Summer at the Kindness Cafe

by Victoria Walters

  There was no way that a man should be making her feel so panicky. ‘Get a grip,’ she muttered to herself, remembering that all men were just like Peter, so there was no need to even think about Alex again. She was ashamed that his smile, complete with dimples, popped into her head and she shook the thought away fiercely. Alex was just the man who returned her earring to her. He was kind. Peter had never been kind. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t crush her heart into pieces just like Peter had. It was much safer to assume that you were going to get hurt and avoid the prospect than end up heartbroken again.

  When she got round to Hazel, she was nervous that Alex would still be there but the cubicle was empty apart from her young patient. Hazel said her mum was getting some dinner. It must be so tiring for her always going back and forth to the hospital; Louise felt so much sympathy for the family. She hoped they would get some respite soon.

  ‘Did Uncle Alex give you your earring?’ Hazel asked. She still clutched the bear Louise had given her.

  ‘Yes, thank you. Your bear had been keeping it safe for me, he said?’

  She nodded. ‘My mum said we had to look after it until we could find who it belonged to, then Uncle Alex said it was yours.’

  ‘He comes to see you a lot, doesn’t he?’

  ‘Not as much as I wish he could. He often works late, Mum says.’

  ‘Where does he work?’ she asked casually, wondering why she was grilling a little girl about a man she’d just met.

  ‘He’s a vet.’

  Oh, great, Louise thought. He was an animal lover too. ‘In Littlewood?’

  Hazel nodded.

  Louise wanted to feel relieved that she didn’t have a pet that might need his attention, but she wasn’t totally sure that’s what she was feeling. She hastily left Hazel in case she felt the need to ask her more questions about him.

  She texted Abbie on her break to say her earring had been delivered safely back to her. By the local vet.

  Is he good-looking? Abbie replied.

  Louise groaned and put her phone away.

  ***

  Abbie and Louise went to have lunch at Brew before setting off on their shopping day. Louise wasn’t working today and Abbie was leaving Thomas to speak to contractors about sprucing up the ballroom.

  Louise went to the counter to order and told Joy she could wipe off her kindness plea. ‘It’s been found,’ she said, showing off the matching pair of diamond studs safely back in her ears.

  ‘Did he give it back to you? He was cute, wasn’t he?’ Eszter asked, coming over with a stack of plates for the dishwasher.

  ‘Who was cute?’ Joy asked.

  ‘The man who found her earring.’

  Louise rolled her eyes. ‘His name is Alex, he’s a vet apparently.’

  ‘Alex?’ Joy said, her eyes lighting up. ‘We love Alex. He saved one of our dogs last year; he stayed all night at the surgery with him. He’s always on the Kindness Board, and a very eligible bachelor.’

  ‘Just because he’s single doesn’t mean he’s eligible,’ Louise said, cross that they were both so excited about him. This wasn’t a romance novel, for God’s sake. ‘Two coffees and two Welsh rarebits please.’

  ‘Speaking of,’ Joy hissed as she typed Louise’s order into the till. The bell on the door jingled and Louise couldn’t help but glance at it as Alex walked in. Louise felt all their eyes on her as Alex came up to the counter. ‘Morning, Alex,’ Joy greeted him with a smile as she turned to make the coffees.

  ‘Hi, everyone,’ Alex said, waving his hand at them all. ‘Nice earrings,’ he said to Louise. ‘I’m glad they haven’t gone walkabout again.’

  Louise felt her cheeks heat up and pleaded with Joy’s back to hurry up with their order. Alex asked for a coffee and pastry to go.

  ‘Just heading to the surgery. You’re not at the hospital today?’ he asked.

  Louise shook her head. ‘I’m having a day out with my sister, Abbie.’ She pointed her out. Abbie was staring with blatant curiosity. Louise knew she’d never hear the end of this. She grabbed their coffees as soon as Joy slid them over.

  ‘Enjoy your coffee,’ she said and Louise hurried over to her sister.

  ‘Who is that?’ Abbie hissed, taking her coffee from her.

  ‘God, he’s just the guy who found my earring: Alex.’

  ‘I knew he was good-looking!’

  ‘Stop staring at him,’ Louise hissed, hoping he wouldn’t notice. She wished he would hurry up and leave Brew. He was making her nervous being there.

  Alex walked past their table with his cup and paper bag as he made to leave. ‘Well, it was nice to see you again,’ he said to Louise, who suddenly found that her coffee looked very interesting. ‘I’m off to neuter a cat.’ Then his face fell. ‘That was too much information, wasn’t it?’

  Louise couldn’t help but chuckle. ‘It was a bit.’

  ‘Well, maybe I’ll see you when I next visit Hazel?’

  ‘I’m not on nights for a while so probably not,’ she replied, shortly. Eszter came over then with their cheesy bread.

  ‘Ah, okay. Well, bye then,’ Alex said, stuttering a little. He glanced at Eszter and Abbie. ‘Enjoy your food,’ he said and then ducked out of the café quickly.

  ‘Lou, that poor boy,’ Abbie said with a shake of her head.

  ‘He was hoping he’d see you again,’ Eszter added, watching him walk away out of the window. ‘He’s good-looking, isn’t he? Don’t you think?’

  ‘And he’s a vet,’ Abbie said, starting to eat. ‘Ooh, this is good.’

  ‘Why would I care if he’s cute and a vet?’ Louise said, annoyed with all of them. She started eating and refused to say anything more on the subject but she didn’t miss the look that her sister shared with Eszter, before she walked away to check on Zoe, who was reading in the corner.

  Abbie sighed. ‘I know the news about Peter has hit you hard, but it’s been two years,’ she said gently. ‘Don’t you want to put him behind you?’

  ‘It’s not like Alex asked me out or anything.’

  ‘He would have done if you’d given him any encouragement.’

  ‘What do you know, Abs? You’ve never been in love. That guy you were seeing in London didn’t even have you round to his flat. You never met his family and friends. It was like you were having an affair with a married man. You know nothing about a real relationship or how it felt when Peter left me, so just drop it, okay?’ Louise immediately regretted her words as Abbie’s face dropped. ‘I’m sorry,’ Louise said quickly. ‘I know you really liked him.’

  ‘You’re right. I’ve never been with anyone as long as you were with Peter, no one has asked me to marry them, but that doesn’t mean I can’t see that you deserve to move on. It doesn’t have to be with Alex, but you did promise to be kinder to yourself, didn’t you? I just wish you’d let someone in, a little bit. I want you to be happy.’

  ‘I want you to be happy too. You deserve more than what Jack gave you, you know.’

  Abbie sighed. ‘We’re a right pair, aren’t we?’

  Louise looked over at the Kindness Board and saw Eszter rubbing off the plea to find her earring. She touched her ear. She wished it was that easy to be kind to yourself. Abbie had jumped enthusiastically into their kindness pact and was doing a great job of helping Huntley Manor, and Eszter was persevering with her mother-in-law, but Louise just felt stuck.

  Chapter Twelve

  ‘What are you doing?’ Thomas asked when he walked into Huntley Manor’s library and found Abbie on her laptop in there.

  ‘I was just drawing up a list of people to invite to the relaunch. We’ll need to send out the invites soon or people will be busy. How did the meeting with the builders go?’

  ‘It went okay. We’ve worked out a payment plan. Now I just need to speak to the bank about a second mortgage.’

  ‘You’ll convince them, I know it. Oh,’ she paused as her phone buzzed in her hand. ‘Jack has sent me a job link.’

  �
�Is this the same Jack that stole all the credit?’

  ‘Yes, and my ex,’ Abbie admitted. She checked the link. ‘Who seems to have forgotten I can’t drive and this job needs someone who can.’ She sighed. It was typical of him to not look at the fine print on anything. It was the third job he’d sent her that week. He was clearly trying to help, but she was still confused as to what had prompted him to get back in touch so regularly. Plus all the jobs he was sending had something wrong with them. It was making her feel despondent about her prospects. Louise had said the job market went stale in the summer and Abbie shouldn’t worry until September, but she was getting nervous about the gap on her CV.

  ‘I could teach you.’

  She looked up at Thomas, confused. ‘Huh?’

  ‘To drive. Come on, no time like the present.’

  ‘Don’t you have to speak to the bank?’

  ‘They’re shut. It’ll have to wait until the morning. Come on; let me help you for a change.’

  Sensing that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer, Abbie got up and let Thomas lead her by the hand outside towards the jeep.

  ‘Can I drive in these?’ she asked, pointing down to her shoes.

  ‘I’d rather you didn’t on your first try. Here.’ Thomas grabbed a pair of trainers from the stables. ‘They look about your size.’

  ‘Whose are they?’

  He shrugged. ‘Been there years.’

  ‘You’re a hoarder, you know that?’

  ‘Shut up and get in,’ he replied with a grin. She suddenly felt nervous. She hadn’t needed to drive in London and whenever Louise suggested learning, she came up with an excuse. She liked to be good at things and something told her driving was going to be hard. On top of that, Thomas would be sitting very close and judging her the whole time. She hung back, but he opened the door for her and gave her a stern ‘no excuses’ look, which she quite liked, to be honest.

  Abbie was miles out of her comfort zone as Thomas went through all the gears and pedals with her, leaning over to show her things and making her more frustrated than she wanted to admit. Thomas was patient with her though and when she finally turned on the engine, his calmness helped her not to freak out when the car moved with a lurch.

  She managed to make it move a little smoother as she drove across the field and tried to change gear a couple of times.

  ‘There you go – you’re driving,’ Thomas said with a smile.

  She couldn’t help but beam back at him. ‘I really am.’

  They drove around the field a couple of times and then she pressed a bit too hard on the brake when he told her to pull over.

  ‘Did I do okay?’

  ‘You’ll be passing your test in no time. Shall I drive us back?’

  ‘Yeah, I don’t want to try parking just yet.’

  They swapped and Thomas took the jeep back to the stables. The car came to a stop and Abbie got out and started changing back into her heels right away. Aware that Thomas was watching her, she hopped about unattractively until he held her arm steady as she put her heels back on.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said as she straightened up. ‘I just don’t feel like me unless I’m in them.’ She was now a tiny bit nearer his height and they looked at each other for a moment before he released her arm. ‘Thanks for the lesson; I think my sister would have made me too nervous.’

  ‘That’s the least I could do for . . . oh, crap.’ He broke off as the jeep started to roll back out of the stables. Abbie watched as Thomas leapt to the car door and leaned in to put the handbrake on. The jeep stopped with a jerk. ‘And the next lesson is remembering to use the handbrake,’ he said, looking wide-eyed at her. Abbie couldn’t help it – she burst out laughing, and after a second he joined in too.

  ***

  Eszter and Zoe went round to Louise’s that night for a movie. Eszter was grateful to get out of the house and have some adult company. She was nervous about the letter she had left with Mrs Harris and she needed to follow through with her promise to go round there soon – the longer she put off seeing her mother-in-law again, the more nervous she was getting about it.

  Louise opened the door and ushered them in after receiving the delicious chocolate cake they’d brought from Brew.

  ‘I need this after today,’ Eszter said, gratefully accepting the glass of wine Abbie gave her. ‘Brew was so busy. There was a coach party who stopped on the way to a theme park and they all wanted bacon sandwiches. My hand actually hurts from frying.’

  ‘The whole café smelt of bacon all day,’ Zoe complained, taking her orange juice from Louise. ‘But I finished my colouring book.’

  ‘You two sound like you had a better day than me,’ Louise replied. ‘I got shouted at by a parent because their child didn’t like their lunch.’

  ‘Well, this will cheer you up,’ Eszter said as they went into the living room. ‘Alex came in today.’

  ‘Why would that cheer me up?’ Louise asked with a pointed look.

  The doorbell rang and Abbie went to get the pizzas they had ordered, trying not to smile at her sister’s defensive remark.

  ‘He asked how you were. I think he was disappointed that you weren’t around.’

  ‘Food’s up!’ Abbie said, saving Louise from having to reply as she laid the pizzas out on the table – extra cheese for Zoe and Louise, and pepperoni for Abbie and Eszter. ‘Well, my day beats all of yours then – I had my first driving lesson and Thomas almost killed us by forgetting to put the handbrake on in his jeep.’ She pulled out a slice. ‘Come to Mama.’

  ‘I think my day was the best,’ Zoe disagreed, taking a plate with two slices on from her mother.

  ‘I think you’re right, Zoe,’ Louise agreed and they all smiled. ‘Have you decided when you’re going to go back to see your mother-in-law, Eszter?’

  She nodded. ‘Tomorrow. I can’t put it off any longer.’ She leaned behind her daughter who was picking out a DVD. ‘I just don’t know what to do if it goes as badly as last time.’

  ‘Just kill her with kindness,’ Abbie said in the middle of chewing her pizza.

  Eszter looked shocked. ‘You’re suggesting I do what?’

  Louise chuckled. ‘It’s one of our weird sayings. It just means you should be overly kind to her so she can’t be rude or mean to you again.’

  ‘But if she is, I think you just need to get the hell out of there,’ Abbie said. ‘Eszter shouldn’t have to put up with that.’

  ‘I think the letter will have helped, don’t you?’ Louise asked her.

  Eszter shrugged. ‘Honestly, I don’t know. She was pretty vicious when I first met her, but if anyone can calm her down, it’s Nick. I could never stay angry for long with him around,’ she said as Zoe presented her with her film choice for the evening. ‘What’s another of your sayings here? Oh, yes. I’ll just have to cross my fingers.’

  ‘Then you won’t be able to use them,’ Zoe said, confused by that idea.

  Eszter laughed. ‘That’s a good point.’

  Chapter Thirteen

  Eszter smoothed down her hair nervously. She had left Zoe with Harry and Joy in their flat above Brew. She was still too anxious about Mrs Harris to introduce Zoe to her yet. She hoped Nick’s letter would have paved the way for a better welcome this time, but she certainly wasn’t going to count on that being the case. She knocked on the door to the house, wondering if Mrs Harris would pretend not to be inside. She had a cake in her hand that Joy had made her take. If nothing else, it might be a peace offering. Joy was firmly of the opinion that cake could solve most things in life.

  The door opened a crack and there was a sigh. ‘It’s you.’

  ‘Did you read his letter?’ Eszter asked, getting straight to the point. There was a silence, which she took to mean the woman had read it. ‘Can I come in? Just for a minute? I have a cake from Brew, and could do with a cup of tea.’ Eszter preferred coffee, but she knew what the English were like with their tea and she was certain Nick must have got his five-cups-a-day ha
bit from somewhere. There was more silence, then another sigh and the door opened. Mrs Harris walked away, which Eszter assumed was an invitation and followed her inside, closing the door behind her.

  The house Nick grew up in was large with high ceilings and neutral carpet throughout. It was tidy and clean and smelt of lavender. Mrs Harris put the kettle on and pulled out two plates. Eszter handed her the cake and sat down, as she clearly wasn’t going to be asked to. The kitchen had wooden cupboards and lemon walls and the patio doors opened out on to the wide garden. Eszter could see that the grass was slightly overgrown, but on the patio there were pots full of colourful flowers. It was evident that Mrs Harris took pride in her house. Eszter tried to look for any mementoes of Nick, but there were no pictures that she could see or any sign that anyone other than Mrs Harris had ever lived there.

  They were silent as her mother-in-law made two cups of tea and brought them to the table with a small slice of Victoria sponge each. It looked very civilised, but Eszter saw Mrs Harris’s hand shaking slightly as she put them down on the table and realised she was as tense as Eszter was.

  ‘I know why you’re here now,’ Mrs Harris said as she sat down opposite Eszter. ‘But that doesn’t mean I am happy about it. I wanted my son, not you.’

  ‘I understand that.’

  ‘I hadn’t seen him for nine years when he died. Nine years. He was playing happy families with you and forgetting all about me.’

  ‘He didn’t forget about you,’ Eszter said. ‘You read the letter – you were on his mind, even at the end. He regretted not trying to heal things between you. He didn’t tell me much about what happened between you but it’s clear he wished things had turned out differently. His letter was his last chance. I had to do as he asked.’

  ‘Well, you’ve done what he wanted. You don’t owe him more than that.’

  ‘But I’d like to get to know you a bit more, and I’d like Zoe to meet you. Wouldn’t you? I can tell you about Nick . . .’

  ‘He was my son, you can’t tell me anything about him that I don’t already know,’ Mrs Harris snapped.