Christmas At The Cupcake Cafe (24 page)

Issy fell asleep in the car, then sank into the beautiful bed, which made her feel like she was sleeping on a cloud, and even though she was woken incredibly early by both the jet lag and Darny banging hard on the connecting door, she already felt much better. She had been too tired even to give Austin a proper kiss, but as she turned over in the bed, she saw he was already up and in the shower.

‘Hey,’ she said as he came out with a towel wrapped round him and opened the door for his brother. Darny grunted at them, then headed into his own bathroom.

‘Hey,’ Austin said, without quite looking her in the eye.

Issy immediately panicked and sat up in the big soft bed. Last night was a bit of a blur.

‘Was I …’ Her voice sounded weird, a bit husky. ‘Sorry, was I really bad last night?’

‘No, of course not,’ said Austin, but his tone was a little distant.

‘Well, you put
me on the spot,’ said Issy, looking round for something to drink. She picked up a bottle of Evian, then saw a sign next to it indicating that it was $7.50, which even she with her poor arithmetic skills could tell was outrageous, so she put it down again.

‘Just drink it,’ said Austin crossly, when he realised what she was doing.

‘What’s the matter with you?’ said Issy. ‘What did I do?’

‘You were just … you were just a bit aggressive, that was all.’

‘
I
was aggressive? That Vanya girl wanted to bite me on the leg!’

Austin still looked unhappy.

‘Austin,’ said Issy, imploring him. ‘Look, if you wanted me to behave in a certain way or dress like a tart and keep my mouth shut like that Candy girl … you should have said so.’

‘I didn’t,’ said Austin. ‘I just wanted you to be yourself.’

There was a terrible silence.

‘Maybe that
was
me,’ said Issy quietly.

Austin looked as if he wanted to say something, then bit his tongue and didn’t. Instead he glanced at his watch.

‘Look …’

‘You have to
go. I know. Me and Darny will go out and explore.’

‘Good,’ said Austin, looking relieved to be on safer ground. ‘OK, cool. I’ll text you. I should be able to get away this afternoon after five. I know this cool café we can meet at.’

‘Well, we might need an afternoon nap,’ said Issy. ‘But definitely. OK.’

Austin came over and kissed her. ‘We could do with some time, just the two of us,’ he said. At exactly the same moment, Darny started up singing a loud and extremely tuneless version of a Bruno Mars song, whilst clattering loudly in the rainforest shower. Issy rolled her eyes.

‘Mm,’ she said. Then she smiled. ‘Have a good day.’

Austin smiled back at her, but still, when he left the hotel room she felt a terrible anxiety in the pit of her stomach. Something wasn’t right, and she didn’t know if she could fix it. She didn’t know the recipe for this.

‘Well,
fix it
,’ Pearl was saying, as patiently as she was able. Maya tried yet again, but her shaky hand meant that more of the latte slopped over the top of the glass.

It was Maya’s first day, and Pearl had never had to be someone’s boss before, especially not someone who was pretty, sweet, young, and appeared to have caught the eye of a person Pearl would never admit in a hundred years she had a bit of a soft spot for.

It was proving tricky
for both of them. Maya was trying her best, but Pearl was so quick and efficient, she couldn’t quite follow what she was doing; not only that, but she was nervous. Pearl seemed to have taken against her for some reason, and she couldn’t work out why. And she’d been up since five on her post round and had been too anxious to eat any breakfast.

‘Three lattes, a hot chocolate and four mince pies,’ said Pearl, smiling nicely at the customer. ‘Just ring it up like this.’

Her fingers flew deftly amongst the buttons and the till dinged open. Maya tried to remember what she’d done, but it didn’t seem like it would be possible. She sighed, then went back to the coffee machine. Grind, pressurise – the big orange Rancilio terrified the life out of her. Even Pearl admitted it was temperamental, and likely to give you a steam burn at any moment. Steam the milk but not too much (skin) and not too little (freezing). Then combine, spoon the foam on the top, and powder a little cupcake shape with chocolate and a template Issy had had made up. Repeat a hundred times an hour, serve up with a smile … Maya was getting panicked.

‘Hurry up!’ said Pearl, keeping a fixed grin on her face. Where the hell was Caroline? She’d been late the day before, too. When Pearl had called her on it, she’d shrugged and said, come on, the boss was away, and anyhow it was too cold to leave the house in the morning without her coat. Now she’d done it to her again. Pearl gritted her teeth. Sometimes it drove her beyond endurance to have to work with someone who only turned up as a sop to her ex-husband’s divorce lawyer, and thought she was hard done by at that.

Maya turned round too
fast and knocked the entire metal jug of milk on to the floor. Gasping apologies, she jumped to it, but Pearl was there before her.

‘Please take these mince pies with our compliments,’ she hissed, handing the customer back her money. ‘I’ll bring the coffees over when they’re ready.’

Pearl got out the mop whilst Maya spluttered apologies that Pearl wasn’t really in the mood to accept, particularly when they smelled burning and she realised she’d missed the oven beeper going off because she’d been crouched down cleaning up milk, and they’d lost an entire tray of Christmas cake cupcakes and the beautiful warm-scented ambience of the shop had gone, giving it instead a charred edge that was going to do nothing for business.

‘This place smells awful,’ said Caroline, wafting in twenty minutes late. ‘Good lord, look at that disgusting pile of dirty dishes all over the tables. Yuck, who’d want to eat here?’

‘Can you keep your voice down?’ said Pearl, wiping sweat off her forehead. ‘And get cleaning up.’

‘Can’t the newbie do that?’ sulked Caroline. ‘I just got my nails done.’

‘The newbie is trying
to learn how to make a cup of coffee without exploding anything,’ said Pearl.

‘Oops,’ said Maya.

‘Maybe try again when we’re a bit quieter,’ said Pearl through gritted teeth, getting her to start on the dishwasher, which she figured even Maya couldn’t mess up. Wrongly, she discovered, half an hour later, when Maya tried to refill the soap dish with dishwasher cleaner and managed to somehow scoop the overflowing foam over an entire tray of fresh lemon slices.

‘Oops,’ said Maya, again.

There was a queue out the door, but not a good queue – it was a grumbling bunch of freezing people who’d waited far too long for watery coffee and nothing-like-as-good-as-usual cakes, being served up by three grumpy, stressed-out people instead of being soothed by the normal gentle smile and greeting from Issy. If one more person said ‘Boss on holiday, then?’ to Pearl, she was going to scream.

Just as one of their everyday regulars was looming up to the counter bearing a cake with teethmarks in it and an ominous expression, the phone rang. Pearl ducked down the stairs with the handset, leaving Maya to put on an apologetic look and try to explain why the strawberry tart tasted a bit soapy.

‘Hello.’

‘PEARL!’

‘Oh, well, you
don’t have to shout.’

‘Sorry,’ said Issy. ‘I’m not used to phoning from abroad. Wow, it’s good to hear your voice. How are things?’

Pearl paused. As she did so, she heard the tinkle of falling crockery.

‘Uhm, fine,’ she said quickly.

‘Really? You’re all doing great without me?’

Issy’s voice sounded slightly disappointed. She had rather hoped they would find it difficult to struggle on without her being there. Mind you, Pearl was so capable and had reassured her so many times that she could manage on her own. It was hardly rocket science. She thought back to that snooty woman at dinner last night. Maybe she was right after all.

‘Well,’ said Pearl. ‘It’s certainly not the same.’

‘PEARL!’ came Caroline’s imperious voice. ‘Did you remember to reorder the milk? Only we appear to be running out and it’s only one thirty. And the sandwich boy hasn’t been, so we’ve missed an entire lunchtime.’

‘Bollocks,’ muttered Pearl under her breath.

‘What’s that?’ said Issy. ‘This is a terrible line.’

‘Oh, nothing,’ said Pearl. ‘Just congratulations from cheerful punters.’

‘Well, good,’ said Issy. ‘I’m glad it’s all carrying on fine.’

‘Yup, don’t worry about us,’ said Pearl, catching with her foot an orange that appeared to be bouncing down the stairs. They didn’t even sell oranges. ‘Don’t worry about us at all.’

Issy wrapped Darny
up against his strongest protestations and took out her guidebook. ‘Don’t complain,’ she said.

‘I am complaining,’ said Darny. ‘I’m considering a citizen’s arrest, in fact. I don’t want to go out. I want to stay in and play computer games. They have
Modern Warfare 2
.’

‘Well I’m afraid you can’t,’ said Issy. ‘We’re in the greatest city in the world and I’m not letting you miss it. Any other kid would be desperate to get out there and explore.’

Darny’s brow furrowed. ‘Do you think so?’ he said.

‘Yes!’ said Issy. ‘It’s a huge world out there, full of all sorts of things. Let’s go explore!’

Darny stuck out his bottom lip. ‘I think this is kidnap.’

Issy, hung-over, stressed, tired, worried about the café – she had thought she would be worried if it was wobbling, but no, nobody even seemed to have noticed she was gone, so a fat lot of use she was back there; and here she was nothing but a liability – had finally lost her patience.

‘Oh for CHRIST’S sake, Darny, just do what you’re asked one FRICKING time and stop behaving like a spoilt baby. It’s pathetic. Nobody’s impressed.’

There was a sudden
silence in the room. Issy had never spoken to Darny harshly before. It was the tightest of drawn lines. He was not her boy. He was not her son. She had always promised herself that she wouldn’t cross that line.

And she just had. She had been harsh and hurtful and it was hardly Darny’s fault; he hadn’t asked to come here. And neither had she. Oh, what a mess.

In total silence, Darny stood with her as they waited for the elevator. As they descended into the lovely lobby, the charming receptionist smiled nicely at them and asked if everything was all right, and Issy lied through gritted teeth and said it was, then they both steeled themselves to go out into the freezing New York morning. The sky was a burstingly bright blue and Issy resolved that the first thing they needed was sunglasses; the sun bouncing off the glass panes of the skyscrapers and the snow was almost blinding.