Page 71 of Second Chances at the Board Game Café

Harry felt deflated. Max just wanted gifts. He should have known.

‘Although I’m not really bothered about presents,’ Max continued. ‘I like having someone to play games with. I think Mum likes you. She smiled when she saw you were in here.’

I think Mum likes you.

Did she?

Or were these the ramblings of a child?

‘You should ask her on a date,’ said Max.

‘I don’t know, Max. It’s complicated.’

‘Complicated how?’

‘That’s the thing about things that are complicated,’ said Harry. ‘They’re hard to explain.’

Max frowned. ‘She’s coming back.’ He nodded towards the counter where Taylor was popping some coins in the tips jar. ‘Will you think about it, Harry?’

Harry smiled. He hardly ever thought about anything else.

Taylor sat down opposite Harry. ‘Did you two decide on a game?’

‘Not yet. Max, why don’t you go and choose something?’ said Harry.

Max slipped off his chair and walked over to the games shelves.

‘Harry, I really appreciate the offer of your dining room, but I was thinking, you should at least let me give you some rent.’

‘Rent? No, no, I don’t want any money.’

She sighed. ‘I’d feel better about it if you’d let me pay you something.’

‘Yes, but I’m an accountant. I’d feel obliged to declare any extra income on my tax return, so if you pay me rent, that would create quite a bit of extra work for me.’

‘Well, if you’re sure. And it won’t be forever. I’d still like to find a shop somewhere. Just a small one so I can display the things I’ve made, as well as doing alterations and curtains. But it’s a bit of a long shot.’

‘Something will come up,’ he said.

‘Can we play this one for a change?’ Max plonked Next Station: London on the table.

‘Sure,’ said Harry. ‘It’s a good one.’

As he opened the box and handed drywipe pens and laminated playing sheets to Max and Taylor, he resolved to keep his ear to the ground for any shops to rent. There was a part of him that wanted her to work in his dining room forever, but a much bigger part of him wanted to be the person who found her the perfect little shop and helped her to fulfil her dreams.

But, in the meantime, she’d be spending every day in his dining room. Perhaps, he thought as Max read the rules of the game out loud, he could enlist the boy’s help with setting up his model railway in the shed. He could picture the scene now: Taylor working away at her sewing machine overlooking the back garden, whilst he and Max set up the tracks in the shed. She’d look up from time to time and wave at them through the window.

He harumphed. He mustn’t get carried away with these fantasies; they probably wouldn’t happen. A woman like her was never going to fall…

He stopped himself. What had Ludek said? He was likeable. Why shouldn’t she fall for him? He must stop these negative thoughts about himself.

*

The following day was an office day, but Harry decided to go casual, wearing chinos with a loose shirt and jacket and not bothering with a tie. And why not? Some of his colleagues wore jeans to work.

He caught his usual train, making sure to get a seat on the right side of the carriage, so that he had an unimpeded view of Hebbleswick station and could wave to Max on the platform.

And sure enough, there was Max. Only he wasn’t waving. He was holding up a sign that appeared to be made from two A3 sheets of paper sellotaped together.