The Happy Hour

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Jess was at the market on her day off. Again.

She hadn’t been prepared for the knock on her door at half past eight, and with Terence at work, she was suddenly faced with the possibility of exchanging small talk with one of his friends. But when she’d opened the door, a bowl of cereal in her free hand, she’d instead found Lola, holding out her phone with an excited look on her face.

‘We’ve gone viral,’ she said. ‘Me and Spade.’

‘What?’ Since that first day of filming, which Jess thought had gone fairly well, even if she did say so herself, Lola had worked on the composition, and Spade had worked his charm on a friend who was a cameraman, and they’d reshot the whole thing without Jess, until their TikTok video was more like something you’d see on an online music channel.

Jess had watched it when it first went up, and Lola had been updating her on view numbers via WhatsApp, but Jess had had other things on her mind. Guilt gripped her, both because she hadn’t been paying attention to her friend, and because she hadn’t got any further with her vague plans to help Enzo.

‘Eighty-nine thousand views so far,’ Lola said. ‘So many comments. People already want our next track.’

‘That’s brilliant, Lols.’

‘We still haven’t come up with a name,’ Lola went on, but she looked pleased with herself. ‘Anyway, Kirsty said you wanted to do something for Enzo, so that’s what’s happening today.’

‘What?’

Lola rolled her eyes. ‘Come on, Jess. You spend your whole time grumbling about the demands of other people, about how we’re all too needy, but everyone knows you’re the helper. Kirsty said you wanted to use our inevitable popularity’ – she spread her arms wide – ‘to help solve Enzo’s predicament, and now we’ve proved we are popular, so we’ve called a meeting, and it can’t happen without you. Finish your cereal, get your shoes and let’s go.’

Her protests had fallen on deaf ears, so now here she was, at one of the high tables next to the food stalls in the market, with Lola and Spade, Enzo, Susie, Roger and Kirsty, who was still manning Moreish Muffins but was within shouting distance. The market was quiet, but Lola didn’t seem to notice, holding court with a voice loud enough to reach the river.

‘The response on TikTok has been amazing,’ she said. ‘And I know I started this to showcase my own music, but it’s clearly become bigger than that.’

‘You’re the star,’ Spade said magnanimously. ‘I’m just happy noodling in the background.’

‘Your noodling is magnificent, though,’ Susie said. ‘Almost a hundred thousand views. And with the market as the backdrop!’

Lola nodded. ‘We’re already thinking about the next one, aren’t we?’

‘That we are, dude,’ Spade said. ‘And we agree with Jess: we can use our platform to do good things for Enzo.’

‘Like a scaled-down version of Live Aid,’ Roger suggested.

‘Exactly like that!’ Spade pointed at him.

‘But how will the music help Enzo?’ Susie asked.

‘I do not know if this is necessary,’ Enzo said, his voice quiet but firm.

‘We can use the popularity of the music to promote you,’ Kirsty called over, making the woman who was waiting for her summer berries muffin jump. ‘We can put a link in the TikTok profile that highlights your stall.’

‘How about a fundraising page?’ Roger said. ‘If we could cover your market rent for a few months, would that take the pressure off?’

Enzo looked down at the table. ‘I do not want charity.’

Jess’s heart squeezed. She understood his desire to hold on to his dignity, his pride, alongside the need to provide for his family. Sometimes, though, people needed a bit of support. She thought of Felicity, how she’d tentatively reached out to her. Jess still hadn’t come up with a plan to help her, either.

‘Totally understand, Enzo, mate.’ Spade slapped him on the back. ‘Everything’s doable though, right?’

‘What if we raise the money?’ Jess said. ‘We do things to earn it, rather than just asking for handouts. Bake sales, baked beans in the bathtub, some kind of run – or dance – in hats!’ God, how often had she thought about Ash’s tour? His silliness, his grey eyes sexily shadowed by his trilby. That kiss. She cleared her throat. ‘We use Lola and Spade’s popularity to get word out, but instead of just asking for donations, we get sponsored for things –or we sell something specific, maybe?’

‘Are you still trying to come up with a name?’ Susie asked. ‘How about the Greenwich Market Musicians? Something that ties it all together.’

Lola chewed a fingernail. ‘Do we have time to organise a sponsored run?’

‘The Market Melody Makers,’ Roger suggested. ‘Alliteration is always good.’

‘I can bake some muffins,’ Kirsty said. ‘Sell them separately for the cause.’

‘Not sure about Melody Makers.’ Spade drummed his hands on the table. ‘We need to be immediate, catch everyone’s attention right from the off.’

Jess watched everyone pitching in, trying to find all the answers, while Enzo sat quietly, looking forlorn. They needed to come up with the right way of raising the money, something that wouldn’t make him feel powerless. ‘We just need to be proactive,’ she said, ‘fix on something that can work quickly. It’s about propping you up, Enzo, not taking over.’

‘That would be... good,’ he said tentatively. ‘Thank you.’

Spade clicked his fingers at Jess. ‘A sponsored kite tournament. What d’you think of that nugget of genius?’

‘What?’ Jess coughed a laugh, her cheeks burning. ‘I don’t think...’

‘How is your boy, anyway?’ he asked. ‘Art, isn’t it?’

‘I think he was called Ash,’ Enzo said helpfully.

Jess resisted the urge to dive under the table as all eyes turned towards her. One pair was more hawklike than the rest, so she studiously avoided meeting Lola’s gaze.

‘We should all go away, have a think and then reconvene,’ she said. ‘When are you planning on posting your second video, Lola?’

‘Spade’s cameraman, Deano, is free on Sunday,’ Lola said, ‘so how about we meet again on Sunday morning? We can plan the fundraising, decide on a name, get some shots under our belt. I have a shift later in the afternoon, but we could meet here at twelve?’

‘Sounds great,’ Spade said.

‘Good for me,’ Roger added.

‘I’m here.’ Kirsty waved.

‘Sunday will be far too busy,’ Jess said. How had Lola managed to fix on the one time of the week that Jess categorically couldn’t do? Had Wendy let it slip? Had Spade or Enzo said something when she hadn’t been paying attention?

‘We need to show the market at its busiest,’ Lola replied. ‘If we get Enzo being mobbed by customers in the background, that’ll help. You could bring your boy, Jess.’ She pinned her with a stare. ‘I could get him to sign a release form, in case he wants to be involved.’

‘I guess,’ Jess said faintly. She knew this wouldn’t be the end of it, that Lola was going to get her back for keeping Ash to herself.

‘In fact,’ her friend went on, ‘how about we use your side project as part of the fundraising? You could create some motivational prints specifically for the market. They’re not that expensive to produce once you’ve got the design finalised, are they? Maybe we could sell some of them on Enzo’s stall?’

‘You can’t change what you sell without consulting the management team,’ Susie pointed out.

Jess was too stunned to speak. Lola had outed her?

‘What are these motivational prints, Jess?’ Roger asked.

‘It’s just something I do in my spare time,’ she scratched out, glaring at her friend. ‘Quotes on an attractive background. Some funny, some inspirational. I could create some more, and... we couldn’t sell them here, like Susie says, but I guess we could promote the link to my Etsy shop?’

‘Are you sure?’ Kirsty asked. ‘You’d be giving up some of your profits.’

Jess shrugged. ‘Lola’s right. They’re not that expensive to make or send, and once I’ve come up with the design, they’re easy to mass produce. I’d be more than happy to do some extra ones.’

‘Surely Wendy would love to have a selection in No Vase Like Home?’ Roger said. ‘Put them in frames, give them some additional heft. Haven’t you spoken to her about it?’

‘Oh no,’ Jess said. ‘I’m not sure—’

‘We’ll add it to the agenda for Sunday,’ Lola said, ‘but this sounds really promising.’

‘Great,’ Jess said quietly, but she felt a bit sick. She’d never told Wendy – or anyone here – about her Etsy shop, because she didn’t see herself on the same level as them. They were all professionals: artists and bakers, true creatives, not just making up whimsical signs in their bedroom. But now, in one fell swoop, Lola had announced it to everyone.

‘Let’s meet outside the pub,’ Spade said. ‘They’ll be open by twelve.’

Everyone agreed, and Jess’s stomach clenched. She could tell them that she wasn’t free, that they’d be fine without her, but now Lola had put her firmly in the centre of their fundraising efforts, and she would be working here anyway, so she couldn’t get out of it. And she wasn’t giving up Ash. They only had an hour as it was, and she wasn’t prepared to relinquish that.

That left only one option: bring Ash along, and introduce him to Lola. Make whatever they had together even more real. It felt like all of the parts of her life, that she had worked so hard to keep separate from each other, were colliding, and it was out of her control.

The group disbanded, everyone drifting back to their stalls to relieve whoever was covering for them. Spade was already talking to Brad who ran the hog roast stall, whatever story he was telling him involving some serious air guitar.

‘Jessica Peacock.’ Lola folded her arms. ‘Who is this boy Enzo and Spade were talking about, and why do I know absolutely nothing about him?’ Jess opened her mouth to reply, but her friend kept going. ‘We need a proper powwow. This evening at your place, with a bottle of wine. Is the lovely Terence going to be in?’

‘I’ve got no idea,’ Jess admitted. ‘But we can go to my room if we have to. Do you think that would also be a good time to talk about how you’ve just told everyone about the secret side project that I have purposely, for over a year now, kept to myself?’

‘You’ve just been waiting for the right moment,’ Lola said smoothly. ‘And now it’s going to help Enzo, this is exactly the right moment to share your talents.’

‘You’re unbelievable.’ Jess shook her head, but she was smiling.

‘It’s one of the reasons you love me. And let’s not forget, you’ve got more explaining to do than I have. I’m not the one who’s been hiding an entire male person from her best friend.’ She pressed her hands against her chest. ‘I need to go and practise with my bandmate before Sunday. We want over a hundred thousand views next time, so we need to get it right.’ Lola kissed Jess on the cheek, then went to interrupt Spade’s air guitar.

Jess slipped quietly out of the market, not even passing No Vase Like Home on her way, and headed for the safe haven of Waterstones, where she could lose herself amongst a thousand different stories that had nothing to do with her. She had less than a day to decide which bits of Ash she wanted to share with her best friend, and which parts she was going to keep to herself.