Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
I t is Tuesday and I’m on my way to the café. Jake is coming in later. As I leave the promenade to cross the beach I am greeted by a shimmering blue sea. I watch a couple of men wrestle with a sail on their boat and then make my way towards the little pink café. On the steps, a young man with jet black hair is sat looking forlorn. He lifts his head as I approach.
‘Are you okay?’ I ask, rummaging in my handbag for The Little Love Café door keys.
Wiping his eyes, he lets out a sigh. ‘She had something to tell me.’
‘Sorry – who?’ My café keys have disappeared to the bottom of my bag.
The man sniffs. ‘My girlfriend… well, my now ex-girlfriend. She brought me here to confess to having an affair with a guy from work. This place is being renamed Heartbreak Café – right?’ The young man’s pale and tear-stained face triggers an ache inside my chest.
I stifle a groan as all my optimism from the weekend oozes out of me. The café has reached a new low if customers are not even waiting for me to open to announce a break-up. They’re doing the dumping on the steps. This is not great timing in view of my submission for the award. Finding my keys, I take a deep breath and ignore the cloud of doom and gloom. I must believe in the café. With a kind smile I shake my head. ‘No, this is The Little Love Café. Do you want a free coffee?’
The young man climbs onto a pink stool. ‘Latte, please.’
I get to work on waking up our coffee machine.
‘My name is Richard,’ he announces. ‘My ex is called Belinda. We’d been seeing each other for a few months. I met her at music college.’
Passing him a pink bowl of sugar, I can see so much sadness in his face. ‘Sorry, Richard. I recently had my heart badly broken, so I know what it feels like.’
He sweeps a strand of greasy black hair away from his face. ‘I don’t know why she had to dump me on the steps of your café. I thought we were going for a romantic beach walk.’ He sighs. ‘I knew it wasn’t going to work. Belinda hated my harp music.’
My ears prick up. ‘Harp music did you say?’
He nods. ‘I’m a professional harpist although at the moment I’m unemployed.’
‘Do you own a harp?’
Richard is now giving me an odd stare. ‘Yes, I do. Several in fact.’
Fidgeting with a tea cloth I wonder whether this is a good time to ask him whether he wants to help me. Having a harp playing in the background would be a great touch for this café and soothing harp music might go some way to soothing our troubled customers. Belinda, whoever she is, might have done me the biggest favour ever.
‘Look, Richard, I can’t pay you much, but how about you fetch your harp and become The Little Love Café’s harpist?’
Richard scratches his head. ‘What?’
‘I want to give my customers a unique romantic experience. Harp music to me screams romance.’
‘It’s not a small instrument and Belinda was the one who had the car. Mine broke down a few months ago. It is still not fixed as I got carried away with Belinda and forgot to take the car to the garage.’
‘I can sort out getting the harp here.’ I’m wondering whether Jake still has his van.
‘If you need me, I can start next week,’ announces Richard with a heavy sigh. ‘Right now, I feel terrible. I think I need to go home and lie on my sofa.’
Shaking my head, I place my hand on Richard’s arm. ‘Trust me, Richard, rest is not what you need. Lying on my dad’s sofa led me to basically stew in my own negative thoughts when I was sad. It’s better to be up and about keeping yourself busy.’
‘But I’ve just had my heart broken…’
Taking his hand, I give it a reassuring rub. ‘Start that new project today, Richard. Don’t go home and stew in negative thoughts.’
He rolls his amber coloured eyes. ‘I get the feeling I don’t have much choice.’
A smile takes over my face. Jumping off my stool, I pull him into a giant hug. ‘Richard, Belinda did you a favour by hooking up–’ I stop myself. ‘In time you will look back and thank her.’
He breaks free. ‘Do you think so?’
To my relief Jake still has his van and assists Richard with bringing his golden harp into The Little Love Café. We move some chairs and tables and slot his harp into the corner of the café. Richard is now playing and is filling The Little Love Café with beautiful harp music. Judging by the dreamy smiles from our customers his music is creating a romantic atmosphere.
We are half an hour away from closing. Jake is pointing to someone behind me. I spin around to see Pete. ‘Alice, can we talk?’
Every part of me tenses.
‘We need to talk,’ he says.
I can hear Frankie’s voice in my head: Control your emotions. If Pete and I stay in the café and talk, it will end in a screaming match and that won’t be good for business. I need to go outside and talk to Pete.
Jake gives me the nod to say he will cover for me. Pete and I step out of the café. A silvery mist has crept in from the horizon. It looks like someone has laid a giant blanket over the inky blue sea.
We stand by the railings at the edge of the promenade. Hot, bubbling anger is shooting up inside me by the time we get there. ‘Do you know how much pain and embarrassment you caused me?’
He flinches and raise his hands. ‘Okay, I’m sorry. I get it. I’m not proud of what I did.’ He looks out towards the misty horizon.
‘A YouTuber filmed us arguing. They put the link on social media and Frankie saw it. I am trying my hardest to make a success of Frankie’s business. I didn’t need that.’
Pete closes his eyes and pinches the skin above his nose. ‘Everything got to me the other day. I couldn’t breathe and I exploded, said some things which were not very nice.’ He chuckles. ‘Communication between us was never great – was it?’
‘You can say that again,’ I snap. ‘Why did you throw away my letters and send that email to Noah pretending to be me?’
Pete leans on his elbows and folds his hands together. ‘I loved you, Alice. Noah had gone and everyone kept telling me it was unlikely he’d be back. I took my chances. Do you know how hard it is to keep on loving someone when you know they don’t love you back? I slipped up. It was a terrible mistake.’
‘You have been lying to me for years.’
‘All right, I do know all this, Alice.’
‘What about all that you said about Mum too? I had to call Frankie’s mum. I wanted her version of what happened with Mum and Dave Coombes.’
Pete hangs his head. ‘I wanted to hurt you and Noah. It’s been on my mind ever since. If you must know I’ve not slept properly.’ He looks back at the café over his shoulder. ‘Where is Noah?’
‘He’s gone back to Ireland.’
Pete stares at me. ‘What?’
‘Noah came back for answers about us. If Noah and I are going to have a future together we need to address this issue between our fathers.’
Pete scratches his hair. ‘Look, your dad knew about your letters and how I was throwing them away. In fact, he encouraged me.’
Blood is rushing past my ears and my heart is pounding against my chest. ‘What?’
‘Your dad wanted Noah out of your life. After I’d thrown away the first few, I got guilty. I finished school early and went to talk to your dad.’
‘Why did you talk to him ?’ I exclaim, running my hands through my hair. ‘For goodness’ sake, Pete. Why didn’t you talk to me?’
He shakes his head. ‘I wanted you all to myself and to do that I needed your dad on side. Yes, before you say anything – I was a manipulating little so-and-so.’
‘What did Dad say?’
Pete blows the hair out of his cheeks. ‘He congratulated me. Your dad hated the Coombes family.’
‘Bloody hell, you and my father were thick as thieves. Why didn’t you tell me about those rumours to do with Mum? I mean we’ve had some screaming matches over the years, and you’ve never said anything.’
‘Yes, Brian and I were close,’ explains Pete. ‘He made me promise to not talk about the rumours to you. The other day was the first time I’d seen you both together. All my anger and frustration came up and I found myself thinking of something to say which would really hurt you.’
Pete shoves his hands in the pockets of his jacket. ‘If I could change the past, I would. It hasn’t got me anywhere – has it? I was kidding myself back then. I thought in time you’d love me. In the back of my mind, I knew you still loved Noah.’
Lucas’s face appears in my mind. ‘If you were able to go back in time we wouldn’t have Lucas, would we?’
Pete’s face softens. ‘You’re right. You and I did do something right.’
We smile at each other. I haven’t fully forgiven him, and he knows this, but it’s a start.