Page 86 of The Cornish Cream Tea Bookshop
‘No, that’s what I’m telling you. But could he go in and see Max for five minutes? I’ll give up some of my time, if that’s how it works.’
The man looked at her, assessing, and then at Becky and Dylan. The boy had his head bowed.
‘Five minutes,’ he said. ‘Room twelve. He can go in first, then you can see him.’
‘Thank you.’ Ollie glanced down the corridor. Room twelve was just there, with the door closed and the curtain drawn across the window. Max was inside. It was only five more minutes, she told herself. She walked over to Becky and Dylan.
‘Hey Dylan,’ she said. ‘You can see Max for a few minutes.’
When Dylan looked up, she saw that he had tear-tracks down his cheeks. Her heart squeezed.
‘For real?’ He looked from her to his mum.
Becky nodded. ‘Take it easy on him, OK? He’s probably really tired.’
Dylan scrambled to his feet and Ollie walked him to the door, then turned away when he pushed it open. If she sawMax now, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself going in there too. Instead, she sank onto the seat next to Becky.
‘I know that Sophia Forsythe-Hartley isn’t coming,’ Becky said.
Ollie had been half-expecting a thank you, and certainly not this. Her stomach clenched. ‘What?’
‘Thea told me when I got to the bookshop this morning. Arabella called A New Chapter yesterday, too. Thea said not to mention it to you, because of Max: that we could deal with it later.’
‘When Thea called me this morning, I – I wanted to tell her in person. It wasn’t a good time.’
‘When would it have been a good time? You’ve put so much effort into this one, huge event, and now your author’s backed out. Thea’s been working towards it, coordinating with Anisha on the planning team at the council, so it fits in with everything else that’s going on for the Christmas pageant, and now we don’t have a guest.’ Becky’s laugh was humourless. ‘Of course, Thea will forgive you, but I want you to know how much damage you’ve done.’
‘I’ve got a plan,’ Ollie said.
‘Oh ofcourseyou have! You’ve always got a bloody plan.’
Ollie glanced at Max’s door. ‘I’m really sorry, Becky, if I’ve hurt you in some way. I thought we were getting along, that you liked the Book Wars event. I amreallytrying here, and I just …’ She gulped down the lump that had solidified in her throat. ‘I want us to work well together, and for the bookshop to be a success. Of course this is a blow, and I’d never have approached Arabella if I thought there was a chance she and Sophia would backout. But these things happen, and we can come up with something else.’
‘You think it’s all so easy, don’t you?’
‘I think what’seasy?’
Becky gestured around her, though surely she couldn’t mean this, here, right now: a hospital with one measly glowing snowman on the nurses’ desk, and Max unwell in a bed nearby.
‘Everything,’ Becky said. ‘You’ve got your job, which you’re treating like some kind of homework project; your perfect boyfriend; your swanky barn and your cute dog and your friends. You’re toying with it all, and if something doesn’t work out, so what? You drop it, then move onto the next thing.’
Ollie frowned. She really,reallydidn’t want to cry in front of this woman. She honed in on her anger instead.
‘I’m not dropping anything.’ She turned on the plastic chair so she could look Becky in the eye, trying to keep her voice even so the nurse wouldn’t hear. ‘I am embracingeverythingabout living here. I love working at the bookshop, I feel incredibly lucky to be living in Foxglove Barn, and I am not taking any of it for granted. Maybe I put on this front where I seem happy all the time – blasé, even – but it’s only because I try and stay positive. It doesn’t mean I don’t care: it’s the opposite, in fact.
‘I was lucky that I was able to move down here, to Cornwall, but it didn’t come out of the best circumstances, and I promise you it hasn’t all been easy.’
Becky fiddled with a button on her coat, her eyes trained on the floor.
‘And as for Max,’ Ollie continued, because this was whereshe felt most betrayed by Becky’s words, ‘does this look perfect to you? He told me he’d been ill in the past, and then I … I watched him collapse, and I’ve felt guilty ever since, asking myself if us spending time together contributed in some way, if I pushed him too far. But I promise you’ – her voice was thick with tears, now – ‘I am not toying with Max, and I’m not going to leave just because it’s got tough. I care about him, and I’m not walking away from him.’ She rubbed her cheeks with the heel of one hand, and searched for a tissue in her handbag with the other. ‘Fuck.’ She spotted a visitors’ toilet further down the corridor, and hurried to it.
She went into a stall and pulled off several sheets of paper, pressing them to her eyes. She felt defeated and blindsided by Becky’s accusations, when all she’d been focused on was seeing Max.
Ollie splashed water on her face, dried it and looked at herself in the mirror. Whatever happened with Becky, she needed to be strong for him. No more tears, she told herself, and strode back out into the hospital corridor.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Becky wasn’t in the waiting room, and the door to room twelve was open.
