The Winner Bakes It All

Chapter 5

Elodie sat at the table in her parents’ living room trying to focus on the menu she was drawing up for Saffron’s wedding. Saffron had a generous budget, so she could make some fairly fancy things. Or go for quantity. She had chosen to work downstairs today because she needed the space to spread out all her papers. It was a delicate task, made all the more difficult with the telly on in the background and Mum interrupting it every few minutes to ask Dad who that character was.

The doorbell rang. Elodie put her hands over her ears.

‘I’ll get that then, shall I?’ Her mum got up and went to the door, shuffling her slippers back onto her feet as she went. The ‘Oh, hello darling!’ told her that it was her brother. She bent her head over her work and resolved to ignore him.

Travis was eight years older than her. You’d think he’d show some brotherly love, but no. At first, Elodie had hero-worshipped her big brother, but over the years, her hurt and bewilderment at his rejection of her had hardened into solid dislike.

Their mum adored him, of course. Dad too, probably, since Travis had done the acceptable thing and become a lawyer. Oddly, neither parent had felt the need to push Elodie towards law. Or towards anything, really. They indulged her, like she was a pet project. When she’d expressed an interest in patisserie, they’d sent her to Paris to learn. At first, the total freedom from expectation had been exhilarating. Now, she saw that it was merely that they didn’t think she was capable of doing anything useful. She wasn’t academically gifted, like Travis was. She was just average. Somewhere along the line, her parents had decided that the best thing for her future was for her to ‘marry well’. Given that she was only average in looks too, she suspected that the only reason they indulged her ‘little bakery project’ without getting in her way was because they felt it would make her more interesting to a man.

Elodie tried to zone out the conversation and focus. The mention of the name Saffron made her look up.

‘You’ve heard of her?’ said Travis, who noticed her interest. ‘I’m surprised. I didn’t think the aspirational lifestyle was your sort of thing, Elodie.’

She ignored the implied jibe. ‘What about her though?’

‘I don’t understand what it means. What is an “influencer”?’ Mum added.

‘It means she’s famous, Mum,’ said Travis. ‘People pay her money to talk about their products.’

‘Ah. Patronage? Like a sponsor for sports people?’ said Mum.

‘I suppose. Yeah. Anyway. My friend Jamie from the gym – I told you about him before. He’s the one who started vlogging about his fitness journey and then it blew up. He’s making a tidy fortune on YouTube now. He gets sponsored to wear sports brands, actually.’

‘Oh, I’ve met him, haven’t I?’ said Mum. ‘That time when I came to pick you up from the gym. He was lovely. Very sweet. I thought he worked at the sports equipment place.’

‘He does,’ said Travis impatiently. ‘I don’t know why he bothers when he’s making so much on YouTube, but there you go. Kept the day job.’

‘Very sensible if you ask me,’ said Dad.

Elodie tried not to scream. She said through clenched teeth. ‘Travis. What were you saying about Saffron?’

‘Saffron?’ said Mum. ‘What an unusual name. Didn’t you have a friend called that at school? Nice girl. A bit mousy.’

‘That’s the same person,’ Elodie said. ‘She’s not mousy anymore though, she’s very confident. So, what about her, Travis?’

‘If you’ll let me get to it,’ said Travis, ‘I was going to say that my mate Jamie is getting married to Saffron. Mum, do you have my good suit? You brought it over to mend the hole in the pocket. I think it’s still here.’

‘Oh, yes. You’re right. Let me see now. I might have hung it up in the closet in the craft room. Let’s go upstairs to check.’

‘This wedding is going to be quite amazing,’ Travis carried on. ‘Knowing those two, they’ll have some spectacular things lined up. It’s going to be the event of the year around here, I should think. I’m surprised you hadn’t heard before, Elodie.’ And there it was. The whole point of this conversation was to throw a barb at Elodie for not being involved.

She looked up. ‘I had, actually. And they’re having a small wedding, in fact, not a big one. Leaning into the cosy Cotswold vibe. Saffron asked me to do the catering.’ Okay, she’d mostly worked out the aesthetic from looking at Saffron’s social media and she’d only said she’d pitch for the job. But the look on Travis’s face was worth the little white lies.

‘You?’ he said.

‘I do bake cakes and cater for parties,’ said Elodie. ‘Besides, Saffron remembered me from school.’

Travis stared at her for a moment. It wasn’t often her gobshite of an older brother was speechless. She gave him her most angelic smile. The one that she knew irritated him. ‘I’m just running through the numbers right now,’ she said.

Mum called for Travis from upstairs. He gave an exasperated flick of his head and hurried away.

Elodie stared at the paperwork in front of her. Well, she’d bloody well better get this gig now. Travis would be insufferable if she didn’t.

Mal picked up the last crate of lunch boxes. It was fuller than the rest, because he’d stacked three extra boxes on top. Now that he was balancing things between his hip and the side of the building while he locked up the shop, it didn’t seem like such a great idea.

He glared at the three packs, as if they would behave in response. He packed his lunches in card boxes, which would be easier to recycle. They stacked beautifully, but not if you just bunged them on top of a layer of already carefully packed boxes.

Muttering ‘Don’t slide,’ he locked up the shop, tucked his keys into his palm and gripped the box handle firmly again. At least these crates weren’t heavy.

After all these years working out of his parents’ kitchen, it was taking him longer than expected to get used to having his own space. The kitchen attached to the café wasn’t huge, but he got to arrange it exactly as he wanted. He had a couple of nice, big fridges. They took up a bit of space, but it meant that his new employees could help him pack the meals the night before, which speeded things up considerably.

The shop came with a parking space, but unfortunately it was a few spaces down the road. He got to the car. Dawn was a rising glow in the sky. He had to deliver these to all the gyms before 7 a.m., so that the clients who came to the gym before going to work could pick them up. Wedging the crate between the car and his hip, he tried to balance it and move the keys into his grip properly at the same time. He dropped his keys.

Cursing, he tried to lean down to get them. The loose lunch boxes slid sideways. Mal snapped back up and slapped a hand on them to stop them falling. His keys were still at his feet.

‘Here. Let me.’ Someone crouched next to him and picked up his keys. It was the woman from the cake shop. She was wearing her coat. She must be on her way to work.

‘Shall I unlock the boot? Or just take those loose boxes for you so that you can do what you need to?’

‘I … er. If you could unlock the boot and open it for me that would be awesome.’

She did that, pushing the sliding door open for him and stepping out of the way. He gratefully slid the last crate onto the top of the rest.

‘Thank you so much. You really saved me there.’

She handed his keys back to him with a nod and turned to leave.

‘That was really kind of you,’ he said.

She spun back, one finger pointed accusingly at him. Her eyes glowered. Blue eyes like lasers. ‘This does not make us friends.’ She turned back around and marched off in the direction of her shop.

He watched her go, not sure whether he was amused or intimidated. ‘Thank you,’ he shouted after her.

She ignored him and disappeared round the corner into the arcade.

Mal secured the boxes so that they didn’t slide around in transit, double-checked he had the right number of lunches for each gym and got into the van to make his deliveries.

Before he set off, he took one more glance towards the arcade, where the cake lady had disappeared. She obviously was a kind person. There was no reason for her to stop and help, but she had done. Maybe the hard shell was an act. Or maybe the anger that seemed to emanate from her every time he saw her was something she needed to channel to keep going. What a funny woman.

Elodie locked the shop so that she could go and deliver a cake. The client had asked her to bring it in the short space between school drop-off and her first meeting, which meant that Elodie’s own shop wouldn’t open until 9.30. As she walked past Man Buns, she noticed that there were a few people in the shop. Huh. He must open early to catch the office crowd before they went in to work. Should she do that? Would people really pop in for cupcakes in the morning, though? She knew that she got most of her business in the evenings, when people were heading home and gave in to their sugar cravings. Whereas ‘healthy’ lunches probably would be more of a draw in the morning when people were still kidding themselves about their diets …

She walked round the corner and past the place where she’d met Mal that morning. Stupid man, trying to juggle everything like that. She had learned the hard way that trying to do too many things at once led to more work … say, when you dropped a carefully decorated cake. Of course, she’d had to help. She frowned. He had seemed genuinely grateful. And friendly. That was unhelpful. It was much easier to hold on to her anger if he was a total git. Him being nice just reminded her that she might have overreacted a bit. And that made her feel stupid. She hated feeling stupid.

Reaching her car, she carefully settled the cake box in the back seat and strapped it in safely so that it wouldn’t slide around. Just as she was about to turn the ignition, her phone rang. It was her mother. Speaking of people who made her feel stupid …

She considered ignoring it. Mum was probably going to remind her that she was supposed to be having dinner with them tomorrow, to meet this man. But Mum would only try again in a bit. With a sigh, she answered.

‘I have bad news, darling,’ she said. ‘We have to cancel dinner.’

Oh, thank goodness. ‘That’s a shame.’

‘But it’s okay. Leon is going to visit you at your shop today and take you out for coffee.’

Elodie groaned. ‘What? Why?’ The last thing she needed was some schmoozy-lawyer type showing up and getting in her way. ‘Mum. I have work to do.’

‘Nonsense. It’ll do you good to take a break from your little bakery once in a while. Let Marty earn his keep. I’ve given Leon your number so that he can text you.’

‘No. Mother. That is not cool. You can’t go around giving people my number like that.’

Her mother made an impatient clicking noise with her tongue. ‘I know you think I’m out of touch, Elodie. But Leon is a nice man. Hard working and talented. Also, I believe, easy on the eye.’

Ew.

‘Just meet him. See what you think.’

There was no point arguing. ‘Fine. This is the last time though. You said I could have until my next birthday to get the business up and running. I can’t do that if you keep throwing men across my path.’

Before her mum could respond, she hung up. Ugh. Now she was annoyed again. Oh well. Better than being sad. She turned the key and set off to make her delivery.

Elodie was still annoyed when she came back. A notification popped up on her phone. Saffron had emailed her. Oh good. Hopefully she was answering the questions that Elodie had sent her last night. Distracted looking at her phone, she took the corner too quickly and almost ran into a man coming in the opposite direction. She stepped back, overbalanced. The man grabbed her elbow.

For a second neither of them moved. She stared at him. He was tall and good-looking in a carefully groomed sort of way. Carefully, she extracted her elbow from his hand and dusted herself down.

‘Are you okay?’ the man asked.

‘Yes. I’m fine. Thank you.’

‘I’m sorry I startled you,’ he said. He was about her age, wearing a suit. He smiled at her.

‘Oh no, it was my fault entirely. I was thinking about something else. I’m just glad you’ve got excellent reflexes.’

His smile widened. ‘I’m Leon, by the way. You must be Elodie.’

‘How—?’

He gestured to her fleece, which had ‘Elodie’ embroidered on the lapel. In a fit of enthusiasm, she’d made branded fleeces for herself and Marty. ‘Oh. I see. Yes. I’m Elodie.’

For a second, he said nothing, and studied her.

She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. On the one hand, being under such intense scrutiny made her feel weird. On the other hand, no one had looked at her like that in a long time. How annoying that she was in her work gear, hair scraped back, no make-up on. She must look like hell. She cleared her throat. ‘I’d best be off. Thanks again.’

‘Hey, listen,’ he called after her. ‘Can I buy you a coffee? To apologise for startling you?’

She felt a flush of panic. He was flirting with her, wasn’t he? Should she flirt back? She did a quick check in with her gut. Did she want to go for a coffee with this guy? Her gut gave her nothing. Not yes. Not no. She didn’t know anything about him.

‘I’m flattered,’ she said. ‘But I don’t know you, and—’

‘Actually,’ he said. ‘I’m not a complete stranger. Your … er … I mean, this is weird … but your mum gave me your number. I’m a lawyer. I work at—’

‘Oh.’ Of course. She should have realised from his name. She rolled her eyes. ‘I’m sorry about my mother. She’s got a bee in her bonnet about me being single.’

He gave a small laugh. ‘I don’t mind,’ he said. ‘I’ve been away for years, so I don’t know anyone around here anymore. And … uh …’ He gave her a sheepish grin. ‘I saw you when you dropped your mum and dad off at the office garden party a couple of weeks ago and asked about you. Which your mum overheard …’

‘Oh, god. I’m so sorry.’ She needed to have a word with her mother. Again. She’d only offered to drive them there because Mum’s taxi had cancelled at the last minute.

His eyes sparkled. ‘Now that I’ve actually met you, I’d be honoured if you would have a coffee with me.’

She hesitated.

‘You could tell your mum that you really tried …’ he said.

This was a good point too. For all of mum’s faults, she did genuinely mean well. If Elodie did go for coffee with this guy, she could claim she’d genuinely tried to like him and it didn’t work out.

What did she have to lose? He was waiting patiently, eyes still smiling. It had been a long time since she’d been on a date or even for coffee … so why not? It was, after all, just a coffee. ‘Um. Coffee would be lovely. I … have some work to do right now, but my shop is just down there.’ She tilted her head towards the arcade. ‘It’s called Flour Power. Just pop in if you’re free this afternoon.’

He nodded. ‘I might just do that,’ he said. ‘I have meetings most of the day, but maybe around four?’

‘That would be good.’

‘Great.’

They both stood there, awkwardly, for a second. She really did have to run now, so she said, ‘I’ll see you later, then,’ and hurried off towards the shop. It was still too early for Marty to start work, so she had to unlock it and turn the sign to open. He usually worked mornings on his own side hustle business as an artist. The job at the shop paid his rent.

Once she made it into the sanctuary that was her kitchen, she took a deep breath and let it out. She had, possibly, a date. Marty was going to go bananas with excitement.

Elodie was finishing icing a batch of cupcakes when Marty came rushing in to tell her that Leon had turned up.

‘He’s wearing a suit and he asked for you by name. It’s coffee-date guy, right?’

‘Oh.’ Elodie took her earbuds out and slipped them into her apron pocket. Anxiety squirmed in her chest. It really had been a long time since she’d been on a date.

‘Come on. Try to look excited,’ Marty said, in a hoarse whisper. ‘He seems nice.’

Elodie made a face. ‘I’m not totally sure—’

‘Let him buy you coffee,’ said Marty. ‘You need to get out a bit more. Shake off some cobwebs.’

‘Cobwebs.’ She raised her eyebrows at him.

‘Oh, you know what I mean.’ He leaned back and peeked into the shop. ‘I can put those out for you. Now go.’ He started to push her out into the shop.

She batted him off and stepped out. ‘Hi, Leon.’

‘Hi. Elodie. I was wondering if you had a moment for that coffee.’ He smiled at her. He seemed to smile a lot. That was a good thing, she was sure.

‘I … er …’

‘You’re about to go on your break, aren’t you?’ said Marty. ‘Hi. I’m Marty. I work here. I’ll look after everything, boss, you go grab a coffee.’

She was going to murder Marty. But it would have to wait a bit because, apparently, she was going out. ‘Give me a minute to get rid of all … this.’ She gestured to her apron and icing-smudged hands. ‘I’ll be right with you.’

A few minutes later, they were standing in front of the shop. Elodie felt a little lost.

‘So, where’s good for coffee around here?’ said Leon. ‘It’s been about ten years since I hung out in this part of town and it’s changed a lot.’ He nodded to Man Buns. ‘What’s that place like?’

‘Oh. I don’t go there,’ she said. Then, realising how petty she sounded, added, ‘I can see the shop from there. It’s not a proper break.’

He nodded. ‘I see. Fair enough.’ He peered at Man Buns. ‘Looks a bit alternative to me anyway. So, where do you fancy?’

‘There’s a Cornish pasty shop at the other side of the arcade,’ she said. ‘They do excellent coffee.’

‘Lead on.’

They went round the outside of the building. It was strange, just walking through town without a specific errand to run. Elodie realised that she was always in a hurry. It was remarkably pleasant to not rush.

‘I grew up in the next town over,’ Leon explained as they strolled. ‘I’ve been in London for the last few years.’

‘What made you move back?’

He gave a hollow laugh. ‘The usual thing. Heartbreak followed by re-evaluation of my entire life. I wanted to get back to somewhere less frantic, you know.’

She nodded, even though she didn’t actually know.

‘I don’t know that many people around here, though. Most of my friends from when I was younger have left.’ Another laugh, less hollow this time. ‘Funny really, the only person I’ve kept in touch with is moving back here too. She’s an influencer and she’s starting her own homeware line. I’d have thought it would be easier to do that if she were still in London, but … apparently, the internet is a great leveller. Besides, she’s fallen in love with an exercise bro from around here.’

This sounded very familiar. ‘Wait. This isn’t Saffron you’re talking about, is it?’

‘Yes. It is.’ He beamed. ‘Do you know her?’

‘Sort of. We were friends at school. I’m pitching to do the food for their wedding,’ she added on impulse. Oh no. She had to stop doing that. She might not get the contract, then what would she do? She would feel really stupid after going around telling people.

Leon looked impressed. She really wanted to get this gig. It would make such a difference to her business.

They slowed as they reached the café. Leon held an arm out, gesturing that she should go first. As she stepped forward, the café door opened and Mal from Man Buns stepped out. He had a takeaway cup in his hand.

‘Oh,’ he said, stopping. ‘Hello, Elodie.’

Before Elodie could respond, Leon said, ‘Mal?’

Mal’s attention switched to Leon. He looked puzzled.

‘It’s me. Leon.’

The frown on Mal’s forehead cleared. ‘Leon! Bloody hell.’ He looked Leon up and down with wide eyes. There was a hint of hesitation when he said, ‘It’s good to see you. How have you been?’

‘I’m doing great, thanks,’ said Leon. ‘Really, really well.’

Was it her imagination, or was Leon standing a little taller? There was definitely something different about his posture. A sort of macho-ness that hadn’t been there before.

Mal on the other hand, seemed uncomfortable. ‘What are you up to now?’

‘Lawyer, actually. Climbing the old career ladder.’

Mal nodded. ‘I see. That’s great.’ He definitely looked like he wanted to run away. He glanced at Elodie and drew breath as though to speak.

‘How about you?’ said Leon, taking the smallest step closer.

‘I … er … I have a small catering business. Just opened a café.’

Leon’s lip curled. He pointed at Mal’s cup. ‘You don’t drink your own coffee?’

Mal looked down and back up. ‘Ah. No. My coffee machine is broken. I need a caffeine hit before I tackle fixing it.’ His smile seemed forced. ‘The coffee is a small part, really. The main business is low-carb lunches. I work with Jake.’

‘Oh yes,’ said Leon. ‘Jake.’ He said the name like he was spitting out poison.

Elodie was intrigued by this whole dynamic. Leon clearly didn’t like Mal and Mal, just as clearly, was uncomfortable around him. Well, if Leon had dirt on Mal and Jake, she wanted in.

‘We were just going to grab a cup of coffee.’ She gave Mal an over-bright smile.

His eyes darted from her to Leon and back. ‘You know each other. That’s nice.’ He gave them both a tight smile. ‘I’ll let you get on.’

‘Well, it was nice to see you,’ said Leon, with no sincerity in his voice.

‘You too.’ Mal gave Elodie a polite nod. ‘I’ll see you later.’ He hurried off, his head down.

Leon turned to watch Mal walk away, his own chin high, eyes hooded. It wasn’t a nice expression. He drew a sharp breath, as though refocusing himself, and turned to Elodie with a smile. ‘Shall we go get that coffee?’

She led the way into the shop. ‘What was all that about?’ she asked, as they joined the short queue.

‘Oh. Mal and I were at school together. We used to be friends.’ He was examining the price board, completely ignoring the small selection of snacks. Elodie always looked at tarts and pastries with a practised eye. Why else would you come into a café?

‘You’re not friends anymore? What happened?’

Leon gave a short laugh. ‘Long story. Let’s just say that he did something pretty awful and it ruined everything.’

The shop owner behind the till greeted her with ‘Hello there, Elodie. The usual?’

‘Yes please, Lydia.’ She sometimes came by here to treat herself to a coffee and pastry. She chose a mini pecan plait and a latte. Nuts were a treat. It was a long time since she’d been out for coffee like this.

It was only when she found a table and Leon slid into the seat opposite that she remembered that she was on a date of sorts. She studied him as he shrugged off his jacket and hung it on the back of the chair. Objectively, he was good-looking and seemed nice enough. She checked in with her gut again. Still nothing. She wasn’t particularly attracted to him, but equally, she wasn’t put off by him. Indifference was probably an okay place to start.

He leaned forward on his elbows. ‘So, tell me about you. You make cakes for children’s parties?’

She laughed. ‘Not my specialty. It’s just what I get asked for the most. I love decorating fancier cakes, but they take a lot of time and money and there is a cost-of-living crisis on … so I mostly do cute kids’ cakes, yes.’ It occurred to her that she should push the events side of the business a bit more. ‘I also do a bit of catering.’ Again, for children’s parties when the parents were too busy to make sandwiches and arrange sausage rolls on a tray.

Leon nodded enthusiastically. He took a sip of his coffee and glanced towards the window. ‘I meant to ask. How do you know Mal? Are you friends?’

Elodie snorted. ‘Ha. No. We just have shops in the same arcade. That coffee shop across from mine? That’s his.’

His eyes glittered. ‘Seems like he’s annoyed you. What did he do?’

It was tempting to share, but she was already feeling a bit silly for kicking off in front of Saffron, so she said, ‘Oh. Nothing much really. It’s in the past now.’

‘But it clearly still rankles.’ Leon took another sip. ‘I guess Mal hasn’t changed. Always looking out for number one. Doesn’t care what happens to other people.’

She didn’t know what to say to that. Part of her was delighted that her grievance was vindicated. Mal had taken unfair advantage of knowing people. But another part of her felt it was wrong to talk about a guy she didn’t really know with another guy she didn’t really know. ‘It’s nothing,’ she said again. ‘We’re not even in competition with each other – his shop is all low carb and “healthy” …’ She did air quotes with her fingers. ‘Mine is all about the treats. We don’t attract the same people.’ She gave it a few seconds’ thought. ‘Or at least not the same people in the same mood.’

Leon laughed. ‘You are so right. Sometimes you need a treat.’ He patted his stomach. ‘I keep myself on a pretty tight leash with the diet and exercise, but I let myself have a day off every now and then. I’ve found that’s the only way I can stick to it the rest of the time. Knowing that there’s a treat ahead.’

She smiled, politely. As someone who didn’t have any particular issues with eating and weight, it wasn’t her place to comment.

‘So tell me about Chipping Sawdon. What’s fun to do around here now? Is there any nightlife?’

‘I don’t actually know,’ she said. ‘A bit embarrassing to admit, really. I tend to spend most of my time working.’

‘Oh, that’ll never do,’ he said. ‘There seem to be a lot of interesting restaurants around. Maybe I can take you out to dinner sometime?’

What? Oh. That was the next step after coffee. Why was she surprised? ‘I … I’m not really looking for a relationship right now. I’m sorry.’

He raised his hands, palms out. ‘No strings,’ he said. ‘Just dinner.’

When she hesitated, he leaned forward. ‘I’m as good as new in town. You said yourself you hadn’t investigated the restaurants around here for a while. So … why not try them out together?’

‘I—’

‘Oh, come now. You won’t make me explore the nice restaurants by myself.’

‘If I get the catering contract for the wedding, I’ll be really busy.’

‘You’ll still need a night off at some point, right?’ He beamed at her. ‘Besides, just think. You can tell your mother you have a date in the future and that would keep her happy for a while.’

Elodie caved. It would be nice to keep her mum off her back for a bit. It was also nice to have someone look at her like she was attractive. ‘Okay,’ she said.

He looked so happy, it was sweet. Saying yes was probably the right choice.

Mal chewed his lip. He was sitting in Jake’s kitchen, which was considerably less noisy than his own kitchen, where his housemates tended to congregate. Jake was making a stir fry for them to eat, dancing a little to the music from his headphones. Mal went over the spreadsheet again. He was finalising his plan and quote for Jamie’s wedding.

‘This will be ready in about two minutes,’ Jake said.

‘Oh. Right.’ Mal stared at the spreadsheet. He was no longer even seeing it properly. ‘I hope I’ve costed everything. If I’ve missed something …’

‘Just send it,’ said Jake. ‘You won’t have missed anything. You’ve done events before.’

‘For the gym, sure. But this is a wedding. It’s a bit bigger than any of that.’

Jake shrugged. ‘Same principle.’ He gave Mal an exasperated look. ‘Seriously. You’re not going to make any changes at this late stage. Just send the bloody thing and cross your fingers.’

‘Right. Right. Yes.’ He saved the file again, just in case, double-checked he’d attached the right details and hit send. For a moment his shoulders bunched up. He breathed out, slowly and deliberately. ‘Done.’

‘Good man.’ Jake got a couple of deep plates out of a cupboard. ‘Clear the table, will you?’

Mal gathered his stuff and moved it into the front room. Jake’s living room was decorated in black, white and grey. The kitchen, on the other hand, was a warm room in yellows and splashes of colour. Unsurprisingly, he much preferred eating in there to eating out in the austere front room, even though the kitchen was small and made even smaller by someone the size of Jake standing in it.

Mal got glasses of water for them and slid into a chair. For as long as Jake had owned this house, there had been a housemate. Usually a woman. His last housemate had moved to London and Jake had somehow not found a replacement. ‘How’s the search for a lodger going?’ he asked.

Jake handed him a plate and took the other chair opposite. ‘Not great. I’ve had a few people interested, but …’

Mal nodded. Jake needed someone who would be willing to take the elderly next-door neighbour’s dog for a walk. With Jake’s business taking up even more of his time these days, Mal did the evening walk, because there was no one else. He didn’t really mind. It was a good chance to clear his head after a long day.

‘So, how are things going with having a bricks and mortar shop?’ Jake asked.

‘Different.’ It was. Previously, he’d only had to worry about packing up and delivering the lunch orders. Now he had to deal with customers. He had to put on a smiling face whenever they were around. ‘Spending time with people is hard.’

‘No, it’s not,’ said Jake.

‘Bloody is. It’s exhausting.’

Jake gave him a thoughtful look. ‘Regretting it?’

Mal shook his head. ‘No. I need to give it more time, I think. Things will change, right? Footfall will increase again. Especially if word gets around that there are healthy lunches to be had. Plus, I think Priya’s been posting in the Keto Parents group. I had someone pop in and buy a whole load of muffins to freeze so that her daughter could have them for breakfast.’

‘It’s a small niche,’ said Jake. ‘But it seems like it’s a necessary one. Have you tried contacting the local dieticians?’

‘No. Good idea.’ He pulled his phone out and made a note.

‘If you end up catering for Jamie’s thing, that’ll help too. You’re okay for cash flow if you get the gig?’

Mal nodded and finished his mouthful before answering. ‘Just about. Even with Jamie’s deposit, I’ll need to dip into my savings, but I can manage that.’

They carried on eating in silence for a few minutes.

‘How are things going with the cake lady?’ Jake said.

‘She keeps giving me the evils, but otherwise, things are calm.’ It bothered him that someone didn’t like him for something he’d had no control over. ‘The weirdest thing happened,’ he said, and told Jake about her helping him. ‘So, turns out, she has a human side too.’

‘That is an interesting development,’ Jake said. ‘Maybe you should get to know her a bit. Be your charming and helpful self until she mellows.’

He shrugged. The thought had crossed his mind too. It wasn’t ideal to have a neighbour mad at you. ‘Her assistant seems nice enough, though. Friendly.’ The few times he had spoken to Marty, the guy had been more interested in asking questions about Jake. He wondered if he should mention it.

‘Assistant?’ Jake was studying his meal with extreme nonchalance.

Mal grinned. Jake had noticed Marty too, it seemed, and was pretending he hadn’t. He knew that tactic of old. ‘Yeah. Colourful guy. Skinny jeans, brightly coloured tees, confident in his own way …’ He leaned forward. ‘Might be just what you need, in fact.’

‘I’m too busy for that sort of thing right now.’

It wasn’t often Mal got a chance to tease Jake like this and he wasn’t letting it go. ‘He asked me about you the last time I spoke to him. I think you might be in with a chance.’

‘Shut up.’

‘You haven’t been out on a date for years. You should get back into it. I mean, what if that Marty guy keeps staring at the shop because he’s actually watching for you? It would be a shame to let an opportunity slip by.’

‘Bog off,’ said Jake, good naturedly. ‘Besides, what about you and the cake lady?’

‘What about me and the cake lady?’

‘She’s small and pretty and feisty …’

‘She’s not small. She’s about the same height as me.’

‘But you agree that she’s pretty and feisty.’

‘Angry,’ said Mal. ‘She’s bloody furious. All the time. I’m not sure that’s the same thing as feisty.’

‘And yet, you’re not disputing “pretty”.’ Jake was grinning at him now.

Mal shrugged. ‘Sure.’ He had eyes. He could see she was pretty. ‘But so are a huge number of other people who aren’t busy shouting at me.’ He shook his head. ‘You’re going to have to do better than that, mate.’

‘I don’t have to,’ said Jake. ‘My instincts tell me that there’s potential there. And my matchmaking instincts are never wrong.’

Mal snorted. ‘Matchmaking instincts, my arse. The cake lady thinks she had some divine right to lease the space I’ve rented entirely legitimately. She’s grumpy and shouty. None of those things appeal to me.’ He thought of her helping him that morning and following it up with ‘we are not friends’. No. It sounded like she was happy enough being kind to other people, it was just him she hated.

Jake pointed the handle of his fork at Mal. ‘I’m never wrong about these things, Mal. Trust me.’

‘I think you’ll find that this time, your so-called instincts are completely wrong. She hates me.’ Mal finished off his meal. ‘But at least she isn’t actively trying to sabotage me, so I can live with that.’