Chapter 2
My appointment at Withernsea Dating wasn’t for another fifty-seven minutes. As was usual for me, I was ready early. I’d been born that way. My mother still berated me for my six weeks ahead of due date entrance into the world, when she’d not yet packed a hospital bag.
I decided I’d call into Jax’s coffee shop, and though I debated whether coffee was a good idea given my already jagged nerves, the smell every time someone opened the door was too enticing to ignore.
As I pushed open the door, I jumped a foot as an elegantly dressed woman with the most gorgeous sharp-edged bob grabbed my hand and pulled me towards a seat. “Darling, sit here. I need to speak with you. Latte with one sugar, right?”
“H-how do you know that?” I asked her, looking around for anything else weird, like a camera crew.
“I’m a seer. I saw you in a vision,” the woman said in a cut-glass accent as sharp as her bob.
“I-I think I’ll just… I remembered somewhere I need to be.” I began to edge back towards the door.
A small woman with a dark brown pixie cut walked past me carrying a tray of drinks and doughnuts. “Please excuse Ebony. I’m sure she doesn’t mean to scare off all my customers.” She glared at the woman. “But she really is a seer, so if she has a message for you from Fate, you should sit and hear it. Give me a minute and I’ll get you that coffee… and a doughnut. On the house for the psychological stress caused by my friend.”
The woman walked away, and I just stood there for a moment debating my next move. Then my stomach rumbled, and I thought of the doughnut. It was chocolate. Taking a seat at the table with the weird woman, I realised that my craving for coffee and chocolate meant I’d risk sitting with a creepy stranger. There was no wonder I had a sketchy dating history.
“I appreciate it’s a tad unnerving to be ambushed in a coffee shop, but I have genuinely seen your future and I need to talk to you about it,” the woman said.
My eyes widened as I suddenly realised she might be about to warn me of impending doom. Maybe she’d had a vision of me being strangled by a date? I knew I should have stuck to the idea of being single forever and just adopted some cats.
Slowly, I lowered myself into the opposite seat at the table from where Ebony sat. It was also the side nearest the door. Now was it my imagination or did a slight smirk curl her upper lip as I did so? My latte and a doughnut were placed in front of me, and the other woman also took a seat.
She held out a hand. “I’m Jax, the owner of the coffee shop.”
I held out my own. “Oh, hi. I’m Zara. I work at Red’s Steakhouse.”
“I thought you looked familiar,” Jax cooed. “Have you worked there long?”
“Since November last year,” I answered. “I’ve heard good things about your coffee shop and so thought I’d call in before I go to the,” I lowered my voice, “dating agency.”
“Oh, how wonderful. Shelley and Kim are amazing. You’ll be in good hands,” Jax said, clapping her own together.
I began to relax a little at Jax’s friendly tone.
“I hope so. I need all the help I can get,” I mused.
“Your one is coming,” Ebony said, her eyes rolling so I could only see the whites. My chair scraped across the floor as I shot as far backwards as I could. Jax jumped up and squeezed my hand.
“I know it’s weird, but Ebony’s one of my best friends and she saw my boyfriend coming. I would never in a million years have thought I’d end up with Tristan. He was an arsehole. But in love we are.” Her expression went dreamy. “Anyway, scoot back closer, let’s listen to what she has to say. I promise nothing creepy is going to happen to you.”
I would have liked to argue that it already was happening, but despite being small, Jax had quite a grip and so I moved back towards Ebony.
“Strange things will keep happening. Make sure not to offend the one, or you could lose him forever. Embrace the different. I see… milk.”
Ebony’s eyes returned to normal, and her pale face gained a little flush to her cheeks. I looked at the table where she had tea, a small jug of milk, and a slice of what looked like carrot cake.
“You see milk. Yes, I do too.”
Ebony shook her head vehemently. “No. Not this. Milk is part of your future. That is all the message I have for you. The rest you must figure out for yourself. But the love of your life is out there and if you do not offend him greatly, he will be the love of your eternal life.”
“Oooh, how very exciting.” Jax squealed. “You’ll have to pop back in and let us know how you’re getting along. There’s a great group of us women who hang around my coffee shop. All of us are used to Ebony’s weird ways, and well, the weirdness of Withernsea itself. There’s so much more to the place than people realise.”
“Jax.” Ebony shook her head at her. “No more. She must learn for herself as we all do.”
That was it. No matter how lovely the coffee was, I had fully taken in my limit of ‘weird as fuck’ for the day, and so with my doughnut eaten, I got up as slowly as I could, so it didn’t look like I was running away from the peculiar twosome even though I was.
“Thank you so very much for the coffee and doughnut. They were delicious. It was lovely to meet you both. I’d better make a move now as there’s only twenty minutes until my appointment and I’d like to be there in plenty of time.”
“He likes to be naked. That just came to me,” Ebony added. “Gosh, if I wasn’t happily married myself, I’d be jealous. He has such a body. Makes Chris Hemsworth look like a twig. I’d definitely climb this one like a tree.”
“Well, bye,” I said overenthusiastically, and I edged slowly out of the door. I couldn’t wait to put plenty of space between me and the coffee shop. I’d thought meeting strangers would be daunting, but it had been future dates I’d been wary about, not strange women in coffee shops.
As the fresh air of the day greeted me again, I took in a large exhale, and then breathed out a sigh of relief, before walking in the direction of the dating agency.
* * *
As I walked into the Withernsea Dating premises, the receptionist greeted me with a huge smile. “Good morning, how can I be of assistance?”
“I’m Zara Bell. Here to see Shelley Landry.”
“Just bear with me a moment while I let her know.” She picked up a phone. “Zara’s here to see you.” There was a pause. “Okay, I’ll bring her through.” She put the phone down and smiled at me. “I’m Sita. If you’d like to follow me, I’ll take you through to Shelley’s office.”
As I began to follow her, I noticed two sets of eyes watching me closely. One male, and one belonging to a heavily pregnant female.
“Ignore Max and Samara,” Sita said loud enough for them to hear. “They’re ridiculously nosy when they should be focusing on their own workloads.”
“I was just having a moment, you know, with me being so pregnant,” the female said. “My eyes just happened to look upon my surroundings.”
“And I’m a nosy bitch as you well know,” the guy said. “Good luck, Zara. If you don’t find anyone, I head up the undateables department.”
“He means the Heart to Heart section, don’t you, Max?” Samara said, having elbowed him in the side causing Max to go, “Ooof.”
Their squabbling faded into the distance as we walked through the double doors and approached an office.
“I’ll leave you here,” Sita said. “Good luck, Zara. Shelley’s lovely. You’ll be fine.”
Taking a deep breath, I knocked on Shelley’s office door. A moment later, another heavily pregnant woman, this one a redhead, pulled the door wide open, a large welcoming smile on her face. Was there something in the water in this building?
“Hi, Zara. Come on in through to my office. I’m Shelley, the owner.”
Before I walked in, we heard a female voice say loudly, “Yes, I agree, Brownies are an acquired taste.” I met Shelley’s gaze as she raised a brow.
“Personally, I love ‘em.” I shrugged. “Especially warm with whipped cream.”
Following her through the doorway to her office, Shelley beckoned for me to take the seat opposite her. I gazed around. The office was bright, its side window looking out over the edge of an industrial estate. Looking at her desk, I saw a photo of Shelley with a tall, pale man, and a younger woman with the same dark hair.
Shelley looked fondly at the photo. “My husband Theo, and daughter Charlie.”
“You don’t look old enough to have a grown-up daughter,” I remarked.
She smiled enigmatically. “Thank you.” Shelley began typing on the keyboard until my application appeared on her screen.
“As I explained on the phone, what I do today, is just go through your written application form in more detail so that I can be sure there is the right information submitted. Then the computer algorithm can find your best matches, and hopefully your perfect match.”
“Gosh, I hope so,” I said honestly. I was thirty, and fed up of being alone.
“Would you like a drink at all before we start? Talking can make your mouth dry. Coffee?”
“Could I have a water, please? I had a coffee at Jax’s before I came here.”
“Oh, Jax’s. Best coffee around. We’re addicts here, Kim and I.” Shelley walked over to a little trolley and lifted up a jug of lemon-infused water.
“The coffee was lovely, but the company was bizarre. A woman tried to tell me my future.”
“Oh?” Shelley tilted her head toward me with interest.
“Yeah, she said my one was coming, so that’s encouraging right? At least she didn’t predict my death.”
“No, that’s probably next week, knowing her.”
“Pardon?”
“Oh, nothing. Right.” She handed me a glass of water and sat back down. “Let’s get you sorted.” She read some of the screen and then directed her gaze at me. “On your application, you mention that you were recently thirty. You note how your dating life hasn’t been successful in terms of a permanent match. Could you tell me a little more about that?”
I nodded. “I dated a boy I met at school from being fifteen to eighteen. He was super sweet, but we outgrew each other and he went to college and left the area. After that, I met a guy who was in the Army. We dated for six years but only actually had ten dates during that whole time.”
“Ten dates in six years? Wow.”
I nodded. “He dumped me by letter when I was twenty-five as he’d met and married someone else, the cheating scumbag. Since then, I’ve found it hard to trust anyone.”
“Do you think maybe he was married all along?”
“I don’t know, and I’d rather not know. Thinking of him just makes me so angry.”
“I get that. Either way, he’s a cheating scumbag.” Shelley smiled at me, and I smiled in return.
“Since then I’ve met people in pubs and clubs, but only gone on the odd few dates. Trouble is, and I don’t know why, but if I bring people back to my place, they make excuses and leave. I’m not sure where I’m going wrong.”
Shelley steepled her fingers. “Interesting. Getting a date hasn’t been a problem as such, but something happens at the point you bring them back to your house? Are you maybe closing yourself off in some way, do you think? Bearing in mind your feelings about the guy you dated for six years.”
“I really don’t know. I offer them a coffee. They say yes. I get out a mug and they look at me, make excuses and leave.”
“Do you think that might be due to the connotations attached to ‘coming back to mine for coffee’? Maybe they’re expecting sex rather than a hot drink,” Shelley suggested.
“I get that, but I do actually want to have a drink first. Sex is thirsty work if you’re doing it right.” I blushed. What on earth, Zara? She’s going to think you’re a nympho.
“I agree, it is,” Shelley replied with a wink, putting me at ease.
After asking me a further series of questions, Shelley inputted details into the system and then set it up to run a programme. While it was doing its thing, she chatted with me some more.
“I’m sure we can find you your perfect person, and if not, you’ll have fun along the way. I’m happy to take you onto our books if you’d like to join.”
“Really?” I breathed out a huge sigh of relief.
“Yes. When would you like your first date? The sooner we get you out there, the sooner we can help you find true love.”
“Any chance of tonight?” I asked. “I’m not working this evening.”
“Absolutely! Let’s see if tonight’s the night,” Shelley replied, and she tapped into her keyboard.
Excitement fizzed in my belly. I’d been accepted and might, finally, meet the one.