Page 31 of Daydreaming at the Boathouse Cafe

Her long dark hair was braided into two plaits and her dark eyes were lined with heavy eyeliner, as well as wearing deep pink lipstick.

However, beneath her kooky fashion and dreamy romantic personality lay the sharp intelligent mind of an astronomer. She was extremely bright and could often be found scouring the skies for stars.

Beth glanced down at her denim dungarees, which were decorated with patchwork flowers. ‘Don’t you like them?’

‘You look like you’ve come to fix the boiler, not ensnare some hunky man,’ Ella told her.

‘Around here?’ murmured Hannah. ‘You’ll be lucky.’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Ella, looking out across the lake. ‘There are some here to be found if you look hard enough.’

They all followed her look to where Alex was making slow progress with Tiny on a lead on the opposite side of the lake. Hannah was pleased to see that he had moved down to only using one crutch which meant that he was hopefully beginning to slowly recover.

‘Oooh,’ cooed Beth, always desperate to find romance for all her friends. ‘Am I sensing a crush?’

Hannah found herself a bit perplexed about the thought of Alex and Ella having a romance.

Ella looked at Beth with raised eyebrows. ‘Not in the least. I mean, he’s lovely and all that butsonot my type.’

‘What is your type?’ asked Lily. ‘Not that you ever seem to date anyone.’

‘That’s because my type is rich, available and eminently pliable,’ said Ella. ‘Unfortunately that dating pool is extremely small.’

Beth shook her head. ‘That’s cold,’ she said, with a shudder. ‘What about romance, love, the flutter you get from seeing the one that you can’t stop thinking about?’

Her friends all exchanged a knowing grin.

‘Who is he this time?’ asked Hannah.

Where Ella was entirely cynical about love and relationships, Beth seemed to fall for every date she ever went on. And because she was so beautiful, she went on quite a few.

‘Brad,’ Beth told them, breaking into a beautiful smile.

‘And where did you meet this Brad?’ asked Lily.

‘Online,’ said Beth. ‘We’ve gone out three times and it’s going so well. I really think…’

‘That he’s the one,’ chorused her friends, finishing her sentence for her.

A frown crossed her forehead. ‘Look, I know I’ve said it before,’ Beth told them.

‘Every time,’ murmured Lily.

‘But this time it’s different,’ carried on Beth.

‘Also said every time,’ added Ella. But in the end, she did a palms up. ‘Well, it’s your heart to be broken all over again,’ she said, heading over to hug her friend. ‘Just try and be careful this time.’

Beth gave her friend a squeeze before stepping back. ‘So once the walls are painted, what kind of vibe are you thinking in here?’

‘A cheap one,’ said Lily. ‘We used up almost all the money on the renovations.’

Ella immediately shook her head. ‘That won’t sell,’ she said. ‘You need a gorgeous Instagrammable space which makes people desperate to come.’

‘It’s only my cakes,’ muttered Hannah.

Lily turned to look at Hannah. ‘And what do you mean “only”? Your cakes are amazing.’

Beth nodded. ‘Exactly. So we’ve got pale blue walls. How do you want the rest of it to look? You know the feel of the place.’