Chapter Twenty-Three
Adam waited on the wet cobbles as Erin locked up the café.
When she turned the key in the lock, she heard a familiar mewling sound.
She opened the door again, but Tybalt wasn’t inside.
‘Can you see Tybalt?’ she said to Adam. ‘I could have sworn he left when the others did, but I can still hear him. He doesn’t usually like to be out in this weather. ’
She followed the sound, taking a step towards the empty unit next door.
She peered through the glass door and saw Tybalt, paw raised, his mewling louder as if shouting at her to let him out.
‘How did you get in there, you silly creature?’ she said.
Adam joined her and peered over her shoulder at the cat.
‘I’d better get Victoria to let him out, although I’m not sure she’ll still have a key.
Don’t landlords usually change the locks when a tenant moves out?
’ It occurred to her that soon she wouldn’t be able to open the door of The Bookmark anymore and she wanted to cry.
‘Someone must’ve opened up for him to get inside,’ said Adam, ‘Surely?’
Erin cupped her hands to the side of her face and squinted past the rain splattered glass to the back of the dark shop. A sliver of light was visible at the rear of the building from a crack in the door leading to what used to be Victoria’s stockroom. ‘There’s a light on back there,’ she said.
Adam pushed down the door handle and it creaked open.
Tybalt rushed past their feet, and Erin turned just in time to see him disappear through the cat flap in Victoria’s front door.
‘You’re welcome, pal,’ she said, turning back when the sound of voices came from the lit room at the back.
She paused, skin prickling, wondering whether they might be intruders.
Should she call the police? Last time she did, it was only Jack, and she wasn’t in a hurry to repeat that mistake.
She was glad Adam was by her side. She felt safe with him, and she hadn’t felt that way with anyone for a very long time.
She glanced his way. He was standing still, listening too.
‘I don’t reckon her next door will be able to afford the thirty-two grand rent hike,’ said a deep voice with a London accent. ‘I’m expecting an email telling me she’s packing up by the end of next month.’
Erin froze at the mention of the rent. She strained to hear more clearly.
‘Do you think I can get the builders to do a reckie before that? I want to start knocking through as soon as she’s out. I want the restaurant open before the end of the summer,’ said a higher, younger-sounding male voice.
‘All in good time, son. There’s still some work to do on getting the planning application through.
You know what people round here are like.
They want artisan, local shit. They think they’re too boho for burger franchises, bunch of snobs.
We can’t rush things. We don’t want people getting wind of any preferential treatment. ’
Erin felt Adam’s hand on her arm. He put a finger to his lips, and led her back from the door and into the mouth of Brigade Street. Once they were out of earshot, he said. ‘Do you know what that was about?’
Erin glanced back towards the old gift shop, her brain replaying what they’d overheard. ‘Whoever was in there knows that the landlord is putting my rent up in two months’ time.’
‘By over thirty thousand?’
‘Yep.’
‘Wow,’ said Adam, his voice raising an octave. He frowned. ‘They seemed to think you can’t afford that.’
‘I can’t,’ said Erin, looking down at the shiny cobbles under her feet.
There was no point hiding it any longer.
‘I’ve spent the last month trying to pluck up the courage to tell Riley and everyone that I’ve got no choice but to pull the plug on the business.
I’ve tried, but I can’t make the figures work, not with that kind of increase.
I’ve got four weeks until I have to give notice under the terms of the lease.
’ She nodded towards the old gift shop. ‘And it sounds like whoever’s in that building is counting on me leaving.
They were talking about knocking through and opening a burger place, as if it’s a fait accompli. ’
Adam’s face was full of concern. ‘Are you really going to give up The Bookmark?’
She turned to view the café that had been part of her family’s history for four decades, fury taking over from the anxiety that had plagued her.
‘Honestly, I thought I had no choice, but hearing those two talking about it as though it was a done deal has shifted something in me.’ As she spoke, she realized it was true.
It was as though a fire had been lit inside her, burning through the liquid worry that had been her constant state.
‘What right have they got to profit from the devastation of my livelihood, my family business? And for what, another faceless bloody burger joint? How would more takeaway saturated fat benefit people around here?’ She saw a smile creep onto Adam’s face and felt the fire inside her burn even brighter.
‘Good point, well made.’
A new, urgent resolve made Erin’s spine straighten.
‘Maybe I shouldn’t give up without more of a fight.
I’ve got a month left before I have to make it official.
There’s got to be something I can do.’ She understood now that she’d accepted defeat without truly exploring all options.
Surely, if there was any way of avoiding the change she’d been dreading, she owed it to her mother to try?
The café was so much more than a place to eat and drink.
It was part of the local community, and with the new fire burning in her belly, she knew that she had to try to preserve it, for her, for her family, and for everyone else who walked through that door.