Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Immy stood nervously outside her shop, Monday morning.
Belinda Skye had phoned at quarter past nine that morning to say she had spoken to Coral, the structural engineer, as a matter of urgency and she’d agreed to come and survey the shop and the rest of the building at ten that morning.
Immy wasn’t sure what Belinda had done to get her there so quickly, or whether it was just Belinda’s intimidating authority, but Immy was very grateful for it.
Everything hinged on this report being positive.
Yes, she wanted to be able to go back home but if the building was deemed unsafe it would take months to get it right and a whole lot of money too.
Then she would have to go through the insurance company and they could easily decide not to pay for some petty reason.
She had bills to pay, a business to run, she couldn’t do any of that without the sweet shop.
And what about the Easter egg hunt? That had to go ahead, not just for bringing tourists to the town or because the children were so excited for it but because the money raised for charity was important to her.
She turned round and though Xander was busily working away in his shop with his little assistant, she could see he kept looking out the window towards her to see if she was OK.
She turned back. Coral, the engineer, had been in there for an hour already. Immy didn’t know if the length of time it was taking her was indicative of something bad or whether Coral was just being really thorough.
Just then Beth from the bath bomb shop next to Xander’s came over.
Immy hadn’t seen her since Lizzie had shown her the photos Beth had taken of Immy and Xander the night of the fire.
She’d always been very friendly with Beth before now so Immy didn’t really want it to be weird between them.
Randomly she was carrying a large glass jar.
‘Hello Immy.’ Beth approached her like you might a wild animal.
‘Hi.’
‘I, umm… I just wanted to apologise about that whole nasty photo business. It absolutely wasn’t my intention to upset you and there was absolutely nothing malicious on my part in sharing those photos.
But I can completely understand how it felt to see photos of you crying being shared round as entertainment.
As soon as Lizzie explained I deleted the photos and, I want you to know, she was the only one I sent it to.
It was only because we had been talking about you and Xander at Knit ’n’ Natter on Friday and how excited we were to see you two talking so cosily in his shop on Friday morning, that when I saw you hugging on Friday night I just got carried away.
It was so tactless and insensitive of me and I’m so very sorry. ’
Immy couldn’t help smiling slightly. ‘Wow, that was a heartfelt apology. And you’re forgiven.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes, I know it wasn’t done out of spite.’
‘And I want you to know I am so sorry about your shop. I know how heartbreaking that must be, especially with all the work you’ve put in for the Easter egg hunt.’
‘Hopefully that will still go ahead in some capacity.’
‘I hope so too. Listen, I wanted to offer you these glass jars. I bought a hundred of them when I started my bath bomb business, they were cheap and I thought I would put my bath bombs in them and display them around the shop. I stupidly hadn’t measured how big my bath bombs were and they don’t fit through the neck of the jar.
Anyway, I wasn’t able to return them and they’ve sat in my basement gathering dust ever since.
I know your plastic pick ’n’ mix sweet dispensers will take a long time to come and then you’d have to install them in your shop so I thought you could use the jars for the sweets in the meantime.
It would mean you measuring out the sweets rather than people helping themselves but I thought it might be useful. ’
Immy thought about it for a moment. ‘That’s a wonderful idea, thank you.
It was something I did consider when I opened my sweet shop, to make it look like an old vintage sweet shop, but I thought people being able to choose their own pick ’n’ mix would work better even if it wasn’t quite as hygienic.
This will be brilliant, at least in the short term, and it will give me an idea of how it would work on a day-to-day basis to see if I want to do it long-term.
And you’re right, it will take a while for the plastic dispensers to be shipped.
At least if we are able to open for the hunt, I can use these to sell sweets from a table out the front. How much do you want for them?’
‘No, no, no, they’re free. I want to help, and not just because I was an ass. I’m not using them so they’re yours. I’ll be glad to see the back of them. I’ve even washed them all out too.’
‘Thank you, that’s really kind.’
‘So… we’re good?’
‘Yes, of course.’
Beth looked over towards the chocolate shop. ‘Xander’s coming over and, to show how mature I am and that I’ve turned over a new leaf, I won’t even give you an exaggerated wink as I walk away, or watch the two of you together and report it back to Lizzie. Your business is your own.’
Immy smiled at that although she wondered how long that would last.
Beth walked off and Xander came over.
He inclined his head in Beth’s direction. ‘Everything OK?’
‘Yes, she apologised.’ Immy had told Xander about the photo and he’d been outraged on her behalf but she’d persuaded him not to do anything as Lizzie and Diya had already apologised and promised to delete the photo.
He’d still wanted to go over and have a stern word with Beth but she’d persuaded him not to.
She needed the community on her side at this time so she didn’t need to start pushing people away.
‘I hope it was suitably grovelling.’
‘It was actually, very genuine. And she’s going to be giving me some sweet jars which will be really useful in the interim.’
‘Well, that’s nice.’ He offered out a mug of one of his famous hot chocolates. This stuff was divine and she could drink gallons of it and still want more.
‘Thank you.’ She took a long drink, closing her eyes at the ecstasy of the taste. She snapped her eyes open. ‘Hang on, there’s something else in there.’
He grinned. ‘Pistachio.’
She smiled that he was taking her pistachio addiction seriously. ‘Thank you, it tastes wonderful.’
‘Does that mean we’ll get married?’
She laughed. ‘Not yet.’
‘I’ll keep trying. Any word?’ Xander gestured to the sweet shop.
‘Not a peep. Coral arrived, introduced herself, went in and she hasn’t come out since. I can see her moving around in there and she’s making loads of notes on her tablet. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.’
‘Well if it’s bad, hopefully she might tell us which areas specifically we need to fix and maybe how to do it so at least we have a targeted plan.
There may only be certain areas that need to be fixed in order for it to be safe.
Like a car and its MOT, sometimes it can be something very simple that needs fixing in order to pass.
So let’s not panic just yet, let’s hear what she has to say. ’
‘I think you’re supposed to tell me everything will be fine.’
He smiled. ‘Everything will be fine. Even if we have some things to fix first before it’s officially fine, we will sort it out somehow.’
Immy nodded but she didn’t feel any better. Her stomach was churning and her heart leapt every time Coral entered something onto her tablet.
‘Do you want me to wait with you?’ Xander asked. ‘Judy is manning the fort right now. And Etta of course.’
‘No, I don’t know how much longer she will be, it could be another hour or more.’
‘Well, why don’t you at least take a seat.’ Xander indicated the bench behind her and she reluctantly sat down.
Xander was just about to walk away when the shop door, or rather what was left of it after the firefighters had broken it down, opened. Immy stood up holding her breath as Coral came out looking very serious. Xander took Immy’s hand.
‘It will be fine,’ Xander whispered but it didn’t help to reassure her. Her mouth was dry and she felt sick.
Coral approached them. ‘I’ve checked everything over very carefully.
I’m afraid to say there is a lot of superficial damage.
All of the furniture and fittings in the shop, the shelves, sweet dispensers, even the flooring and wall hangings are completely beyond repair.
You’ll also need a new till. There’s a lot of cleaning up to do to get rid of the sweet residue, so much of that has melted and it will take a lot of industrial-strength cleaner to get that up.
Honestly, I’ve never seen anything that bad in all my years of doing this job, it looks like melted plastic.
Everything in the stockroom has gone. It seems that the fire started from an electrical fault near the back of the shop, possibly the till, so I highly recommend you get the electrics looked at throughout the whole building before you continue to use any electricity. ’
Immy didn’t want to get her hopes up about the fact that Coral hadn’t mentioned anything serious yet. She might be starting off with the easy stuff and about to lead on to the harder stuff.
‘Apart from that, the building is structurally sound, there has been no damage to anything that could impact the integrity of the building. I imagine a lot of that is to do with the speed that the fire was put out. I’ve seen far far worse than this because the fire was not spotted in time to save it.
The flat above is OK to return to and you can return to the shop at any time to start clearing this up.
I will write a full report which I’ll send to you and copy in the mayor. ’
‘Oh my god, thank you so much. I was so worried about what you would find.’
‘As I said, the clear-up is going to be very extensive, I certainly don’t envy you that,’ Coral said.