Page 40 of Best Summer Ever

Penny was up to her elbows in panini orders by the time I got to the café. I was still wearing my dress from the nightbefore because Josh had absolutely nothing I could wear or adapt in the limited time I had before she called again and berated me for taking so long to get there.

‘You’re an absolute lifesaver,’ she said, dropping her order pad and squeezing me hard when I finally rushed in. ‘Now, go and wash your hands and tie your hair up and I’ll tell you what I need you to do.’

She was in full-on teacher mode and I didn’t dare contradict her. Thankfully, she was too flustered to notice what I was wearing and I quickly covered the dress up with an embroidered Sunshine Café apron.

‘I need you to sort drinks and lollies,’ she instructed, ‘and I’ll do the food. It’s card payments only today and the gadget is really easy to use.’

She quickly showed me how to work it, even though I had already got the hang of using the one in the pub, and she then disappeared into the kitchen.

‘Is that everything?’ I asked the impatient-looking guy at the front of the queue.

‘Yes,’ he snapped, ‘and please hurry up, they’re melting.’

There was a board next to the counter with all of the prices listed on it, so my job wasn’t rocket science, but it was stressful. More stressful than working in the pub because there was currently a multitude of fractious toddlers and moody teens to cope with in the café.

The next three hours passed in a blur and I felt hot and sweaty as the summer sun beat down on the café roof and through the open windows and door, so goodness knows how hot and bothered Penny had got in the kitchen.

‘Right,’ she said when there was a lull, marching throughhaving checked the freezers and finding them completely depleted, ‘that’s it. I’m closing.’

She quickly switched the sign on the door from open to closed before more customers descended, then firmly shut it, locked it and pulled down the blinds.

‘We can’t stay open if we’ve nothing to sell and there’s barely a crust or an ice cream in the place now,’ she pointed out, to justify her decision even though she didn’t need to.

‘Where did everyone spring from?’ I asked, fanning myself with a menu from one of the indoor tables.

‘There were a couple of coach trips from Wynbridge way today, apparently,’ she said wearily. ‘A run out to the coast to recharge the batteries.’

A few curls had escaped her ponytail and were clinging to her face and her skin was glowing. I couldn’t imagine this was the introduction to running the café she had wanted and decided not to comment. However, it turned out that she was far more buoyant than I would have been in her position.

‘We did it,’ she laughed, holding up a hand for me to high five, the second she’d recovered her good humour. ‘If I can survive a manic Sunday rush like that, I can survive anything.’

I had to admire her resilience.

‘I know I probably sounded a bit panicked when I called and asked you to help,’ she confessed.

‘Hardly surprising given the number of customers you had when I got here,’ I said, ‘and you found a way around the problem, didn’t you? You called me.’

‘Exactly,’ she beamed. ‘And when I open again, I’ll make sure I have everything prepped in advance. That’s what scuppered metoday. I think Sophie does all the fruit and veg prep and so on before she opens the door.’

‘You’re going to have to put in a huge order to be delivered before Wednesday. Assuming you’re still planning to start then.’

Personally, I thought she should take a break before opening the café again, but I kept quiet.

‘Um,’ she said, thinking. ‘I’ll have to log on to Sophie’s ordering system and see what I can get delivered in time, won’t I?’

‘It might be a bit of a squeeze, time-wise,’ I grimaced. ‘What with you being at school until the end of Tuesday.’

‘Damn,’ she tutted. ‘I won’t be around to take delivery, will I?’

‘I could be though,’ I offered, not wanting to dampen her enthusiasm if she really was that determined to go straight from school teacher to café manager. ‘If you give me a list of what you’re expecting, I could be here to tick it off and unpack it, couldn’t I?’

‘Would you?’ she gasped. ‘That would be a huge help.’

‘Of course,’ I said. ‘I won’t be in the pub then, so it doesn’t matter when it comes. Oh my god!’ I then gasped. ‘The pub! What time is it?’

I wrenched the apron over my head and Penny’s mouth fell open.

‘Where exactly were you when I called?’ she asked, taking in the state of my crumpled dress.

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