Page 37 of The Little Board Game Café

‘Yes, and the fridge is well-stocked. Ready for the lunchtime rush.’

Mr B patted her arm and opened his mouth and closed it again. This seemed to be a habit of his. Emily wondered if it was a sign of dementia or something. Should she mention it to him? Or to Ludek, perhaps?

Later, Emily realised what he’d been about to say. He was going to warn her that there’d be no lunchtime rush. He wasn’t just her first customer of the day. He was her only one.

*

There was no one home when she got back from the café. She’d known that Kate wouldn’t be able to get away from work to visit the café during opening hours, but had hoped that she’d be in that evening so Emily could at least tell her all about her first proper day. Not that there was much to tell. But the house was empty. Kate had been out every evening last week, only popping in to pick up some clean clothes, and she hadn’t come home at all over the weekend either. Things were clearly moving fast with Freddie. And, much as Emily missed Kate’s company, she was glad. Her friend had been dreaming of meeting the right man and having a big white wedding since she was a teenager.

But whilst Emily was pleased for her friend, right now she needed someone to talk to. Someone to commiserate with her. To reassure her that things would get better. To say that she should give it a little time. She phoned Dad.

‘How did it go, love?’ he said. ‘Are the customers all raving about your cakes already?’

Emily paused. She couldn’t tell him. Couldn’t tell him what she was already beginning to suspect: that she’d wasted her inheritance; the money her mum had worked so hard to save up.

‘Every single one of them,’ she said. It was the truth after all. She’d only had one customer – Mr B – but he did seem to enjoy her Chorley cakes.

‘That’s grand,’ said Dad. ‘I knew they would.’

‘I’d love it if you came along one day. I want you to see the place.’

‘It’s three buses, love. Bit of a trek.’

‘Two buses. Or I could pay for an Uber?’

‘Nah, you don’t want to be wasting your hard-earned cash on me. Especially not when you’re getting the place established.’

‘It wouldn’t be a waste, Dad. I’d love you to see it.’

‘Maybe in a few weeks, then,’ he said, but Emily knew he wouldn’t come.

*

She fared slightly better at the café on Tuesday. Slightly. Mr B came as usual and then, mid-afternoon, the old lady with the shopping trolley appeared with a friend, also pulling a trolley. They struggled to drag them over the threshold, so Emily rushed to help, heaving the unwieldy things into a corner. The shopping trolleys, that is, not the ladies. The ladies themselves were rather trim. They ordered a pot of tea, inspected the cakes on display and ummed and ahhed, but didn’t buy any. At five o’clock, Emily turned the sign to ‘closed’, ate three chocolate eclairs – well, they’d have gone to waste otherwise – and swept the floor. Not that it needed sweeping after only three customers, but it seemed like the sort of thing that someone who ran a café would do.

Kate was in when she arrived home. At least Emily hoped she was as she could hear the smoke alarm going off as she opened the front door. Either the place was on fire or Kate was making an omelette. Omelettes were all Kate ever cooked.

Sure enough, Emily found her in the kitchen, scraping charred eggy remains into the bin.

‘Whoops,’ Kate shouted over the noise of the alarm as Emily climbed on a chair to remove the batteries. ‘My phone rang and I forgot all about the omelette.’

As the kitchen fell silent, Emily said, ‘We must remember to put those back. If you’re hungry, I’ve brought loads of lasagne home. Today’s daily special.’

‘Keto?’

‘Sorry, no.’

‘Why have you got so much left over? Did you make too much?’

‘Only eight portions. I didn’t sell a single one.’

Kate’s face fell. ‘Oh, Em. Are things not going well?’

Emily shook her head. ‘Not well at all. Mr B comes in every morning, but I can’t live off the profits from one cappuccino and one Chorley cake. Even though you aren’t charging me rent.’

‘You’ve had more customers than that, haven’t you?’

‘Two old ladies came in this afternoon.’