‘I’m not made of delicate tissue paper,’ I exclaim. ‘Dad is the same. As you know, he still thinks I should be on his sofa under a travel blanket.’
A tiny smile finds its way onto Frankie’s reddened face. ‘Bless Brian. He would need to get down to Sofa World if he wanted me to lie on his sofa. I wouldn’t want to spend any length of time on that grubby old thing. You have lower sofa standards than me.’
I let out a chuckle and take a sip of my drink. ‘Okay, what are you going to do about your mum?’
Frankie shrugs. ‘There’s nothing I can do. Just be at the end of Skype while she goes through chemo. I want to go to Sydney to be with her, but I don’t know what to do with this place.’
‘Can’t you get someone to manage it for you?’
He rubs his face so hard angry red marks appear. ‘It’s doing really well.’ Fiddling with his watch, he takes a deep breath. ‘Mum thinks it will be bad for business if I go and shut it. She’s right. I’ve worked so hard to get it where it is today, and it would be bad for business to close it. There isn’t anyone I trust who could look after it for me.’
‘What about that bloke who looked after it when you went to Santorini last year?’
‘Tommy?’ Frankie’s green eyes widen with shock. ‘The one who helped himself to some of my takings? No way.’
Scratching my neck, I order my brain to come up with some alternative options.I don’t have to wait long. ‘What about Jake? He could run this place?’
Jake is Frankie’s boyfriend. They’d been dating for a year and Jake often helps as he is a trained barista. Frankie shakes his head. ‘His father’s not well and I don’t want to add any more pressure. I’ve put the word out on all my WhatsApp groups about a café manager, so I’ll see whether anyone offers any help. I am not hopeful.’ We both drink our coffee. ‘Oh, I saw Betty in town yesterday,’ explains Frankie, with a mischievous grin. ‘How long have you been carrying around Noah’s photo?’ He arches his left eyebrow at me.
Heat is travelling up my neck. ‘I can’t believe Betty told you that. For your information, the photo was from the last day of school. There are loads of us sat on our rock on the beach and I happen to be leaning against Noah.’
Frankie chuckles. ‘Leave Betty alone. Anyway, I love how you still hold a candle for Noah Coombes, or should I say yourpretendhusband?’
After all these years, Frankie still finds it amusing that, at sixteen, Noah and I had our own makeshift beach wedding. It was the first thing he told Jake about when they began dating. Frankie, who loves a wind-up, missed out thepretendbit and convinced his new boyfriend that it had been legitimate. Frankie howled with laughter when Jake asked me seriously over dinner whether it was true that I got married at sixteen.
‘I’m not discussing Noah. I’ve still not forgiven myself for not listening to Dad about him.’
Frankie takes a sip of coffee. ‘You’ve been obsessed with him since he left.’
‘Not true. I hardly think about him.’ This is a lie. Noah comes into my thoughts at every key moment in my life: when I agreed to go on a date with Pete; when I found out I was pregnant with Lucas; when Lucas was born; when I asked Pete to leave because I didn’t love him; when Scott proposed; and when I’d locked myself in the toilet after discovering Scott’s affair. It was Noah who I thought about.
Rose once told me, ‘You never forget your first love.’ She was certainly right about that.
CHAPTERFOUR
‘Alice, I have good and bad news.’ Ronald’s serious tone makes my neck and shoulders become rigid.
It’s not been a great day so whatever he’s about to tell me is going to be the cherry on top of mynaff workdaycake. The day took a downward trajectory the second I woke up and found myself lying in my crumpled wedding dress on the camp bed with a throbbing purplish bump on my head. Last night, Frankie came over to Dad’s with several bottles of wine.
Dad and Lucas went to bed early leaving Frankie and me to talk about Rose, her cancer treatment, and his ideas on what to do with The Little Love Café.
A few hours later, our evening had got messy. Frankie had invited Jake over and they were cuddling in the garden, and I was sat inside, on the sofa, feeling like a third wheel and wearing my wedding dress. I’d put it on in a drunken state after Frankie had suggested we do a few vodka shots. An hour later and he was feeling romantic towards Jake and I was sat alone holding a half-full bottle of wine and sobbing about how I no longer believed in true love.
Frankie and Jake went home in the early hours, and I staggered upstairs. If you’ve ever tried to sleep on an old metal camp bed from the 1970s, you will know that these contraptions are not forgiving and can snap shut, at any point, like a Venus fly trap plant. As I was very drunk and emotional when I came to bed, I ended up having a fight with the camp bed. I admitted defeat after it sprang up and thumped me on the forehead. In the end I lay down on it and went to sleep… still in my wedding dress.
To my dismay, at breakfast, I was greeted by chaos. A Batman pyjama-clad Lucas was stood on a chair shouting for his cereal, Bean had left a puddle of dog wee in the hallway and a torrent of water was coming through the kitchen ceiling. Dad was running about with a mop and bucket. ‘Lucas decided to run Bean an early morning bath,’ gasped Dad. ‘It’s flooded the kitchen. I’ve just turned the taps off upstairs.’
With a thumping headache I helped Dad clean up the mess and offered to pay for the ceiling to be repaired. He refused my offer. I made Lucas his breakfast and told him not to run Bean a bath ever again.
My hangover has been brutal. I have spent much of the day on the doorstep of the tea shop getting some much-needed fresh air, feeling nauseous and telling the three customers who had come into the café that I would never drink wine again.
Ronald’s arrival had made me so dizzy and I had to sit down.
‘Alice, who have you been brawling with?’ Ronald peers at my forehead. ‘As you know, I don’t like to date local women as they do like a punch-up. Seeing you in this state proves my point. Were you fighting over a fella?’
I glare at him. ‘No, I had a row with a camp bed.’
Ronald shakes his head with disapproval. ‘Anyway, I have come here with good news – Denise has asked me to join her in Marbella for an extra-long holiday. Alice, things have got serious between us.’
