Chapter 11 #2
‘Fortunately, she has a lot of people that are willing to help,’ Xander said.
Coral smiled. ‘That’s good.’
They said their goodbyes and Coral left.
Immy let out a huge breath of relief. ‘I can’t believe it.
This news couldn’t be any better. I mean, I know there’s a lot of clearing up to do and I might not have any electrics for a while until I can get an electrician out to look at it, but at least we can start cleaning it up.
If we can at least empty it before the weekend and get rid of all the burned sweets and other rubbish, we can still run the Easter egg hunt from the empty shop. ’
‘Yes, exactly. I’m so relieved for you.’
‘Shall we go and have a look?’
Xander nodded and they walked over to the shop and stepped through the door.
Coral certainly wasn’t underestimating the amount of clearing up that needed doing.
It was a mess. Most of the sweet dispensers were plastic containers and they all had melted in the heat too as well as the sweets inside them.
This was going to take a lot of work just to get the shop back to the bare bones.
‘I feel like we could display these as some kind of contemporary art piece and charge people to come and see it,’ Xander said.
‘I know, it does have a slight Salvador Dalí style with everything melted and dripping down onto the floor.’ Immy sighed as she looked around. ‘It’s just so sad. So much work had gone into this place.’
‘We’ll get it looking as good as it was before, you’ll see. It just needs a bit of a clean and a lick of paint.’
She liked his optimism. She needed that now more than ever. There wasn’t a single part of the shop that hadn’t been affected by the fire.
‘And look at it this way, now’s the time to try something different with the layout or how the shop looks. If something wasn’t quite working before, now’s the time to change it.’
‘That’s true.’
She carefully moved through the shop. The damage was even worse at the back, everything was black.
As Coral said, it looked like the starting point of the fire had been the till.
She’d bought a bright pink retro-looking till online a few weeks ago because she thought it looked cool and matched the vibe of the shop.
But it clearly had some electrical problems. She cursed herself for leaving it plugged in overnight, or even buying the stupid thing in the first place.
All the boxes of stock had gone up in flames, even her beloved rainbow rug hadn’t made it.
All of her little knick-knacks she’d gathered over the years had gone – the dog-shaped cookie jar was smashed, the oversized plastic bars of chocolate on the walls were now particularly Dalí-esque, a candle the shape of a large fizzy cola bottle was now just a puddle of brown wax, the vase that looked like stacked liquorice allsorts had cracked significantly so it certainly wouldn’t be holding any flowers and water ever again.
Xander came up behind her, stroking her back.
‘They’re just things. I know it’s awful to see it like this after all the work you put into the shop, but the important thing is you’re alive, Jacob is alive, the baby is OK.
No one got hurt and the damage, while it looks horrific, is purely superficial. ’
‘You’re right.’ She leaned her head on his shoulder. She needed to keep reminding herself of that.
She walked to the back of the shop, picking her way carefully through the debris, and opened the door to the community room where the Knit ’n’ Natter group and the others met every week.
She was pleasantly surprised that it was largely unaffected, there was a lot of dust and the place stank of smoke as did the rest of the shop, but everything else was exactly how she’d left it on Friday night.
‘Oh, look,’ Immy said, softly.
Xander came to join her. ‘Now that is a bonus.’
‘The closed door must have protected it.’ She wondered briefly about running the Easter egg hunt from in here if the main shop wasn’t ready, but then children would have to walk through some kind of building site to get in here.
Plus if they didn’t have electricity the main shop was very dark without lights.
She walked back out the shop and looked up at the shop sign; even that had black fire marks on it.
‘At least you can go back to your flat,’ Xander said, joining her outside.
She looked at him, disappointment crashing through her. She had loved staying with him over the last few days and even with Etta there, she had felt so at home. But he was right, she didn’t actually live there.
‘Yeah, I guess me and Jacob can move back home.’
His face fell. ‘Why?’
She frowned in confusion. ‘You just said you wanted me to go back home.’
‘No, I meant you can collect some of your things: your clothes, phone, laptop, anything else you need.’
‘Oh.’ She let out a little sigh of relief although it was short-lived. ‘But it’s not like I can stay with you indefinitely.’
‘Why not? Things are going well, aren’t they? I thought things were good between us.’
‘They are but it’s a big change for Etta, to go from not having me there to having me there all day and all night. It might be a bit much. It might be better to break her in gently with me staying over a few nights a week.’
‘I don’t agree. I think she’ll get more used to the idea if it’s a consistent thing, not coming and going, staying some nights and not others.’
‘Are you… are you asking me to move in with you?’
‘Yes… no…’ He pushed his hand through his hair.
‘This is all new territory for me. I’m not sure how to navigate it.
Of course I want her to be comfortable about this, and you’re right, easing her in slowly might be better for her.
But we’ve kind of skipped past the initial stages of our relationship.
We have a baby on the way and if we’re going to make this work, I feel like we have to go all in. Give it our best shot.’
Immy looked back at his shop where Etta was helping Judy to top up the different chocolates on sale.
She wanted to tread so carefully with her.
But what Xander said kind of made sense.
She didn’t want to still be trying this on for size in six months’ time when the baby came.
If their relationship didn’t work out then they needed a plan for how they were going to co-parent when the baby came.
And the only way to find out if they could make it in a serious relationship was to be in a serious relationship.
But everything was happening so fast, not just for the two of them but for Etta too.
Xander could clearly see her indecision. ‘I get it, it’s a big change.’
‘I want this to work, I really do. I just don’t want the speed of our relationship to end up being our downfall.’
‘I don’t want that either. But you can’t even use your electricity now, no cups of tea, no hot showers, no light at night time. And let’s face it, candles are probably not the best idea after you survived one fire. Why don’t you stay with me at least until that’s sorted?’
She smiled, liking that he clearly didn’t want her to leave either. ‘I can do that.’
‘Why don’t you go and pack up a bag of clothes and gather together anything else you need and I’ll be over shortly to help you carry it.’
‘OK. I need to get some food for Jacob too. I’m sure he’s hating all the cooked chicken we’ve been feeding him.’
Xander laughed. ‘I’m sure he is. I’m going to message my brothers and I’ll contact Belinda to let her know we can start work on the place. Hopefully she’ll rally the troops.’
‘Good idea.’ She leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. ‘Thank you.’
‘My pleasure.’
She watched him go back across the street. It was funny that inside the shop her life had fallen apart but out here, and mainly over the road, it was just beginning – in the best possible way.
By noon, a lorry had delivered a skip right outside the sweet shop. By half twelve Belinda arrived with a troop of people ready to help. Some of them Immy had never even met before. When Belinda put her mind to something she clearly meant to make it happen.
‘I better go and join them,’ Immy said, as she stood outside the chocolate shop watching Belinda taking charge.
‘I’ll close the shop and come over too,’ Xander said.
‘No, don’t do that. Easter is one of your busiest and most profitable times of the year, I don’t want you to lose out on that. And you can’t exactly leave Judy to do it on her own, she’ll be rushed off her feet.’
‘Some things are more important than money.’
‘Honestly, I’ll be fine. I have so much help over there already that there probably won’t be room in the shop for all of us.’
Xander didn’t look happy. ‘Then you stay here and man the shop and I’ll go in your place.’
‘I really should be there to see if anything can be saved or advise on what I want doing.’
‘OK, but don’t overdo it and don’t lift anything heavy. I’ll be over in my break to help out for an hour or so.’
Immy nodded. ‘I’ll be careful.’
She went over to join the fray but Belinda seemed to have it all in hand as she directed people to start grabbing as much waste as they could and dump it in the skip. She watched for a moment as all of her hard work, dedication and love started getting stripped out of the shop.
She took a deep breath and went in to help.
Xander was just about to leave his flat to go over and help Immy with the sweet shop.
Max had come over and was going to watch Etta for an hour or so.
They were downstairs finishing up in the shop with Judy before they closed for a few hours.
The doorbell rang, making him curse. Who was this now?
He walked over to the intercom and answered it.
‘Hello?’
‘It’s Logan.’
Xander pressed the buzzer to let him up. He and Archer had been over at the sweet shop helping for a few hours so Xander presumed Logan wanted to talk about that. Xander heard his brother come up the stairs and a few seconds later he arrived in the hall.