Page 14
“I know. We could have had a book café between us.”
“Yeah, how cool would it be?”
“It would be amazing. Coffee and books are made for each other.” Her gaze comes back to me, and she smiles. “Go on then, go get a snack. Just remember we’ll have dinner in an hour.”
“Yeah, because I won’t be hungry by then.” I roll my eyes. “You want anything?”
“I’d love a coffee. Emma will know my order.”
Leaving my backpack behind the desk, I go outside and turn left to the door to The Lantern Café. It’s open, filling the street with the warm smell of baking.
Inside, the walls are painted sunshine yellow, and a string of smaller lanterns hangs in the window. To one side, a replica ship’s figurehead in the shape of a graceful woman in a blue dress, her hand shading her eyes, looks out to sea.
A teenage lad wearing an apron is putting the chairs on the table, so they’re close to closing, but the blonde woman behind the counter is handing a customer a takeaway coffee, so she’s still serving.
Emma Marley is the same age as Vix, and so although they both went to the same high school as me and Jayden, they were a few years below us, and I didn’t know them. I first met them the year I graduated from university, when I came home for the summer. Jayden had already met and proposed to Vix, and a group of us spent much of the long, hot summer together. I think Vix hoped Emma and I would hit it off so we could double date, but Emma’s never had feelings for me that I know of, and I’ve only ever had eyes for Vix.
She’s a pretty girl though, with lots of curly blonde hair and a bright smile. She sees me, does a comical double take, and then her face lights up. “Mitch!” She lifts the flap of the counter up, comes through, and gives me a big hug. “I forgot you were coming,” she says, moving back with a smile. “How are you?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
“You’ve been to see Vix?”
“Yeah, just come from the bookshop. I was hoping to get a coffee and a cinnamon scroll, if you have any left.”
“Absolutely.” She goes back behind the counter. “What kind of coffee?”
“Just a long black, thanks, and whatever Vix normally has.”
“A latte.” She starts the espresso pouring, then retrieves a scroll from the glass cabinet and puts it in a paper bag. “I’m so sorry about John,” she says, returning to the coffee machine.
“Thanks. I’m going to see him tomorrow.” I lift the paper bag to my nose and inhale. “These smell so good. Vix was just telling me there used to be an archway through from the bookshop to the café back when it was all one building.”
She starts steaming the milk for Vix’s coffee. “Oh, really? I didn’t know that.”
“How cool would it be if you could open it up again?”
She looks at the wall, considering it. “What, like, combine the two shops?”
“Vix mentioned having a joint book café in the middle. She’d be in seventh heaven.”
She chuckles. “It’s a great idea.” Then she teases, “Can’t you move back here and take over the place?”
“Ah, I’d miss teaching. I love the bookshop, but running it was never my dream. And my life is in Wellington now.”
“You could bring Frieda with you.”
I sigh. “We broke up.”
Her eyebrows rise. “Oh… Mitch, I’m so sorry.”
“One of those things.” I lean a hip on the counter, watching as she begins to wipe it down. “How about you? How’s Aaron?”
She scrubs hard at a mark. “We also broke up.”
My smile fades. “Shit.”
“One of those things.” She gives me a wry look. Then she sighs. “All those years ago, you’d never have guessed that we’d all end up single.”
