Chapter Seven
Alfie
Alfie
Hey, it’s Alfie =D I’m glad you liked the ice cream
Jonathan
It was very good! I keep thinking about it. I know next time I should try something else but I’m not good with change. When I’ve found something I like I tend to stick with it.
Alfie
Same! I think most people do. But I’m happy to let you try as many samples as you want
Jonathan
Thank you.
Jonathan
Theo keeps talking about your ice cream. He talked Fred’s ear off about it this afternoon so I think you have a new loyal customer.
Alfie
Excellent! Maybe I should talk to Darcy about loyalty cards
Jonathan
Not if you still want to have a business by Christmas.
Alfie
Haha noted
Alfie
What are your plans for this evening? Doing anything fun?
Jonathan
[sent a picture] I’m watching Delicious in Dungeon and painting this mini. She’s going to be a challenge but I’m excited.
Alfie
OMG! Is that the Angel Eater? I’ve seen her mini online but never in person. It looks gorgeous!
Jonathan
Thank you. It took me forever to build because it’s so big and fiddly. Luckily it comes with the skulls already inside the mount’s ribcage, otherwise I think I’d have given up by now.
Jonathan
I am glad they gave her a throne-style saddle for the mount though, because it’s got an equine-based anatomy and horses vertebrae have these long, thin bone spines coming out of the top so you couldn’t put a traditional saddle on them or ride them bareback, especially not if you’re also a skeleton.
Jonathan
Not unless you want your pelvis to get wedged onto them!
Jonathan
Sorry, that is my pet peeve with skeletal horses and riders. I want anatomically correct skeleton horses, but I also want the designers to actually think about what’s possible and work around it. And yes, I am aware this is a fantasy game and I’m taking this too seriously.
Alfie
You’re absolutely fine! It’s not something I’d ever really thought about before, especially since my cavalry are fleshy. I feel like I need to Google horse skeletons now
Alfie
Okay yeah, nobody is riding one of those things naked
Jonathan
Exactly! I’m glad you agree.
Jonathan
How was the rest of your day? Was it a good first day?
Alfie
Very good! Sold a lot more than we expected so I need to put an emergency order in for some more ingredients because we’re already back in the kitchen making more
Alfie
Milo wanted to go to the pub to celebrate but the need for more ice cream means we got fish and chips on the front and now we’re working again. Milo still wants a beer though
Jonathan
I hope you’re not there too late. I’m sure if you sell out it won’t be the worst thing.
Alfie
True but that means we need things to sell in the first place hah
Jonathan
Oh, so when you say you sold a lot you mean it.
Jonathan
Sorry, I realise that sounds quite rude.
Alfie
You’re fine. Yeah we sold about half our stock, which is great except it’s only Friday and tomorrow is meant to be even hotter. So…
Jonathan
No early night for you then. I’m sorry.
Alfie
Don’t be! I’d rather this than sitting in a pub and worrying because we’d hardly sold anything
Alfie
Okay, I have to get back to making cones! Have a good evening and please send me all the in-progress photos of your Angel Eater!
Jonathan
Will do. Have a good evening and good luck with work.
The one good thing about it being summer was that getting up at seven didn’t feel quite so horrific because it was already bright and clear outside, allowing me to pretend I’d gotten more than six hours of sleep.
We’d only been open for one day but at this rate, we were going to need more staff or Milo, Darcy, and I were going to start suffering from exhaustion very quickly.
Maybe we shouldn’t have decided to make our own cones, that would have cut down some of the work, but now we’d started I was reluctant to change.
I wasn’t going to complain about being busy though because how many businesses got such a good opening day? And it was a lot better than the alternative, even if my body already ached from being on my feet for so long and my cheeks hurt from smiling.
Hauling myself out of bed, I headed into the bathroom for a quick shower before grabbing another clean, ironed blue shirt from my wardrobe and pulled it on with a pair of cream chinos, checking my reflection in the wardrobe mirror and wondering if I had time to do something with my hair.
I’d washed it and the soft curls were starting to spring back to life, and while they were pretty now, without any styling they’d either end up in my face or make it look like I’d got a bad eighties perm by lunchtime.
Styling it was.
Just in case Jonathan decided to come down to the shop and say hi.
I smiled to myself as I thought back to our messages from the night before.
I’d only ended the conversation because Milo had threatened to put my phone in the waffle press, which I’d thought was a tad extreme but he’d also been tired and grumpy by that point, muttering endlessly about “some prick” from the sweet shop next door who’d taken umbrage with where our tables and chairs were placed outside.
But instead of apologising and promising to make sure they stayed on our side and didn’t interfere with his business, Milo had just decided to antagonise him.
Because of course he had.
If Milo caused us problems because he couldn’t play nicely with the neighbours, Darcy wouldn’t be impressed and the last thing I needed was them bickering.
I shook my head and grabbed my phone off my bedside table before heading into my kitchen to grab a cup of coffee and some toast. My flat was in the basement of an old townhouse and not too far from both the middle of town and Lick It!
Most of the rest of the building seemed to be holiday lets and I’d already had a couple of confused tourists knock on my door looking for the lock box with the keys.
I was going to have to try and get hold of their owner and get them to put better instructions in their welcome email before I spent the whole summer answering the door.
Jonathan hadn’t sent me any more messages, but I hoped that would change.
I sipped my coffee and debated whether I should message him first. I didn’t want to appear pushy, but also, I didn’t want him to think I wasn’t interested in him.
And after spending a whole week wishing I’d remembered to get his number, I wasn’t going to waste this chance.
I waited until I was walking to the shop through the quiet, empty streets of Heather Bay and paused at the top of a sloped street, where the bay was stretched out beyond the town roofs, the deep blue water sparkling in the early morning sun.
Taking my phone out of my pocket, I snapped a quick picture and then pulled up WhatsApp.
Alfie
[sent a picture] Not a bad walk to work. Definitely better than my old commute
I wasn’t expecting him to reply, not at quarter-to-eight on a Saturday morning, so I slipped my phone back into my trouser pocket and continued on my way.
When I got to Lick It!, the last thing I expected was to be greeted by the sight of Milo lying on the cobbles with a tape measure, a spirit level, and a chalk pen.
“Good morning?” I said as walked around him, completely bemused and confused as to what was going on. “Do I want to know what you’re doing?”
“That prick Rupert from next door said we’re encroaching on his space, so I’m making sure we won’t harm his delicate sensibilities.” Milo looked up at me and grinned before drawing a line on the cobbles in front of him. “I’m marking the space as legally defined on our property agreement.”
I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “Really, Milo? Is this necessary? Couldn’t you have just apologised and said we’ll keep a closer eye on the chairs to make sure they don’t block his door?”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
“Don’t bother trying to reason with him, Alfie,” Darcy said from the shop door. He was wearing an apron over another pink shirt and holding a large, steaming mug of coffee. “He won’t listen.”
“Aren’t there better things you should be doing at least?” I asked as Milo drew another line on the cobbles and then wiggled down slightly.
“Nope! This is definitely the best use of my time.”
“I haven’t had enough coffee for this,” I muttered with a shake of my head. “In fact, there isn’t enough caffeine in the world to deal with this.”
“You love me,” Milo called as Darcy stepped aside to let me in. I decided it was in everyone’s best interests not to answer Milo, and instead, I decided to tell Jonathan in the hope he’d understand my pain.
Alfie
It’s not even 8am on day two and Milo has declared war on the sweet shop next door. Apparently some of our chairs nearly blocked their door yesterday but instead of apologising, Milo’s decided to start marking out the boundary with chalk. I do not have the energy to deal with this
Alfie
Also good morning. Happy Saturday!
Jonathan
He’s marking out the boundary?
Alfie
[sent a picture] With chalk. He says this is the best use of his time. I think that is highly debatable
Jonathan
Ah, I see. Well, I suppose that’s one way to settle the dispute. But yes, apologising would probably have been easier.
Jonathan
And good morning, your walk to work is very beautiful. This is my view this morning.
Jonathan
[sent a picture] I live near St. Michael’s. A lot of people say having a churchyard as a view would disturb them but I find it very soothing.
Alfie
It’s beautiful
Jonathan
Thank you, I think so too.
“You wouldn’t happen to be messaging your lovely gothic man, would you?” Darcy asked, half-peering over my shoulder as he walked past me and ducked around the counter, coffee still in hand.
“Yes,” I said. There was no point in really trying to deny it.
They’d seen me with Jonathan yesterday and as soon as we’d had a spare two minutes in the afternoon, they’d both bombarded me with questions about him.
It hadn’t taken them long to figure out who Jonathan was, and Milo had teased me about all my pouting and moping being for nothing.
Still, at least we’d been too busy for them to do a full, intrusive deep dive into our conversation.
“I was sharing the pain of having to work with the next iteration of Basil Brush.”
Darcy chuckled. “You know this is totally on par for him though.”
“I do. And at least it doesn’t involve shaving foam, water balloons, birthday balloons, or condoms full of squirty cream,” I said, listing off some of the things I remembered Milo using at school.
He’d always liked pranks and largely, they’d been the kind that made everyone laugh instead of targeting certain people.
Like the time he’d filled the sports hall with balloons on the last day of term.
I was still never sure how he’d pulled it off, especially because Darcy and I hadn’t been involved.
“True, and I’d stop it before it got anywhere near that,” Darcy said. “We don’t need to become public enemy number one.” He sipped his coffee. “What does Jonathan think?”
“He agreed that apologising would have been easier.”
“Milo’s never liked the easy option though.” Darcy smiled. “When are you going to see him again?”
“I don’t know, maybe one night this week? It’ll depend on how busy we are and how exhausted I am. I’ll admit I didn’t expect yesterday to be like that.”
“Me neither, but I’m trying not to complain because it’s a good sign.
” Darcy paused and I could see him mulling something over.
“If it continues like this, do you think the budget would stretch to some part-time staff sooner rather than later? Because I’m not sure I have it in me to be up making ice cream until midnight every night and then working ten- or twelve-hour days, seven days a week for the next four months.
Not if we still want to like each other by the end of it. ”
“I’ll have a look but I was thinking the same thing this morning.”
“Thank God, now I don’t have to give you the whole speech I prepared in the shower.”
I laughed. “Definitely not, but I wouldn’t say no to a cup of tea. That can be your bribery.”
“Done! One cup of tea, coming right up.”
I grinned and glanced back down at my phone, my chest fluttering as I noticed another new message from Jonathan.
Jonathan
I hope you have a good day and that it’s busy but not chaotic.
Jonathan
I will try and pop down later =)
Jonathan
[sent a picture] Also this is Angus, Fred’s Scottie dog, and he says good morning too.
My smile widened as butterflies swirled inside me.
Today was going to be an excellent day, I just knew it.