The Village Shop for Lonely Hearts

by Alison Sherlock

  ‘Amber,’ he began to say.

  But she held up her hand. ‘I know what you’re going to say! Look, let me show you the sketch so you can see for yourself.’ She looked at him and couldn’t stop herself from smiling with excitement at the idea.

  However, Josh wasn’t smiling back. ‘Look, I don’t know about this kind of stuff,’ he said.

  ‘But I do,’ she told him, for once filled with confidence. ‘Just think. It’s different. It’s unique.’

  ‘It’s certainly something,’ he drawled, rolling his eyes.

  Despite her hangover, Amber felt sure that she was on the right track. ‘It could make a really nice display.’ Her mind went back to Grandma Tilly’s old photographs and suddenly she was full of ideas. ‘We could get some of those crates at the back and place them around the tractor. Make it really farmhouse pretty. Country.’

  She was getting more and more excited.

  But Josh wasn’t joining in with her enthusiasm.

  ‘What?’ she asked him. ‘Why can’t we do this?’

  ‘Because it’s not going to change anything,’ he said, climbing down from the battered leather seat of the tractor. ‘Maybe we should just quit while we’re ahead. Or rather, before the bank closes us down.’

  ‘Don’t you think your mum would be upset about that?’

  To her surprise, he shook his head. ‘This shop wasn’t her dream. It never was. This was just another selfish act from my dad, dragging us all out to the middle of nowhere. We were just following him.’

  ‘Maybe he was right,’ she told him.

  ‘Maybe he was wrong, as per usual, and now he’s not here and I am. Stuck here every day, watching all his dreams die.’ His voice caught. ‘Just like him.’

  Amber stayed quiet. He was clearly upset and all she wanted to do was, surprisingly, give him a hug.

  ‘I had dreams too,’ she heard him say.

  ‘Like what?’ she prompted, gently.

  He shrugged his shoulders. ‘I wanted to run my own business. To make something special. Make a difference and try and educate people regarding sustainable living.’

  ‘You could still do that,’ she told him.

  But Josh shook his head. ‘Not here. It’s too late.’

  ‘No, it’s not.’ She stepped forward to grab his arm. ‘Maybe this wasn’t quite what you had in mind, but I think we could really make something special here. A country store. The Cranbridge Stores. It could be really something.’

  She saw him hesitate and open his mouth to speak.

  ‘Let me show you how good it could look,’ she said quickly, before he could say anything else.

  He lifted his palms up. ‘Why not? Things can’t get any worse.’

  ‘Gee, thanks for the encouragement,’ she said.

  But as she ran upstairs to find her sketchpad, she realised she was filled with a dogged determination to prove him wrong. To show him that Cranbridge Stores could be something very special indeed.

  In her bedroom, she picked up her sketchpad and immediately began to fill in the blank middle of her original drawing. She pencilled in a rough outline of the tractor before adding in some boxes to represent the crates. Then she grabbed her coloured pencils to show the different goods that could be displayed.

  Finally, her hand hesitated before she grabbed the bright red pencil to colour in the tractor.

  With a feeling of both excitement and trepidation, she went back downstairs to show Josh.

  She shuffled nervously from foot to foot as he stared down at the paper and then up at the shop around him. Then he looked down again and up once more.

  Finally, he turned to her with his eyes blazing. ‘It’ll never look this good,’ he said, holding out the pad for her to take from him.

  ‘It can and it will,’ she told him, feeling bolder than she had ever felt in her life. ‘Give me a week or so to change things around in here. To make it different. If you hate it, then it can go back to how it was. I’ll even work out a way to get the tractor moved. But give me a little time and I’ll show you how amazing it could really look.’

  A silence stretched out between them before finally, he nodded his head. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘But I’m not making any promises.’

  ‘Nor am I,’ she told him. ‘But let me see what I can do.’

  ‘It’ll take us a week to carry on sorting through all this stuff,’ he said, pointing at all the boxes of goods everywhere.

  ‘Just trust me,’ she found herself saying.

  He smiled unexpectedly. ‘Funny, I never saw you as a confident person before now.’

  She returned his smile. ‘I’m not. I don’t know where all this is coming from. Maybe it’s the fumes from the tractor.’

  ‘Well, be my guest,’ he said, waving his arm around the shop. ‘Lord knows, it can’t get much worse.’

  ‘That’s what you think,’ she said, with a wink.

  At least he was smiling in response as he left to head into the back of the shop.

  Amber stood alone in the centre of the shop and did a slow 360 turn on the spot. With a loud gulp, she tried to suppress her fears and doubts about her ability to make the place look good.

  Could she really do this? She’d promised Josh she could, so she supposed she had better get on with it. She just wasn’t really sure, deep down, that she could, despite the faith in her own skills.

  But she didn’t want to let Cathy down. Nor Grandma Tilly. Not even the memory of Todd. Most especially, she didn’t want to disappoint Josh, because she was beginning to care for him.

  And that worried her even more than the sheer magnitude of overhauling the shop.

  20

  Josh stood by the front door and looked out, and saw that the recent sunshine had given way to more rain.

  The yellow leaves that had already fallen to the ground beneath the trees were looking as sodden as the muddy riverbanks. The river was also running quite high. Yet more rain and storms were forecast over the coming weeks.

  Of course, that was nothing compared to the tempest that had hurtled through Cranbridge Stores since his mum had left, he thought, turning slowly around.

  He blew out a long sigh. The shop was in utter disarray. Although he knew that the piles of boxes in each corner were in some sort of order, removing the large shelves from the middle had left a mess on the floorboards.

  Although, of course, the worst of it was the horror of the dirty old tractor that was now in the middle of the shop.

  For the life of him, he couldn’t see Amber’s point of view regarding leaving it where it had broken down.

  He could see a patch of oil that had leaked onto the floor. And there was still a smoky, metallic tang in the air. He quickly opened the front door, anxious to air the shop out, and came face to face with Stanley.

  ‘Good morning,’ he said, with a nod.

  ‘Morning,’ said Josh, wondering what on earth was good about it.

  Josh watched as the smile slowly faded into something akin to shock on the elderly man’s face.

  ‘Good gracious!’ exclaimed Stanley, staring at the tractor with wide eyes. ‘Have you become a garage mechanic overnight?’

  Josh shook his head. ‘A temporary glitch,’ he said. ‘Now, the papers have just been delivered out the back. I’ll get yours. You’re a bit earlier than usual this morning.’

  ‘I’ve got a doctor’s appointment later this morning,’ said Stanley, stepping carefully into the shop. ‘The perils of getting old, I’m afraid. The company I desire is not exactly to be found at our local health care centre.’

  Josh stepped over various boxes and weaved his way around the tractor before heading through to the back room.

  When he returned, he found Stanley studying the tractor.

  ‘I must say, this takes me back,’ said Stanley, who had been peering at the dashboard. ‘My father had one of these when we owned our smallholding on the edge of the village when I was growing up. A good solid make, the David Brown 25.’

>   ‘Solid being the operative word when it’s stuck in the middle of a shop,’ drawled Josh.

  Not even Amber with her obvious design talents could make the tractor look any good. But right now there was no plan b so he would just have to trust her.

  Stanley handed over the coins for his newspaper. ‘Well, you can’t say it’s not unique,’ he said, with a smile. ‘I shall watch what appears to be something of a facelift with interest.’

  Josh smiled despite his reservations. A facelift? The shop needed a full makeover, complete with major heart surgery.

  As Stanley left, Josh took the coins over to the till, which he could just about find behind a new stack of boxes. He sat down heavily on the stool behind the counter. It had been quite an exhausting few days and he was feeling low on energy. He had got spectacularly drunk with Amber, which didn’t help as it had been a later night than usual. He thought of her standing in the darkness, looking up at him. He had almost been drunk enough to kiss her. Almost.

  Besides, he knew that she would probably run a mile if he made a move on her. Which he most definitely wouldn’t. Even if a small part of him was seriously tempted.

  He gave his head a little shake. He didn’t need temptation right now. He needed the shop to look like a shop again. With a groan, he slumped forward and put his head in his hands.

  ‘I’m not surprised you’re feeling like that after the amount of wine you two put away last night.’

  He looked up to find Belle standing in the open doorway, staring wide-eyed at the mess in the shop before her eyes flew back to the elephant in the room. Or, rather, the tractor.

  ‘Morning,’ he said, with a nod.

  ‘Good morning,’ said Amber, coming into the shop, looking far more cheerful than Josh felt.

  ‘What the hell happened in here last night?’ asked Belle, walking slowly around the tractor.

  ‘We had a design meeting,’ said Amber, with a grin.

  ‘I lost,’ said Josh.

  ‘Yeah, well,’ said Belle, still looking around in shock. ‘I’ve got to say, I’m rendered almost speechless.’

  ‘First time for everything,’ drawled Josh.

  ‘What do you think of the tractor?’ asked Amber in a hopeful tone.

  ‘Do you have to put 10p in it to make it work?’ asked Belle, peering into the driver’s seat.

  ‘What are you talking about?’ asked Josh.

  ‘Isn’t it one of those rides for kids?’ said Belle, straightening up. ‘You know, like a Noddy car or something?’

  Josh shook his head. ‘No. It’s an actual tractor.’

  Belle looked at Amber and then back at Josh. ‘You two aren’t high on the fumes, are you?’

  ‘I wish,’ groaned Josh.

  Belle picked up her pint of milk and placed her money on the counter. ‘Well, you’ve got to admit. It’s going to be the talk of the village! See you later.’

  As she left, Josh turned to raise his eyebrows at Amber. ‘Was that the reaction you were expecting?’

  To his amazement, Amber shrugged her shoulders. ‘Didn’t you get the most important bit?’ she told him. ‘That we’ll be the talk of the village. So people are going to come in here and see the tractor, aren’t they?’

  ‘And then they’re going to turn back round and run away in horror,’ he told her.

  She frowned. ‘Then let me try and convince you again.’

  Amber unfolded a piece of paper from the pocket of her jeans and lay it out on the till counter between them. She turned it around so that the drawing was the right side up for him to look at it.

  ‘What’s the problem?’ she asked, coming around to stand next to him.

  ‘That,’ said Josh, pointing at her drawing of the tractor in the middle of the shop floor.

  ‘I see,’ she said, turning to lean up against the counter so they were face to face. ‘Let me tell you what I know. A shop needs staging. Like a window display, in that respect. Only bigger.’

  He frowned. ‘Staging?’ he asked, raising his eyebrows in question.

  ‘You’re trying to entice people inside,’ she told him. ‘That’s what the fancy window displays are for. You know, in the massive department stores anyway. So I don’t see why it should be any different here. There’s no use having a pretty window display to entice people inside if the place looks, well, like this inside.’ She waved her arm around at the mess surrounding them.

  ‘You do remember that it didn’t look like this a few days ago,’ he told her. ‘It was just messy. Now it’s a garage and rubbish tip.’

  ‘It was always going to look worse before it looked better,’ she replied.

  ‘It wasn’t supposed to be this much worse,’ he said. ‘With a tractor in it.’

  She shrugged her shoulders as if the fact that a dirty old farm vehicle in the middle of the shop was a mere trifling inconvenience. She held up her hand to stop him interrupting. ‘Yes, it’s a tractor. But it’s a small one, not the usual size. This one is only waist height, so you can still see across it. The space still works. I think it’ll make a great feature.’ She pointed at the design on the paper once more. ‘Look at it. It looks bright. Modern. Fun. Interesting. Enticing.’

  He looked at her drawing and wondered how best to make his point without upsetting her. For once, she seemed determined and brimming with confidence. He really didn’t want to burst what little self-belief she had in her abilities, but her ideas were just too far.

  ‘Look, they’re good ideas,’ he said. ‘Apart from the tractor, obviously. I mean, I like your window displays. They’re great. But all this…?’

  ‘The pretty windows are designed to draw customers in, which would affect sales. That was the point.’ She looked at him. ‘I know you’re concerned, but I’ve done this before. I’ve done displays throughout shops. Successful ones. This is on a much smaller scale, but it doesn’t have to be.’

  Josh stayed silent, looking at the paper once more. Her drawing looked amazing, but he couldn’t see how it was ever going to achieve anything.

  ‘Let’s stage the shop whilst we’re sorting it out,’ Amber went on. ‘It needs better lighting. This strip lighting is so harsh and awful. And it definitely needs painting and brightening up. It’s so dull in here. And we’ll need decorations to match the autumnal ones in the window.’

  Josh sighed. ‘All that? We’ve only got until the end of the year, otherwise we’re going to lose the whole place anyway.’

  ‘Then we’d better work quickly, don’t you think?’ Amber broke into a smile which lit up her whole face. ‘I really do think we can make it pretty.’

  Josh ran a hand through his hair. ‘I’m no good at the prettying bit.’

  She laughed. ‘Yeah, I think you should probably leave that stuff to me. But you know some DIY, don’t you?’

  ‘I’ve done some building work as well to make ends meet over the years,’ he told her. ‘So I can paint and fix the place up.’

  ‘Good,’ said Amber. ‘Let’s get started.’

  She looked as if she was going to bolt, so Josh reached out and held her arm. ‘Not so fast,’ he said. ‘The trouble is that you can make it pretty, but what are we going to sell?’

  ‘The stock we’ve got already,’ she replied.

  ‘Sellotape and rolls of material?’ he reminded her. ‘You saw all that stuff yesterday. It’s so random.’

  ‘Yes, but nobody could find anything or see what they wanted to buy because it was all such a jumble.’ Amber tapped her chin in thought. ‘It shouldn’t just be a convenience shop. It’s a lifestyle shop as well.’

  He rolled his eyes. ‘Could you sound any more New York?’

  She smiled once more and he was reminded how beautiful she was up close.

  ‘Shall we see what paint we’ve got out the back?’ she said. ‘We might as well use what’s available.’

  Josh sighed. ‘Am I going to have any kind of say in any of this?’

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘And I can always ring you
r mum if you’re going to make trouble. She’ll be totally on my side.’

  He shook his head. ‘I can’t believe you pulled the mum card to get your own way.’

  She was still smiling as she walked away, her ponytail swinging behind her as she went.

  Josh remained sitting down and looked at Amber’s design once more before staring up and around the shop. He just couldn’t see it ever looking any better. But what did they have to lose?

  Deep down, he still didn’t feel as heartbroken as he should be over the possible closure of the shop. What was bothering him more was that he didn’t want to upset Amber.

  21

  Amber stared around the shop and then down at the different pots of paints that Josh had brought out, trying to see how it could best be decorated. She was still quite amazed that Josh had run with her idea of redecorating the place. She just hoped he hadn’t overestimated her limited abilities.

  ‘They’re all various shades of white,’ said Josh, raising an eyebrow at her.

  Amber nodded. ‘White will do. Especially if we can paint some of the shelves as well.’

  ‘The aluminium ones?’ he asked.

  Amber shook her head. ‘They’re a bit 1970s, don’t you think?’

  ‘They’re probably older than that.’

  ‘You’ve got all that wood in the back lane,’ said Amber, glancing at the back room. ‘Can’t we add to the existing wooden shelves? We can sand them down. They’ll look nice and rustic. Plus they’ll match the wooden beams.’

  Josh glanced up. ‘I thought maybe we could paint them white as well.’

  ‘No!’ Amber was horrified. ‘They’re warm and give the place character.’

  ‘OK.’ Josh blew out a long sigh. ‘You’re the boss.’

  She blushed. ‘Well, I’m not. That’s you.’ She bit her lip. ‘Am I being too much?’

  ‘Yes,’ he told her before smiling. ‘But I quite like it.’

  She looked at her feet, finding herself tongue-tied for the first time with Josh in a few days.