Chapter 24
Chapter 24
Five days is not a whole lot of time. This is something I’ve learned all too well now.
I’ve taken Darcy’s idea to “go out with a bang” and run with it at full tilt. If High Tea is going to meet its demise, it’s going to do it in style.
I got Paige and Bailey on board easily when I explained how little it would cost to deliver my vision. I suspect a healthy dollop of guilt on their part that I had the Weekend Manager job for such short a time helped push them over the decision-making edge, too.
But hey, whatever works, right?
Although Mondays and Tuesdays are my days off, this week I spent them working in High Tea, and I threw my everything into it . . . with a little help from my fabulous friends. Naturally.
Darcy is getting a bunch of ornate, gilded mirrors from her mum’s interior décor store, which we plan on hanging on the walls to make High Tea feel more spacious and luxurious.
Erin went to work on Monday morning and sent an email out to all the team’s players, strongly suggesting they treat their W.A.G.s—wives and girlfriends, although hopefully the players have either a wife or a girlfriend because that’s a minefield we don’t want to get stuck in—to High Tea. She worked out that Sunday is exactly six months since Valentine’s Day, so she called it the “Be My Demi-Valentine High Tea Celebration.” Genius. So far, we’ve had bookings for seven W.A.G.s and counting.
Did I mention how much I love my friends?
As well as increasing the warmth of the Cozy Cottage Café while making it feel classier, the other part of my master plan is to have live music to make the High Tea experience fun as well as fancy and delicious.
Operation: Fun and Fancy is underway! (And yes, I did just go there.)
So, after having successfully avoided Jason but for a (thankfully fully clothed) “ships in the night” hallway incident early yesterday morning, I feel like I’ve got a bunch of over-exuberant bell ringers clanging around inside my chest when I stroll into the kitchen, feigning breeziness.
“Hey, Jas.” I keep my voice as bright and breezy as I can manage, as though seeing him doesn’t make my heart beat right out of my chest and the butterflies in my belly morph into fully grown eagles.
He’s got his back to me, leaning over his breakfast cereal as he reads his phone. He turns to look at me over his shoulder in that sexy, smoldering Keanu Reeves in Point Break way he does so very well. I’m forced to clench my hands at my sides to stop from hurtling myself at him in a rush of lust and love, a thoroughly potent concoction by anyone’s standards.
Keep your nerve, Sophie, keep your nerve…
He runs his fingers through his thick dark hair and flashes me one of his toe-curling smiles. “Good morning, McCarthy.” He runs his eyes over me. “I see you’re pulling off the girl next door look perfectly today. Very sexy.”
Seriously, no woman should have to deal with this level of temptation over the breakfast table.
I pull nervously at my T-shirt. “Err, thanks.”
“I’ve barely seen you this week. What’s been happening?”
I walk around to the other side of the breakfast bar. Strategically placed furniture is my friend right now, and I need all the support I can get to keep me from blurting out my feelings. “Oh, you know, this and that. I’ve been super busy.”
“Want some coffee to go with your ‘this and that?’ There’s some fresh in the pot.”
“Thanks.” On shaking legs, I turn and fix myself a coffee, then take it back to the breakfast bar.
“Why are you up so early on your day off?” he asks.
“I’m working on a project.”
“Ah, your ‘make High Tea more profitable’ project. Nice. How’s that going, anyway?”
“I guess you could say I’ve got one final shot at that this week.”
“Oh?”
I tell him about how Bailey and Paige are closing High Tea down, how they’ve agreed to let me deliver my vision for its final two days this weekend, and how Darcy and Erin have been helping me out with their contacts and ideas.
Once I’ve finished, he looks at me for a while before he says, “You’re the bravest person I know, McCarthy. Do you know that?”
Embarrassed, I shake my head. “I’m just a girl about to lose a job she loves and trying to feel better about it. I’m not especially brave.”
“Ah, yeah, you are. Let’s look at the facts.” He begins to count points off on his fingers. “You told your meddling siblings to go stick it when they were putting all this pressure on you to fall into line. I know Sean and your sisters, so I know how brave that is. Number two, you’re going on all these dates to find a good guy, which is harder than you thought, right?”
“Much harder.”
“But still you put yourself out there, and now you’ve found one.”
I snap my eyes to his as my heart hammers in my chest. Does he know how I feel about him? Is this the big reveal where we tell each other we love one another and then fall into one another’s arms?
Or am I just deluding myself? Yup, probably.
“I, ah—” I mutter and then clear my throat as my cheeks flame red hot. “What do you mean?”
Jason narrows his eyes at me. “Cameron Lewis.”
Cameron. Of course. As my heart sinks, I paste on a smile. “No one. No one at all.”
“There’s no way a guy like Cameron Lewis would fail the Pact Vetting Phase.”
“No, no, you’re right. He totally passed. The girls loved him. The thing is, I—”
He puts his hand in the air in the “stop” sign. “No details required.” He folds one of his fingers and his thumb down so he has three fingers left in the air. “Three, you chased your dream of running High Tea when Sean and your sisters told you it wasn’t the right move. Sure, it doesn’t look like it’s going to work out, but that doesn’t even matter.”
The sudden change in subject back to my alleged bravery almost gives me whiplash.
“Actually, it kinda does matter.”
He shakes his head. “No, it doesn’t. What matters is you wanted it and you went after it. If that’s not brave, McCarthy, I don’t know what is.” He leans back in his seat as he studies my face and says, “Accept it: you’re brave. And I think you’re amazing.”
Seriously ? Why does he have to go saying things like that? Doesn’t he know it makes me love him even more?
My heart is pounding like a drum in my throat. If only he knew the truth. When it comes to Jason Christie, I’m not in the least bit brave. In fact, I’m a complete and utter coward.
Instead, I simply smile at him then lower my eyes and take a sip of my coffee. “Um, thanks.” I take a breath and then look back up at him. For a moment, as I look into his beautiful brown eyes, I feel as though I can tell him. I can tell him how much he means to me, how much I want to be with him, how much I love him.
How much I want him to love me, too.
But this is Jason. He’s my roommate, he’s one of my besties. He’s never been serious about a girl in his life. What would make me any different?
He narrows his eyes. “What’s going on with you? You seem all pensive or something. Is everything okay?”
I’ve got to keep these feelings inside. I’d rather have him in my life as a friend, than not at all.
“I’m fine, but I do have a weird favor to ask,” I say.
He shoots me his cheekiest grin, and my heart expands. “Weird favors are the best kind. What is it?”
I clear my throat. “I need some musicians to play at High Tea over the weekend, and I remember at karaoke Megan mentioned she and her brothers were in a seventies cover band.”
“The Mersons. They’re like the von Trapps, without the Nazis.” His eyes are bright.
“That’s right.”
“You want me to ask her if she could perform?”
“Would that be okay? She’s such an amazing singer, and I really think her band’s style of music would totally work there. They could perform acoustically so people could still talk without having to shout.”
He shrugs. “No problem. Leave it with me.”
I release a rush of air. “Really? Thank you so much, Jas. You don’t know how much this means to me.”
He smiles and holds my gaze for a fraction too long for comfort. My comfort. “I think I do.”
I avert my eyes. “Great. Well, I’ve got to go,” I reply briskly. “Darcy’s turning up with a bunch of mirrors this morning, and I’ve got so many things to get done.”
As I collect my things and leave our apartment, I allow myself one final glance in Jason’s direction. He’s in the same spot at the kitchen counter, reading something on his phone. As I’m about to tear my eyes away, he looks up at me, and my heart skips a beat.
I want to say it. Oh, so much.
Instead, I smile and say, “Thanks again,” and close the front door behind me.
Finally, after working harder all week than I’ve ever worked in my entire life, the second to last day of High Tea’s life arrives. I look around the room at what we’ve achieved in such a short amount of time. The mirrors—which took me, Darcy, Bailey, and Alex a major effort and quite a few colorful words to hang—lend an air of luxury and sophistication to the space that was missing before. With her designer’s eye, Darcy’s mum helped us work out where to put them, and she even lent us some music-themed scatter cushions, covered with treble clefs and quavers and illustrations of musicians.
While we were working, Bailey remembered she had a couple of boxes of fairy lights from when Cassie and Will got married at High Tea, before this building was even called High Tea. They are now adorning the walls and hanging from the ceiling, making the place positively glow and sparkle. Quite literally.
Looking around me, I feel both a strong sense of achievement and one of impending loss. These two days are the last for Cozy Cottage High Tea. Even though the place looks better than it ever has before, I know the dream will be over soon, and I’ll have to face my new reality.
“You’ve done such an amazing job, Sophie.”
I turn to see Bailey, her eyes soft, her smile warm. “We all did.”
“It was you. This is your vision. The mirrors remind me of a gorgeous bistro in Paris I went to years ago with my fiancé.”
Thor in Paris, huh? Talk about heightening the romance quota of the world’s most romantic city. “I didn’t know you and Ryan had gone to France together.”
She presses her lips together as she shakes her head. “This was before Ryan, when I was engaged to Josh’s brother, Dan. He died before we got married.”
“Oh, Bailey. I had no idea. I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you. You know, when I first met Jason, he reminded me of Dan. I admit, it kind of freaked me out.”
Realization dawns on me. “He mentioned you acted weird around him. I told him it was all in his head. He’s used to women fawning over him, you see, not running the other direction.”
She lets out a soft laugh. “I think a girl could do a lot worse than him.”
I flash my eyes to hers. “I guess, although he’s too much of a player for any sane woman to get serious about.”
She shrugs. “Maybe.”
Maybe? What does that mean? Of course he’s too much of a player. Everyone knows that.
I open my mouth to question her, but Bailey’s attention has been diverted to the door. “Look, the band’s arrived. They sounded so good at the Friday Night Jam. The audience loved them.”
As part of the deal to lure Megan and her band to play at High Tea, we gave them the chance to play to a packed audience at the Cozy Cottage last night. They brought the house down with their covers of Blondie, Elton John, and ABBA, although Darcy and Erin were not so secretly annoyed they did such an amazing job of their favorite ‘The Winner Takes It All.’
I pull the double doors open wide and greet Megan and her really rather good-looking brothers. The Mersons were blessed with a good gene pool, that’s for sure. If I wasn’t so hung up on Jason . . . I let out a heavy sigh. What’s the point? There’s no use even looking at another guy until I’ve managed to extricate Jason from my heart.
And doing just that is the reason why I’ve decided I need to move out of my apartment. Seeing Jason every day, knowing he will never be mine, no matter how great a friend he is, seeing him bring Megan or the next girl home? I know it’ll tear my heart in two.
I’m no masochist. I can’t be around that.
What I need is a fresh slate, a new beginning, to turn over a new leaf. Yup, I need every cliché in the book, and I need them to happen now. Then I can press on with the utterly gut-wrenching business of getting over him.
Because I know getting over Jason Christie will be the hardest thing I’ll ever have to do.
“Oh, Sophie,” Megan says as she gives me a quick hug. “Thank you so much for this, and for last night. We had so much fun.”
“Thank you for playing for us on such short notice. You guys are awesome.”
She gives a flick of her wrist. “I just had to juggle some shifts at the hospital. No big deal. Now, we’re going fully acoustic except for the microphone, right?”
“Right. Fun and lively, but we still want people to be able to talk.”
The band sets about getting themselves organized, and I spend the next hour before we open to customers giving instructions to staff and making sure every last detail is in place. Alex is here to serve, his cheeky grin firmly in place, ready to charm the customers.
When Erin and Darcy arrive, a large bunch of gorgeous flowers for me in hand, I know it’s only a few minutes to opening.
I stand at the podium, ready to welcome our first group of customers as the band begins to play. The music is perfect, their acoustic rendition of David Bowie’s “Changes” hitting absolutely the right note. Pun intended.
The place hums with customers, and before long it’s halfway through High Tea’s penultimate day. I’ve just finished seating a group of Erin’s W.A.G.s, with their perfect grooming, cow-length eyelashes, and suspiciously full and pouty lips, when I spot Jason at the podium. My heart almost leaps out of my chest at the unexpected sight of him in his black V-neck T-shirt and perfectly fitted jeans. His dark stubble-lined face lights up when his eyes land on me, and I do my best not to read anything into it.
“You’ve outdone yourself, McCarthy. This place is outstanding.” He leans in and brushes his lips against my cheek.
My skin tingles where he touched me. “I had help,” I protest, but inside, I’m beaming. “Megan’s band is great. Thank you so much for setting it up for me.”
He glances over in her direction and gives her a little wave. “No problem. Now, I brought some people.”
I look at the group waiting behind him, chatting to one another, and I twist my mouth. “I’m so sorry, Jas, but we’re actually fully booked all day. First time since I started in here, actually.” I allow myself a small but triumphant smile.
“In that case, you’ll be happy to know I’ve got a booking. Actually, I’ve got two.”
My eyebrows ping up. “Two?”
He lifts his shoulders as his face quirks into a fresh smile. “What can I say? I’m a high tea junkie.”
I scrunch up my nose. “I don’t think that’s a thing.”
“Oh, it’s a thing.” His lips twitch. “I’ve got a booking today, and one for tomorrow. Two sets of people, two high teas. Today’s booking is under the name ‘Doug Ross.’”
I shake my head. “Why Doug Ross? Do you have a secret identity I don’t know about?”
“Sophie McCarthy, I refuse to believe you don’t know who Doug Ross is.”
I shrug. “I don’t, but I have the feeling I’m about to be enlightened.”
“George Clooney played Doug Ross in E.R. I credit my career choice to him, actually.”
“And you fancy yourself as George Clooney, too, right?”
He waggles his eyebrows at me. “I guess you’ll have to ask the ladies about that. Now, some of us have just come off a long shift saving lives and we’re all super hungry, so could you please find our booking so we can get on with eating ridiculously small but delicious things?”
A bubble of laughter builds up inside me. “You do realize there is a lot of food in these high teas, right? Coming today and tomorrow you’re not going to go hungry, that’s for sure.”
He taps his taut belly. “I need some fattening up.”
Yeah, because no one wants to see a hot guy’s perfect six-pack.
I will myself not to think of him in just his towel and instead concentrate as I run my finger over the list until I spot Jason’s—Doug Ross’s—booking.
“You’ve got a booking for ten people, Mr. Ross.” I collect the menus and lead Jason and his friends to one of the tables. As I hand Jason his menu, I quietly say, “Thanks for this.”
Our gazes lock, his eyes intense. “Anything for you, McCarthy.”
I swallow. Anything?
Someone at the table says something to him and he tears his attention away. Me? I’m torn between feeling so light and happy I could float on air and wanting to curl up in a ball and eat chocolate and chips for the rest of my life. “Conflicted” doesn’t even begin to describe the churn of emotions running through me right now.
I spend the next hour working my butt off, trying to make the day extra special for every person who walks through the door. No matter how hard I work, I still manage occasional furtive glances at Jason. Sometimes he’s talking, sometimes he’s laughing, sometimes he looks over at me and smiles. And even though I try with all my might, I can’t stop my heart from swelling each and every time.