The Floating Copenhagen Café (The Floating Shop #3)

Chapter 1

Milly lifted her eyes to just above her monitor and checked everyone else had their head down, working. After another quick look, she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and went back to her phone, reading the message with a huge smile on her face.

While most people’s private messages on social media were less than savoury or contained pictures no one wanted to see and were better off ignored, hers were full of hope, happiness and success.

While her work at the financial consulting firm she’d been at since leaving university was boring to say the least, her secret sideline on social media sharing financial (and sometimes life) hacks always made her day, and today she had a message from someone who’d saved over five hundred pounds by following a simple tip she’d learned and shared the week before.

That five hundred pounds was going to pay two bills and cover some fun activities for this single parent to do with her children.

For her, it meant getting through the summer holidays intact and easing some of the social pressure her kids were facing, given all their friends were off on expensive getaways.

It might not sound like much to some people, especially some of the well-off folk she worked with, but the heartfelt thank you filled Milly with joy, and the sense of satisfaction it gave was almost overwhelming.

She was making an actual difference to actual people’s lives. It was amazing.

A throat cleared next to her, and she dropped her phone, quickly hiding it under her notepad.

‘You’ll get into trouble if you’re caught again,’ a deep voice said.

‘Jeez, Robert, you scared the life out of me!’ Her best friend at work smiled mischievously. ‘I didn’t even see you come back to your seat.’

‘I’m like a whippet. Or a ninja. Or a whippetty-ninja.’

‘I don’t think those exist and if they did, you wouldn’t find them in an office in Milton Keynes.’

Robert was pushing sixty, had a tall, bulky frame and quite a sweet little paunch. She loved working with him. He was one of the only things that made life at the firm bearable.

His face was a picture of indignation. ‘I could be ninjery if I wanted to be. Anyway, it’s your turn to get coffee, you know.’

‘Yeah, I will. Just give me two seconds.’ After another quick look around she went back to her phone, quickly typing a response.

The summer sun did its best to shine in through the office window.

The Milton Keynes skyline wasn’t quite as impressive as London’s, but it wasn’t that shabby either, as long as you didn’t look too closely.

Though it was still early in the season, the British summer was attempting to get started, the weather growing slightly warmer, but it still hadn’t made it quite yet.

‘Another happy customer?’ He raised an eyebrow.

Milly turned her phone to Robert and showed him the screen.

‘Yep. She’s saved a ton of money, and it’s made a real difference to her summer.

Isn’t that sweet? I much prefer a happy customer here and not here.

’ She motioned first to her phone, and then around her at the large, open-plan but still excessively grey-toned office.

‘Here it never makes a difference to people, just companies.’

‘Good for you. I don’t know how you do it, making all those videos. I’d hate to see my face staring back at me.’

‘Why, you’ve got a lovely face? Your husband thinks so.’

‘He does. But stop trying to sweet-talk me and go and make the coffee. It’s your turn.’

She’d just put her phone down when an email popped up on her screen, instantly grabbing her attention.

Given that she worked in financial consulting where boring was part of the job description, it wasn’t often that that happened, but this one had a title that actually excited her.

In big, capital letters, she read the word: SABBATICAL.

Robert cleared his throat again. ‘Umm … I’m literally dying of thirst here.’

‘I will do it, I promise. Just give me a second.’

She clicked it and quickly read the contents.

As she’d been there for forever she was one of the few people who actually qualified for a sabbatical – paid time off!

The idea of being allowed any leave, paid or unpaid, was more than a little exciting.

Milly leaned in a little closer, scrolling down and absorbing every last detail.

She pushed her glasses up her nose, out of habit more than because they needed adjusting again.

What would she even do on a sabbatical? She could work on her content creation but given that was a secret from her mum, it would take a little bit of explaining as to why she wasn’t going to work for one, three or six months, and she wasn’t sure she was quite ready for that yet.

Next to her, Robert began making a weird choking noise. ‘Parched. So, so parched.’ He gripped his throat, sticking his tongue out.

With a roll of her eyes and a pretend huff that quickly turned into a giggle, Milly stood and grabbed their cups. ‘Fine! I’ll make coffee now and read it again when I get back.’

‘Thank you!’ he sang happily, his throat magically cured.

‘Do you know where Tom is?’

‘He wasn’t in his office when I walked by a minute ago, maybe he’s in a meeting.’

Tom was her long-term, cute and wonderfully reliable boyfriend.

They’d met at the firm, hitting it off straight away, and because they worked in different teams (him in the exciting world of Tax and Trust and her in the equally gripping area of Investments), their relationship wasn’t a problem.

She couldn’t quite believe they’d only been together for around four years.

It seemed longer somehow, though they still lived apart.

Milly went to the staff kitchen and made coffee, the email floating in her brain, causing all sorts of mischief.

She really quite liked the idea of getting away from her job for a while.

If she were honest, when she was a child, financial consulting wasn’t what she thought she’d be doing for a career.

Okay, her choices had first included unicorn farmer and llama groomer, but even as she’d grown, she hadn’t seen herself doing this for forever.

The girl who’d gone travelling straight after university had thought she’d do something more meaningful.

Her thoughts ran, as they always did when she thought of that time, to the accident and she quickly poured milk into the cups and moved her mind on, not wanting to settle in those dark places.

At least her job paid well and there was security, two things that couldn’t be underestimated in this day and age.

She knew that from the messages she received daily as @MillyTheMoneySavingQueen.

As she walked back through the corridors, she spied Tom’s office was still empty and scowled.

She was sure he didn’t have a meeting. He’d said this morning he was free till lunchtime.

So where was he? She’d try the stationery and printer room.

He always seemed to be needing something or other from there, she’d noticed, and she’d quite like to see what he thought of the sabbatical email.

He’d qualify for one too. Maybe they could take one together and go travelling or something?

After her first experience didn’t quite work out how she’d hoped, maybe it’d be good to replace those memories with something happier.

Balancing the cups, she made her way to the stationery room.

It was a windowless room slightly bigger than a cupboard, with solid grey walls that housed the printer and all the office supplies controlled by their militant office manager.

People generally didn’t go near it unless they had to or they were Tom looking for a specific type of Post-it Note.

He was fastidious like that. It also had a weird smell that no one could quite identify or locate, kind of damp mixed with printer toner and old socks.

As the door was closed and her hands full, Milly bent and wiggled until she could push down the handle with her elbow, spilling a tiny bit of Robert’s black coffee onto the carpet and quickly brushing it away with her foot.

She nudged the door open with her hip, and a whole load more liquid crashed over the side as the cups tilted, her eyes trying and failing to take in the image in front of her.

Tom – her Tom – was … was …

There was no way of saying it except to say he had his tongue down the throat of another woman. A woman who he seemed to be helping measure the cup size of with his hands.

Every nerve in her body froze, the cups falling to the floor with a clatter as her grip loosened.

That seemed to grab Tom’s attention, forcing his lips to unstick themselves from whoever the woman was.

Milly’s legs wobbled and she fell to the side, dislodging a stapler from a higher shelf, which promptly fell and landed on her head.

‘Milly,’ Tom shouted, jumping up and away from … from …

Oh my God it was Claire from Accounts!

Claire who he always said was the most boring woman he’d ever met.

Claire who he joked was intimidating and unfriendly and spoke down to him whenever she got the chance.

Milly had always got on with her okay and thought he was being a bit mean because she was a focused, career-driven woman.

She hadn’t realised it was a case of ‘the lady doth protest too much’.

‘Milly,’ he said again, straightening his clothes. Claire was doing the same, re-buttoning her shirt. ‘Milly, it’s not what it looks like.’

‘No?’ The frozen panic was starting to wear off, and a burning sensation rose up from her feet to the top of her head.

It centred in her cheeks, and she could feel them growing hotter and redder.

‘You were snogging her face off! You literally looked like a Dementor sucking out her soul! How can you possibly claim it isn’t what I think it is? ’

She pushed her glasses up her nose again, as if that would magically bring everything into focus and change what was in front of her.

‘Milly, I – I …’ He added nothing while Claire eyed the doorway, clearly thinking of escaping, but with Milly’s form filling the gap there was no way past. Instead, and very weirdly, she began collecting papers from the printer, turning her back to Milly as she tapped them to line them up.

Pain suddenly cut through the shock and anger stabbing at her heart, making Milly’s legs wobble and her stomach churn.

Tears sprung to her eyes as she realised this changed everything.

This ruined their whole relationship. They were over.

Done. Finished. And she’d had no say in the matter.

He’d cheated on her and she couldn’t get over that.

It just wasn’t something she could forgive.

She brushed a tear away, a sob emerging from her mouth without her permission.

‘How could you?’ she mumbled, pushing the words through the lump in her throat. ‘How could you do this?’

‘I’m sorry.’ He drew his grey eyes up and finally met her gaze. ‘I’m so—’

Unable to bear any more, she turned and fled back to her seat, falling into it and staring at the screen.

Her brain was a mess, frozen and racing at the same time.

She angrily wiped a tear from her eye, the image of her boyfriend kissing someone else seared into the undersides of her eyelids so whenever she closed them, there he was. There she was.

‘Where’s the coffee?’ Robert asked, typing away. ‘I’m so dehydrated I’m turning into a husk.’ His expression changed as soon as he saw the mess she was in. ‘What’s happened? Are you okay? You look awful.’

‘Tom.’ It came out as more of a hiccup. ‘Tom was …’

‘Was what?’

‘Kissing someone else. In the stationery room.’ She fell forwards, covering her face with her hands, trying her best not to break down at work. Her blonde hair, left loose today, flew forwards, shielding her from everyone’s gaze.

‘He what?’

She lifted her head to speak and as she opened her mouth another sob burst out, making Robert jump and a few people look over.

She’d sounded more like a goose honking.

She’d never been a very good crier. She buried her head again, crushing her glasses against her face, and heard Robert say: ‘Hay fever. Just hay fever. She’s snotty.

Itchy eyes. Nothing to see here.’ She felt his breath move her hair as he leaned in and whispered, ‘You need to go home, Milly. Just tell them you’re sick. I’ll tell them for you, shall I?’

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tom return to this office, casting a concerned look in her direction.

Was he worried about her, or that she was going to kick off in front of everyone?

Tell the entire office what she’d seen so they were this week’s gossip?

She refused to meet his gaze. Let him worry.

It was the least he deserved for breaking her heart into several tiny, million pieces, smashing them to the ground and then setting fire to them.

‘Really, Milly,’ Robert said. ‘I really think you should just go home sick. You can’t stay like this. I’ll tell them you’re ill. No one need know. Not yet anyway.’

‘Would you?’ she asked as reality stabbed a hole in her heart once more.

The not yet sent a shiver of worry down her spine.

Soon everyone would know, and they’d be talking about her, judging her.

She glanced at Tom’s office. She couldn’t bear to be near him.

He’d ripped her heart out and thrown it in the trash.

She couldn’t be with him anymore. Not after this.

How long had it been going on? When did it start?

Questions flew around her head making her dizzy.

Robert was right, she needed to go home.

She needed to go home right now.