‘So, she’s nice, this new lady?’
‘She seems it,’ Max replied. ‘We went out last night and got on really well.’
‘That’s good,’ Bonnie said. ‘When are you seeing her again?’
‘I thought Wednesday… that’s not too soon, is it? Where do you think I should take her?’
‘That sounds ok to me. As for where, I have absolutely no idea. The last time I went anywhere nice we had to hail a Hansom cab to get there.’
Max chuckled, seemingly more relaxed now.
‘A meal out is always good, though,’ Bonnie continued. ‘Just take her somewhere quiet where you can talk.’
‘We had a meal out for our first date. It wasn’t exactly quiet, though, we were in that carvery just outside town and you wouldn’t believe how loud toddlers can scream.’
‘Try a fifteen-year-old,’ Bonnie quipped.
‘Paige still being awkward?’
‘Nah… nothing out of the ordinary. She’s just being Paige.’
‘You want to share it?’
Bonnie shook her head. ‘Thanks, Max, but I’d better get out to the shop before Freddie Starr out there blows a gasket.’
Max took his mug to the kitchenette and rinsed it before setting it down on the rusting draining board. ‘I’d better get cracking too,’ he said as he came back out. ‘These carrots won’t deliver themselves.’
Bonnie watched as he let himself out the back door. A strange feeling settled over her that, if she hadn’t known better, she might have mistaken for regret.
***
Break time came and Bonnie sat on her own nursing a cup of tea, her blank sheet of flowery paper on the table before her, pen poised mid-air.
Dear Holden
My daughter won a competition to meet you and the other band members. Is that some sort of crazy karma or what? So it looks like I might get to meet you after all. I’ll be honest: I’ m not sure how I feel about that. I doubt I’ll be any more special to you than the lady who makes your tea at the radio station. Being unnoticed by you, even though I’m right there in front of you, might be worse than you never knowing I exist at all. At least if you never know I exist, you’ll never be able to reject me. That way, I get to keep up the pretence that there could be a chance between us….
Bonnie tore the page in half and dropped it into the bin as she went back through to the shop.
***
Fighting against the wind to keep her scarf wrapped under her chin, Bonnie walked side by side with Linda.
‘Not just a teensy bit bothered that Max has a girlfriend now?’
Bonnie threw Linda a withering sideways glance. ‘He’s had one date with her; it’s hardly Romeo and Juliet.’
‘He seems keen,’ Linda replied.
‘Good for him. If he’s happy, then that’s one more happy person in the world.’
‘What if it gets serious?’
‘What if it does?’
‘You won’t care?’
‘Linda, this is getting ridiculous now. Why should I care? Max was never serious about going out with me, he was just being Max. Cute in his own way, but just like every other man, he’d be willing to take it where he could find it. The fact that he just fell in with this Sarah woman proves it. If he was that crazy about me he wouldn’t be asking other women out, even if they were dressed as pink meringues.’
‘He didn’t ask her out.’
‘What?’
‘Max didn’t ask her out.’
‘Of course he did.’
‘He told me this morning when he was hauling the stock in that she asked him out.’
‘That’s very modern of her,’ Bonnie replied in a scathing tone, but the fact had shocked her more than she cared to admit.
‘You don’t look at him properly,’ Linda said. ‘Sarah obviously saw what everyone but you sees – a really nice guy who is worth his weight in gold.’
‘Well… then Sarah is lucky and I hope they’re very happy together.’
Linda gave an impatient sigh. They lapsed into silence. The traffic roared past and the beginnings of fine rain spattered against their faces.
***
Five silent minutes later, Linda pushed open the door to The Bounty. ‘Alright Stav?’ she called as they walked in.
Stavros was handing a customer some change and his round face crinkled into a delighted smile at their entrance. ‘Lovely ladies! How are you today?’
‘Starving,’ Linda said. ‘You’d better have something extra gooey and nice for pudding too today, coz Bonnie here is in a foul mood and she needs sugar.’
‘I am not!’ Bonnie exclaimed.
‘You are, you’ve been tetchy all morning.’
‘Why are you only saying this now, in front of Stav?’
‘Because I didn’t dare while we were on our own,’ Linda laughed. ‘Stav will protect me if you decide to lamp me one.’
Stavros held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. ‘Do not get me involved.’
Linda looked down the laminated menu on the wall. ‘What are we having today, Bon?’
Bonnie shrugged as she perused the list alongside her friend. ‘I’m not all that hungry, to be honest. Maybe I’ll just have some soup to warm me up.’
‘Yes,’ Stavros agreed, ‘the weather is getting cold quickly this year. Only three weeks ago we were all burning up, now look at us, scarves and soup.’
‘I’ll have a jacket, Stav, with beans and cheese,’ Linda said.
Stavros nodded. ‘And for beautiful Bonnie we have Moroccan spiced vegetable soup, very nice, put hairs on your chest.’
Bonnie smiled. ‘Sounds lovely… apart from the hair bit. I’ll have one of those.’
Stavros disappeared behind a curtain of coloured plastic strips for a moment. They could hear him shout in rapid Greek. Then he emerged again.
‘How is Fred?’ he asked conversationally. ‘Business is good?’
‘It depends who you ask,’ Linda said. ‘According to Fred we’re headed for another Wall Street Crash. But me and Bonnie are up and down like prossie’s knickers in that shop so it can’t be all that desperate.’
Stavros broke into a huge belly laugh. ‘The prossie’s knickers. You are funny, Linda.’
‘And,’ Linda added, ‘he seems to have enough money for a toupee…’
Stav’s eyebrows shot up his forehead before he erupted into another huge laugh. ‘Oh, wait until I see that man!’
‘Don’t you dare,’ Linda warned, ‘he’d have my guts for garters if he thought I’d told you that. My life in that shop would be hell.’
Stavros grinned and lowered his voice. ‘You know that you can have a job here. The offer I make is always good…’
‘I don’t think your mama would be too happy about that,’ Linda replied.
Stavros grimaced. ‘That ugly old goat. She gets more like a screeching harpy every day.’
‘You’re so mean to her,’ Bonnie chided.
‘Mean to her?’ Stavros squeaked. ‘She tortures me with her very existence! Always: this is not right, that is not right, I’m so old I wish I could die. I wish she could bloody die too! She will live forever!’
Linda chuckled. ‘You don’t mean that! You’re all talk and you know it.’
As if on cue, a hunched old lady appeared through the plastic strips. She looked something like a prune on legs. Placing two parcels on the counter, she glared at Stavros and then gave the two women a good natured nod. ‘Yia sas.’
‘How are you, Mama?’ Linda asked. Not knowing her name, all the regulars at the Bounty just called her Mama like Stavros did.
The little woman threw her hands in the air and replied in an accent much stronger than her son’s. ‘Sick of being worked like a donkey in this shop by my disrespectful son.’
Linda laughed. ‘You know he loves you really.’
Mama pulled a disbelieving face and then shuffled back to the kitchen.
‘She’s a little gem.’ Linda took the parcels fr
om the counter.
Stavros beamed with obvious pride but he didn’t say a word. ‘See you tomorrow, ladies.’
Linda waved a nonchalant hand as they left the shop.
***
Bonnie threw her coat over a chair as she walked into the living room. Paige was curled up under a duvet on the sofa watching TV and barely looked up.
‘Good afternoon, Paige,’ Bonnie said in a deliberate voice. ‘Have you had a good day? Why yes, thank you mother, for enquiring, did you have good day at work?’
‘Hey, Mum,’ Paige looked up long enough to acknowledge the greeting but none of the rest of the comment.
Bonnie let it go. ‘What do you fancy for tea?’
‘I’ve eaten,’ Paige said, not taking her eyes from the screen.
‘You couldn’t even wait? I thought we were going to start making an effort to eat together.’
‘I called at Jeanie’s on the way home from school, she fed me.’
‘You called at Jeanie’s?’ Bonnie shook her head wonderingly. ‘I mean, your nan’s. How come?’
Paige shrugged vaguely. ‘I was bored and I didn’t want to sit on my own.’
Bonnie’s eyebrows knitted together. ‘You could have phoned to tell me you were there and I would have come to you.’
‘I was going to, but Jeanie had some weird phone call. She disappeared into her bedroom for ages. So I got sick of waiting and came home.’
‘Paige! She’ll be worried to death about you!’
Paige rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Mum. She phoned here after and I told her I was ok. You stress too much.’
Bonnie perched on the edge of the sofa, frowning. ‘What was the phone call about?’
Paige shrugged. ‘No idea. She was speaking Spanish, though.’
Bonnie raised her eyebrows. ‘Spanish? Your nan doesn’t speak Spanish.’
‘She does a bit; she goes on her cigarette runs all the time.’
‘Not enough for a phone conversation, though.’
‘Oh yeah, well, she did speak some English too, after she said hello and asked how he was.’
‘He?’
Paige shrugged again. ‘It just sounded like a bloke, the way she was talking.’
‘What was she saying?’ Bonnie pressed.
Paige looked up from the TV. ‘Mum… if you want to know, you’ll have to ask her.’
Bonnie went to the kitchen, her mind turning over these new developments. As Paige wasn’t eating, there didn’t seem any point in cooking just for herself. She dragged a pack of ham from the fridge and buttered some bread while she wondered what on earth her mum was up to now.
Four
‘Paige told me all about the competition already,’ Jeanie said as she fastened her seatbelt.
‘I thought so,’ Bonnie said, throwing a knowing look at Paige on the back seat, noting again that particular shade of lipstick really was too bright for her daughter’s complexion. It wasn’t an argument you had with Paige, though, so she had kept her mouth firmly closed on the subject. ‘That’s why you went over after school out of the blue the other night.’
Paige grinned sheepishly.
‘And I suppose you gave her some money for an outfit?’ Bonnie arched an eyebrow at her mum.
It was Jeanie’s turn to look sheepish.
Bonnie sighed as she started the engine. ‘You did book this table, didn’t you?’ she asked Jeanie. ‘You know what Blossom Palace is like on a Saturday night.’
‘Yes, I booked. Stop stressing.’
Bonnie glanced across at her mum as she released the handbrake. ‘You sound more and more like Paige every day.’
‘She does not!’ Paige put in from the back seat.
Jeanie grinned. ‘Cool your jets, Paige, no one is taking your awesome crown from you.’
‘Naaaaaan,’ Paige groaned, ‘don’t talk that way, it makes you sound like an idiot.’
Bonnie laughed. ‘It’s your nan’s birthday and she’s having a mid-life crisis, so indulge her.’
‘Cheeky cow!’ Jeanie fired at Bonnie, whose laugh became louder still.
‘Oh, I forgot, you’ve been having that since you were eighteen,’ Bonnie quipped.
‘You’re not too old for a slap, you know,’ Jeanie chided. Bonnie glanced across and caught the ghost of a smile.
‘I tell you what,’ she said, changing the subject, ‘I’m starving. I haven’t had Chinese in ages, I can’t wait.’
‘The buffet at Blossom Palace is awesome,’ Paige said. ‘Annabel goes all the time with her mum and dad,’ she added with a slightly reproachful note in her voice. It didn’t escape Bonnie.
‘Annabel’s mum is a nurse and her dad is a manager at a tyre plant. They can afford to eat at Blossom Palace a lot more than we can. I’m sorry that we don’t go out enough for you.’
‘I never said a word about that,’ Paige replied defensively.
‘No, but you were thinking it.’
‘Let’s not worry about money tonight,’ Jeanie cut in, sensing an argument brewing. ‘It’s my birthday and it only comes round once a year, and who knows how many more I’ll have…’
‘Nothing like a bit of morbid melodrama to lighten the mood,’ Bonnie said dryly.
‘All I’m saying is let’s enjoy ourselves tonight and worry about the rest of life tomorrow.’
‘As it’s your birthday, then I suppose you get to call the shots tonight,’ Bonnie smiled and returned her attention to the road ahead.
***
Bonnie squeezed into the gap around the hotplate, Paige behind her. The restaurant interior was warm and fragrant with the smell of exotic spices and fruit and the food laid out before them glistened invitingly, the dishes and their sauces vibrant with colour. The thing that Bonnie loved about buffet evenings, like Paige and Jeanie had always agreed, was that you could try all sorts of new things and you didn’t have to worry about taking ages to choose from the menu, wishing that you’d chosen something else after all when it finally arrived.
‘Get me some of that prawn toast before it goes, Mum,’ Paige squeaked impatiently.
‘You can get it,’ Bonnie replied, ‘you’re not that far off, it’ll still be there when you get there.’
‘Yeah, but you’re nearer,’ Paige insisted, ‘and you know how much I like it.’
‘If I put it on my plate then I have less room for what I want to eat. The idea of a buffet is that you can keep coming back up,’ Bonnie said.
‘You don’t need as much as I do, I’m still growing.’
Bonnie sighed and reached for the tongs to pick up a small pile of prawn toast.
‘Happy?’ she turned to Paige.
Paige grinned and spooned a pile of fried rice onto her plate. Bonnie shuffled along in the line, pondering each compartment of food on offer. It had been a long time since she had been treated to a meal out, even if it was just a Chinese buffet with her mum and Paige, and she was going to make the most of it.
Once she and Paige had piled their plates high with various concoctions of rice, noodles, sauces and vegetables, they began to negotiate the busy restaurant back to Jeanie who was at the table, guarding their belongings and waiting for her turn. For a moment, Bonnie’s attention wandered and she jumped back with a start, just about saving her plate from disaster as she narrowly avoided bumping into a red-haired woman.
‘Oh, God, I’m so sorry,’ Bonnie exclaimed.
The woman looked to be in her mid-twenties, clear skin and gentle grey eyes, an understated, willowy kind of beauty that Bonnie instantly felt envious of. ‘It’s really my fault,’ she smiled apologetically, ‘I wasn’t watching where I was going; too excited about getting to the food.’
Paige had already left them exchanging apologies and was back at the table tucking into her meal. Bonnie looked across with a frown and was about to politely end their conversation and make her own way back when she heard a familiar voice. Max was now standing next to the red-haired woman.
‘Bonnie
!’ he smiled. ‘Fancy meeting you here!’
Bonnie fought the blush as she felt it rise from her neck. It wasn’t that Max made her flustered usually; it was just the weirdness of seeing him here, of all places, that upset her for some reason. He slid an arm around the shoulder of the woman Bonnie had just been apologising to. Bonnie’s heart seemed to miss a beat as she made the connection.
‘I see you’ve met Sarah,’ Max grinned.
‘I sort of nearly tipped her dinner all over her,’ Sarah said with a laugh that was so dainty and musical, Bonnie wondered if it could possibly be real.
‘That’s unfortunate,’ Max said. He turned to Bonnie. ‘So what brings you out? Celebrating something or just a lazy tea?’
Bonnie nodded her head in the direction of their table where Jeanie was just easing herself off her chair to make her own way to the hotplates. ‘My Mum’s birthday. Not a special one, but she wanted to treat me and Paige.’
‘Oh, every birthday is special,’ Sarah said warmly. ‘I don’t let a single year go by without marking it.’
Bonnie laughed self-consciously. ‘It doesn’t have the same appeal when you get older, or so my mum tells me.’ She glanced down at her plate. ‘I should probably get this to the table before I tip it over someone else.’
‘Oh, of course,’ Sarah said. ‘It’ll be stone cold and you wouldn’t want that.’
Max nodded affably at Bonnie and took Sarah’s arm protectively, ready to lead her to the hotplate. Something settled in Bonnie’s gut as she noted the gesture, an emotion that she recognised but didn’t understand in this context. Why now, of all times?
‘It was lovely meeting you,’ Sarah said in an earnest tone to Bonnie.
‘You too,’ Bonnie replied, ‘Max has told us all about you, but at least now we know you’re not a figment of his imagination.’
Sarah laughed. ‘I hope not!’ Then she added: ‘Oh yes! Now I know, you’re Bonnie, from Applejack’s! Max told me all about you.’
Bonnie raised her eyebrows at Max who simply grinned.
Hopelessly Devoted to Holden Finn Page 5