Page 43 of Daydreaming at the Boathouse Cafe

He missed having a purpose, he found. Well, perhaps not the accountancy work but the daily routine and keeping his mind occupied. But with the family around during the day and Tiny with him each night, at least the old feelings of loneliness hadn’t resurfaced.

With the delivery of the new furniture for the apartment, Alex, and more importantly, Tiny, had a place to sleep away from the guests. After the first night, Tiny had stayed up in Alex’s guest bedroom which at least had stopped him howling the place down and disrupting everyone’s good night’s sleep.

Not that Alex had been sleeping very well in any case. The pain was, quite literally, a pain. But it was more the radio silence from his dad that caused his thoughts to race in the early dark hours of the morning. He was hurt and upset by the lack of contact and it weighed heavily on his mind.

Alex winced as he placed his weight onto his broken foot, having briefly forgotten about it for one blissful moment.

‘Do you want to sit down?’ asked Hannah, looking concerned.

That was one blessing of having an enforced stay here, he thought. He got to see Hannah each and every day. The memory of her kissing him had kept him awake quite a few nights as well and yet he knew they could only be friends, as far as she was concerned. His dream of being anything more had dissolved and he was trying not to feel heartbroken.

‘I just forget sometimes about the wretched break,’ he said, with a sigh before shooting her a grin. ‘Sorry. I’m grumpy when I’m in pain.’

‘I’m not surprised,’ she told him, before slowly unwrapping one of the new chairs for the café which had just been delivered. ‘What do you think?’

He looked at the turquoise leather and nodded. ‘Great colour.’

‘That was my idea,’ she replied. She looked around at the remainder of the tables and chairs still in their wrapping.

‘It’s coming together,’ said Alex.

She nodded, biting her lip as her nerves bubbled to the surface.

Alex could see her lack of confidence getting in the way of her dreams and was anxious to reassure her. ‘It’s going to look great,’ he told her. ‘I’ll be first in queue for a coffee and one of your amazing cakes.’

She looked over at him and smiled. ‘You can get family discount as well.’

‘Glad to hear it,’ he told her. ‘Especially as I’m not working at the moment.’

At the sound of scraping upstairs, it at least sounded as if the apartment would be liveable that evening.

He wondered how he would get along with sleeping there alone. Or at least with just him and Tiny.

But one glance at the wide-open glass doors which were flung open to the lake and he knew that he would be just fine.

It was the peace that had always soothed him whenever he had come here to visit Ben. On the tube, in the gym, on the busy crowded streets of the capital city, it was noise all around him all the time. Music from shops and cars, traffic, roadworks, people talking, shouting. But here, deep in the countryside and with the healing power of nature, he could breathe again.

‘We’re all done. Do you want to see it?’ called out Ben from upstairs.

With Hannah following him, Alex slowly went upstairs. As he reached the top floor he was amazed by the transformation.

Where before it had been a large empty space with a separate kitchenette and bathroom, now it was full of furniture. There was a large bed, drawers and a wardrobe and beneath the large porthole window was a sofa, coffee table and television on the opposite wall.

Even Hannah sighed. ‘What a lovely space,’ she said, walking around the huge bed.

‘We had to get a king-size mattress for you as you’re ridiculously tall,’ said Ben, with a grin.

Alex had to concede that the space was lovely. With the oak ceiling and floorboards, it felt cosy but the huge porthole window in the side of the room meant that light flooded in from across the lake and the views were incredible.

‘It will be like sleeping above the lake,’ said Hannah.

‘I hope that’s all the furniture you need because we haven’t ordered anything else,’ Ben told him.

‘It’s great,’ Alex replied. ‘More than adequate for my simple needs. I just feel bad that you’ve had to go to all this additional expense just for me.’

‘It’s fine,’ Ben told him, with a wave of his hand. ‘Lily had the idea that we could always rent the upstairs apartment after you move out for some extra cash. Not that we’re in any kind of rush to get rid of you.’

‘If he doesn’t want it, I’ll take it,’ said Dodgy Del quickly. ‘This place will be a babe magnet.’