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Millie allowed her lips to turn upwards, her go-to expression when she recalled their adventure flying through the tropical treetops like a pair of carefree monkeys.
‘I’m certain that Zach is still your friend, Millie.’
‘So why hasn’t he contacted me since Clio arrived? He sped off to the airport and I haven’t heard from him since. Friends don’t do that. No, it looks like he and Clio have reconciled and she’s here in St Lucia to have a good time and wants him all to herself.’
Millie fiddled with the string friendship bracelet Lottie had made for her the previous week and experienced a sudden urge to weep. Would it always be the same outcome for her whenever she made a tentative foray into the dating jungle? It seemed that every time she cracked open a tiny chink in her armour, disaster managed to wheedle its way in and blast her heart apart.
‘Okay, it looks like someone needs cheering up.’ Ella pushed herself out of her chair and meandered into the kitchen. ‘And what is the best treatment for a bout of melancholy?’
Millie stared at Ella. She had known the Caribbean chef for less than three weeks, but she felt as though she was an old friend. Someone who knew her from the inside out, not the other way around. Her spirits shot up another notch. She only had a few days left in this wonderful island paradise and it would be a tragedy to spend them moping over something that had never happened.
If, in the very unlikely event that she and Zachhadgot together, it was only going to be a holiday fling at best, and whilst that would have pleased her sister no end, it was not whatsheneeded at all. Actually, she thought to herself as she followed Ella into the kitchen, she had probably had a narrow escape from falling headfirst into yet another relationship calamity for which she should thank Clio.
‘Well, in my book, the best medicine for sadness is a session of baking.’
‘Exactly – so let’s gets started!’ beamed Ella, tying her aprons strings securely and reaching for the ingredients she needed for a morning at the coalface of culinary labour. ‘Have you heard anything from Julia?’
‘Not yet.’ Millie reached into her pocket to check her phone. ‘Hang on. Here’s a text from Imogen. It must have just arrived.’ She scrolled through the missive quickly. ‘Ah, they’re not coming today. Too much to organise for the wedding on Sunday. I’m not surprised.’
‘That poor girl,’ sighed Ella, sifting flour into a bowl. ‘She must be ruing the day she decided to get married abroad.’
‘It was Julia’s idea. Imogen and Alex wanted to have their wedding ceremony at the local parish church followed by a marquee in the garden for their reception.’
‘Right, then – if the Paradise Cookery School is closed for business this beautiful Friday morning, then we’re going to bake a few batches of cupcakes and take them down to Lottie at the Purple Parrot. We deserve a break.’
‘Sounds like a plan,’ smiled Millie, already starting to feel better as she assembled the ingredients and started to separate the polka dot bun cases into the baking trays. ‘Why don’t we double up the mixture and deliver a box of cupcakes to the hotel afterwards as a treat for Imogen and her wedding party? I feel so sorry for her – and Julia.’
‘A wonderful idea, Millie.’
A gentle ripple of calypso music added to the relaxed ambience in the kitchen and within the hour they had amassed five dozen cupcakes, decorated in a variety of frostings from ginger and lime, to pineapple and coconut, and chocolate chip and orange zest. Millie was particularly proud of the lemon drizzle cupcakes she had made from the lemons she had harvested herself from the trees next to the pool.
Ella packed the cupcakes up into two huge Tupperware boxes – one destined for Lottie at the Purple Parrot and the other one for Imogen at the hotel – and called for a taxi to take them down the hill to Soufrière. Inevitably, her friend Clavie was sent to collect them. His vehicle was so ancient that it steadfastly refused to navigate the steep incline up to the villa and he told them he would meet them at the bottom of the driveway in twenty minutes.
‘Ready?’ asked Millie, ditching a handful of utensils in the already jam-packed sink and casting her cocoa-splodged apron into the mix.
Ella rolled her eyes as she carefully folded her still-pristine apron and slotted it back in the kitchen drawer. She hooked her arm around one of the plastic containers and handed the remaining one to Millie.
‘Ready.’
Together they trotted down the driveway, chatting companionably about ideas for new recipes until Ella stopped suddenly and peered into the foliage to her left. Millie squinted in the same direction and could just about make out a dark silhouette lurking amongst the cocoa palms. As her vision grew accustomed to the gloom between the trees, she realised that it wasn’t one person, but in fact a couple. The woman had her spine pressed against one of the trunks and the man was leaning towards her in an intimate pose, their faces mere inches apart.
An explosion of recognition burst into Millie’s brain and her heart squeezed painfully. It was Zach and Clio. She felt Ella’s hand on her arm gently urging her onwards as Clavie was waiting for them at the bottom of the hill, but she couldn’t drag her eyes away from the scene. Until that moment, she knew she had harboured a smidgeon of optimism that Zach would have reaffirmed his decision that he did not want a permanent relationship with Clio, but now that hope had been well and truly extinguished.
Fortunately, neither Zach nor Clio had noticed their presence – obviously too wrapped up in each other to allow the outside world to intrude on their bubble of romance. Millie hadn’t realised she had been holding her breath and gulped in a lungful of oxygen, yet she still felt lightheaded. She smiled weakly at the sympathy she saw lingering in Ella’s chocolate brown eyes and followed her mutely to the taxi for their ride down to Soufrière.
Chapter Fourteen
‘Hi, Lottie,’ called Ella trotting into the kitchen of the Purple Parrot and depositing the cupcakes on the bench.
‘Wow! Ella. These look amazing. Thank you. Hi Millie. How are things up at the Paradise Cookery School? Have the chocoholics had their daily fix?’
Lottie pulled Millie into a warm, jasmine-infused hug before leading her and Ella out to a table on the bleached wooden decking overlooking the beach and the sparkling Caribbean Sea beyond. The majestic Pitons presided over the whole scene, which looked like something straight from a film set due to the presence of a multi-sailed galleon at anchor in the bay which had just disgorged its passengers into the streets of Soufrière for a morning of shopping and sampling the local cuisine.
The Purple Parrot was busy with diners but Lottie sat down next to Millie and signalled for Travis behind the bar to bring them some drinks. Now that Millie was relaxing in a comfortable seat, enjoying the sight of the myriad boats bobbing about on the ocean, she was able to put the scene with Zach and Clio out of her mind and concentrate on enjoying her first full day’s break from her duties at the Paradise Cookery School since she had arrived on St Lucia.
‘It’s been a strange week, to be honest,’ Millie told Lottie as Ella unpacked the cupcakes onto one of Claudia’s china plates and they all reached for their favourite.
‘Hello everyone,’ beamed Travis, Soufrière’s answer to Damien Hirst currently moonlighting as a waiter, as he set down three goldfish bowl-sized glasses filled to the sugared rim with a lurid green liquid that looked like pureed grass. ‘Okay, so today, especially for my three favourite women, I have the pleasure of presenting you with… a trio of Purple Parrot cocktails with a Travisesque twist!’
