kissed her gently on her mouth, her neck. He put down her suitcase in the hallway. He’d been there to meet her in the arrivals hall at Gatwick, and while they’d driven back to the flat she’d filled him in on all the details of Florence and the course – flavour by flavour, she’d talked him through the ice creams she’d made.

‘I’ve missed you,’ he said, nuzzling into her shoulder.

‘Me too.’ She kissed him back. ‘Shall we?’ she nodded towards the bedroom, and he didn’t need much encouragement to follow her.

Jon slowly unbuttoned her blouse and ran his hands over her bra, then her bare stomach. Her skin tingled instinctively, and her hands found their regular place on his arms, his chest. Her brain was only semi-engaged, still caught up in memories of sunshine and cobblestone piazzas, the delicious tastes she had just left behind. But as Jon kissed down her shoulder and gently took her blouse off, those thoughts began to shift and she found herself back in Brighton again. Yet with that came not the relaxation of being home, but thoughts about the shop.

‘Jon,’ she said, between his increasingly urgent kisses. He pulled away and looked at her with a mixture of impatience and distraction. ‘Uh huh,’ he said, still fiddling with the clasp on her bra.

‘Maybe I should call her,’ Anna said, reaffixing the hooks at the back and shuffling back a fraction on the bed. ‘Imogen. Check that everything’s been going all right.’

‘Really?’ Jon said, furrowing his brow, his cheeks colouring a little as he spoke. ‘You’ve only just got back, Anna, and we’ve been apart for a whole week.’

‘Sorry,’ Anna said, trying harder now to silence her doubts and relax. Imogen had reassured her on the phone that everything was going OK, and she should trust in that. ‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘Where were we again?’ she smiled, and he brought her back into his arms.

An hour later, Anna came around from the doze she’d fallen into in Jon’s arms. Squinting at the clock she saw it was just after 7 p.m.

‘Jon,’ she said, waking him gently. ‘We must have fallen asleep. It’s nearly time for dinner.’

He moved his head on the pillow slightly, beginning to stir. ‘Dinner,’ he echoed, and his eyes opened. ‘I don’t think we’ve got any food in,’ he said apologetically. ‘Fancy a meal out tonight?’

‘Absolutely,’ Anna said, sitting up with the duvet wrapped around her, feeling snug and protected. ‘How about Gianni’s?’

They had always liked Gianni’s – romantic and candlelit, the Italian restaurant tucked away in the Lanes was off the tourist trail, instead packed to the rafters with Italian families and Brighton locals most nights. She and Jon had gone on their second date there, and it remained a favourite of theirs for special occasions. And tonight – a taste of Gianni’s pasta or pizza would keep the holiday high going a while longer.

‘You know what,’ Jon said, propping himself up on his elbow, ‘I feel more like curry tonight. Is that OK?’

‘Curry,’ Anna said, forcing herself to forget the meal she’d imagined. ‘Sure. Curry it is.’

‘Poppadom?’ Jon asked, snapping one of the crisp discs in half.

She took it from him, and Jon spooned out a dollop of mango chutney onto his. They were the only customers in the restaurant, a quiet basement room around the corner from the flat, and their twenty-something waiter was being particularly attentive.

‘I’m absolutely starving,’ Jon said, with a smile.

Anna scanned the menu, longing for a risotto juicy with sun-ripened tomatoes, or fresh tagliatelle flavoured with delectable truffle sauce … A chicken jalfrezi, she decided. That would do. She was with Jon, she reminded herself. That was what mattered. Back home, with the man she’d missed the whole time she was away.

‘Madam,’ the waiter said, eyes bright, ‘are you ready to order?’

‘The chicken jalfrezi and some garlic naan, please,’ Anna said. ‘And a Cobra beer.’

‘And you, sir?’

‘A chicken tikka for me, and plain naan,’ Jon said, putting the menu back down.

He looked from the waiter back to Anna. ‘I feel better now that’s on the way.’

‘Have you been eating OK while I’ve been away?’ Anna asked.

‘Oh yes. I mean, not full meals like usual, but I’m still alive, as you can see. I suppose Imogen said something to you?’

‘No,’ Anna replied, puzzled. ‘About what?’

He shook his head. ‘Oh, nothing. She just caught me unawares the other day. I had a day working from home, and she came by.’

‘Oh yes, she mentioned that,’ Anna said. ‘Something about you in your pants? Sorry, I should have mentioned she still had a spare set of keys.’

‘Would have helped,’ Jon said, looking slightly embarrassed.

‘That’s good, though, that you’re able to get some time working from home now.’ Anna said. ‘It’ll help when Alfie’s ill, that kind of thing.’

‘Yes,’ Jon said. ‘Should do. Alfie was asking after you, by the way. He’s still going on about that instant ice cream you two made together.’

‘Lovely. I missed him. Anything new to report?’

‘He’s still drawing a lot, or “mark-making”. That’s what they call it nowadays, apparently. Oh, and he can’t wait to see Hepburn again. Although I have to admit I was happy to let Imogen take him and give me a break from his whining.’

The naan bread arrived and Anna tore off a corner and began to chew on it. ‘Maybe he was lonely,’ Anna said. It felt almost as if she’d never been away.

‘Anna,’ Imogen said, ‘we need to talk.’

Anna had come down to Vivien’s early on Monday morning, excited about starting work again, only to find her sister standing behind the counter with an anxious expression on her face.

‘Some things happened when you were away.’

‘Some things?’ Anna said, taking a seat.
Things
 – that could mean good things, couldn’t it? There was no reason why not. Apart from the look on Imogen’s face, that is. ‘What kind of things?’

‘To start with, I bought a van.’

‘Right,’ Anna replied. ‘But after paying for the course, we hardly had any money left. How did you get hold of a van?’ Irritation rose up in her – she and Imogen had made an agreement when they first started not to make any major purchases without consulting one another.

‘I used the rest of the money from Granny V,’ Imogen confessed.

Anna felt her cheeks blaze red, her annoyance now impossible to conceal. ‘That was the money we put aside for ingredients, Imogen. You knew that.’

‘But it seemed like a great opportunity,’ Imogen said. ‘A real vintage ice cream van. Jess did the logo … and we painted it together, and …’

‘Why do I sense a “but” coming?’ Anna said.

‘It worked fine when I first drove it, and now it just needs a bit of work to get going again. Then we’ll be able to take your ice creams on the road … to festivals.’ Imogen’s words
were coming out in a rush. ‘But then something happened, and I tried to drive it and it conked out and … ’

‘Oh God. So you not only bought a van, without talking about it with me first, but you’re telling me it’s a
dud
? Imogen, just tell me now, because I don’t think I can cope with you dragging it out any longer. What else happened when I was away?’

Imogen talked her sister through the food-poisoning debacle, the article and damning online reviews and the feud with Finn. After that, Anna hoped that they might finally have covered everything.

‘And that’s it,’ Imogen said, biting her lip.

‘I don’t believe you,’ Anna said.

‘That is almost it,’ Imogen said. ‘There’s also some family stuff going on that you should know about.’

‘Family stuff?’

‘Dad’s still depressed and Aunt Françoise has been trying to bully him. She’s been badmouthing us to both him and Uncle Martin, so that they’ll put pressure on us to sell up. So she can set this place up as some chichi little restaurant,’ Imogen explained.

‘That’s awful,’ Anna said. ‘Poor Dad, stuck in the middle of all that. I’ll call Mum, see what we can do to smooth things over.’

‘Good luck with that,’ Imogen said. ‘Talking to Françoise is like negotiating with a pitbull.’

‘We have to try, for Dad’s sake,’ Anna said. ‘Now tell me. Is that really, really it?’

‘Yes,’ Imogen said sheepishly. ‘Only I guess there are some consequences we’ll need to work around.’

‘Consequences.’

Imogen wrinkled her nose.

‘We don’t have any more money left,’ Anna said, as reality gave her a sharp kick.

‘For basic ingredients – fine. But not the kind of specialist, seasonal stuff we’ll need for the new recipes you were telling me about.’

‘How could this happen?’ Anna said, her ice cream dreams slipping away with each word from her sister. ‘We had thousands of pounds, Imo, and now … nothing but a freezer full of ice lollies to show for it.’

Jess and Anna were sitting in the shop after closing time, eating scoops of freshly made hazelnut and pretzel ice cream. ‘A lot of bad luck,’ Jess said. ‘But it’s just teething problems, isn’t it?’

‘I wish I could be as confident about it as you,’ Anna said. ‘It’s all such a mess. To be honest I can’t really take it all in. I’ve only been away just over a week.’

‘You’re annoyed with Imogen, aren’t you?’

‘I can’t help it,’ Anna said. ‘You know I love Imo, but seriously, how has she managed to lose control of every aspect of the business in only a few days?’

‘Tricky. Doing this stuff with family,’ Jess said.

‘I’m wondering if we just did it all too hastily, without
really thinking through whether we could work together. It’s one thing getting on as sisters, but running a business together is different.’

‘You can’t go back on it now, though. You’ve made your bed.’

‘Have we? In a way we’ve only just got started, and what we have done would be better off forgotten. The reputation of the shop’s been damaged, and our budget is going to be really tight.’

‘What other option do you have? You and Imogen have invested so much in this place.’

‘My Aunt Françoise wants to buy it,’ Anna said. ‘I was completely against it at first. But now? I don’t know.’

‘You’ve just got back,’ Jess said. ‘Give it time for all of this to settle. For what it’s worth, Imogen really has been trying. And I think the van will be great once it’s going again. God, who’d have thought I’d end up painting an ice cream van on the south coast rather than sunning it up in a four-star beach resort?’’

Anna smiled. ‘It was good of you to help out. The logo is perfect, and I agree about the van. I think. Even if it’s not actually going to go anywhere for a while.’

‘I really enjoyed it, actually,’ Jess said. ‘Getting my hands dirty was a nice break from the office,’ she added, taking another spoonful of ice cream. ‘This stuff is delicious, by the way.’

‘Wow,’ Anna smiled. ‘From you, I know how high that praise is.’

‘Take my word for it,’ Jess said. ‘This is something worth investing in. A better bet than mine and Ed’s honeymoon, for starters. I’d better go. Promised Ed we’d have a quickie after work, before we get dinner on.’

‘Now there’s romance,’ Anna said with a smile.

‘I take it where I can get it,’ Jess laughed.

They kissed each other goodbye, and Jess walked out of the shop, a spring in her step.

An hour later, when she’d finished cleaning, Anna opened up her laptop to check her emails and see what else she’d missed. Among the spam and suppliers’ emails, there was a personal message waiting for her:

To
:
Anna
From
:
Matteo

Hi, Anna,

How are you?

Italy is very quiet without you, but I’ve been filling my days in my favourite way – with plenty of ice cream. I tried out a prosciutto and parmesan one this week – delicious.

The parmesan ice cream is nothing new, it’s actually based on a recipe over 150 years old, so I can’t take the credit for that, but the prosciutto addition gave it something really special. I have started working in a friend’s shop and we had queues out into the square yesterday!

Anyway, tell me, what flavours have you been trying out – something
like Wimbledon, all those strawberries and cream?

Your friend,

Matteo x

Anna smiled, in spite of her worries. In a moment, Matteo had reminded her what the shop was all about – not just balancing the books, but sharing the true pleasure of ice cream.

She typed back a reply.

From
:
Anna
To
:
Matteo

Hi, there,

Actually it’s funny you should say that, today I tried something different. A hazelnut ice cream with chunks of chocolate and pieces of pretzel – covered in a caramel sauce. The saltiness and sweetness worked deliciously together. My friend Jess gave it the thumbs up (and she’s a tough customer!)

One idea I’d like to try – don’t laugh (I didn’t laugh at your prosciutto, and, man, that sounds gross). Have you heard of Earl Grey tea? I’m planning to make a sorbet out of the tea, and see how that works. I’ll let you know.