Page 91 of The Cornish Cream Tea Holiday
‘What about tomorrow morning? I’m meeting Anisha for coffee, so you could gatecrash and see what the response is.’
‘That sounds easy.’
‘It’s an informal conversation,’ Meredith said, then wrinkled her nose. She was wearing a yellow sundress with a strawberry pattern, her skin freckled. She looked so suited to summer, and Thea felt a brief flutter of envy. ‘They might already have plans for it, though,’ she continued. ‘So … I don’t know, best not to get your hopes up.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Sorry, you must realise that.’
‘I’d rather have too much information than not enough,’ Thea said. ‘Thank you, Meredith.’
Meredith sipped her drink and glanced out of the window, where a blonde woman was lifting the shutters of the ironmongers opposite, then turned back to Thea, a smile bunching her cheeks. ‘You must have been spending time with Ben, if you’ve been discussing Sylvia’s old place with him.’
Thea sagged in her seat. ‘That’s where things have got complicated.’
‘Oh no! How come? I heard Finn talking to him on the phone yesterday, and he said something about Ben needing cheering up, but I assumed it was house woes. Did something happen between you?’
‘It did,’ Thea admitted. ‘It almost did, anyway. But I made a mistake, and now he’s pissed off with me. I understand why, but I want to make it right between us.’
‘He’s had a hard time of it,’ Meredith said. ‘Has he told you what happened before he moved here?’
Thea nodded. ‘It sounds awful. I honestly can’t imagine going through something like that, being betrayed by your partnerandyour best friend. And now, he thinks I’ve been lying to him too. I haven’t, though.’ She rubbed her forehead. ‘I want another chance to explain, but giving him space makes more sense than forcing him to talk it through before he’s ready.
‘Right now, I want to focus on the Old Post House, on talking to Anisha. Once I know if it’s a possibility, I can work out what to say to Ben. One thing at a time, hey?’ She ate her last mouthful of sausage roll, thinking that if shedidend up in the Old Post House, then the walk up the hill to get there would justify having at least one of these every other day.
The thought of creating daily rituals in this beautiful seaside town made her insides dance with excitement. Still, she thought, as Meredith got out her phone to message Anisha, she was a long way from that.One thing at a time, she told herself. She hoped a methodical plan of attack would pay off eventually.
After Meredith had left to go to work, and Thea had thanked Max, ordered another two sausage rolls to take back to Esme and Alex, and bought a bag of the home-made dog biscuits that were in a jar next to the till, she strolled down to the harbour.
Being by the sea, she had come to realise over the last couple of weeks, automatically made every single day just that little bit better. Could she really end up living here,running a business here? Her excitement was a physical thing, flowing through her like a second bloodstream, and she had to force herself to walk slowly, to take everything in, on her way back to Sunfish Cottage.
She was no longer adrift with Esme, and that had quieted some of her unrest. She felt a sense of clarity, her thoughts almost as clear as the water that filled the harbour and flooded out to the open ocean. Anisha would be honest about her chances forthe Old Post House, and if it didn’t work out, she would come up with another plan. That, and Jamie Scable’s property, weren’t the only options.
Clarity and simplicity, the two things that were driving her right now, had been brought into sharp focus by Ben, and the straightforward way he dealt with things. Not everything in life was black and white, but sometimes you simply had to pick one of two options: yes or no; left or right; this one or that one.
That morning’s walk, seeing the Old Post House again, spending time in the coffee shop, and Meredith’s encouragement, all suggested that if she wanted to live in Port Karadow, to open a bookshop here and fulfil her lifelong dream, then she could. She just had to follow the correct path, choosing yes or no at every turn, to get there.
Getting back to Ben might not be as simple, but right now she was focused on the first part of her plan. Without her future in Cornwall secured, Ben might not even consider trying again. She wanted something to show him, something to make him proud of her, and, even though this was for her,she didn’t think it would hurt that – if she was successful – he’d been a part of that success: taking her to the Old Post House, telling her she could do anything she set her mind to.
The sun rose higher in the sky, bathing Port Karadow in a soft, shimmering light, and Thea walked back to the twin cottages with her sausage rolls and her dog biscuits, ideas swirling in her head that was, once again, protected by Ben’sLakes for Lifebaseball cap.
