The South West Series Box Set

by Rebecca Paulinyi

  First, there was opening up. She was doing fewer of the early starts since the further her pregnancy progressed, the more exhausted she seemed to become - but it didn’t seem to be fair to get Gina to do all the early ones, even though she had offered. Then at ten, once Gina had hopefully arrived, they were due to interview a couple of candidates to take up some of the slack that Lee was causing - and give them both a break when they needed it. And then - the biggest event of the day - James was picking her up at four so they could go to the twelve week scan and see their little baby for the first time. Every time she thought about it, Lee felt a bubble of excitement, a hint of panic and a fervent hope that everything would be okay.

  The morning’s tasks were relatively simple, something Lee was grateful for since she was struggling to keep her mind on the job. It wasn’t just because of the scan, although that was certainly a large part of it. No, there was also a niggling feeling that she’d had for a little while now, that wouldn’t quite go away. A desire to research, and to argue a case, and to win. That conversation with Shelley had only stoked the fire - and now she found her mind wandering to the idea whenever she wasn’t busy - and sometimes when she was. She’d equated being a lawyer with her old life, with Bristol, with living in Clifton and working in that office. She’d thought it had no place in this new life she was beginning - but she was starting to wonder if she’d been wrong about that.

  She turned the sign to ‘open’ and caught sign of the ad in her handwriting that she’d placed there a couple of weeks ago, alongside matching ones in the newsagents and on the local news board in the town square.

  Wanted: responsible, flexible person to complete cafe duties including making and serving coffees and cakes, working a till and cashing up. Experience desirable but not essential.

  There had been a flurry of replies, and they had chosen the two most promising to interview that day. The hours would need to be flexible, and the ideal person needed to be willing to cover all of Lee’s hours once she was on maternity leave - but she was getting ahead of herself. First they needed to meet the two people and see whether either of them felt like a good fit.

  By nine, Gina had breezed through the door and laughed at Lee’s surprise.

  “I wanted to get ahead of things!” she said. “With interviews at ten. I thought I’d get in a bit earlier and bake a batch of scones, if you’re all right on your own out here.”

  Lee surveyed the cafe; three tables had customers, but she could certainly cope without any help. “Go ahead - we’ve only got three scones left, so I was going to do it after lunch if I had time anyway.”

  “Great minds,” Gina said with a laugh, scraping her hair into a messy bun and throwing an apron on before washing her hands.

  “What if we get a mad rush in the interviews?”

  “I’ll serve, you interview,” Gina said. “You’ll be better at that anyway. Just let me have a quick word before you hire anyone, please, so I can make sure they aren’t going to drive me mental!”

  “Of course, we both have to sign off on them. No question about that.”

  It was five past ten by the time the first candidate showed up - soaked through and carrying an inside-out umbrella. He was just shy of six foot, with brown hair and a red rain coat.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said, the second he’d stepped foot through the door. “The bus got delayed, and then the rain started bucketing down - anyway, I’m so sorry I’m late, and looking like this.” He gestured to his drowned-rat image, then held out his hand to shake Lee’s and Gina’s.

  Lee smiled to herself. This situation was not unfamiliar to her - it reminded her very much of the horrendous day on which, among other things, she’d found out that Nathan was having the affair with the blonde. In fact, the nature of his late arrival rather warmed her to the twenty-three-year-old before her.

  “No problem. Come, take a seat, can I get you a coffee? Tea?”

  While he took off his wet coat and abandoned his almost certainly ruined umbrella, Gina made him a tea - with milk, no sugar, ‘however it comes’. Handily - although not for their till balance - the cafe currently only boasted one customer, and so both Lee and Gina took a seat at the four-person table in the corner of the room, opposite the one the young man had occupied.

  “So, it’s Tom, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, Tom Dent.”

  “Great. So, I’m Lee Davis, I’m the owner and co-manager, and this is Gina Travis, the other manager. First of all, let me make it clear what we’re looking for: at the minute we do all the hours, but that’s not sustainable. We’re looking for someone to do a couple of days a week, but ideally to be able to do more days if either of us needs any time off.” Lee wasn’t ready just yet to announce her pregnancy to anyone. Even though she didn’t know Tom, or any Dents, in a town as small as this there was a very good chance he would know someone she did - or be related to them, most likely. It was the way things seemed to go.

  “That sounds brilliant. I’m a freelance journalist and, while I love it, it doesn’t exactly pay regularly. So I’m really looking for something that I can do alongside that - but the positive to that is that if there’s more hours, I’ll definitely be available to take them on.”

  Lee smiled. “So I can put a tick next to flexibility then. Can you tell us why you want to work here?”

  At that moment, another rain-soaked customer entered, and Gina muttered her apologies and jumped up to serve them.

  “I’ve worked in cafes before,” Tom said, “And I’ve been trained as a barista, so it seemed like a natural choice to go for a cafe. I’ve walked past here plenty of times and it always looks busy, and from what I’ve heard there’s lots of repeat customers, which sounds great because I like getting to know people.”

  Lee nodded, and made a couple of quick notes on her pad.

  “And do you have any questions about working here?”

  “I don’t think so - I mean, I think you answered everything at the beginning.”

  “Okay. Last thing then - what jobs have you done previously, other than journalism?”

  Tom reeled off cafe work when he was a teenager, a stint at the university magazine and a couple of bar jobs, doing a good job of linking them to skills he could use in the cafe. Although she needed Gina to sign off, Lee definitely felt that he ticked all the right boxes.

  Gina reappeared just as Lee had run out of things to ask - it seemed that there wasn’t an awful lot she needed to know about someone to work in the cafe - just that she liked them, and that they knew what they were doing.

  “Well, I think I’ve got everything I need. Gina, have you got anything else you’d like to ask?”

  Gina glanced over at her notes, and shook her head.

  “Nope, all sounds good. Thanks for coming in, Tom - we’ll be in touch later today if that’s okay.”

  “Thank you - and sorry again for being late. And thanks for the amazing coffee!”

  Lee laughed. “Flattery will get you far!”

  ***

  The second interviewee - a woman also in her early twenties - although nice, did not feel like the right fit for them. She had two other jobs, and so didn’t have the flexibility, nor Tom’s barista experience. Plus she just didn’t click the same way he did - it was a gut feeling decision, but one Gina and Lee both agreed on.

  At midday, Lee let Gina ring Tom and give him the good news. They arranged for him to come in the next day for a training and getting-to-know-you session, and then go from there. Lee felt a rush of excitement; things were moving on. This plan for the future - running the cafe, but not necessarily being in there every day in the early hours - was beginning to be set in motion.

  It was at twelve-thirty that it happened; Lee remembered because she’d looked up at the clock only seconds before and noticed that it was already half past the hour, and that there weren’t too many hours to go until she could pack up and be ready to meet James outside for their exciting appointment.

  “H
ave you heard?” A short brunette woman rushed through the door, making the bell chime as she raced in to join a load of her friends at the counter. They were about eighteen or so, Lee thought, and they were becoming fairly regular now, coming in as a group at least once or twice a week.

  “Heard what?” one of the friends replied, as Lee wandered over from where she had been wiping down tables to take the girl’s order.

  “There’s some sort of hostage situation at that betting shop - the one up the hill, on that little street to the left.”

  “A hostage situation? In Totnes? You’re talking nonsense,” a ginger boy wearing a bright red scarf piped up.

  “I know, but it’s true. Some guy got angry in there apparently, pulled a knife, and started threating the staff and customers saying he wanted money.”

  Lee couldn’t help but interrupt. Her face felt as white as milk and a wave of nausea and dizziness came over her that, for once, she didn’t think was baby-related. “Are the police there?”

  The girl looked quite pleased to have gathered a crowd - or at least, an extra spectator - and did not look surprised at Lee’s rude interruption.

  “Oh yes - two cars with blaring sirens and flashing lights had arrived on the scene. Apparently one of the police officers was in there, trying to calm the guy down, but no-one else had managed to get in or out.”

  Fumbling for the stool that she knew was behind the counter, Lee felt the need to sit down as quickly as was possible.

  Gina noticed - of course she did - and was straight over, cutting short the chat she’d been having with a local.

  “Lee?” she asked. “Lee? What’s up, are you feeling sick? Dizzy?”

  Both of those were true - but they weren’t the issue. She took a deep breath to calm her heart, which had begun racing without her permission. “There’s some guy… with a knife, in the bookies up the road. The police are there, and one of them is in the building, trying to talk the guy down…”

  Lee felt an overwhelming urge to throw up, and rushed to the kitchen behind the counter where the customers couldn’t see her - and she hoped, couldn’t hear her - throw up into a bucket.

  “Is she all right?” she heard one of the group ask Gina.

  “She’ll be okay,” Gina replied. “Her boyfriend’s in the police, but I’m sure everything will be okay.” She said that for Lee’s benefit more than the girl’s, who shrugged and carried on with her conversation.

  “What if it’s not?” Lee asked as Gina joined her in the kitchen. “It’s a dangerous job, Gee - what if he’s the one in there? What if he’s hurt?” She was crying now, tears that she had no real control over and couldn’t really explain - all she knew was that an abject sense of terror had settled over her as soon as she’d heard the news, and it wasn’t going anywhere.

  “He’s a well-trained police officer, Lee, he knows what he’s doing. Besides, he might not even be the one in there. He does this every day - you’ve got to try not to panic. It’s not good for you - or for the baby.”

  Lee knew there was logic in her words - but actioning them was another matter entirely. She could feel that her breathing was deeper than normal, and her hands seemed to shake in front of her even though it certainly wasn’t cold, as she sat near to the oven that was cooking scones that at any other time would have smelt delicious, but right now just added to Lee’s nausea.

  “I can’t just sit here, knowing he could be in danger…”

  “It’s all you can do.” Gina used what she hoped was a soothing voice, but her words were necessarily quite blunt. Lee didn’t need to be coddled; she needed some support. “You can’t go and see what’s going on - they won’t let you near, for one, and for another you’d be putting yourself in danger and distracting James, which he certainly won’t thank you for.”

  Lee nodded, her head drooping slightly. Gina was right - and yet all she could think of was how long it would be before she knew James was okay, before she could grab hold of him and know that he was unhurt.

  “Text him. That way, if he’s not involved, you’ll know instantly, and if he is, you’ll not be interrupting him and you’ll have to wait and he can get back to you as soon as he possibly can.”

  The bell sounded in the cafe and Gina glanced at Lee, leant against the fridge on the kitchen floor. “Are you okay if I go and serve?”

  Lee swallowed. “Yes, yes, I am. Sorry, I don’t know why this has got me so worked up…”

  “It’s fine. I’ll be back, okay? Just take deep breaths. It’ll all be fine.” And with those promising words, she was gone.

  Lee fished her phone from the pocket on her apron and opened up her messages with slightly shaking fingers.

  Heard there was a dangerous incident and that you might be involved. Please let me know ASAP that you’re okay. Love Lee xxx

  She waited for a response, willing her phone to beep as she held it tightly in one hand.

  “Come on James. Come on. Just tell me you’re okay.”

  But her phone did not make a sound.

  Where the morning had seemed to whiz by, the rest of the afternoon dragged by at an unbelievably slow pace. Lee couldn’t face going back out to the customers, so instead stayed in the kitchen, checking her phone every thirty seconds and trying not to hyperventilate. She removed Gina’s perfect batch of scones and set about making her own, just to have anything to do with her hands.

  “Someone’s been stabbed!” she heard a shout from the cafe and had to lean against the wall to steady herself. There was a cacophony of noise in the cafe, which sounded busier than was really fair for Gina to cope with, but Lee couldn’t focus on that. Instead, she entered the cafe with flour all over her hands, needing to hear the latest news almost as much as she didn’t want to know.

  Another young-ish girl had joined the group, and the way they were all excitedly hanging on to her every word made Lee feel a bit sick - although, she knew logically that if she hadn’t been worried about James, she would probably have had some sort of sick interest too.

  She didn’t need to ask questions this time; the gossip was answering them all without a word of encouragement needed.

  “My auntie works next door, in the charity shop - they’ve been made to close up, to keep the area safer,” the new girl was saying. “Apparently there’s an ambulance there now, and someone heard a shout - they’re saying someone’s been stabbed.”

  “The officer or the customers?” the ginger boy asked.

  “No-one’s sure - they still can’t get in or out.”

  Lee put a hand over her racing heart to try to remind herself to calm down - but it wasn’t that simple. Once it was clear there was no more news, she dashed back to the kitchen to check her phone once more, and then began to methodically clear, re-organise and clean every shelf. Gina was right - she couldn’t rush up there, like she wanted to, so she needed to keep herself busy, to make the time pass until James would show up and everything would be okay again.

  Everything had to be okay again.

  Chapter 12

  At three o’clock, when Lee was supposed to be packing up ready for James to pick her up, she was elbow-deep in a bowl of soapy water, cleaning every inch of the shelving unit until it sparkled. There were no longer any stray specks of flour, nor a spilled raisin - everything was in its proper place.

  With strained ears, she was sure she could hear a siren - maybe more. She didn’t have any knowledge about sirens - did ambulances and police cars sound different? How could you tell? - but she was fairly sure that whichever emergency vehicle it was, it was driving away from the centre of the town.

  The cafe had quietened down somewhat, although Lee knew that this would be the gossip of the town for weeks to come - whatever the outcome. She tried not to think of the possible outcomes, and instead focussed on her cleaning which was, unfortunately, rapidly coming to a close.

  Upon standing, she felt a swaying sensation that caused her to grab onto the shelving unit, and she realised at that point
how long it had been since she’d last had something to eat.

  “Come on Lee,” she said softly. “You can’t fall to pieces like this. It’s not just you to think about.”

  As if she could read her mind, Gina appeared minutes later with a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits, to find Lee sat on the stool with her head between her knees.

  “Eat these,” she said, pushing the plain digestives under Lee’s nose. “No arguing. You need to be eating more regularly - when my aunt was pregnant last year, she had to eat every hour or so else she threw up or had a dizzy spell.”

  Lee didn’t argue, but instead took small nibbles of first one biscuit, then a second. She had to admit, they did make her feel better.