Christmas At The Cupcake Cafe (18 page)

Pearl and Issy shared a smile, but it didn’t help Issy’s problem. The bell tinged as Doti came in, without Maya today.

‘Where’s your glamorous assistant?’ said Pearl, far too quickly, in Issy’s opinion, for someone who was meant to be making a go of it with someone else and wasn’t at all interested in the postman. Even Doti looked surprised.

‘Oh, she’s doing so well I’ve let her take some of the run on her own,’ he said,
unleashing a block of cards wrapped up in a small red elastic band, and a large box.

‘Hurrah,’ said Issy. She had been completely surprised when people had started sending Christmas cards to the shop – it would never have occurred to her to do so. But they’d had one from Tom and Carly; Tobes and Trinida; from the students, Lauren and Joaquim, who had looked longingly at each other across the smallest, cheapest cappuccinos for months on end before finally plucking up the courage to talk to one another and were now madly in love, which was fantastic for them, but a bit of a loss of income; from Mrs Hanowitz, even though she didn’t celebrate Christmas, who thought Louis might like a picture of a polar bear wearing a hat (he did); and even from Des, the estate agent who’d rented them the property in the first place. And as Issy had strung the cards up around the shop (Pearl grumbling about dust), more and more people had joined in, and now they had a lot. So Issy had thought about it and decided as a marketing cost (she said this to placate Pearl and Austin) to get some printed up. She’d enlisted her printer friend Zac, and Louis’ artistic talents, and now they’d come back and they looked lovely.

Caroline had sniffed and said why didn’t they go for minimalist, and Issy had pointed out that when you sold cakes with three inches of pink glitter icing sitting on the top, nobody was going to
mistake you for a Scandinavian furniture shop, and didn’t Caroline think Louis’ drawing was nice, and Caroline had said you had to be careful not to over-praise children – it was bad for them and meant they’d never achieve – and Louis had overheard and asked Issy what ovah-pwaze meant, and Issy had come closer to sacking someone than she’d ever thought possible.

Merry Christmas from all at the Cupcake Café

‘Well, aren’t they lovely?’ said Doti.

Issy nodded, then sighed. ‘Better add getting these out to my to-do list.’

Pearl rolled her eyes. ‘She won’t go
to America to see her boyfriend on a free flight,’ she said. ‘Boo hoo hoo.’

‘Why not?’ said Doti kindly.

‘Because there’s too much to do and I don’t want to leave the shop,’ said Issy, expertly making up three hot chocolates and handing them over to some back-packers while spraying whipped cream on a nut latte for a fourth.

Pearl slipped four cranberry and fig cupcakes decorated with holly on to a plate whilst pouring two orange juices, wiping the surface, taking money, giving change and rearranging the front of the glass cabinet.

‘Why can’t you leave the shop?’ persisted Doti.

‘Because we’re too busy,’ said Issy. ‘Which is nice, but it means I can’t really go.’

Doti looked confused, as Maya clanged open the door behind him.

‘Oh, I love this place,’ she said, beaming her lovely smile.

Pearl gave her a surly look. ‘Hello, Maya,’ she said. ‘I like your outfit.’

Maya looked down at the standard-issue postman anorak she was wearing, which looked at least four sizes too big for her.

‘Really?’ she said, then anxiously, ‘You’re joking, right?’

‘She
is
joking,’ said Doti sternly. ‘Pearl is actually very nice, aren’t you, Pearl?’

‘Do you want coffee?’ said Pearl.

‘I’ve finished
my round!’ said Maya. ‘We’re a good team.’

Doti looked at Issy. ‘What’s that, Maya? You’ve finished for the day? Wouldn’t it be lovely to have an extra job at Christmas time?’

Maya glanced at Doti and then at Issy.

‘You’re not hiring, are you?’ she said, a flare of excitement in her eyes.

Issy shot Doti a cross look.

‘No, no.’

‘It’s quite hard,’ said Pearl. ‘You’d need training.’

‘Ha,’ said Caroline from down in the kitchen.

‘I don’t understand,’ said Doti slowly. ‘If Maya could work for a few days so you could go and see your beloved, wouldn’t that be a good idea?’

‘It’s not that simple,’ said Issy. She was very reluctant to say that she would worry about not being in charge.

‘Can’t Pearl be in charge?’

‘Well …’ said Issy.

‘Don’t you think I could do it?’ said Pearl.

‘Of course you could,’ said Issy. ‘Of course. I mean, yes, we could narrow our menu … I’ll leave my book.’

‘I’d be completely fine,’ said Pearl. ‘And also, when I cash up, mine comes out even.’

‘Don’t rub it in,’ said Issy.

‘I …’ Maya’s face looked excited, then fell a little. She looked extremely young. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘It’s just … I’ve been job-hunting for six months. The idea of getting two … well. It would be amazing.’

‘It would only be for
a few days,’ warned Issy.

‘It would be such a help,’ said Maya.

‘She’s a fast learner,’ said Doti.

‘Issy, did you break the new bowl?’ shouted up Caroline from the cellar.

Issy’s phone buzzed with a text. It was from Austin and said simply, ‘17.35 Heathrow Terminal 5. YES!!!!!’

This should, she knew, fill her with joy and excitement. Instead, irrationally, it made her a bit cross. It seemed presumptuous and bossy, as if she was being railroaded into a decision that wasn’t hers at all.

She noticed on her smartphone (a birthday present from Austin that Darny kept trying to show her how to use and she kept forgetting) that she also had an email. Most of her emails came direct to
[email protected]
,
so this was unusual. Trying to keep her cool as Pearl started firing questions at Maya as to whether she knew how to work a till and do more than one thing at once and Maya revealed that she had grown up working in her local Chinese at weekends which made her pretty undoubtedly qualified if the busy craziness of most Chinese takeaways Issy had ever been in had anything to do with it, she clicked it.

Only two people in her life had ever called her Isabel. Her beloved Grampa Joe, and …

Issy internally rolled her eyes. She did know it was Hanukkah actually: Louis had shown her the menorah he’d made at school, and everyone had finally understood after a week of trying to work out what he meant by ‘men over’ with Caroline talking pointedly about speech therapy to Pearl and Issy having to stand between them at all times.

‘Caroline?’ said Issy in a strangled voice. ‘Where’s Queens?’

‘Oh, no one ever goes to Queens, darling,’ came the voice from downstairs. ‘Does that new girl know how to make royal icing?’

‘Yes,’ said Maya. Pearl shot her a look. ‘I learn fast,’ qualified Maya quickly.

Issy held up her hand to quieten everyone.

‘Caroline,’ she said, more slowly. ‘Is
Queens near New York?’

Caroline climbed up the narrow steps with a supercilious look on her face. She loved being in the know.

‘Actually, it’s part of New York,’ she said. ‘There’s five boroughs … Manhattan, Brooklyn—’

‘Yeah, OK, all right,’ said Issy. ‘So it’s close by?’

‘It’s part of it. You go through Queens on the way to the airport.’

Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at Issy, who threw up her hands.

‘OK!’ she said. ‘OK, I give up. The universe is conspiring against me. Maya, get down there and learn to make royal icing. I’m … I guess I’m going to New York!’

‘Yay!’ cheered some of the customers.

Doti smiled. ‘This is all going to work out great.’

‘Thank you! Thank you!’ said Maya.

Pearl didn’t say anything as she handed over a box of a dozen red velvet and mint icing cakes for an office party.

‘Don’t smoosh them in the photocopier when you’re taking pictures of each other’s bums,’ she warned the giggly girls with reindeer antlers waiting to pick them up.

‘No fear,’ said one. ‘We’re going to hand-feed them to the best-looking men in the office.’

‘Well, there’s no way that can possibly backfire,’ said Pearl as they disappeared, giggling their heads off.

Issy’s mind meanwhile was in a whirl; half-excited, half-terrified, and trying to work
out the practicalities. Pack … tell Darny’s teachers … get organized …

‘I’ll pick up Darny en route, he’s at his friend’s,’ she mused. ‘He’ll be delighted … No,’ she corrected herself. ‘He’ll be the exact opposite to whatever emotion I expect him to have. Pearl, you’re in charge.’

‘It’s a Christmas miracle!’ said Caroline. ‘This is wonderful.’

‘Hmm,’ said Issy, nervous and excited all at once.

‘Hang on!’ said Caroline and disappeared back down the stairs. ‘I have something for you.’

Pearl looked up. Spontaneous acts of generosity weren’t exactly Caroline’s thing. Two seconds later she reappeared.

‘It will be freezing in New York,’ she said. ‘Proper real American freezing, not a bit blowy and damp like it is here.’

She held out, at arm’s length, her white fox-fur coat. It was cut very short, like a biker jacket, with great screeds of fur down the front and metal stud detail at the top, and a leather collar and cuffs, and was, beyond a shadow of doubt, the most hideous coat Issy had ever seen in her entire life.

‘That’s sooo kind of you,’ said Issy in agony. ‘But I couldn’t possibly. How will you get home?’

Caroline shrugged. ‘Can’t I do something nice?’

‘Yes, but you know, I don’t really believe in fur …’

‘It’s fake,’ said Caroline. ‘I know, it doesn’t look it, it looks like the real thing. And
it was practically as expensive as the real thing. But as I said to the Bastard, can’t you share a little kindness in the world? I mean, he can’t, obviously, he’s a total bastard. So that’s me rebalancing our chakras. My therapist says it’s good karma.’

‘Your therapist believes in karma?’ said Pearl wonderingly, but Issy was just standing there, floored by the generous gesture.

‘Send me lots of pictures of you wearing it,’ said Caroline. ‘I love New York so much and never get to go there any more. You can take the coat instead. It’ll be almost as good as going myself.’ Her eyes had gone a little misty.

‘Uhm. Thank you,’ said Issy. ‘Thank you. That’s very kind.’

‘Try it on!’

‘Yes!’ said Pearl. ‘Try it on!’

Caroline’s narrow shoulders and thin frame meant that at least the ludicrous cut of the jacket made it look like it was done on purpose. On Issy’s soft white shoulders and large, gentle bosom, it didn’t have a hope in hell. Her arms stuck out at the sides like Buzz Lightyear’s wings.

‘I don’t think it fits,’ said Issy.

‘Nonsense,’ said Caroline, pulling and fussing with the creaking leather till it came to an approximation round her middle. The fur tickled Issy’s nose and she could feel the studs through the shoulders. ‘It’s perfect.’

Issy risked a look at Pearl. Her face was utterly blank and she couldn’t meet Issy’s eyes, which told Issy all she
needed to know. Even more when two seconds later she turned round to greet Louis coming in early from school.

‘Issy!’ he said, looking concerned. ‘Is your coat sore, Issy?’

‘Thank you, Louis,’ said Issy. She glanced at her watch. ‘Oh Lord, I’m going to have to go.’

She searched for the words that involved taking off the jacket without insulting anyone. They would not come. Pearl, still completely straight-faced, hung her handbag off her outstretched arm. Doti and Maya clapped and waved her a cheery goodbye, and she struggled her way out of the door, heart pounding, arms wide.

Just outside, in the chill of the courtyard, she turned back. Everyone except Caroline was, as she’d suspected, bent double with laughter at her new outfit. But that wasn’t what she was looking at.