Page 26 of The Midnight Bakery
Frankie’s head was still full of panicked thoughts when Beth tapped her on the shoulder a few minutes later. She nearly jumped out of her skin.
Beth laughed. ‘Sorry…! I almost didn’t see you right at the back,’ she said, sitting down and plonking her bag on the floor.
‘I think there must have been some kind of a breakfast meeting here this morning,’ Frankie replied. ‘So, I just parked myself here. Thankfully they’ve gone now. There was quite a gaggle of them.’
If Beth noticed the array of scrupulously clean tables, none of which looked as if they’d been recently occupied, it didn’t show. ‘Sorry, I got a bit held up. Have you been here long?’
‘No, few minutes, that’s all.’ Frankie narrowed her eyes a little, finally taking in Beth’s weary face. She got up to lean across the table and give her friend a hug. ‘Is everything okay?’
‘Fine.’ Beth smiled brightly. ‘Just a long shift, that’s all. God, I need a coffee…Are we having breakfast too? Please say yes.’
Frankie laughed. ‘They are rather good here.’
Beth bent down to rifle through her bag. ‘What would you like? My shout.’
‘Then the usual please, that would be great.’ How easily the word ‘usual’ slipped off her tongue. How easily she had taken for granted that her time here could continue for as long as she wanted. She had made plans, small ones admittedly, but hopeful ones. And she had made a friend. The weight of change bowedFrankie’s head and she wasn’t sure she could bear to move all over again.
She looked over to where Beth was standing at the counter, at the person next to her, at the couple sat in a window seat, and the young mum cradling a child on her lap, fast asleep, without a care in the world. So much ordinary life going on around her every day, and yet it was impossible to tell what secrets those lives might be hiding, what turmoil was being faced, what heartache…She checked herself. Or what happiness, what joy…The only thing she was sure about was that it could all change in a heartbeat.
‘Food won’t be long,’ said Beth, sitting down again. ‘Is it me, or is it boiling in here?’ She shrugged off her coat and hung it over the back of her chair. ‘I’m forty-nine, for goodness’ sake, I’m not ready for hot flushes yet.’
‘Don’t you believe it,’ replied Frankie, rolling her eyes. ‘Mine hit when I was younger than you.’ The menopause had been yet another reason for Frankie to think she was going mad. If she couldn’t trust her own body, what could she trust? Certainly not the thoughts in her head.
‘Great, thanks for that,’ said Beth, pulling a face.
Frankie smiled. ‘If it’s any consolation, mine wasn’t half as bad as I’d been led to believe it would be. Anyway, enough about the disintegration of our youth. What’s happened about your job? Have you heard anything yet?’
Beth shook her head. ‘Rumour, that’s all, nothing definite. My immediate boss reckons I’ve got nothing to worry about. She said my record would speak for itself.’
But despite her words, Beth didn’t look at all happy.
‘So that’s good news then…isn’t it?’
‘Yes, I suppose…’ Beth tucked her hair behind her ears, before massaging her neck. ‘No, it is good news. It’s just that I seem to be constantly on the back foot at the moment. It goeslike that sometimes. We can have weeks where everything runs smoothly, and then others where calamity seems to lurk around every corner.’
‘Jack-based calamity?’
Beth gave a tight smile. ‘He had an off day at the end of last week, nothing specific, feeling tired more than anything. But by the time I was due to leave for work, he had a raging temperature and a thumping head. Course, he did what he always does, which is to tell me he’d be fine and that there was no reason for me not to go to work, but although I put up a token fight, that’s all it was. I can’t afford any time off at the moment. Or any more occasions like the one when Jack fell out of bed. Lisa covered for me then, and I got away with it, but I might not have. And it only takes one or two black marks on my copybook and that’s me gone.’
‘But the management team must have families too. Don’t they understand that problems crop up from time to time?’
‘On a personal level they probably do. But they’re not paid to be personal. Some of them hide it better than others, but they’re looking out for their own jobs just as much as I am, so…’
‘When did we all become so scared?’ asked Frankie, scowling. ‘Howdid we all become so scared?’ she asked, shaking her head. ‘It’s not right, is it? Sometimes I get so…so…furiousabout the state of the country. We’re all invisible. Especially if we don’t fit inside the neat little boxes we’re supposed to. But we all matter,everyone…It shouldn’t be this way, we shouldn’t have to fight just to live a life, a life we’re all entitled to.’ She rolled her eyes at her outburst. ‘Sorry, was Jack okay?’
Beth nodded. ‘But, typically, I was panicking like crazy,again, because I had a problem with the car and couldn’t get straight home. As it turned out there was nothing to worry about – Jack was right as rain – but I didn’t know that at the time. The guy from the car park gave me a lift home in the end.’
‘He did what?’ asked Frankie. ‘And which guy? The one who sleeps in his car?’
‘Yeah. Tam, his name is. I’d got a flat tyre and, after quite a bit of shouting and swearing on my part, he came over to help. I’m not surprised he woke up, I must have sounded like a drunken sailor.’
Frankie leaned forward. ‘So, what happened?’
‘Well, after he’d accused me of being judgemental about him sleeping in his car, he offered to change the tyre for me.’
‘Sounds like he has a bit of a chip on his shoulder.’
‘I guess…but I can’t say I blame him. I expect he gets treated like dirt most of the time.’
