The Chocolatier's Secret (Magnolia Creek, Book 2)

by Helen J Rolfe

  Molly handed him the perfume. ‘You can’t smell it. It’s still sealed.’

  ‘Ah, good point. Looks all right though.’

  Molly put the perfume back in the bag.

  ‘What else did you buy?’

  ‘Don’t laugh, but I bought an adult colouring book.’

  ‘I was reading a newspaper article about those the other day. They’re supposed to quieten the brain or slow it down when you’re anxious, something like that.’ He nodded his approval and flicked through the book when Molly passed it to him.

  Molly pulled out another bag. ‘I nearly forgot to buy these.’

  ‘Felt-tip pens…The colouring in could’ve been pretty tricky without them. Although I’m sure most airlines have kids’ packs.’ He winked at her.

  Molly still hadn’t told her parents about the arrangement to fly with Ben. They’d have worried all the more if they knew she was meeting a total stranger. She had visions of her dad insisting he had to get through passport control to check who his daughter was going to sit with for the next thirteen hours.

  Molly’s mind leapt when she saw the cabin crew filing past. Her heart thumped hard, everyone around her except for those staff disappeared into a blur. It was only when she felt Ben’s hand on her arm that the breath she was holding slowly left her body.

  ‘Keep looking at the crew,’ he said. ‘Look at how neat and tidy they are and how capable they look. They’re all smiling and chatting. They do this all the time. It’s another boring day at the office for them, remember.’

  Molly did as she was told, and it helped. Her breath went in and out, normally.

  When the crew disappeared through the doors to board the plane first and the airline staff busied around the gate preparing to greet passengers, Ben said, ‘It’s almost time.’

  ‘It’s almost time,’ Molly repeated.

  Ben pulled out his phone from the front pocket of his bag. ‘I think this is the perfect time for a selfie.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Come on, we need a picture before you get on this flight. For the group,’ he explained. ‘Everyone knows today is the day and they’ll be dying to know how you get on, so I’ll post this before we board.’

  To do the selfie Molly squeezed next to Ben. He had a familiar male smell she struggled to describe. Fresh, perhaps shower gel or the lingering scent of shaving foam. Whatever it was, she hadn’t smelt it for a long time. Boyfriends had been few and far between and the closeness now made her giddy.

  ‘Smile for the camera,’ said Ben and she hoped he wouldn’t be able to tell from the picture the effect he was having on her.

  She put out her hand for the phone. ‘I need to approve it first.’ And when he dropped it into her palm, his fingers lightly brushed against her skin, sending tingles right through her.

  The picture was good. They looked happy, excited, her dark locks against his dark blond hair, his blue eyes alongside her hazel ones. She gave her approval to post it on the Facebook page, well aware he was the first man who’d made her think about dating again in a long time. She’d had a serious boyfriend in her early twenties, but it had fizzled out when he left to go and work up North, and since then she’d never really gelled with anyone enough to progress further than a couple of dates.

  Seriously, what was she thinking? Ben was a no-go zone … he lived on the other side of the world, for goodness sake!

  ‘You’re making me break my rule, by the way,’ he said.

  ‘And what rule’s that?’

  He wiggled his phone in the air after he’d posted to Facebook. ‘I don’t put pictures of me on the group page, but now everyone will know what I look like.’

  ‘Good job you’re leaving the country then.’

  ‘I suppose it is.’ He grinned. ‘Although I’m sure we have a few members from Australia.’

  ‘You might get a sexy blonde stalking you.’

  ‘I don’t go for blondes.’

  His words hung in the air between them, but their antics had been the perfect distraction. Only now Molly looked over to see people jostling into a queue, as though the plane was going to leave without them.

  ‘Ready?’ Ben picked up his bag.

  Molly nodded and they made their way over to join the end of the queue.

  Fifteen minutes later they were on the plane, stopping and starting as they slowly progressed up the aisle while people climbed into their economy class seats and others tried to shove oversize bags into the overhead lockers. Molly followed Ben. She watched the way his shoulder blades moved and the muscles beneath his top as he made his way to their seats at the back of the plane. They’d have preferred seats nearer the front, which supposedly didn’t get such a bumpy ride, but those had been taken so they’d chosen two seats on their own next to a window at the rear.

  When they reached the correct row, Ben removed a book and a bottle of water before shoving his holdall into the overhead locker. Molly took out her own water, the colouring book and pens and pushed everything else into her bag, zipped it up and let Ben do the honours for her. ‘Would you like the window seat or the aisle?’ he asked.

  ‘I really don’t mind.’

  ‘Take the window then. If you’re tired you can lean against it and sleep.’

  ‘I should’ve taken ultra-strong sleeping pills,’ said Molly.

  ‘Ah, but then, could you trust me alone with you?’

  The butterflies already residing in her tummy were suddenly replaced by panic thanks to a thumping sound coming from beneath the plane. Immediately she was on edge.

  ‘It’s the bags being slung into the hold,’ said Ben, as he waited for her to move across to her seat so he could sit in his.

  Molly relaxed again, as much as she could when she knew before long they’d be up in the air. ‘I can’t believe we each have one of these.’ She pointed to the TV screen in the back of the seat in front of her.

  ‘Yes, we all get a TV.’ Amused by her reaction, he told her, ‘I’ll even let you watch it for thirteen whole hours. As much screen time as you like.’

  ‘Thanks, Dad.’ She slotted her colouring book, pens and water into the back of the seat in front, and following Ben’s lead, looked at her copy of the inflight magazine with the TV guide inside. There were plenty of movies she’d not seen, plenty she wanted to watch again. Her mounting excitement took her completely by surprise.

  ‘What are they doing?’ Molly watched the cabin crew position themselves along the aisle.

  ‘Safety demo, nothing to worry about. You know about these, we’ve talked about them on Facebook.’

  Molly focused. She watched the cabin crew all the time, listening to their every word. Other passengers didn’t seem to be taking much notice. She wanted to call over to them and tell them to listen, this might save their life! She wondered how many of them had done this so many times they’d become blasé about it all.

  The cabin crew were professional, well-presented and in control, and although Molly felt herself draw a big inward breath when they demonstrated how to do up a lifejacket, which made her think about the plane that had landed in the Hudson, and although she felt her palms sweat and wished she’d layered on more deodorant when they showed how to pull on an oxygen mask, she knew having someone sitting there beside her was the best thing right now.

  Everyone around them fastened their seatbelts – Molly had had hers on from the moment she sat in her seat. She knew from talking to the group to expect strange noises, unfamiliar sounds as the aircraft did what it needed to do to get into the air into the first place and then stay there.

  ‘All machines make noises, remember.’ Ben must have seen her close her eyes, sit back in her seat and do her best to remain calm when the plane released its brakes and reversed from its parking space. As the giant aircraft moved it made whooshing noises, it sounded like something being sucked in, the engines groaned, there were weird whizzing and whirring noises.

  Breathe, Molly, breathe.

  ‘My mum�
�s old washing machine used to move across the floor on its own,’ said Ben.

  Molly opened her eyes and looked across at him. ‘I’m thirty, not five. You don’t have to make up stories for me.’

  ‘I’m not joking. It was a beast. I was scared of it. I wouldn’t put my dirty socks in the laundry in case it got me.’

  ‘Poor excuse,’ Molly smiled. She looked out of the tiny oval window. They were still taxiing down the runway, slowly, calmly.

  ‘So how are you feeling about meeting your birth father?’ asked Ben.

  Molly turned back to him appreciating his efforts to distract her. ‘I’m not really sure, now I’m on my way.’ Part of her had been on a high thinking she’d find him and get answers. The other part of her was worried he’d tell her to go away.

  ‘I think you’re doing the right thing.’

  ‘Really? You don’t think this is totally crazy?’

  ‘Don’t get me wrong, what you’re doing is pretty out there and a bold move, but under the circumstances I can see why. You want answers and you’re taking control to see you get them.’

  ‘My family are worried,’ she said.

  ‘Do they mind you getting on a plane with a strange man?’

  She looked at him and smiled. ‘You’re joking. I didn’t tell them. A long distance trip they can cope with, doing it with a stranger would’ve been unimaginable to them.’

  She turned back to look out of the window again, watched a plane take off in the opposite direction to where their plane was taking them. It was pretty uneventful.

  Molly considered the likely impact of her sudden and unannounced arrival in Australia, and what it would do to Andrew Bennett. She was going to be one hell of a surprise. But she wasn’t about to back out now.

  Her thoughts shifted as she tried not to get too wound up about confronting her birth father. She thought about how happy Isaac would be now she was able to get on a plane. She’d make his wedding, and perhaps this flight could be the first step in having a whole new lease of life. She’d be able to holiday with friends, experience the big, wide world out there.

  ‘I wonder if he’s fat,’ said Ben.

  ‘What?’ He’d distracted her from looking out over the wing as bits of metal moved and flapped, and engines produced steam as they prepared for take-off.

  ‘I can’t imagine a skinny chocolatier, can you?’

  ‘He didn’t look fat in his photograph.’

  ‘What did he look like?’

  She thought about it. The only words that came to mind were, ‘he looks like me’, but she didn’t say it. When she’d first seen a photograph of him, she’d been shocked. Funny, you never expected to look like your birth father. Your birth mother, yes, but not the birth father. She wondered if it was different if you were a boy. Maybe then you assumed you’d look more like the male part of the puzzle.

  ‘He’s got dark hair, a little bit grey,’ she answered. ‘He looks normal.’

  ‘Didn’t have two heads then?’

  She laughed. ‘No, didn’t have two heads.’

  Her smile faded as the plane came to a standstill. ‘Why are we stopping?’ She peered over the top of the seat in front to see if there was anything going on.

  Ben’s voice softened. ‘We’re not.’ And then the engines rumbled, long and deep, and it was like releasing a pinball from the flippers at the bottom of the machine as the plane sped off down the runway.

  ‘I’m right here, Molly. Right here.’ Ben’s voice came from beside her as she gripped her armrests and shut her eyes, her body pinned back in her seat.

  Without thinking, her hand shot out to find his. She adjusted her grip as she felt the ground disappear from beneath the plane, felt the unsteady movement as they left the tarmac and the plane changed its angle to climb up into the sky. The higher the plane climbed, the harder she gripped, his voice with her every now and then assuring her she was okay.

  There was a groaning sound, a slight jolt.

  ‘It’s the wheels tucking under the plane, out of the way,’ Ben explained, ‘and now the plane is levelling off.’

  She could feel it. She was no longer plastered against her seat. She felt the plane lessening its angle as it found its place in the sky, and when she opened her eyes and released her grip on Ben’s hand, she realised they were straight. All she could see outside the window were the white fluffy clouds, moving past them like puffs of gentle air. It felt as though they were gliding, drifting. It definitely didn’t feel as though they were travelling at a speed she’d never before experienced in her life. It felt dreamlike, as though it was in her imagination, with nothing but the sound of air circulating around the cabin.

  She looked at Ben. He was wincing and shaking his hand up and down.

  ‘What’s the matter?’

  He turned over his hand, the hand she’d gripped hold of.

  ‘Oh my God, was that me?’ She looked at the indentations her nails had left behind. ‘I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you say anything?’ She put a hand across her mouth. ‘Are you sure you’re okay?’

  ‘I’m not going to start crying over a few marks. Let’s just say I’m glad your nails are reasonably short or we could’ve seen blood.’

  Molly looked out of the window, more enamoured with flying than she thought she’d ever be. The take-off had been terrifying – the marks she’d left in Ben’s hand were testament to that – but now the noises of the aircraft had abated and the plane was gliding through fluffy clouds, without a care in the world. People sitting all around her were going about their business normally, watching the TV screens, chatting and laughing, blissfully unaware, or at least ignoring, how far they were from the ground.

  ‘I did it,’ she said to Ben, a huge smile on her face.

  ‘You sure did.’

  The seat-belt sign went off and it wasn’t long before the cabin crew brought round small plastic containers of apple juice, orange juice and water. Molly selected an apple juice and opened up the colouring book to a forest scene with woodland creatures.

  ‘Had enough of talking to me already?’ asked Ben.

  ‘Not at all, but every time I hear a little sound my mind risks going into overdrive. I need distraction.’

  Molly spent the next hour colouring the picture and all its intricacies: trees, squirrels, different flowers, a toadstool. They ate their first meal of the flight, Molly watched a movie when her eyes tired from looking at the colouring book and before long she braved taking off her seatbelt to make her way to the bathrooms.

  ‘Word to the wise.’ Ben moved to the aisle to let her past. ‘Go in the one on the left. The right-hand side …’ He pinched his nostrils.

  ‘Thanks for the tip.’ Molly steadied herself down the aisle, walking tall and proud. She couldn’t believe this was her. On a plane! Right now she felt as though she could tackle anything.

  When she returned to her seat, it was time for the big trolley to be wheeled out again. Feeding time seemed to come round quickly on these flights. This time it was roast beef with roast potatoes, baby carrots, peas, and a chocolate cake for dessert, plus a roll with butter, a couple of bite-size chocolates on the side, all in their miniature containers.

  ‘I can’t believe how much they feed you on here.’ She sliced through a piece of beef using the plastic cutlery. Not the easiest task.

  ‘You wait. On the leg to Oz you won’t want to eat a thing. You’ll be pushing it away from you.’

  ‘How many times have you flown?’

  ‘Twelve flights now. As soon as I got over my fear, or anxiety, or whatever you want to label it as, I wanted to get out there and see things.’

  Molly smiled. ‘I can’t believe I’m sitting on a plane with a virtual stranger.’

  ‘So let’s get to know each other.’

  She sliced another piece of beef. ‘Okay. What do you do for work?’

  ‘I’m a doctor.’

  Molly rested her fork against the container as she swallowed the last piece of potat
o. ‘No way.’

  He laughed. ‘Don’t I look capable?’

  ‘Of course you do. It’s just … well, you look like a student to me, especially with the travelling thing.’

  ‘I saved up enough to take time off work and travel. I’m not sure I’d ever get to do it if I didn’t take the chance now, while I’m still young.’

  ‘How old are you?’

  ‘I’m thirty-two.’

  ‘Old then.’ She teased. ‘Much, much older than me.’

  ‘Oh come on then, what are you, a twenty-something?’

  ‘Thirty.’

  ‘Yup, so much younger than me.’ He shook his head. ‘Travelling is a lot of fun, but I’m looking forward to going home to Australia now. The time feels right.’

  Molly could relate to that. It was the right time to get over her fear of flying, it was the right time to go and find her birth father.

  ‘So what do you do?’ Ben pulled off the foil covering for his dessert.

  ‘I’m a midwife.’

  It was his turn to be surprised. ‘Weird how we’re both in the medical profession. So where do you live? Oh come on,’ he added when she didn’t answer, ‘I’m next to you on a plane and I’m flying back to my home country. As long as you don’t give me a street name and number, I think you’ll be pretty safe.’

  ‘I live in Bath, Somerset.’

  ‘Beautiful city. I went to a rugby match there.’

  ‘Very cultural.’

  ‘Not really. It was ten per cent rugby, ninety per cent propping up the bar. Although we did see the Abbey.’

  ‘From your bar stool?’

  He pulled a face. ‘Point taken.’ He went on to tell her about some of the more cultural things he’d woven into his visit to the northern hemisphere: the Aran Islands, Croke Park, Trinity College and Giant’s Causeway in Ireland, then in England he’d been to Stonehenge, the Cheddar Gorge, Woburn Safari Park, Westminster Abbey, Covent Garden.

  Molly finished up her chocolate cake but left the bread roll, unable to eat much more. Sitting down and sitting still for prolonged periods of time didn’t exactly require much energy, and she felt as though all the food was collecting in her tummy.