Chapter Five - Summer
CHAPTER FIVE
Summer
“I know, Gran. I know. You don’t need to worry about me.” I try and placate my Gran. She’s called almost every day for a week since I moved in. I can’t blame her for worrying, not with what happened before, but that was an entirely different situation. I don’t even think I’ve been here long enough to get myself into that kind of situation.
“I think I do, Summer Grace.” She pauses with a resigned sigh, “But if you say you’re safe, I believe you.”
“Thank you. I promise you’ll be the first to know if I’m not. I have to go, I’m meeting a friend, she’s helping my find a job.”
“Oh, how lovely! Although, I don’t want you to put pressure on yourself, you have the money—”
“Which I don’t want to use, you know that,” I argue.
“I just want you to take it slow, sweetheart. After what you’ve been through, you deserve that.”
A deep sigh leaves me. I do know that.
“I’ll think about it. I really do have to go though, I love you.”
“Love you too, sweetheart, don’t be a stranger. I expect a call more than just once a week, you know,” She says.
Hanging up I throw my phone in my purse and push my way through the door to the bookstore, almost hitting a girl on the other side as I do.
“I’m so sorry, are you okay?” I ask, dropping to help her pick up the books and papers that she must’ve dropped in the commotion.
“Yeah I’m all good.” She stands and blows the long blonde hair out of her face. “I was rushing.”
“No it’s my fault, I was distracted, I’m sorry.”
“No problem,” she says with a beaming smile. She moves to walk past me out the door, but stops just before she does and turns to me, “I’m Lennon, by the way.” Holding out her hand.
I shake it, “Summer.”
“I know,” She smirks before walking out the door.
Slightly confused and with a furrowed brow, I make my way further into the bookstore.
Alex bought me here the day we met. She took me around town, even took me grocery shopping, what a godsend, and then we ended up here. I found it charming with its dark wood walls and shelving, and plush couches, worn down from years of use, dotted around the different rooms. I even purchased a second hand book that was reminiscent of a Danielle Steel novel except by an author I’d never heard of before, but none the less, I live for the hour before bed I get to dive into it; it has me hooked.
With the rise of ebooks, the owners of the store found that it was just way too big for the amount of customers they were getting, so they took one of the rooms upstairs and added some old dark wood tables and a makeshift counter that just has an old fashioned till and a hot water urn. Apparently, since the old cafe closed down years ago, people have been using this place to meet and catch up as it’s the only other place, other than the pub on Main Street, that sells coffee. Albeit, it’s only drip coffee, and there’s only one type of creamer and no sugar, but at least its coffee.
Alex is sitting at one of the tables, her latest read and a coffee in front of her. In one hand she’s rolling an amethyst crystal between her fingers like she has been for the last week since the fire, and her other hand is gently stroking Gaia’s head where it rests on her upper thigh, Gaia’s eyes closed in content. She offered to meet up with me to help me figure out what I should do with my life, job wise after I called her when I was partially having an existential crisis.
She knows whats around here in terms of business and she knows who’s around here, which is most important.
I grab a coffee from the counter and take a seat on the opposite side of the table. “Hey, sorry I’m late,” I apologise. “Hey, do you know Lennon?” The ominous I-know-who-you-are lingering in my mind.
Alex looks up from her page and folds the book closed, “Everyone knows Lennon, she also works here, why?”
“I just ran into her, literally, and when I introduced myself she said she already knew who I was,” I say.
Alex nods. “She would. Lennon lives with her best friend, whose parents happen to be John and Stevie. The girls like to gossip, but hey, what 19 year old doesn’t?” She folds her arms over on the table. “So when the Taylors ultimately told the girls about you, they probably just had to know everything. Especially because Brooks drove you into town.” She shrugs.
That makes sense I guess and come to think of it, John and Stevie did mention Lennon to Brooks that first day .
“Does everyone else find my arrival to be hot gossip?” I ask.
I want to make friends and I want to get to know people, but I think I’d prefer to do that personally and not through the rumor mill.
Alex thinks about it for a couple seconds, “I think the presence of someone moving into town will always have people talking. People don’t usually come or go from here, but I wouldn’t worry, once you’ve been here a couple weeks I’m something else will catch everyones attention.”
Deep down, I assumed this would happen; you can’t really expect much more from a small town like this. I just hoped that I would fly under the radar.
I take a sip of my coffee and Alex must have noticed the look on my face at my first sip, “I agree, it sucks.”
“I’m getting used to it.” As someone from England, drip coffee is not something I’m really accustomed to, its not served in most places, I’m much more suited to a latte or cappuccino.
“Wouldn’t it be so cool if you didn’t have to though. Like what if someone opened a real coffee shop with a cute bakery in town? Like the one that used to be under your apartment?” She gets a far off, dreamy look. “Fred’s wife used to own it and she used to make the best croissants.”
At the mention of the food, Gaia’s head tips up and she starts sniffing around, trying to catch the scent of the flaky goodness.
“It would be fantastic, except for the weight I would gain from popping downstairs every morning for a freshly baked pastry,” I joke.
“Hey, its body positivity only here, lady. Although I would say the same thing if one were to open up underneath my apartment,” she laughs, soothing Gaia back down to her resting position on her thigh. Gaia huffs and relents.
I hold my hands up in surrender, “You’ll hear nothing like that from me ever again, I pinky promise.” I say, holding my pinky out.
Alex entwines hers with mine and we shake on it, she then claps her hands together, the noise making me jump. “Okay then, let’s get down to business. What work experience do you have?”
Two mediocre coffees and an in depth conversation about my job prospects later, Alex and I are stumped for ideas. Being 22, I’ve not really had much job experience, just my part time barista job — hence my taste for good coffee — a couple years ago, which I loved, but pair that with being locked in an ivory tower for years… I have nothing going for me.
And unfortunately for me, the bookstore isn’t even hiring a customer assistant, let alone a barista, much to my dismay. And Alex’s. She had a dream of getting free coffee out of me that lasted all of the two minutes we’d entertained the idea.
“Okay, but let’s be real. Do you actually want to be a barista for the rest of your life?” Alex asked after another round of throwing ideas at each other until one stuck. It held no judgment, just genuine curiosity.
“I just want an easy life,” I say, smoothing down the white dress covering my legs and focusing on a loose stitch on the hem. I’m hoping Alex would take that reason at face value and not look too deep into it.
Alex contemplates what I said with her head cocked, searching my face with those deep green eyes of hers. I think she’s figured out that I didn’t move to Canada just to move to Canada, that I came here for a reason. I don’t think she’s worked out why, but I’m almost 100% certain that she knows something happened. It’s crazy to think someone I have just met has figured that out, but friends I’d had for years couldn’t see what was happening right under their noses.
She seems to make a decision just then, siting up straighter, tucking her pink and blue hair behind her ears. “Well, there’s nowhere here for you to do that.”
Ouch.
“Okay, I know that, Alex. That’s part of the problem..?” I respond, a little thrown off.
She leans across the table and takes one of my arms until shes holding my one hand in both of hers. “That’s not what I meant.”
She looks at me meaningfully, as if I’m magically meant to understand what her eyes are communicating.
“You need to make that space for yourself.”
“What are you saying?” I ask.
“If there isn’t space for you, then you need to make that space yourself,” Alex says, as if she’s saying it to herself too. “Also, were we not just discussing that there’s a hole in the market for some good goddamn coffee around here?” she says, just a little too loudly because the elderly lady serving behind the counter looked our way with a scowl on her face.
“I wouldn’t even know where to start,” I whisper, trying to get those piercing eyes to leave our vicinity.
“Well, lucky for you, I know. I didn’t just happen to come across my studio. I built it from the ground up, just like you will,” she says supportively.
“Believe me Alex, I would love to, I just don’t think I could do it. I’m not cut out to own something. I don’t even think I could handle a dog relying on me, let alone a full business that has employees to look after too.”
“You’ll never know unless you try,” she sing songs, giving me puppy dog eyes. I look down at Gaia. She’s giving me puppy dog eyes too.
I shake my head, a smile growing on my face, and hope growing in my heart, “This is just because you want free coffee and pastries,” I tease.
Despite my hopefulness, I’m still hesitant. It would be a massive undertaking, a lot of time, effort, and money.
“Of course it is.” Alex is looking at me with those searching eyes again. “But really, Summer, what’s stopping you other than your lack of knowledge? Because that’s never a reason to not do something, you can always learn.”
“Money,” I say, matter-of-fact.
I came to Alex to have her help me find a job so I can afford to live here, but the thousands sitting in a savings account with my name on it, not touched since the day it got transferred in to there is burning a hole in my pocket right now. I didn’t even touch it to help me move here but I can’t say it wouldn’t be a good ‘fuck you’ to my ex to use it to move on with my life.
“Maybe we can work something out with the Taylors like they did with the apartment,” Alex suggests, shrugging her shoulders. Taking charity from the Taylors is not what I wanted to do, not when I could do this for myself but I’m choosing not to, it’s not up to them to foot the bill and I know that Alex knows me well enough to know I wouldn’t take a hand out.
“I have the money…” I just don’t want to use it.
Opening up about this to someone other than Gran is not something I thought I’d be doing so early on in my time here and luckily I didn’t have to. Alex must’ve sensed the conflict going on in my head.
“Well then, what are we waiting for?” She pulls a notebook out of her purse that was hanging on the back of her chair. “Let’s do some planning.”
And really… that’s all I needed to make my decision.
It’s something I want, something that would give me the freedom and the control over my own life which I had been taken from me for so long.
I just have to make sure I speak to Fred before I do this and I’m surprised he hasn’t told me in the time I’ve known him.