‘At last I understand why your eyes are so blue,’ said Kate.
Lily nodded. ‘I had them done a while ago now. It was worth all the pain. Now, what else was I going to say? Oh yes. I’ve been given the name of a builder this morning, he comes highly recommended. Terry Allen – his son and nephew help him out. They’re a couple of jokers by all accounts, but Terry keeps them in order. Alex and, what was the other one called?’ Lily paused. ‘Tom, that’s it. I’m going to call him later.’
‘Sounds interesting,’ Chloe commented, looking forward to it already. ‘But I’m sure we can do better than any men.’
Lily smiled at Chloe’s self-assurance. ‘What I’d like you two to do now is source out some wallpaper books and we’ll sit down together to pick out a scheme. There’s no way we can paint these walls without it looking like it’s been done on the cheap.’
Lily carried her bag through to the kitchen and set it down on the table. She sat carefully, slipped off her court shoes and rubbed her stocking clad toes, smiling to herself when she heard the squeals of laughter erupting from the other room. They seemed to be getting on well, but it was early days yet. The crunch would be when they’d lived together for a few weeks after the coffee shop had opened. Once the fuss had died down and the excitement had been exchanged for hard work.
She sat back in the chair and visualised them both in the uniforms they’d picked out yesterday. Letting them have the final say had been a good idea, she’d realised, when she’d seen their reactions. The coffee shop would be a success, Lily was certain. So young, so full of ideas, she knew they’d attract a decent type of clientele.
‘Sorry, Lily, I was about to make a brew, wasn’t I?’ Chloe rushed in as if on the tail of a whirlwind, interrupting her thoughts. ‘I was talking to Irene. She’s a lovely old dear, shame about her dress sense though. That cardie looks as old as the ark. Now, about that drink.’
Somerley Leisure Centre was only a mile away from Church Square so it took Kate all of twenty minutes to drive there and enrol as a member. Easy to do at the weekend, she surmised, but she knew it would more than likely take her ages to get there in the rush hour traffic which would be trying its best to inch its way onto the ring road.
The gym was similar in size to the one she’d been a member of in Brentside. Rows of cardio machines stood in line like toy soldiers. Aside from the many sets of dumbbells arranged neatly in racks, there were machines to work every different muscle in the body. Mirror after mirror adorned the walls, making the room double in size immediately, the remaining spaces covered with posters explaining how to change from a Teletubbie into a Barbie doll in a matter of six…years.
She’d just started to walk over towards the stepper equipment when a man in a blue t-shirt beckoned her over.
‘Hi, I’m Eddie, your instructor for today. Do you need any help?’
Kate might not have been into appearances as much as the teenager she was working with, but she was impressed with anyone who took the time to improve their body. Not more than twenty-five at a guess, her eyes roamed over his firm torso barely covered by the thin-ribbed material stretched over it. Biceps bulged from underneath the sleeves and, as he ran a hand over his hair, she waited for his eyes to catch up with hers as he gave her the once over. She blushed at his look of appreciation.
‘I’ve never used that model of treadmill before,’ she pointed over to the far wall, forgetting all about the Stairmaster. ‘Can you show me how it works?’
Kate’s nerves began to settle as Eddie set the control panel to a steady pace for her. After a few minutes, walking she upped the speed and began her run. Through the mirror in front of her, she took a sneaky glimpse behind her reflection.
Considering it was a Sunday morning, the gym was pretty full. A guy in his forties was barely moving his legs on a stationary bike whilst reading a Mark Billingham novel. A young woman lay back, taking a break, reclining on the leg press. Two plump middle-aged ladies walked side by side on the treadmills along from her, deep in conversation. None of them seemed in any way intimidated by the group of men puffing, panting and screeching as they used the free weights over in the far corner.
Kate cast an eye swiftly over the display panel and found she’d already been running for twelve minutes. The young woman was now working hard on the chest press. That particular set finished, she drew a hand across her brow and wiped it dry with a sweatband, a matching scrunchie held back her hair in a ponytail. Kate caught her eye, smiled shyly and was pleased when the smile was returned.
Finally, she was done. Totally de-stressed as the endorphins got to work inside her body, she wiped her brow with a towel. The gym wasn’t so huge now. It seemed more inviting and she couldn’t wait to try out the other machines.
An hour later, she was in the changing rooms when the young woman she’d seen earlier came out of the shower.
‘Hi,’ she smiled at Kate. ‘I’m Lucy. I haven’t seen you here before, have I?’
‘No, I joined this morning.’ Kate smiled back. ‘It seems like a friendly place.’
‘Yes, I’ve been a member for three years. Mind you, I don’t think I would have been as regular if Eddie wasn’t one of the instructors, seeing as I’ve got my own gym at home. He certainly gets me into a sweat every time I see him.’ She laughed. ‘I suppose there’s no harm in looking, even though I’m married. Do you live around here? I live on the other side of Hedworth in a three storey townhouse, you know, one of the new ones overlooking the waterfront. It’s a brand new complex of executive houses. It’s only a few minutes from here. We’ve been there since we got married. Are you married?’
‘Well, I –’
‘You have a fantastic figure, by the way. You’ve obviously worked out for a while. Your muscle definition is amaaaazing.’
Kate spotted her looking down. For a split second, she thought she could see envy in her eyes. ‘Oh, get off with you,’ she squirmed. ‘I hate my legs.’
‘I wish mine were like that rather than thin and gangly. Yours are lovely!’
‘No, they aren’t. I’m five foot three – the reason I wear heels most of the time. I’d love to have longer legs. Mine are just stocky, which would be great if I wanted to be a footballer.’
‘Honey,’ Lucy said in a melodramatic tone. ‘You need to learn to love yourself more.’
‘I tell you it was bizarre,’ Kate declared as she relayed her morning to Chloe over a lunch of jacket potato and tuna salad. ‘One minute I’m swooning over this young fitness instructor, who is way too young for me by the way, and the next I’m listening to a woman I barely know telling me her life story in thirty seconds flat and then telling me I have fantastic legs when I know I absolutely do not have!’
‘There’s nothing wrong with your legs,’ said Chloe. ‘Did you ask if we can put a poster on the notice board?’
‘Yes, and we can put one in the reception too, by the front doors.’
‘Do you think they drink coffee,’ Chloe was curious to know, ‘what with their bodies being temples?’
Kate rolled her eyes to the ceiling. ‘Well, I do! And it’s the wrong time for me to stop, even if I wanted to. We’ll be sick of the sight and the smell of it soon.’
CHAPTER TWELVE
Lily shuffled around, knowing so well that it would be impossible to get comfortable on the chair. As well as its hardness, she knew getting up in the early hours when she couldn’t sleep last night had been a bad idea.
She totted up the huge column of numbers, double checked and transferred the figures to another notepad. Already she’d exceeded her budget, but still she wasn’t sure they’d created the right ambience for the coffee shop.
Oh, what the heck, she sighed and put down her pen. It was only time and money and it shouldn’t take long to do the few alterations that Kate had suggested. Both she and Chloe had come up with some wonderful ideas. Lily might as well get it right the first time and it always saved money in the long term.
‘Good
morning, Lily.’ A familiar face greeted her as the mechanism of a silent bell sprang into action on the front door.
‘Good morning, Alf.’ Lily smiled, genuinely pleased to see him. Alf was a friend of both hers and Bernard’s. They had met when Bernard’s van had a punctured tyre. Alf kindly helped him out and Lily had given him free tea and a scone filled with home made jam and cream. They’d all been friends since. Alf’s wife, Joan, had died suddenly when he was thirty-six and he’d never remarried.
‘How are you this morning?’ Lily enquired as he sat down across from her.
‘Not bad, ta. Just thought I’d rest my legs for a while.’
Alf’s face broke into a smile. Lily didn’t know which she envied about him the most, his wonderful hardly-a-wrinkle-in-sight skin or the fact that he always seemed to be happy. Even though the day outside was fairly mild, he wore a black blazer, his huge stomach protruded from above his trousers, his braces pulled taut holding them tightly.
As he strained to see what was behind him, his burly hands, although ravaged with age and slightly twisting at the knuckles, gripped the side of the chair to stop him toppling over. Once he’d finished his inspection, he turned back to her.
‘So,’ Lily swept an arm around the chaos, ‘what do you think of my plan so far? Do you think it will work?’
Lily knew Alf was as sceptical as Irene so a little teasing was in order. After Kate and Chloe had finished the arduous task of stripping the walls, they’d been left with a completely blank canvas, which even she had to admit was more oppressive than the floral wallpaper. Terry Allen was coming to see her this afternoon to give her a quote on the work that was needed to make it look special again.
Alf removed his cap and placed it down on the table. ‘You know what I think. You’re mad to try again.’
‘That’s not the answer I had in mind.’
‘It’s the only answer I have. You don’t have to do this.’
Lily sighed. ‘I need something to occupy my time.’
‘But we can do things together. We could go dancing. And play bingo.’
‘We already go dancing and play bingo.’
‘What about the cinema?’
‘We went last Friday.’
‘To the museum, maybe on a picnic...’
Lily mentally switched off as he went through his endless list of possible outings that they could enjoy together. The twinkle in his eyes worked overtime to convince her, but she couldn’t return his affection. Not now, not ever.
At last she held up her hand to silence him. ‘Before you talk yourself hoarse, maybe it’s time for a nice mug of milky tea?’
‘I’ll tell you what you could improve,’ he said before she disappeared through the kitchen door.
Cautiously, she turned back to face him, and then hid a grin as he rubbed at his bottom.
‘These chairs are too hard for the likes of my well worn flesh. I think you need some new ones.’
‘Delivery for Mrs Mortimer,’ a voice shouted through the open doors an hour later. A short man with a huge stomach and the most outrageous shorts carried one end of a rectangular box. His equally short colleague appeared at the other end.
‘From Denleys? I’m sure it wasn’t supposed to arrive until the end of the month.’ Lily looked puzzled and went off in search of the order form.
‘What is it?’ Kate asked Mr Short and Fat.
‘Coffee machine, love.’ He wiped his brow with the back of a grubby looking hand. ‘Which is what we both could do with – a good cuppa. Isn’t that right, Markus?’
Mr Short and Thin nodded but Kate shook her head without more ado.
‘Sorry, but we’re not open for business yet. If you could put the box on the counter over on the far wall please, I’ll sign for the order.’
‘Here it is.’ Lily was out of breath when she returned to find them gone and Chloe spraying air freshener abundantly around where they had stood. ‘It shouldn’t have been delivered for another two weeks.’
‘Never mind, at least it’s here,’ said Kate. ‘It’s one thing we can cross off the list.’
‘Yes, I suppose it is.’ Lily looked through the window where another van had pulled up to the kerb. This one was definitely on time. Thankfully Terry Allen was quite the opposite of the delivery men. For starters, he was tall, clean shaven and smelt of shower gel.
‘I’ll show you through to the kitchen first,’ Lily said after a quick introduction to her staff. ‘That’s where most of the work is needed.’
Two minutes later and curiosity had got the better of Chloe. She had the coffee machine stripped of its plastic bubble wrap and was busy filling a stainless steel jar with milk.
‘Maybe you shouldn’t meddle,’ Kate advised. ‘I don’t know about you, but I’ve never used a machine like that before.’
‘How hard can it be to make a cappuccino?’ Chloe flicked up a switch, pulled down a lever and rammed a jug up the spout as the machine kicked into life. Spluttering and gurgling with all its might, the frothy concoction had soon filled the jug and was spilling over the sides.
‘Oh, shit! Help me!’ she cried.
Kate pulled another jug from its wrapping and moved Chloe aside. ‘Switch it off,’ she shouted over the din as it filled pretty quickly.
Chloe flicked a switch, then another and another, but the machine continued to moan and groan. Quickly, she crawled under the counter to locate the plug. Once she’d switched off the power supply, the noise, along with the coffee machine, stopped. There was a dreadful smell of burning.
‘Just what I like to see,’ a voice called out from behind them. ‘A woman on all fours directly in front of me. And, may I add, with a delightfully toned butt.’
Kate turned around as another voice cried, ‘Move out of the way and let me see. You always have the first shot at everyone.’
Chloe carefully backed out and pulled herself up. Standing in front of her were two men, she guessed in their early twenties.
‘Ohmigod, it’s Nicole Kidman!’
‘Like I’ve never heard that before,’ Chloe muttered.
‘I’m Alex,’ he grinned, ‘and this is my cousin, Tom. You won’t hear him say much, he’s doesn’t get a chance when I’m around.’ His eyes came to rest on Kate. ‘Well, hello, you must be Catherine Zeta Jones.’
‘Spare me the bull shit,’ said Kate light-heartedly. ‘We’ve been warned about you two already, so don’t push your luck.’
Tom shoved Alex out of the way. ‘Will you let me see?’ He flashed a cheesy smile at the girls. Apart from the distinct tramlines shaved into his hairstyle, he was so much like his cousin the two of them could pass for twins at a glance. Both had dark hair and were of medium build, not an ounce of excess fat between them. It was Tom’s crooked front tooth that made his smile just that bit cheekier.
‘Any of you two know how to fix temperamental coffee machines?’ Chloe asked.
Alex fiddled with a strand of his hair and threw her a smouldering look. ‘I’ll have it working in no time. I’ve always been good with my hands.’
Kate headed for the door that led her to the safety of the hall. ‘Chloe, I’ll leave you to it. I’m sure you can handle these two while I go upstairs to check on my baby.’
‘Baby?’ Tom clasped his hand to his mouth. ‘Did I just hear her say baby? No one mentioned that when we got this job!’
‘What’s that?’ Chloe asked Kate as she joined her in the living room later that evening.
Kate moved her feet out of the way so that Chloe could sit next to her. Rosie, not to be outdone, jumped in between them.
‘It’s just an email.’
‘What does it say? Or is it too personal to share?’
‘It’s from Nick. There’s someone interested in buying the house and there’s a couple of forms that he needs my signature on. I’ll have to meet up with him soon.’
‘Sounds like you’re not sure if you should.’
Kate shook her head, too upset to talk. One ti
ny reminder of her previous life had made her go to pieces. She folded the paper in half and shoved it into her dressing gown pocket, wishing again that she’d brought along her portable TV from home. She’d only come in to catch the weather report before taking a shower.
Sensing Kate’s mood, Chloe picked up the remote control and was soon channel-hopping. ‘Now there’s a guy to make you forget your troubles.’ She pointed the remote control at the screen. ‘I’d forget an ex-husband if his hands were squeezing my tits.’
‘He’s not my ex-husband,’ said Kate.
‘He soon will be, though. Jeez, check out that six pack.’
‘Is that all you ever think about? Men and sex?’ Kate shook her head in exasperation. Maybe eighteen wasn’t such a good age to be, after all. Too many hormones.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Kate pressed the button to illuminate the time and then swore under her breath. She’d been in bed for over an hour with still no sign of sleep. Tossing and turning in a strange bed wasn’t her idea of fun. Neither was crying herself to sleep which she’d done for the past few nights. Reluctantly, she switched on the lamp but the dim lighting did nothing to cheer her.
Although she’d made the room as welcoming as she could with a lick of paint and the odd knick-knack, she couldn’t help but compare it to the bedroom she’d shared with Nick. Kate had copied the idea from an article she’d seen. She’d had to adapt it slightly with sand coloured carpeting and walls, owing to Nick’s refusal to have laminate flooring in every room of the house. The bed was crafted out of solid wood in a natural oak stain, boasting thick chrome legs and ivory faux suede headboard panels. They’d chosen it together to create a focal point – and now she couldn’t enjoy it, stuck in a single bed for a single girl.
Just exactly when had everything started to go wrong, she wondered? Her mind flipped back ten years to the night when Nick had come hurtling into her life. It had been two weeks before Christmas and Kate had been on her works night out. She’d been employed as an insurance clerk then and had to work every Saturday morning – one of the reasons why she’d chosen to drive that night; the other being how hard it was to get a taxi with everyone else on their Christmas outings as well.
Stirred with Love Page 9