Page 84 of The Cornish Cream Tea Bookshop
‘Maybe I just wanted to believe,’ she said, pouring oil into the frying pan and waiting for it to heat up. ‘I found it comforting to think of those people, centuries ago, being out of place, struggling, but still leaving a legacy. Isn’t that what we all want?’
‘To be the subject of some mythical story?’
‘To make a mark on the world. Though at the moment, I’d settle for not fucking up completely at the bookshop, and getting to spend all my free time with Max.’ She flipped the pancake, irrationally pleased when it landed right in the centre of the pan, not even one edge sticking to the side.
‘You really like him, don’t you?’
Ollie glanced at Marion, then turned back to the hob. ‘It’s gone a bit beyond that,’ she admitted. ‘It’s like we’re hardwired together in my thoughts. Found something on a walk with Henry – I must tell Max; worried about something at the bookshop – Max will make me feel better. I rolled over in bed this morning, and before I was properly awake I was reaching out for him. The shock when he wasn’t there …’ It hit her, suddenly, that if things had gone differently, he might not be in a hospital bed, recovering: that she might not have been mentally preparing to see him today, after being sick with worry. That it might not have been possible.
She swallowed, and poured too much batter into the pan, so that she knew the next pancake would be burnt on the outside before it was properly cooked.
‘I love him,’ she said. ‘I am in love with Max Holden.’ She held her whisk up and spun to face Marion, whose smile was accompanied by distinctly watery eyes.
‘I’m so glad he’s going to recover,’ the older woman said. ‘That he’s as strong as he appears.’
‘Do not start me off, Marion,’ Ollie warned, pointing the whisk at her. ‘I have just about stopped crying, and if I’m going to achieve all my missions today, I need to push the emotions back as far as they’ll go.’
‘What are your missions, then?’ Marion crossed her arms on the counter and sniffed loudly.
‘Make us pancakes for breakfast without burning them. Go to the bookshop and fix the very tiny problem that cropped up over this already traumatic weekend. Convince Liam that he wants to out himself as Bryan Mailer and do a reading from one of his books at the Christmas event on pageant day. Go to the hospital and tell Max that I’m in love with him.’
‘Gosh.’ Marion exhaled. ‘Just a small list, then.’
‘Basically, I need to fix Christmas. For me, Max, Liam and Thea. For Port Karadow.’
‘Cornwall, England, the UK, the world …’
Ollie grinned. ‘It feels a bit like that.’
‘But why do you need to fix it, when you’re not the one who’s broken it?’
Ollie put bacon in another pan and turned the heat on under it. ‘Because the grand author event that I promised Thea and the town, that we have been promoting to the max, and that everyone, it seems, is excited about, is no longer happening.’
‘What?’
‘I had a call from Sophia Forsythe-Hartley’s editor on Sunday. Can you believe that? Even though she didn’t know what had happened, the timing’s pretty off, don’t you think?Sophia’s had some sort of crisis, and can’t make the event. And …’ She huffed. ‘I’m sure it’s genuine. I don’t think they’d cancel if there wasn’t a real issue, but it’s a disaster, Marion. I hadn’t let myself take it in until now, but I’ve got a lot of fixing to do.’
‘And you think Liam could be part of that?’
‘He could be the saviour,’ Ollie admitted. ‘Like Santa Claus, but with stories as his gifts.’
‘So tell him that,’ Marion said. ‘He’s a stubborn old man – he hasn’t broken the mould there, let me tell you – but he’s a kind soul, and you’re the perfect weapon against stubbornness.’
‘I am?’
Marion levelled her with a look. ‘If you can make me believe I need to order Victoria’s Secret underwear, then you can convince Liam he needs to dust off his author persona and treat the town to his storytelling. You’re persuasive, Ollie: you know you are. Use all your charm, your quirkiness, your lack of inhibitions to show him that he needs to do this.’
Ollie bit her lip. She nodded absent-mindedly, but already, a plan was forming in her mind.
Once they’d finished their pancakes and Marion had left, Ollie got ready for work. She would allow herself one more day of not telling Thea about Arabella’s call: she would much rather go to her with a problemandits solution, and she wouldn’t know if she had one of those until later that evening.
She spent extra time on her make-up, because she needed the confidence boost – she still looked washed-out aftertoo little sleep and too much stress – and because she hoped, more than anything, she would get to see Max today.
Her phone vibrated from the duvet cover, and she picked it up.
The name at the top of the message made her heart skip, and the words turned her legs to jelly, so that she had to sit down on the bed and reread them over and over again until they sank in.
Please don’t be scared. I don’t want to live without you either, and I’ve got the best possible reason to get better this time. I promise you I will. See you later, I hope? Mxx
