Page 79 of Crazy in Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop
‘A staff meeting?’ she queried suspiciously. ‘A staff meeting that I’m not invited to? Oh my God, you’re all going to discuss sacking me!’
‘Who’s sacking you? That would be madness. No one knew how anything in the shop worked while you were on your sickbed.’ Now it was Tom’s turn to stick his head around the door. ‘Are we starting anytime soon? Noah’s here now and I’ve finished my breakfast panini so we really should get on with it.’
At the mention of Noah, Nina’s stomach lurched so violently that for a moment she wondered if she was relapsing and also if last night’s curry was about to put in an encore performance.
‘Noah …’ Nina echoed tremulously, one hand to her heart, which had started beating erratically, even though it was meant to be out of order for the foreseeable future. During her confinement, Nina had come to realise that the tragic, passionate love she’d always craved wasn’t everything it was cracked up to be. In reality, it was exhausting (as everyone had warned her) and added to that, it was soul-destroying and heart-breaking and what good was a heart that didn’t work?
More than that, she’dachedfor Noah and had played back his every smile, every kind, sweet and funny thing he’d said to her, every kiss, until the memories were worn thin. But the memory of the fight they’d had, of how Noah had ripped away the mask Nina wore to expose the miserable, mean-spirited girl behind it, still shone bright. And yet, here he was, just a few metres away when Nina had been half tormented/half comforted by the fact that she’d never have to see him again.
‘Yes, Noah,’ Posy whispered. ‘Why do you think I’ve been trying to persuade you back upstairs? Also, I did tell him that you’d be a no-show.’
‘He doesn’t want to see me?’ Nina queried in a hurt voice. She couldn’t blame Noah for never wanting to clap eyes on her again, but that didn’t mean she had to be happy about it.
‘He didn’t say that hedidn’twant to see you, but he’s been sosadsince he got back from taking you on that disastrous road trip.’ Posy shrugged helplessly. ‘And actually now that you are feeling better, what did happen with you and Noah? Did you really break his heart? He has the look of a man whose world has crumbled.’
‘What happened is between me and Noah,’ Nina said because she was ashamed enough of her behaviour without having Posy on her case.
No, she wouldn’t hide. She was going to style it out, so she brushed past Posy, her nose in the air, sweeping into the shop with a haughty expression. Noah’s heart was no concern of hers because she was a badass bitch who ate men for breakfast. Then she came stumbling to a halt.
Noah was standing by the rolling ladder, his attention fixed on the screen of his iPad. He was wearing the navy-blue suit that he’d worn on his first day at Happy Ever After, a white shirt and navy-blue tie. He looked so corporate, so smart – even his unruly cowlick of hair that would never lie flat had been tamed into submission – that Nina wondered what he’d ever seen in her.
Then Noah looked up to look at Nina looking at him and his face seemed to draw in on itself, eyebrows pulling together, mouth puckering into an awkward shape, his body shrinking back as if the sight of her was a very unexpected, unpleasant surprise.
Nina wanted to beg for forgiveness but instead found a reserve of strength from deep, deep within and plonked herself down on one of the sofas with what she hoped was a nonchalant grace. ‘Oh, hi Noah,’ she trilled, like them seeing each other again was absolutely not a big deal at all.
Noah muttered something that might have been ‘Hi.’ Or could just as easily have been ‘I hate you,’ but then Posy bustled in with Verity bringing up the rear.
‘OK, we’re going to keep this civilised and on a purely business footing, aren’t we?’ Posy asked anxiously as she perched on the arm of the sofa that Nina was determinedly lounging on.
‘Of course,’ Nina scoffed, though actually she didn’t know what Noah was doing here, all suited and booted, and looking like he wished he were anywhere else, even if it involved being waterboarded.
‘This is strictly professional,’ Noah said huffily and Nina had missed his huffy voice, but she masked that by rolling her eyes at Tom sitting on the sofa opposite, who gave Nina one of his stern looks.
‘Let’s just get this over with,’ Tom mouthed at Nina as Verity asked Noah if he needed ‘a flipchart? We’ve found flipcharts very effective in the past.’
‘I don’t need a flipchart,’ Noah said gravely. ‘And I’ll be emailing my report to you all afterwards on your new Happy Ever After email addresses as part of Happy Ever After’s new digital network. I’ve also set you up with a shop WhatsUpp account. It’s much more efficient than Post-it notes and writing things on the backs of envelopes.’
Posy gave a low-level grumble. ‘Post-it notes are quite efficient.’
‘Yes, but a group email and WhatsUpp account aremoreefficient,’ Noah said and he was in full proper grown-up mode this morning; not prepared to take any nonsense. Much like the time he’d stood up to the awful Peter at Ye Olde Medieval Laser Tag, Nina remembered with grudging fondness, as Noah gave a short speech about how interesting it had been to spend time at Happy Ever After. Also, that he had lots of suggestions on how they could work smarter and grow the business.
‘They are just suggestions,’ he concluded with a tiny smile that didn’t reach his eyes. ‘For instance, you’d have a much better flow to the shop if you knocked through …’
‘No! Not another word,’ Posy yelped, jumping up so she could form a one-woman human shield against the new-releases shelves as if she suspected that Noah had a bulldozer waiting in the mews. ‘I’m not knocking through. End of.’
‘I suspected as much, but even you have to agree that you can’t continue with only one till, especially one that you have to thump at least once every ten minutes,’ Noah pointed out.
‘Youhaveto agree, Posy,’ Verity chimed in. ‘When we’re really busy, Bertha has a meltdown so the queue ends up stretching all the way back to the door and then new customers can’t even come in.’
‘But Bertha has been here forever,’ Posy cried. Nina and Tom exchanged looks. It was hard to understand why Posy had agreed to Noah analysing her business if she was going to have conniptions at each one of his suggestions.
‘Which is why you can keep Bertha for cash transactions, though she really needs to be serviced, and you can take card payments, even PayPal or Apple Pay, on the shop floor if you give the staff iPads,’ Noah said smoothly, as if he was more sure of himself now that it really was strictly professional. ‘Then you can email the customer their receipt and add them to the mailing list at the same time.’
‘But … bagging up … complimentary bookmarks …’ Posy moaned.
‘All the new display cabinets have drawers in them, we could stash bags and bookmarks in there,’ Tom supplied in a weary voice like this was all too boring for words.
Although it wasn’t boring. Not exactly. ‘Will we really be getting iPads?’ Nina asked and everyone glared at her for the interruption. Everyone, but especially Noah – his glare was like the sharpest knife cutting Nina to the quick.
