Page 55 of Autumn at the Oak Leaf Café
‘No problem.’
‘Thanks.’
He went inside. Certain that she had enough of a “confession” to satisfy Ruby, Madeline pulled out her phone and switched off the voice recorder. She was just putting it back into her pocket when she got the sense of someone standing behind her.
‘What the hell do you call this?’
Before Madeline could turn, a sheaf of papers and notebooks slapped down on the tabletop in front of her. She closed her eyes, wishing she’d thought to put them out of sight, but she hadn’t expected Rory to go into the café. Caught up in her efforts to catch him, he had caught her.
‘I get that you might have put out that book just so people didn’t get the hump,’ Rory said. ‘You know, doing your hippy bit, and all that. But what’s this?’ He flipped open one of the notebooks to the back, to where Madeline had written a list of participating businesses.
‘Ah, just a little reminder—’
‘It was you, wasn’t it?’ Rory said. ‘You’re the mastermind behind this stupid petition.’ He did the finger quotes again, this time around mastermind. ‘I thought we were close, Madeline.’
‘We’re not close, Rory. You’re my ex-boyfriend. We broke up eight years ago. And for what it’s worth, I think you should leave the theatre car park alone.’
Rory shook his head. He flapped his hands up and down, his face puckering. One foot stamped up and down.
Madeline almost smiled. Some people didn’t really change after all.
‘It’s not fair!’ Rory shouted, stamping his foot again. With one hand he swiped the petition off the table in front of her and began to rip it to pieces, lines of signatures and addresses fluttering in the breeze. As he ranted, Madeline wished she’d left the voice recorder running. ‘It’s not fair at all! I—’
Oh my god, he’s really going to say it.
‘—hateyou!’
‘Rory, I think you should go home.’
‘Don’t worry. I’m going. And I’mnothaving my wedding at your stupid café. In fact, I might just have my company buy your café, then raze it to the ground. A few more parking spaces will be much more useful than your horrible drinks.’
Madeline just waited as he picked up his briefcase and stomped away across the park. He looked back once, flapping a hand at her in some weird, childlike expression of disappointment. As soon as he was out of sight, Madeline retrieved the shredded petition as best she could, then collected Hazel and Sampson from where they were playing—completely unconcerned by the meltdown that had happened nearby—among the fallen leaves.
‘It’s all right for you two,’ Madeline said, as she took the two animals back into the café and set them down on the floor. ‘It’s pretty unlikely that I’ve heard the end of this.’
25
It’s just Cricket
It wasa fine morning for a cricket match, the sun shining over the top of the small pavilion, as the players milled around outside, excited to get on with the tournament final at long last. Madeline, trying to feel enthusiastic in her shiny new cricket whites—which had proven, to her surprise, to be a perfect fit—stood by the boundary line and watched two players dragging a rope across the playing field to remove the morning dew.
‘Hey, I was wondering where you were.’
She looked up to see Darren, also dressed in his whites, striding towards her. As he reached her, he gave her arm a gentle squeeze.
‘Hi.’
‘You don’t look so great. Is everything all right?’
Madeline forced a smile, then let it drop. ‘No.’
‘Let’s go over there, behind the scorebox.’
Madeline let him lead her along the pitch until they were out of the earshot of the other players.
‘Tell me what’s wrong.’
Madeline did. By the time she had finished, she was sobbing against his shoulder as he patted her back.
