Page 31 of Right Place, Right Time
‘I just get that feeling from you. Am I wrong, then?’
I think carefully before answering. ‘I can’t deny I do find you a little annoying at times. Actually, not annoying … irritating might be a better word.’
‘What’s new?’ Adam shrugs. ‘Most people do.’
‘But that doesn’t mean I don’t think much of you – quite the opposite, in fact.’
Adam looks genuinely surprised. ‘Really?Or are you just saying that to be nice?’
‘I never say somethingjust to be nice,’ I say. ‘If you’ve got the impression I don’t like you, it’s probably because I have trouble letting people get close to me. Luca is always telling me I need to drop my guard and let people in more.’
‘Why don’t you like people getting close to you – have you been hurt in the past?’
My hazy state suddenly sharpens.I nearly relaxed a bittoomuch there …
‘Honestly, Adam, I don’t dislike you.’ I stand up, and begin to collect the packets and plates from the table. ‘You seem like a really nice guy,’ I add quietly, not looking at him. ‘You know, underneath all the bravado and silly jokes.’
I glance at Adam now and I’m pleased to see he’s smiling.
‘Eve, you don’t know how glad I am to hear you say that.’
‘Really?’ I ask – albeit a tad quietly. I’m about to continue, but Adam hasn’t heard me.
‘Then you won’t have any objections if I investigate the possibility of renting the shop next door to yours in the future?’ he asks brightly.
I nearly drop the plates on the floor; I certainly hadn’t expected to him to say that.
‘Whoa, steady,’ Adam says, jumping up to take them from me. ‘It’s not that much of a shock, is it?’
‘Why would you possibly want to rent the shop next door to mine?’
‘Because – like I told you earlier – I need a new challenge in life and owning a little shop in Clockmaker Court seems like a fun idea.’
‘I can assure you owning a shop is not fun. There’s a lot of hard work involved and often very little profit. And … what would you sell?’ I’m still trying to process the thought of Adam in Gerald’s old shop. I just can’t imagine him in Clockmaker Court.
‘Books,’ Adam answers without missing a beat. ‘Like the last owner. I already have a whole library at Past Times House to get me started and I couldn’t help noticing when we were in Clockmaker Court today that the shop has been left with all its fixtures and fittings.’
‘But … what do you know about books?’
‘I know enough to get me started. I’ve been wanting a new challenge for some time, but it wasn’t until I came here to your house tonight and looked at your bookshelves over there that I knew what I wanted that challenge to be.’
9
End of May 2024
Winter turns to spring, and delicate white snowdrops are replaced by bright yellow daffodils bursting into life all over Cambridge. As the cheery flowers cascade down over the sprawling lawns from the colleges towards the river, Easter comes and goes, and a new term begins at the university. Students take their final exams and even more tourists pour into the city’s streets as spring now turns into summer.
It’s one of the busiest times of the year for the city, and, in Clockmaker Court where nothing much ever changes, Adam is getting ready to open his new shop, almost three months since he first came up with the idea.
Even though I told him how hard it was to make a success of a little business like this, Adam was insistent.
‘I want to do this, Eve,’ he told me when we finished clearing his grandfather’s house at the end of our very tiring weekend. ‘I’ve decided. I want to honour not only my grandfather by doing something worthwhile with his estate, but my mother too. Being around books with my mother is one of my happiest childhood memoriesand when you don’t have any close family any more, you suddenly realise that those memories are precious and you want to hold on to them.’
I knew exactly how he felt.
So from that moment on, I did everything I could to help him make his dream a reality. Which wasn’t all that much to begin with – I was of little use when it came to dealing with solicitors, surveyors and estate agents – but now he was actually about to move in, I hoped I could be of some help in successfully getting his shop open to the public.
We discovered quite quickly that it was the whole building that was up for sale, not just the shop, so it wasn’t quite as easy as simply renting the shop premises. But, to his credit, Adam only saw this as a bonus, as it meant he would also acquire the little flat over the shop in which to live. He managed to find a buyer for Past Times House pretty quickly, so once the sale went through, he was able to complete his purchase of both the shop and the flat without too many hold-ups.
