Page 50 of The Gingerbread Cafe
‘Why all the mystery? Eve’s been hiding her shopfront with sheets for the past few days so she must be planning a big reveal.’
‘Yeah, it’s about time she branched out from making sad-looking wreaths for dead people.’
‘Amber!’
‘What? I say it with love, but it’s true. Anyway, Eve’s definitely looking a lot brighter since Gordon the Grocer has been round there with his power drill.’ Amber looked up from her phone to give Gretel a wink. ‘Now we just need to fix up Phoebe’s lost heart.’
I say it with lovewas something Phoebe had been encouraging Amber to say to mitigate her wild mouth, although Gretel wasn’t sure you could plonk it anywhere and still blurt out whatever you fancied.
Gretel put her piping bag down. ‘Oh. Do you think Phoebe’s lonely?’ Gretel had never really considered it. Phoebe always seemed so zen, and not everyone felt the need to be paired off.
‘Totally. She’s always going on about her heart chakra, and have you seen how much gingerbread she can get through for one small human? Something’s missing in her world, and it’s not just the latest rose quartz unicorn.’
Gretel sighed. Her own life had been so much lovelier since she’d found this unlikely collection of friends, even if she often felt a huge guilt that her memories of her family and Nell were fading, and she sometimes awoke in a blind panic that she was doing the wrong thing. But having Lukas to cuddle up to in the evenings and to share some of her thoughts with had so often soothed her. She hated to think of Phoebe missing out on anything her heart longed for.
‘Keep Calm and Trust the Universe.It will bring you what you need,’ Gretel heard herself saying, as she tested the little lights in the gingerbread village. Now, that was definitely a sentiment that Phoebe would get behind. She tutted as she noticed the light wasn’t working inside Phoebe’s gingerbread chakra healing shop. Why hadn’t she noticed that before? It meant Phoebe’s little stained-glass windows weren’t illuminatedlike the others. But now Gretel had noticed, she’d do her best to make it right.
Lukas and Gretel had spent the last few weeks drawing up templates, baking gingerbread pieces and carefully fusing them to make an edible replica of their village. They’d also been busy with intricate icing and adding colourful details for the perfect wintery scene. She’d decided to decorate the front of The Gingerbread Café in less Christmassy colours in this gingerbread version, a bit like the stained-glass piece Lukas had once made. As she’d admitted to Lukas, festive reds and greens suddenly felt a bit much all year long. From the pretty pots of snowdrops outside the shops to the Christmas tree decorated in February blooms, Gretel hoped the final gingerbread village would be spectacular; although it would break her heart if anyone dared to eat it.
She’d tried to argue with Lukas over that bit, but he’d insisted that food, however beautifully created, was meant to be eaten. After their heart-to-heart that night in his cottage about the real reasons he shied away from Christmas, she was hoping if they kept talking, he might be feeling festive enough to make a brand-new gingerbread scene with her when next Christmas came.
Gretel fiddled with the wiring but Phoebe’s shop still wouldn’t light up. Feeling the frustration, she stepped away. She’d break something if she got too jittery around the delicate village. She grabbed a gingerbread biscuit from her box of broken bits and hopped up onto one of the high stools, chomping down onto the biscuit with excessive crunch.
‘What’s eating you?’ asked Amber, as she fiddled with her photos for Instagram.
Gretel let out a huff, small crumbs spraying into the air, which she desperately batted away from the gingerbread village. ‘Urgh. It’s just so much pressure, isn’t it? I mean, what if it all goes wrong? What if nobody comes to the fair, or if one weeklater everyone’s forgotten about Green Tree Lane and the shops go quiet again? Or if the gingerbread village collapses in a sorry heap, or …’
The kitchen door squeaked open and Angel Gabriel scarpered across the floor, skidding across the tiles and crashing into the metal bin with a loud clang.
‘Or a ferret scoffs all of the cakes in the village baking competition,’ said Amber, putting a hand over her mouth to stop the guffaws.
Gretel bashed her palm against her forehead. She must have left the kitchen door ajar by accident. ‘You see? He shouldn’t even be in here. My brain’s not used to juggling so many things. And the press will be there tomorrow too. All those eyes on us – it’s terrifying.’
Now she’d tasted Lukas’s desserts and seen his passion to create such star-worthy recipes, Gretel felt an extra pressure to make the fair a success. If the event could give the street positive publicity and a lasting boost to trade, she secretly hoped the café would really take off. If it did, there was an outside chance she could build towards buying Lukas out one day, so he could follow his bigger dreams.
Amber rescued Angel Gabriel from the floor and gave his fur a ruffle before placing him back out in the closed café in his cosy ferret basket. When she returned she washed her hands and grabbed a biscuit, hopping onto a stool next to Gretel.
‘What does this represent?’ asked Amber, waving her broken biscuit at Gretel.
Gretel cocked her head. ‘It was meant to be Zekia. She was going to stand outside Rum & Raisin looking cheery with Kingsley, but her head fell off. We had to start again.’
‘No, silly. I mean, what does the box of broken biscuits represent? Because you could just chuck the duffs in the bin like most people.’
Gretel gasped. ‘No! I promised myself I would always keep a box of misfits and I’m proud of them.’ The penny was starting to drop, but Amber finished the sentiment for her.
‘You said you keep it to remind yourself it’s OK to make mistakes. And that even when stuff doesn’t go as planned, something good can still come of it. Like afternoon snacks!’ Amber waved headless Zekia at Gretel, and Gretel couldn’t help laughing.
‘Actually, Zekia two came out much better. Don’t you think?’ She waved her arm towards the gingerbread village, where a brightly decorated Zekia stood smiling next to her bearded husband.
‘Exactly. And is it your job to make sure the fair is so awesome that it breaks the freaking internet and all the shops in the street make a fortune from now until for ever?’
‘No.’ Gretel shrugged. ‘But I feel I owe it to Nell to make a success of things here for as long as I can. And if together we can keep the wolf that is Francesca Whimple from our doors …’
‘Together,’ said Amber, grabbing her hand. ‘Exactly that.’
There was a knock at the back door and Phoebe popped her head in. ‘It’s time!’
‘Hooray!’ said Gretel. ‘Can I finally come outside?’
