by Fiona Grace
As she exited into the searing heat, Ali steeled herself and forced a pleasant smile onto her face. Miriyam rubbed her the wrong way at the best of times, so it took a lot for Ali to choose to interact with her.
“Miriyam!” she called across the boardwalk.
The woman turned, her dark brown eyes piercing through Ali. She pursed her lips. “What?”
“I heard you were canvassing,” Ali said, zigzagging past a roller-blader in speedos, and drawing up to her. “I was curious as to what you were doing it for?”
“The council meeting,” Miriyam replied, holding up her leaflets. “The one about the tax hike.” She took a slip of paper from the pile and shoved it at Ali. “The public consultation on his bill is tonight.”
“Tonight?” Ali cried.
She snatched the neon-colored flyer from Miriyam, her mind now suddenly laser focused, and scanned the page quickly. Marvin Chessley the new council member, was holding a public consultation meeting in the town hall that very evening regarding the new tax hike plan. He was quite clearly rushing it along to ensure as few people as possible knew about it.
“This can't be allowed,” Ali said. “You’d think he’d have to give twenty-four-hours’ notice or something?”
Miriyam shook her head, a condescending look on her face. She was quite clearly enjoying Ali’s ignorance on the topic. Even when they were on the same side, she was combative.
“He doesn’t have to hold a consultation in the first place if he doesn’t want to,” she said. “But he and his special guest of honor Sullivan Raine cobbled this together to make it look like they have public backing. So they can fall back on it when people start complaining. ‘You had your chance to oppose the plans, but you didn’t take it.’”
She said the last bit in a Texan accent, attempting to mimic the cowboy hat wearing, gun-toting Sullivan Raine, and in any other circumstance, Ali would have found her woeful attempt rather funny. But she was way too furious for that.
“This is so unfair!” she cried, scrunching up the leaflet in her fist with anger. “Without anyone there to oppose the bill, it will pass! Then we’re all screwed.”
“Exactly,” Miriyam replied. “Which is why I’m out here canvassing.” She jabbed a thumb behind her. “I thought I could get Devon and his fitness junkies to come as backup but he’s absolutely no use. What about you? I mean you’re hardly intimidating but the more the merrier.”
“Oh I’m coming alright,” Ali cried, too riled to even care that Miriyam had insulted her small stature. “You can count on that.”
She unfurled the scrunched up flyer and read it again. The consultation was scheduled for ten PM at the town hall. That gave Ali the rest of the day—just a few scant hours—to prepare a kickass rebuttle. No, she’d never stood up in a town meeting before, but she was going to stop this stupid bill going through if it was the last thing she did!
“See you at ten,” she said with determination, and with that she marched back across the boardwalk the way she’d come. There was work to be done.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“The Danishes sold like hot cakes,” said Piper’s voice from the kitchen door. “Pardon the pun.”
Ali glanced up from the steel countertop where she’d been working. Except, rather than being spread out with the usual chaotic array of utensils and ingredients, it was covered in papers and forms and leaflets.
After returning from the boardwalk, Ali had gotten stuck in educating herself on where they stood legally and drawing up a battle plan to save the vendors of the boardwalk from Sullivan Raine and Marvin Chessley’s blitz attack, and Marco’s pizzeria from entire annihilation. She was on two concurrent moral crusades, and it was giving her quite the headache.
“That’s good,” she murmured, not even glancing up.
Piper paced into the kitchen. “What’s wrong? I thought you’d be happier than that.”
Ail sighed and tucked her pen behind her ear, into the thick blonde braid that was becoming increasingly messy as the day progressed. “I am happy. I am. I’m just… overwhelmed. There’s a lot to do and I’m no lawyer.”
She gestured to the books and papers and print outs from the internet. In barely five hours, she needed to articulate her grievances publicly in a council meeting, in a way that made sense to the layperson. She was beyond terrified. There was more than one reason she’d gravitated toward baking as a profession, and being out of the public eye was one of them! She’d quit her last job at Eclair’s in LA in a horrible spearmint-related outburst that still haunted her to this day...
“You can do it, boss,” Piper said. “If anyone can, it’s you. You’re, like, the bravest woman I know.”
Ali halted. “I am?” she asked, surprised. She didn’t see herself that way at all.
“Of course!” Piper exclaimed, as if it wasn’t in doubt. “You opened a bakery on your own. Made it a success. Trained me, and we all know I was a bit of a hopeless case in the beginning.” She grinned at her own self-deprecation. “And now you’re taking on Sullivan Raine and Marvin Chessley. If that’s not brave, I don’t know what is.”
Ali smiled. She was touched by Piper’s kind words. And even though she was still terrified about the meeting that evening, she felt a whole lot more confident about it than she had five minutes ago. It was nice to know that someone looked up to her and believed in her, especially after the pounding her self-esteem had taken thanks to her mom’s visit.
Just then, Ali heard the bell on the bakery floor tinkle, indicating a customer had entered. Piper turned to attend to them, but Ali pushed herself up from the counter.
“I'll go,” she said. “You take a break. You’ve been working flat out all day. And goodness knows I need a break from all this for five minutes, too!” She gestured to her research.
“Thanks,” Piper said, heading straight for the fridge, pulling open the door, and sticking her head inside, before sighing loudly in pleasure. “That’s better.”
Ali chuckled at her kooky assistant and headed through the door to the shop floor to attend to the customer.
Only once there, Ali saw that it was not a customer needing service after all. Standing at the counter was Nate.
Ali’s brain immediately reminded her of her earlier meeting with Seth, and she was flooded with a wave of shame that went all the way from her toes up to the tip of her ears.
“Nate,” Ali she squeaked. “What are you doing here?”
The gorgeous surfer grinned his pearly white smile and pushed his overgrown dark blonde hair from out of his pale green eyes. “I wanted to see you,” he said.
He leaned his arms on the counter. If they were a couple, this would’ve been the perfect moment for a kiss, and Ali felt her lips pucker instinctively. But of course, they were not a couple; they were something undefined, and so no kiss was forthcoming. Instead, Ali pressed her fingers to her tingling lips in case they were being too obvious. For the millionth time since she’d first met Nate, she felt a surge of confusion.
“Ta da,” she said. “Here I am.”
Nate was about to speak when the bell over the door rang again, and Ali gazed over his shoulder to see Teddy walking in. He looked extremely frazzled, his eyes wide like he’d just been through something traumatic.
With a gasp, Ali suddenly remembered that while she’d been running around trying to solve everyone’s problems, Teddy had just spent the entire day with their mother.
“Oh, Teddy-bear!” she cried over Nate’s shoulder. “What did she do to you?”
Teddy—ever the actor— sank, shell-shocked into a chair at the window. “Can’t… speak…” he murmured. “Need… cake…”
Ali laughed and grabbed a couple of cupcakes from the counter. “Nate? Do you want one?”
“Uhmmm...” he said, scratching his neck. “Maybe I should leave you two to it? There’s clearly something going on.”
“Hardly,” Ali said, rolling her eyes affectionately. “You know what Teddy’s like. He’s just
being dramatic. Stay. We’ve barely had a chance to hang out recently.”
She added a third cupcake to the plate for Nate and carried it over to where Teddy was sitting dramatically slumped in the window.
“Sugar…” he murmured. “Need…sugar…!”
Ali chuckled and slid the plate in front of him. “Help yourself.”
Teddy inelegantly grabbed a cupcake and stuffed it hypnotically into his mouth, never once losing his thousand-yard stare.
The whole routine was very amusing to Ali, and she turned to share the joke with Nate. But she paused when she realized Nate had not followed her. Confused, she looked back across the bakery. Nate was still lingering awkwardly at the counter.
Ali frowned. It wasn’t like Nate didn’t know Teddy—they’d all hung out together now more times than she could count. So what was he doing standing on the other side of store like a shy kid crippled by social anxiety?
“Don’t you want a cupcake?” she called, beckoning him encouragingly.
Nate took a few hesitant steps toward her, shaking his head. When he reached her, he lightly touched her elbow.
“I think I should go,” he said, in a low voice, his eyes darting to Teddy as if he was some kind of basket-case he was afraid of disturbing. Which, Ali had to admit, considering the way he was behaving was a perfectly appropriate reaction.
“Are you sure? I promise you he’s just being silly.” She glanced at Teddy who’d grabbed a second cake now and was devouring it in the same manner as the first. “At least, I hope he is.”
Nate smiled a half-smile. “I’d prefer it if we could talk in private, actually.” He tapped fingers on his thigh awkwardly. “Just the two of us.”
Ali’s stomach dropped. That did not sound good.
In the seat opposite, Teddy opened one of his eyes a sliver. Clearly, Nate’s words sounded just as ominous to him as they felt to Ali.
“Oh...” Ali said. “If you’re sure.”
Nate was already backing away for the door, and he headed out, his untimely exit leaving Ali, as ever, filled with confusion. Way to make it even more ominous, she thought.
As the bell tinkled to silence, Ali took the seat opposite Teddy. He had finished both his and Nate’s cupcakes but had very generously left Ali’s untouched on the plate. Ali picked it up before he changed his mind.
“So, where is mom?” Ali asked, peeling off the casing and taking a bite. “What did you do with her?”
“Actually, she ditched me,” he said unblinkingly, keeping up his shell-shocked routine. “Turns out she has pre-booked discounted spa treatments in the evenings. Would’ve been nice to know from the outset.”
‘It certainly would,’ Ali thought. Then she wouldn’t have had to feel so guilty about not being able to drop her entire schedule just because her mom had turned up earlier than they’d planned!
“And?” she asked through a mouth full of frosting. “Was she bad?”
Teddy finally snapped out of the act. “Of course she was!” he wailed, throwing his arms up in the air. “I can’t remember the last time I spent so long with her! There’s a reason I only ever go to hers, and why I bring a bottle of wine every time! Our mother? Outside? Sober? Ali, you set me up for failure!”
She twisted her lips guilty. “I really did. I’m so sorry. You can get me back one day.”
“I’m already plotting my revenge,” her brother joked. At least, she hoped he was joking...
“So, let me guess,” Ali said. “Mom had some choice words to say about the town.”
“The town. The birds. The food. The ocean.”
“The ocean?”
“Yes! Even the ocean. The very same ocean she lives beside is, somehow, miraculously worse here!”
Ali couldn’t help but snicker. But her amusement was wiped clean off her face when Teddy snatched the last bit of cupcake straight from her hands and shoved it in his mouth, as if the distress of it all was too much for him. Ali shrugged and let him have it. It was the least she could do considering the circumstances.
“Why did you do it to me?” he wailed through his mouthful.
Ali grimaced as her mind turned back to the forthcoming town meeting. “There’s a whole bunch of crazy stuff going on at the moment that I really need to devote my full attention to. Lawyers and tax hikes.”
“The tax hike? Yeah, Mom mentioned something about that. Several times.”
“I’m sure she did,” Ali said, thinly. “Anyway, the point is you really are a trooper, taking one for the team.”
“Yeah well, you owe me big time,” Teddy said, licking the frosting off each of his fingers before reaching into his bag, pulling out the big script from earlier and slapping it heavily onto the tabletop with a thud. “And here’s how you can repay me.”
“Ah,” Ali said, realizing immediately that he wanted her to run lines with him. “You want me to play Street Walker? But Teddy, I really don’t have time right now. I’m going to this council meeting thing, and I am so under-prepared.”
“Aliiiii!” he whined. “Just one scene! Please! It’s the least you can do.”
Ali glanced at the clock on the wall. Two hours to blast off. She could squeeze in a little bit of amateur dramatics. Who knows, maybe channeling a street-wise night-worker may well give her the confidence boost she needed at the meeting.
“Okay, fine,” she said, relenting. “Let’s do it.”
She picked up the script and began thumbing through, scanning ahead to find her first line. She found her place after a very large wall of text and read it over a few times in her head in preparation, then followed along as Teddy began his monologue.
It was quite a long wait. Teddy’s character, “Ho Bo”, was chastising her character “Street Walker” for a decision he disagreed with, and the vernacular chosen for the writing was more suited for a Shakespearean play than a so-called gritty noir. Clearly the writer of this independent piece had done little to no character research and assumed every human in the world talked as if they’d swallowed a Dickensian-era dictionary.
After stumbling in a few places and having to back up, Teddy’s monologue admonishing Ali’s character ended, and she cleared her throat for her big moment.
“What I do with my life is my choice, not yours. Don’t judge me to your own standards. You’re free to make your own choices, and I am free to make mine. We are different people.”
Silence fell. Ali looked up.
“What?” she asked. “Are you thinking about how misjudged the dialogue is? Because in my opinion, Street Walker wouldn’t just stand there taking this eloquent bashing from Ho Bo. Or at least, if she did, it would only be so she could reply by punching him in the nose.” She shrugged and leafed through the pages idly. “But I guess the writer’s going for dark and that might be a bit comedic.”
She shrugged again. Still, Teddy was quiet. She glanced up at him from the script.
“Sorry, do you need a line prompt?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No, no, I’m just… surprised is all.”
"Surprised?" Ali asked.
“With how well you delivered that line. It had a lot of conviction.”
“Oh.” Ali sat up straighter and smiled, pleased to have been complimented. “Well, you know, I do have to maintain a lot of fake personas living in Willow Bay. I’ve had good practice! Shall we keep going?”
“Let’s!” Teddy said, suddenly even more enthused than before to recite lines with her.
They bowed their heads and got to work.
*
Ali heard movement from the kitchen and looked over to see Piper emerging through the steel doors onto the bakery floor.
“Ali?” she said with a frown. “What are you still doing here? I thought you had a meeting to go to tonight?”
Ali glanced over at the clock on the wall and was stunned to see it was already half past nine. She’d gotten so swept up with Teddy that she’d not even noticed the time passing!
“Oh no!” sh
e cried, leaping up so quickly the chair almost tipped over. “I have to go!”
She rushed to the kitchen, scooping up all her papers and notes, shoving them haphazardly into a Seaside Sweets tote bag.
Then she ran back onto the bakery floor.
“Where are the keys? Where are the keys?” she cried.
Piper held them up. “I’ve got it covered. You go!”
“Thank you!” Ali cried.
She ran out of the bakery and rushed in the direction of the town hall.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Ali veered off the boardwalk and onto the town’s main through-road. Traffic buzzed back and forth as she walked along the sidewalk, heading in the direction of the town hall. She’d never actually been to Willow Bay’s town hall— she’d had no reason to, after all. Nothing quite this serious had ever happened since she’d moved here, and Ali felt the weight of it all suddenly on her shoulders.
Her mind full of worries, Ali didn’t notice the figure standing in the shadows beside the streetlamp before it was too late.
“Oof!” she cried, as she slammed straight into a broad chest.
“Ali,” came Nate’s voice.
Ali stepped back and looked up into his familiar eyes. Her heart was thumping from the shock. “Nate. You startled me.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, resting his hands on her shoulders. “Are you okay?”
She nodded and took a breath to settle her nerves. “I’m just on my way to the town hall for the council meeting. What are you doing out this way?” Nate’s surf shop was midway along the boardwalk, and his apartment was on the beachfront—the same road as hers, in fact. She couldn’t think of any reason for him to be in this part of town.
“Nothing,” he said, rapidly, shaking his head. “Is Teddy okay?”
“He’s fine,” Ali replied, noting how quickly he’d changed the subject. “Like I said, he was just being dramatic.”
“Cool,” Nate said, scratching his neck awkwardly. “Well, I’d better let you get back to your meeting. Good luck, yeah?”