Summer at the Kindness Cafe

by Victoria Walters

  ‘I need to go to City PR,’ Abbie said, jumping up. She had to know if Jack had been lying to her or not.

  ‘I’m coming with you.’ Kate grabbed a Danish pastry and followed Abbie towards the door.

  As they left, Abbie couldn’t help but worry that her sister had been right all along. Had she really made a huge mistake in coming back to London? With a sinking feeling that refused to leave her stomach, they flagged down a taxi and headed to her old office to see if her boyfriend was really there or not.

  Chapter Three

  Louise walked in to Huntley Manor through the large oak door. She asked Amy, the receptionist, where she could find Thomas and was directed to the ballroom. It had been a stunning space used for many parties and events through the years, both when it was just a stately home and when Thomas’s parents ran it as a hotel, but it had fallen out of use and Thomas had left it locked up until now.

  She had never taken Abbie for a romantic, but when Louise walked in and saw how the ballroom was taking shape, she thought that her sister must be one at heart. Even Louise, who was herself firmly against romance since her childhood sweetheart had left her at the altar, stood in the doorway, her mouth open as she took the room in. She could instantly picture people in years gone by floating around, the room lit by candlelight, the clinking of crystal glasses, soft music playing, the formal dancing and coy glances at beaus, the rustle of long dresses . . . it all seemed to be happening right in front of her eyes. ‘This room is beautiful,’ she said.

  Thomas turned around and smiled at her. ‘There’s a lot more to do, but it’s starting to look like how I remember it again.’ He gestured to the room. ‘It brings back a lot of memories.’

  ‘I bet. I just wanted to see it, after Abbie told me so much about it. I hope that’s okay?’ Louise hadn’t spent much time with Thomas; she had always been slightly intimidated by him being a lord and he seemed to keep himself to himself. But she had only ever heard good things said about him in the town, and she wanted to make sure he was okay now.

  ‘Of course. How is Abbie doing?’ he asked, not quite meeting her eyes.

  ‘I haven’t heard much from her; I expect she’s busy getting settled. There’s a lot for her to do.’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘I suppose I wanted to make sure that you were still renovating this room.’ Louise looked at him. ‘She mentioned that the two of you had words before she left.’

  Thomas sighed. ‘I’ve decided to wait until the ballroom is finished before I make any decisions about the future. I know that Abbie was convinced we could save this place from closing, and I’d like to believe that she was right, but the debts are building. The bank tells me I can make more from a sale if the room is renovated, so at least I have some time to think it all over.’

  ‘Well, I know she really wanted to help you keep this place open. It’s such a lovely building, and the history of it is really important to the town. I hope you can make it work. If there’s anything I can do, just let me know. Please.’ Louise felt guilty that Abbie had left halfway through the project, although it wasn’t her fault, but it was her hometown and she didn’t want anyone to be unhappy there.

  ‘Thank you. Actually, I’m glad you’re here. I have something to show you.’ He led her out and they walked through the hotel.

  They entered the grand library, which was now his office, and she could see why Abbie had been so captivated by the place.

  ‘Abbie told me that this house reminded her of the home your grandparents had when you were growing up, and that it was sold and divided up into flats.’

  Louise nodded. ‘I remember it less vividly than Abbie, but she always loved that house, and I know she was upset that my parents let it go. I think that’s why she was so determined to help you.’

  ‘When she told me about it, I was curious, so I started to research it and I found something I thought she might like. I have no idea when I’ll ever see her again, so I thought you could give it to her instead?’ Thomas lifted up a large box and laid it on his desk. He opened it up and inside was a painting in a wooden frame of the house in Cornwall.

  Louise let out a small gasp. She leaned over it and was pulled back to her childhood: summers spent running around the house with Abbie, lying in the grass under the summer sun, feeling as if nothing bad could ever touch them there. ‘It’s amazing. Thomas, however did you get this?’

  ‘It’s a painting by a local artist, I found it on her website and she was still selling prints of it, but the original was hanging in a local gallery and they sold it to me. Do you think Abbie will like it?’

  Louise looked at him. ‘She will love it. What a wonderful gift.’ She was worried that her heart, firm against anything to do with love, might be melting right then and there. She touched his arm. ‘It’s so thoughtful of you.’

  ‘I wanted to repay her for all that she had done for me this summer. I had basically given up, and she changed that.’

  ‘Are you sure you don’t want to give it to her yourself?’

  He shook his head. ‘She’s in London now. I don’t want her to feel any obligation to me, I mean, this house. You give it to her, Louise, and I hope she’s happy.’

  Louise looked at the painting and wished they could go back to that simpler time. Everything seemed so complicated now. ‘You need to keep this hotel open, Thomas; we would all help you with the reopening event. Think about it.’

  ‘I will.’

  ***

  Abbie and Kate climbed out of their taxi outside City PR’s tall office block Abbie looked up at the shiny glass building where she had worked for two years and took a deep breath.

  She was glad Kate was with her when she took her arm as they walked through the doors and into a lift. Abbie wasn’t sure what was worse – the idea that Jack had been stealing from his work, or that he had been pretending to be going into the office every day. Either way, she was about to have confirmation that her boyfriend had either had his good name sullied for no reason, or that he was a complete and utter liar. She wished the lift would move slower, but they soon reached the right floor and were walking towards the reception desk. Abbie could see Melanie there, and she wanted to turn back around and run, but she knew that Kate would stop her. And she had to know one way or another.

  ‘Oh my God, Abbie! And Kate! What are you guys doing here?’ Melanie said with a big smile for them.

  ‘We’re here to see Jack,’ Abbie said, her throat feeling like sandpaper. ‘Is he here?’

  Melanie looked confused. ‘I haven’t seen him for a week. He’s meant to come in soon for a meeting, I think.’ She looked at Abbie and saw the look on her face. ‘Oh, you thought he was here?’

  ‘He’s been telling her he’s still working here – he left the flat this morning in a suit,’ Kate confirmed. Abbie wanted to sink through the floor.

  ‘Oh my God! I always thought he was a twat, but that’s so shady. No, they suspended him a week go.’

  ‘Why? What happened, Mel?’ Abbie managed to ask. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to cry or hit something really hard. Well, hit Jack, actually. He had made such a fool of her.

  ‘They realised that his expense account was out of control, that he was claiming for things that had nothing to do with work, including some of the rent on his flat. They don’t want any bad publicity, so I heard they’re planning to make him resign and leave quietly.’

  Abbie couldn’t believe that Jack was capable of that. Sure, he had always been a charmer, a little bit arrogant sometimes, but a liar and a thief? Did she really not know him at all? ‘I have to go, I need to find him.’

  ‘Shall I . . . ?’

  Abbie shook her head at Kate. ‘I need to do this alone. I’ll call you.’ She hurried back into the lift and flopped against the wall as it floated back down to the ground floor. Where the hell was he? If you were pretending to go to work, where would you go instead?

  Then Abbie realised she knew exactly where he was, and she walke
d out into the pouring rain and into a waiting taxi, determined to track him down and confront him.

  She watched the city float past the window, and the place that had always filled her with energy and excitement now felt strange to her. Suddenly, she longed to be having a cosy cuppa in Brew with her sister, and it took all her effort to keep her anger alive, and not to dissolve into tears.

  Chapter Four

  When Eszter had finished work, she walked to her mother-in-law’s house. Since Anne’s ceiling had collapsed when she had left the bath taps running upstairs, she had been living with Eszter and Zoe in their rented cottage, but her house was all fixed now and they had moved her things back in over the weekend. Anne was looking after Zoe there while Eszter was working at Brew, and the two of them were in the kitchen, surrounded by baking equipment when Eszter walked in.

  ‘We’re practising for the cookery class,’ Anne explained, looking up as Eszter appeared.

  ‘We’ve made a bit of a mess,’ Zoe said with a giggle. She had flour in her hair and her hands were covered in cake mixture.

  Eszter laughed. ‘I can see that, but I’m pretty sure that means the cake will taste twice as good.’

  ‘It’s ready to go in the oven. How about you wash up, Zoe?’ Anne picked up the cake tin and slid it into the oven while Zoe went to the sink to clean up. ‘How was work?’

  Eszter sat down at the table, relieved to be off her feet. She scooped up some mixture with her little finger and licked it off. Why was raw cake mixture so tasty? ‘It was fine. Joy asked me to send her the list of cakes we’ll be making in the class and she’ll write them on a chalkboard at the front so everyone can see. Have you narrowed it down yet?’ She looked at all the recipe books stacked on the table. It looked as if they had spent her whole shift studying up. She was pleased they were having so much fun with each other, and Zoe didn’t seem as nervous about the class now that she was helping to organise it all.

  ‘I want to do brownies and flapjacks, and Gran wants to do a Victoria sponge. We thought we should do cupcakes too,’ Zoe said, coming back to the table. ‘You can choose something too, Mum.’

  Eszter smiled. ‘Well, then, I vote for gingerbread – that’s always been my favourite. I think five things sounds perfect. We can split up into groups and each group can make one of the cakes. I’ll ring Joy tonight to tell her.’

  ‘Do you think everyone will enjoy it, Mum?’

  ‘Who doesn’t enjoy baking?’

  Anne put the kettle on. ‘I remember my grandmother teaching me to make a cake when I was your age, Zoe. I think the whole class will have a great time. And Joy said you and I can wear Brew aprons for it too.’

  ‘But we’re not getting paid, are we?’

  Eszter chuckled. ‘Nice try, Zo, nice try.’ She looked around the kitchen. ‘So, you’re all settled back in now?’

  Anne nodded. ‘It’s quieter than I remember though,’ she said as she started making tea. ‘Strange, how new things strike you after being away.’

  ‘It’s because you’ve been living with this noisy little thing right here.’ Eszter ruffled her daughter’s hair and was pushed off. She didn’t like the thought of Anne being in the house all by herself, though, when they went back to their cottage. It had been so nice having all three of them under the same roof.

  ‘I’m not noisy!’

  Anne laughed and passed Eszter a cup of tea, easing herself into the chair opposite them, a mug in her own hand. ‘It’s okay, Zoe, it’s a comforting noise, I promise. Well, we have about an hour to wait for the cake. Are you two in a rush to get home? We could eat here if you’re not?’

  ‘And play a game?’ Zoe asked eagerly, looking pleadingly at her mother.

  ‘Sounds like a good plan to me,’ Eszter agreed, not wanting to separate them for a while longer. She loved seeing the two of them becoming so close. It was such a shame that her husband never got to see his daughter and mother together but she knew that Nick would have felt the same. All they needed now was for Zoe to make a couple of friends and then the summer ahead would look bright for all of them.

  ***

  Abbie got out of the taxi in front of the library that stood just a short walk away from Jack’s flat. She didn’t really think he was in there but she hoped he was. That meant at least he could be working on their business or clearing his name, something that would show her that he was trying to make things right.

  She peered inside, but her chest quickly deflated because, as she had predicted, there was no sign of him in there. That meant he was in the other place Abbie had thought of back at the City PR office, and she was disappointed in him all over again.

  Abbie left the library and walked briskly around the corner to Jack’s favourite bar. They had spent many evenings in there either alone or with their workmates and friends, stumbling back to his flat afterwards late in the night, light-headed from the champagne Jack always ordered for them. Abbie had loved how generous he was on nights out, often footing the bill for everyone, and always paying for Abbie’s drinks, but now it made her feel a little bit sick. How much of that had been stolen from City PR? How long had it been going on? Had she really known the man whose bed she had been sharing?

  Abbie pushed the door to the bar open. It wasn’t even lunchtime yet but a few people were in there, and she felt a wave of pity for them. She looked around and there in a booth at the back, his suit still on but with his tie cast aside on the seat next to him, was Jack, slumped over a pint of beer, his laptop closed on the table. Abbie took a deep breath and marched over to him.

  ‘Hard at work, I see.’

  Jack jumped, startled and looked up at her. She wondered how she had missed the tired look in his eyes. ‘Abbie, what are you doing here?’

  She slid into the booth opposite him, conscious of the barman looking over at them curiously. ‘Me?’ she hissed, leaning forwards. ‘You told me you were going to work.’

  ‘I just popped in for a quick drink before I meet a client,’ he said so quickly and smoothly, Abbie was shocked. He really could lie so easily, it just dripped off his tongue, with no sign that he wasn’t speaking the complete truth. She wondered what else he had lied about since she met him.

  Her eyes narrowed. ‘I’ve just come from City PR, so how about you finally tell me the truth. I know you’ve been suspended. Have you really been stealing from the company?’

  Jack winced. ‘It’s not like that. It’s just a mistake.’

  ‘How is it a mistake?’

  ‘I didn’t realise that some of the things I was claiming for weren’t allowed,’ he said slowly, still avoiding meeting her gaze.

  ‘Like rent on your flat?’ Abbie asked, incredulously.

  ‘That was only once! It costs a fortune, that place. I have been paying it back, I swear. Things just got on top of me, and I am a partner there. They don’t pay me enough.’

  ‘So, you thought you’d just take it instead?’

  ‘Borrow, just borrow. I swear, Abs, you have to believe me.’ He tried to reach for her hands then, but she pulled them on to her lap out of his reach.

  ‘It doesn’t even matter whether I believe you or not, you should have told me what was going on when you came to see me. Instead, you pretended you just wanted a new challenge and brought me back here, to do what, set up a company so you can steal from me too?’

  ‘No! God, no. I thought it was a second chance for me, yes, but for you too. I knew you hadn’t found anything, and I thought my days at City PR were numbered, so it made sense. I missed you, that wasn’t a lie, and I knew we’d make a great team.’

  ‘How could we when you were lying to me?’

  ‘I thought it would all blow over, and then you’d never need to know.’

  ‘But you knew that no one would support our company. You said to put it in my name because you knew how much trouble you were in. Even with it in my name, once people find out what you’ve done, who the hell is going to want to work with us? You were jeopardising my wh
ole future without even having the decency to tell me and let me decide for myself if I still wanted to do it.’

  Jack shook his head and took a long gulp from his beer. ‘I’m sorry, but I knew you wouldn’t come back with me if you knew. And I do love you, Abs. That’s the truth.’

  ‘If you really loved me then you wouldn’t treat me like this. I’ve been working ever since I got back with no help from you because I thought you were busy at work, but you’ve been in here, day after day, drinking, and not doing anything. We’re supposed to be partners, in life, and in business. How can I ever trust you again?’ Abbie stood up, suddenly exhausted by her anger and how Jack seemed so defeated opposite her. This wasn’t the man she had been attracted to. This wasn’t someone she wanted to spend any of her time with, professional or personal. Everything had changed.

  She started to walk away but then he called her name. Reluctantly, she paused and turned back, wondering what he could possibly say to make any of this better.

  ‘What will you do without me?’ he said, a sudden challenge back in his gaze.

  He really thought that she needed him. That she couldn’t be successful without him, that much was plain. It was written all over his face. He thought she would forgive him, that she could get over his lies, and his stealing, that she wouldn’t be able to survive without him. She knew he was wrong, and she would prove it to him.

  ‘Anything, and everything, that I want to,’ she replied, spun on her heels, and left the bar. It was really over this time, and Abbie was surprised at how little sadness she felt about it. She had made a huge mistake in going back to Jack, and she vowed she’d never do that again.

  She pulled out her phone to call Louise as she walked back to Jack’s flat to pack up her things and hoped that Littlewood’s kindness was still in full force because, right now, she had never needed it more.

  Chapter Five

  Louise saw Abbie’s name flash up on her phone and she grabbed it quickly. ‘Abs?’ She was so happy that her sister was finally getting in touch.