‘I remember trying to teach you to knit.’ Teresa sipped the mulled cider, but it didn’t seem to slide down her throat as smoothly as it should. ‘You weren’t very keen on it then.’
Cleo was well aware she’d resisted anything Teresa had ever tried to give her or do for her. ‘I was a terrible knitter at first.’
‘I’m not disagreeing with you there.’
It was the first time Cleo had noticed Teresa’s kind eyes, the softness of her voice. Either she’d resisted hearing it before, or perhaps down a phone line or in the house her mother had lived in when she was alive, it had simply sounded different.
‘I practised for hours on end when I first came here,’ Cleo explained. ‘Grandpa Joe helped me get started in the store and I learnt the basics from him and a few of the regulars at the knitting groups. Every time the store was quiet, I’d sit out the back here and practice.’ She’d been determined. After the break-up with Aaron it was good to throw herself into something and absorb it all, forget her troubles.
‘And how’s it going now?’ Teresa asked.
Cleo wondered whether Teresa meant her or the knitting. ‘I persisted, had the inevitable dropped stitches along the way, but I wanted to learn. I wanted to keep going until I could do it properly.’
‘You always were very determined.’ A look passed between them. ‘My mother taught me. She was never one to give up either. Like you, I took a while to pick it up, but I got there in the end.’
Cleo sipped her mulled cider. ‘Where are you staying? Near here?’
‘We’re in an apartment round the corner.’ Teresa said proudly, grinning from behind her cup. ‘I feel young again, having an adventure in a new city.’
‘An apartment? It must be costing a fortune.’
‘We’re doing the Airbnb thingymajig.’
‘I’ve heard of it.’
‘It’s a lot cheaper and it’s like being a bona fide New Yorker.’
Cleo laughed at the youthful side of Teresa she’d perhaps never allowed herself to know. The staid, tawny-haired woman, whose hair curled in such a way that Cleo wondered how many rollers she put in her hair at night, had always seemed so serious.
‘It’s a wonderful city,’ Teresa continued, ‘but there’s so much to see. I might try to persuade your father to come with me next time.’
‘He’d like that.’ It was Cleo’s turn to hide behind her cup. She was almost at the end and had nothing else to distract her apart from a big piece of orange peel after the dregs had gone.
Cleo asked what Teresa had seen of the city so far. She didn’t want to talk about her father, not yet. And the moment Teresa began to yawn, Cleo said, ‘I’d better cash up, lock the money in the safe, and get home. I forgot to pay Kaisha on time,’ she justified. ‘I need to do that tonight.’
‘Of course.’ Teresa finished her drink and followed Cleo out to the store, where Cleo removed the float from the till and took it out back to lock in the safe. She usually had a general tidy before she left for the day, but tonight she wanted to get out of there and back to the comfort of her apartment.
‘Cleo, it was lovely to see you.’ Teresa stayed by her side as she set the alarm, locked the door, pulled down and locked the security grill. ‘Your father was desperate we meet up.’
So she wasn’t the one to instigate this? ‘Well you can tell him you have.’ She didn’t mean it to sound snappy, but at the same time her relationship had only ever been one way with Teresa.
‘I’d like to see you again.’ Teresa looped a burgundy scarf around her neck and pulled on a matching pair of gloves. Cleo recognised them as the set she’d knitted six or seven years ago, the Christmas she’d tried, yet again, to teach Cleo the craft and find some way of bonding with her stepdaughter.
‘I’m pretty busy with the store,’ Cleo replied.
‘I’m here for a couple of weeks. How about we have dinner on Saturday? I’ll forego Staten Island, I think it’s more important to see you.’
‘What about your friend?’
‘She’ll understand.’
They hovered outside the Little Knitting Box until Cleo said, ‘Can I walk you to your apartment?’
‘No, I’m fine. It’s funny, I feel quite liberated out here. I’m fine walking, it’s only a couple of blocks.’ She laughed. ‘Oh would you listen to me? A short while in a new city and I’ve all the confidence of a twenty-something.’
‘Well, if you’re sure.’
‘I’m sure. And I’ll see you Saturday.’
