Page 35 of The Cornish Cream Tea Bookshop
‘It was fine.’ Ollie waved his concern away. ‘He walked into my umbrella and had the temerity to blame me. I came to soothe my rattled nerves with a latte, but you weren’t here.’
‘You still got the latte, though?’ Max bent over, rearranging the sausage rolls to close a gap.
‘Of course, but it wasn’t the whole experience: something was missing.’ She hadn’t meant to sound so sincere.
He looked up at her, a smile slipping back onto his face. ‘Good to know I’m gettingsomethingright.’
‘Of course you are. And I wanted to check we were still on for the trip after work tomorrow?’
‘Sure. I’m knocking off early, though the place we’re going to is open until eight. And there’s a Christmas market in a village on the way back, if you fancy it? We can only have so much fun looking at coffee machines.’
Ollie’s heart skipped. ‘Sounds great. Shall I bring my car in?’
Max shook his head. ‘My house is a five-minute walk. We can go in mine.’
‘Thanks. I’ll meet you here, then?’
‘Yeah. Ollie …’
‘Max?’ She waited for him to continue, then felt her phone buzz in her handbag. She didn’t recognise the number on the screen, so she answered it before it cut out. ‘Hello?’
‘Is that Ollie Spencer?’
‘Speaking.’ She mouthed an apology to Max, then walked to the window.
‘Excellent. This is Arabella March, Sophia Forsythe-Hartley’s editor. I received your email.’
‘Oh? Oh! That’s … I’m glad it got to you without a hitch, and thank you for taking the time to phone me back.’
‘It’s not a problem. I’ve discussed your proposition with Sophia, and she’s very interested in the possibility of an event at A New Chapter. Her schedule is packed, as youcan imagine, but we were hoping you and Thea Rushwood would have an online meeting with us, sometime over the next few weeks?’
‘Of course! That would be wonderful.’
‘Excellent,’ Arabella said again. ‘If I send over some dates when Sophia’s free, then perhaps you could get back to me in the next couple of days?’
‘I will absolutely do that.’
‘Grand. Good to talk to you, Ollie.’
‘You too, Arabella. Thank you for your call.’
When they’d said goodbye, Ollie almost bounced back to the counter.
Max was looking at her expectantly. ‘Good news?’
‘Potentially. An author I’m desperate to have at A New Chapter wants an online meeting with us, to discuss holding an event.’
‘That’s great, isn’t it? You look part elated, part terrified.’
Ollie tugged her ponytail, the adrenaline rush of Arabella’s call fading as she realised what this meant. ‘When I spoke to Thea about it, she wasn’t too keen. She said we shouldn’t be aiming for such big-name authors, in case we got everyone’s hopes up and then it fell through.’
‘But you went ahead anyway?’ Max looked amused rather than concerned.
‘I thought if I could confirm the event and go to Thea when it was a done deal, she’d see that wecanbe ambitious. We can get whoever we want, because we’re a stunning independent bookshop in a popular, idyllic town and we shouldn’t put any restrictions on ourselves.’
‘And now you’ve done that,’ Max said. ‘You’ve proved it to her.’
Ollie laughed. ‘I really haven’t. There are so many places where this could fail, between now and Sophia Forsythe-Hartley stepping through the bookshop doors. And she wants to meet with meandThea via Zoom, so I can’t present it as a done deal – unless I go ahead without Thea, and I don’t think that’s wise.’
