Chapter 37
37
MINNIE
Three Months Ago – March
‘Listen, babe. I’d like to say it’s not you it’s me, but you’ve definitely changed.’
Minnie’s shoulders slumped and she looked into her lap, trying to banish the prickle in her eyes. She played with her fingers while she waited for this awful crushing moment to end. ‘You know it.’ He tried to say it as kindly as he could, but JP was a businessman, and sometimes in business you just had to be honest. No point beating around the bush. If something wasn’t working, change it.
‘These last few weeks, the fun, the spark, the joy… it’s sort of…’
Minnie looked up and JP pushed his fat fingers together and then opened them out like a funeral lily in full bloom.
Gone.
A barista with green hair placed a coffee and an iced coffee on the little round table in the middle of the cafe. Minnie’s cafe.
Her brow creased. She’d had a sick feeling all day. She had been waiting for an update from Devon. On why Summer of Siena had been placed on hold after all the money that had been spent on it; she was waiting for feedback on an audition for an ITV drama she hadn’t heard anything for, which was never a good sign. And she still hadn’t heard back about the Marvel film, but had long assumed it was a no. Devon hadn’t returned her call for three days, adding to her feeling of desperation. And the waitressing gigs had dried up: Christmas and summer season were busiest; Minnie had turned down the few spring gigs she was offered, so she could be available to JP. Being a waitress didn’t really fit with being his arm candy.
Minnie half expected the fuselage of an Airbus A380 to fall onto Bondiga’s right there and then, crushing her and JP. The March storm raging against the large glass windows, rain and rush hour, certainly added to the possibility of a plane being struck by lightning over London.
Minnie took a deep breath. She knew what was coming; she wanted to vomit. She tried to fight it.
‘But it’s just a blip. I’ve been a bit worried about my career lately, that’s all. If Summer of Siena isn’t broadcast, I’ve pretty much wasted a year and am back to square one.’
‘Oh, babe…’ JP said, as if he were comforting a child.
‘I’ll sort it out, I’ll get my mojo back. I’ll get back in the game.’
‘Yeah well there’s nuffing I can do about the game, babe, we roll with the punches and we keep our sparkle, otherwise we’re gonna bring down the people around us, ain’t we?’
‘I’m sorry.’
Minnie looked like a remorseful child, trying not to burst into tears. She bit her lip and briefly looked around, embarrassed that Kip might have worked out what was going on before she had. This was Minnie’s cafe, her spot, her place to read books she didn’t have much intention of paying for. She didn’t want to have to flee and find a new local, but as she sat there, rejection and remorse searing through her, she just wanted to disappear into a puddle, and into the drain outside.
‘It’s all right, don’t be sorry,’ JP said, trying to ease her guilt. ‘When something ain’t working, we switch things up.’
Minnie looked at JP playing with a sachet of sweetener as he looked intensely at her, studying her, just to check she was still not worth it. She kept her gaze firmly on the pink sachet and then looked him in the eye.
‘But I love you, what will I do without you?’
JP gently tapped the end of Minnie’s nose.
‘You’ll be fine. Look at you! You’ll dust yourself off and pick yourself up. You’ve got time on your side, babe, more than I have!’ He gave a chuckle to himself, laughing at his little joke. He put a hand on Minnie’s knee and squeezed it. Proud of himself for his kindness. For stepping up at fifty. He used to get his PA to do this for him.
Minnie started to cry, as quietly as she could repress it. JP shuffled in his chair. He didn’t really want the coffee she’d bounced up and got him as soon as he walked in. He was tired and spent and wanted to go back to his apartment, call some mates, maybe play a bit of poker.
‘Babe, come on, you know my style. I was never a forever guy, was I?’
Kip walked past proprietorially, pretending to look for empties, outraged by what was playing out.
Minnie’s cries got more unabashed, her face withered. This was so public and so humiliating. Between breaths she managed to muster together the words that hung at the back of her throat.
‘Are you seeing someone else?’
JP looked at her as if to say are you serious? As kindly as he could.
‘Of course I am, babe!’
‘What?’
‘Behind every good man is a few good women.’
Minnie shook her head, her mouth wriggling; a tear fell into it.
‘How many women?’
‘Oh come on, babe. You wasn’t born yesterday.’
‘How many?’ she snapped now. Kip looked over. Other customers looked up.
JP did some mental maths.
‘Four, five maybe.’
Minnie gasped.
‘Including me?’
‘ Not including you.’
You have to be cruel to be kind , JP thought.
He squeezed her knee one last time and handed her a napkin someone had left on the table. It looked unused.
‘Look after yourself, kiddo.’
And with that JP got up, leaving his coffee untouched. Minnie’s body shook and her face completely crumpled, with grief and rejection.
Outside Bondiga’s Books, in the pouring rain, Jesse put his palm to the window as he watched his wife’s lover – his thick neck and pink hands that had been touching Hannah’s naked body only an hour earlier – break someone else’s heart. The beautiful woman with black hair and green eyes, sitting in the chair opposite him, broke down and sobbed.