Page 10 of Trust Fall
It had been three years that she’d been walking this same stretch of street, but she always had so much on her mind that she never really paid attention to her surroundings. The only reason she did today was because she’d been down at the river with the metal detector that she’d bought Sophie, otherwise she wouldn’t usually be in this part of town at the weekend.
She noticed several shops that piqued her interest, and she made a mental note to look up more when walking. There was a camera shop which also sold telescopes. She’d long considered getting one for her office, since the river view was free of light pollution and the winter stars always shone so clearly through her window. Maybe she could take Sophie there one of the nights she had a sleepover at Cleo’s house, and they could spend the evening in their own personal planetarium.Hmm, now there’s a thought.
On the opposite side of the road, which Cleo never walked as she was a creature of habit, she noticed a music shop that she wanted to take Sophie to and show her all of the instruments. Next to that was a stationary shop that she knew her mom wouldlove everything in, and beside that was a sportswear shop. Looks like her sister’s birthday gift would be easier to find next year.
“How about we maybe check out some of these shops later, after we grab a hot chocolate?” Cleo asked Sophie.
“Awesome-sauce!” Sophie explained.
They walked a few more minutes, noticing more shops, and swapping more facts with each other, until Sophie noticed the neon coffee cup sign above the front door of a shop.
“Look Auntie Cleo! Can we get a hot chocolate in there? Pleeeeeeease?” Sophie looked up with her signature large hazel eyes, made as large as humanly possible, with her head tilted slightly to the side.
“The puppy dog eyes again? I think I’m going to have to start limiting your use of those to only twice a day, kid.” Cleo laughed, because she knew Sophie wouldn’t be able to agree to such terms, and Cleo would never be able to hold her to them anyway. “OK, let’s see if they do hot chocolates”.
“Yesssss,” Sophie did a classic 80s power-grab in celebration, a consequence of being raised by Cleo’s twin brother.
A young woman slipped past them with a laptop bag, and the smell of coffee followed into the crisp air. Perfect, Cleo thought, smiling at her niece as she opened the shop door.
Chapter 10
Ivy
The Saturday lunch crowd was always unpredictable in the shop. It seemed to be one extreme or the other, rush or hush, and nothing in between. While this morning was insanely busy, today’s lunchtime was absolutely dead.
Toni was on break, leaving Nina at the counter, while Ivy revised the schedule. Lucas had phoned with news: the weekend hires for his other shop could now train in the evenings insteadof only on weekends. Ivy came out of the office just in time to see Mollie leaving. She reached for the cleaning cloth and spray to wipe some tables when she noticed Mollie had left her scarf behind. Ivy grabbed it and ran to the door, keeping her eye on Mollie as she walked past the front window of the shop. In doing so, Ivy completely forgot to look through the glass door in case any customers were coming in. She ran straight into one as she pulled the door into the shop.
Ivy hadn’t even realized that she had reached out to grab the customer’s arm while trying to keep her balance. She rushed to try and stop the customer from losing theirs but in the true Ivy style, she just crashed into them instead.Way to go, Ivy!
Before looking up, Ivy dove into a long trail of apologies.
“Oh my God, are you ok? I amsosorry! I was just going after a customer who left their scarf behi...” Ivy’s eyes by that point hadn’t yet made their way up enough to make eye contact but had reached the loose waves of fiery red hair that she’d know anywhere, causing her to completely lose her voice.
It washer.
Ivy couldn’t believe it. Standing in front of her was the same woman she’d looked out for daily. Only this time she looked different, less put together. Instead of the tailored pants suit and heels she was so used to seeing her wear, she was wearing fitted jeans, with a soft wool jumper, a padded body warmer, and chunky tan boots. Most surprising, but not unwelcome, is that there was no sign of her signature perfect French braid, instead her hair was pulled into a low ponytail at the base of her neck to one side and cascaded in loose waves over her shoulder.
Ivy was painfully aware of the blush rushing up her chest and making its way to her cheeks and the tips of her ears. Ivy also realized that while the woman had let go of her arm... Ivy had yet to let go of hers.Stop staring!Ivy told herself.
“It’s OK, we’re both fine, you can go after her if you want, she won’t have gotten far,” the woman said in the dreamiest, slightly smoky voice Ivy had ever heard in her life. The accompanying smile was even dreamier as she stood aside to let Ivy leave the shop.
Ivy knew she should stay and ensure the woman and the young girl, who stood slightly behind her, were absolutely fine. She knew she also had the woman’s permission to chase after Mollie. Knowing she should do something, anything really, and actually doing it however, seemed like two very different things for her body to handle. Instead, Ivy froze.
“Wait, are you OK? Did you hurt yourself when we bumped into each other?” The concern in the woman’s voice and face, followed by her hand reaching out to touch Ivy’s arm again seemed to be enough to wake Ivy from her dream state.
“No, no, I’m fine. I’ll be fine. You didn’t hurt me, I mean, I didn’t hurt myself. It wasn’t your fault. It wasmyfault. Are you sure you’re, OK?” Ivy struggled to make her way through that entire statement but relieved that the only one there to witness it in the empty coffee shop was Nina... until she ushered the woman and young girl inside the shop and turned to see Toni had returned from her break and was grinning like the cat who got the cream. Dammit.
With her face a shade any beetroot would envy, Ivy sat the scarf on the counter and motioned for Toni to put it in the Lost and Found box under the counter for Mollie’s return, and led the woman and young girl to a clean table and took their order: a decaf cappuccino and a hot chocolate. She made her way over to the far side of the counter, all the while feeling the burning of Toni’s eyes to accompany the huge grin on her face.
"How bad was it?” Ivy whispered so that the woman couldn’t hear.
“Honestly? I expected far worse for your first time to talk to her,” Toni replied with a sparkle in her eye.
“I think I blacked out after I realized it was her. I can’t even remember her order. What do I do?” Ivy panicked.
Toni reached out and placed a hand on Ivy’s shoulder, “don’t worry, you go take a minute through the back, I’ve got this.”
Toni made her way over to the table where the woman sat listening intently as the young girl talked animatedly. Ivy slipped through to the back staff room and leaned against the door as it closed behind her.
