Chapter 28
‘Why aren’t you answering your phone?’ Marty said, as he came in. ‘I’ve been trying to call you to say I was going to be late.’
Elodie shook her head. ‘I’ve put my phone on “do not disturb” since last night. I just can’t face it.’ She carried on dolloping cake mix into the baking mould.
‘There could have been an emergency,’ said Marty.
‘Landline still works,’ she said. ‘It’s been ringing all morning. I’ve let it go to answerphone. Can you check the messages, please?’
‘Why didn’t you answer it, Elodie?’ he said, exasperatedly.
‘Because I have to bake things,’ she said. ‘Besides, answering the phone is one of the things I pay you to do.’
That shut him up. He stomped off to check the answerphone messages. She turned back to her work. The main reason she didn’t want to answer the phone was in case it was customers calling to cancel their orders. It seemed that a lot of people must have seen that video of her. If it had reached her parents, it must have spread quite far. No one would want to work with her after that.
She heard Marty making calls and popped her earbuds in and turned some music on to drown him out. She couldn’t bring herself to work on any of her commissions, in case they were cancelled, so she was making cupcakes for the shop instead. She mixed buttercream and tried not to think about all her beautiful work being lobbed around like it was nothing. When Marty tapped her on the shoulder she yelped.
‘What?’ she said, pulling one earbud off.
‘You have to check the socials,’ he said.
‘Why do I have to? I don’t want to.’ She glanced at the timer. Nearly time to get the cakes out. She reached for the spatula to scrape the icing off the mixer. It could set somewhere cool while she got the cakes out of the oven.
‘Because you’ve gone viral again. Give me your phone.’ Marty held his hand out. When she hesitated, he made impatient beckoning gestures with his fingers.
She handed the phone to him and started tidying up. She hadn’t turned it to ‘do not disturb’ like she’d told him. She had actually turned it off. He gave her a stern glare and turned it on. It buzzed and pinged in his hand. He held it out to her. ‘Unlock.’
She unlocked it. ‘You check it. Tell me the summary.’
He scrolled through. ‘They’ve worked out the link between you and the shop and Mal and his café … mostly everyone thinks it’s hilarious. Some stupid comments, but nothing you need to worry about.’ His finger flicked across the screen. ‘You have … several thousand more followers on Instagram now.’
‘Several thou— Let me see.’ She came to stand next to him. Last week the shop’s Instagram account had fewer than a thousand people following it. Those were a few customers and a lot of people who had turned up once Saffron started talking about her. ‘Huh.’
‘And all those messages? They were enquiries about cake-baking commissions. I said you’d call them back.’
‘I don’t understand. The cake was ruined. All the viral stuff shows how badly ruined it was.’
‘Yes, but have you seen the video? The camerawoman was filming the cake when Mal was thrown into it. She kept the shot of the cake in and millions of people saw your cake. Now they want one.’
‘Wait, the official camerawoman? Who was being paid by Saffron? She released the video?’
‘Well, yes. It went out on Saffron’s feed.’
‘Why would Saffron do that?’
Marty gave her a look that said oh, you dear sweet child. ‘Controlling the narrative, maybe? Since it went viral, and gained her a bajillion new followers, good job too.’
Elodie frowned, still puzzled. ‘I suppose all publicity is good publicity?’ If Saffron was the one who shared the video and it had served her well somehow, then perhaps her own worries about Saffron quibbling about paying the rest of the invoice were unfounded. If Saffron paid up … things would be less precarious.
‘You should capitalise on this while the going’s good,’ said Marty.
‘What does that even mean?’
‘If you were dithering about something, now would be the time to take the plunge,’ Marty said, meaningfully. ‘You have people’s attention right now. Don’t squander it.’
That made a lot of sense. ‘I … think I see.’ She nodded, thoughtfully. The oven timer went off, so she grabbed her gloves and took the hot cupcakes out. Someone came into the shop and Marty hurried out to serve them.
Elodie put the cakes on the cooling rack, thinking. If she assumed that these new people who were calling were after higher-end cakes, she could try charging them more than she usually did. After all, her cakes were famous now. If it turned out that the first few baulked at the higher price, she could always lower it for the next couple. These weren’t her usual customers. For her regulars, she would raise prices by a small amount. Nothing too dramatic. That would work. The classes were a whole other thing to plan out. She had a partial business plan for it in her files. The idea of online classes was an angle she hadn’t even thought of before.
Mind whirring, she made more buttercream. It felt like a fog had lifted. Suddenly she had options. Everything had gone from disaster to a world of possibility. If even some of these ideas came to fruition and she made some money, she would have been doing it without the safety net of her parents. This might actually work.
Mal stood outside Man Buns to have his photograph taken. The photographer from the wedding had turned up with the journalist.
‘Move to the left a bit. I want to get the name of the shop in.’ Her camera clicked. She looked down at the screen on the back of her camera. ‘That’s a nice one,’ she said. ‘Thanks.’
She made eye contact and smiled.
Mal returned the smile cautiously. The journalist, a smaller, even younger-looking woman in glasses, was interviewing Elodie.
‘Should we have a photo of both of us? Maybe outside Elodie’s shop?’ he asked.
The photographer gestured for him to move across. ‘Good idea,’ she said. ‘The light is better.’
They waited until the interview paused.
‘I think a shot of them both,’ said the photographer.
‘Oh, yes please. Excellent.’ The journalist skipped out of the way.
‘Do you want to carry on interviewing?’ said the photographer. ‘Just ignore me.’
‘Okay then.’ She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and said, ‘So, what’s next for you, Mal and Elodie? Now that you’ve done the viral celebrity wedding … are you going to work together again?’
They looked at each other. ‘Sure,’ said Elodie. ‘If anyone wants the combo of keto and super high carb again, of course, we’d be happy to cater for them.’
‘And this time I promise to stay well away from the cake,’ Mal added.
‘Quite a rare combination of food requirements though, I’m guessing.’
‘Yes,’ said Elodie. ‘So I’ll carry on doing birthday cakes as normal and …’ She glanced at Mal.
His fingers twitched with the effort of not reaching across to squeeze her hand. He tried to beam encouraging thoughts into her head.
‘And I’m going to start doing cake decorating classes,’ Elodie said, her voice firm. ‘Since Saffron shone a spotlight on my business, I’ve had lots of people ask questions about how I ice the flowers onto cakes. So I figured I may as well teach people. I’ll be starting next month. Keep an eye on the website for more details.’
He was so proud of her, he felt he might burst.
‘And,’ said Elodie, ‘I’ll be adding an online course component in the next three months.’
‘What about you, Mal?’ The recorder was pointed towards him now.
‘I … will be providing keto lunches and low-carb snacks as usual,’ he said. ‘Mal’s Meals – available at all Jake’s Gyms. And of course, there’s Man Buns for all your keto café needs.’
‘No online courses for you?’
He could. In-person keto classes weren’t that viable, but online would be, especially with all the people from the gym who kept asking him questions about it. Elodie caught his eye. She gave him an almost imperceptible nod. As much as he believed in her, she believed in him right back.
‘Yes,’ he said, thinking on his feet. ‘I will be doing keto cooking basics for anyone who wants to learn how to make healthy keto snacks at home. And I will be offering some free sessions through the epilepsy charities for those who need it for medical purposes.’
The rest of the questions were banal enough that he could answer them without too much thought. All he wanted to do was to reach across and take Elodie’s hand. Tell her that she was doing an amazing job.
‘That should do it,’ said the journalist. ‘Thank you so much. I’ll get this written up and we’ll probably run it tomorrow.’
‘Will we get to see the copy beforehand?’ said Elodie.
‘I’m afraid there won’t be time.’
Elodie nodded.
‘Well, it was nice to see you again,’ the photographer said to Mal. He shook her hand. She then shook hands with Elodie too.
‘You guys are cute together,’ the photographer said. ‘You are a couple, right? Because if you’re not, once they see these photos everyone is going to think you are.’
Mal checked on Elodie’s expression. He was pretty sure they were a couple, but after last night he didn’t feel he could assume.
Her mouth twitched. She reached across and took his hand. ‘It’s early days yet,’ she said.
The photographer laughed. ‘Well, if you need a photographer for your wedding, you have my card.’
‘As I said,’ Elodie said, firmly, ‘it’s early days.’
They stood together, fingers interlaced, palm against palm, and watched the reporter and photographer walk away. Once the two women had turned the corner, Elodie let out a long breath and her shoulders sagged.
‘Thank god that’s over,’ she said.
‘I think it went well, don’t you?’
‘It did. But we’ll see what the journalist spins out of that,’ said Elodie. ‘I can’t believe a fracas online merits a whole two people being sent round.’
Mal shrugged. ‘Slow news day, probably.’
Elodie sighed. ‘I guess I’d better go back to work.’
‘Me too.’ He relinquished her hand. ‘Oh. Mind if I pop in to ask Marty something?’
‘Sure.’
He followed her inside.
‘I’ll see you later.’ She turned to go into the kitchen, hesitated, then grinned at him and kissed him quickly on the lips.
Mal felt the smile in his whole body.
‘Ugh,’ said Marty. ‘Stop it with the display of wholesomeness.’
Once Elodie had gone into the kitchen, Mal said, ‘Marty. Can I ask you something personal?’
‘Yes,’ said Marty. ‘I do have surprisingly big feet.’
Mal ignored that. ‘Now that you and Jake are officially—’
‘Shh. We are not officially anything. That man is so skittish.’
‘He likes you,’ said Mal, who had sat through enough conversations about Marty to know. ‘But are you likely to move in with him?’
‘And give up my tiny one-bedroom bedsit that’s barely big enough for me to stand in?’ said Marty. ‘You’d think so, but no. I don’t like the idea of living with a man too soon, you know. Too much scope for things to go wrong. Besides, that place is so … grey. The only places that don’t make me itch to redecorate are the kitchen and Jake’s room.’
Mal watched Marty speak, impatient to get to the point. ‘So, if you’re not going to be moving in, Jake still has a spare room …’
Marty stopped talking. He peered in the direction of the kitchen and dropping his voice. ‘You mean for …’ He gestured his head towards the kitchen.
‘Yes. I think that would be okay, don’t you?’
‘He would probably do a decent deal for her …’ said Marty. He grinned suddenly. ‘Hah. You’d get to see your best friend when you went to visit your girlfriend and so would I.’ He frowned. ‘I mean, when I went to visit my boyfriend. Not that Elodie is—’
‘I knew what you meant.’ He pulled out his phone. ‘Let me call Jake.’
By the time the afternoon rush subsided, Elodie was feeling much better. More people than usual had come in to buy cakes and ask her about her internet fame. They were almost sold out. They’d had an actual queue at one point – something that had never happened before.
‘I’ll take the delivery,’ Marty said. ‘You must be here for your public.’
Elodie rolled her eyes, but didn’t argue with him. People genuinely were coming in to ask if that was really her on the internet. It had stopped being quite so weird now, apart from the guy who asked if she could rub a cupcake in his face. That had been a firm no.
It was quiet now, and she couldn’t ice the new batch of cakes she’d made until they’d cooled down, so she grabbed some paper and jotted down ideas of what classes she could do and how she could structure them. She chewed her lip. There was so much to learn. How did she record the demos? How did you put courses online? So many questions.
She looked up as the door opened. Travis. She lowered her pen and braced herself. ‘What do you want?’
His eyes darted around the shop. Everything about him, from the scowl to the bunched-up shoulders, suggested that he didn’t want to be there. ‘Mum sent me,’ he said, tersely.
Elodie folded her arms. ‘What for?’
‘She wanted me to check that you were okay and that you had somewhere to sleep tonight.’
‘She could have come herself.’ Her mum had been trying to call her all day. She had been refusing her calls.
‘Look,’ said Travis, with exaggerated patience. ‘I just need to know that you’re not “sleeping in a doorway” as she put it. Have you got somewhere to stay?’
‘Why? Are you going to offer me your sofa?’
Travis’s composure slipped. ‘I don’t know why I’m bothering with this. Just because you threw a hissy fit and ran off, I have to come and mop up your mess.’
‘My mess? You started this whole thing off whispering in mum’s ear about me hanging out with toxic men.’
‘Yes, well, because of you, I’m going to have to change gyms. You’ve poisoned Mal against me!’ He was going red in the face now. All his adult composure dissolved in the face of anger.
‘What is your problem?’
‘You. You’re my problem.’ He clenched and unclenched his fists in front of him. ‘You … little …’
She put her hands on her hips. She wasn’t scared of him. He was never the violent type. Nasty, sly, vicious, yes, but never actually violent. ‘Why can’t you just let me live my life?’ she shouted.
‘Because you ruined mine!’
She was so stunned by that, she stared at him. In what way could she have possibly ruined his life?
Travis moved as though to leave and turned back, one finger pointed. ‘I was perfectly happy until you turned up. I worked hard at school. I minded my manners. They were proud of me. Proud.’ He curled the finger back into his fist. ‘Then you show up and all they could talk about was you. Their little princess. The “late-given gift”. You were shit at school. Didn’t matter. You just had to be cute. I … I had to be perfect. I had to get good grades and go to law school. You got to do whatever the hell you wanted with no repercussions. Even this …’ He waved his hands to indicate this shop. ‘This idiocy. This was all fine because it was what their little bloody princess wanted. While I could never be good enough. Have you any idea how that feels?’
She opened and closed her mouth. They stared at each other for a long moment. ‘I didn’t know that,’ she said. ‘But it wasn’t easy for me. It was always “poor Elodie can’t be clever like Travis”. I wasn’t good for anything. They just bought me things because they didn’t think I could make anything for myself.’
‘You can’t,’ Travis snapped. ‘This pathetic excuse for a business exists because Dad guarantees your rent. And you live at home. You’re just playing shops. Just like you always did. And they’re just enabling you.’
He knew exactly what to say to hurt her. She’d had enough of this. ‘Well, they aren’t anymore, are they?’
‘So what? You’re pretending you’re sleeping in the streets while you shack up with your boyfriend?’
She knew a clever question when she heard it. That was what he needed to find out. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m not “shacking up with my boyfriend” as you so quaintly put it.’ She got out her phone and wrote a text to her mother.
I have a place to stay. Not moving in with boyfriend. Stop sending Travis to do your dirty work.
She turned it round, showed it to him, then hit send. ‘There. Now get out of my shop.’
‘Where are you staying?’
‘None of your business.’
‘Are you even still with Mal or did you screw that up as well?’
She leaned forward against the counter. ‘Get. Out. Of. My. Shop.’
Travis started to argue, but the door opened, making them both turn.
Mal stood in the doorway. ‘Travis,’ he said, not smiling. His eyes went to Elodie. ‘Everything okay in here?’
Elodie forced herself to move her fingers that were gripping the counter so hard that they’d gone white. ‘Travis was just leaving,’ she said, firmly.
Travis looked at Mal, who folded his arms and did that thing where he seemed to grow.
‘I only came to check on her welfare,’ Travis said. ‘Clearly, she’s well taken care of.’ He marched out of the shop.
Elodie let out a long breath. Her shoulders were tense and her fingers hurt from gripping the counter. She flexed her fingers and rolled her wrists.
Mal unfolded his arms. ‘Are you okay?’
She nodded. ‘How do you do that?’ She gestured towards him with one hand. ‘You do that thing where you look bigger than you actually are.’
He looked puzzled for a second. ‘I wasn’t aware that’s how it looked. It’s a thing Jake taught me. I’m not good with confrontation. He told me I should imagine that I’ve grabbed the corners of the room and pulled them into my chest. It makes me feel … stronger. Is that what you mean?’
‘Well it works,’ said Elodie. ‘Thank you.’
He smiled and came around to her side of the counter. ‘You seemed to have it all under control anyway,’ he said. ‘What did Travis want?’
Elodie told him what Travis had said.
‘Wow,’ said Mal. ‘That’s quite a lot to take on board. Do you think he’s right?’
Elodie rubbed her forehead. ‘I don’t know. I mean, our parents did treat us differently. They were always talking about how great Travis was, when he wasn’t around … and then they’d pat me on the head and say stuff like “Elodie isn’t as gifted but she’s our precious darling”. So yeah. Maybe. I was a baby when Travis was in primary school. By the time I was old enough to notice stuff, Travis was doing his exams and then he disappeared off to uni, so …’ She shrugged. ‘Still doesn’t give him the right to be a git to me.’
‘No. And trying to sabotage you and drive a wedge between you and your parents is just wrong, whichever way you look at it.’ Mal reached across and took her hand. ‘It looked like you dealt with him okay this time though.’
She wasn’t sure that she’d heard the last of it. ‘Mum sent him to check that I had somewhere to stay.’
‘About that,’ said Mal. When she started to object, he raised his hands. ‘I’m not going to suggest you move in with me,’ he said. ‘You were right. If you’re trying to prove to your parents that you can make the business work, you need to be able to do it without anyone subsidising you. I’m sorry I said that yesterday. I was being patronising.’
She patted his arm. ‘What was your suggestion?’
‘Jake’s looking for a lodger. It’s a bit more of a commute for you, and you’d have to share a house with Jake, but he’s not terribly hard to live with. For the right person, he would probably charge a reasonable rent without needing a massive deposit … I’m surprised Marty didn’t mention it to you, to be honest.’
That sounded promising. She didn’t know Jake that well, but if both Marty and Mal liked him, he must be okay.
‘You’ll have to do a few bits for Maureen, the neighbour,’ Mal carried on. ‘Nothing too onerous. Feed the dog if Maureen’s in hospital, that sort of thing. She’s quite nosy, but very nice. Maureen, I mean, not the dog.’
It sounded great so far, nosy neighbour notwithstanding. And she’d see a lot of Mal if she was living with Jake. She looked down. Was this too easy? Was she taking stuff handed to her on a plate again? When she glanced up at Mal, she could see the worry on his face. Just because she didn’t want help from her parents, didn’t mean she couldn’t accept help from a friend. He wasn’t solving her problems for her. He was telling her about a room that was available at a rate she could afford. It was information.
‘Yes. Thank you. I’d like to see the room that Jake is wanting to rent out.’
The relief was obvious in Mal’s expression. Was she that scary? ‘I’ll give you his number. You can arrange it,’ he said. ‘Have you got a pen?’
She passed him her notebook and pen.
‘He’s been looking for a while,’ Mal said, as he wrote. ‘He hasn’t found a person he liked the idea of sharing with yet.’
Elodie smiled. ‘Hopefully, he’ll like me.’
Mal passed the notebook back and smiled, making the whole shop feel brighter. ‘I think he will. I mean, I like you.’
She moved closer. ‘Yeah?’
He grinned and put his warm hands on her hips. ‘Yeah. I like you a lot.’
She giggled and kissed him. ‘Oh. What was the second thing?’
‘Oh. Yes.’ He took a careful step back. ‘I know you’re staying with Marty, but … would you like to come round to mine tonight? After work. No pressure to stay over. Just … it would be nice to—’
She pulled him closer again. ‘Yes. I would like that very much.’ This time the kiss lasted a little longer.
The sound of the door made them step apart. Mal cleared his throat. ‘I’ll see you later.’ He nodded to the customer and rushed off back to his shop.
The customer looked at the counter and made a disappointed face. ‘No scones?’ he asked.
‘No. I’ve sold out, I’m afraid. Can I interest you in a cupcake instead?’
He nodded. ‘Can I ask,’ he said, ‘are you the lady from the wedding TikTok?’