3. Thora
THORA
‘ T hese look delicious, Ellie,’ Thora said as she picked up the tray of mini mince pies. Ellie had decorated them with white icing and holly leaves and berries made of coloured icing.
‘Thanks, Thora.’ Ellie was rolling pastry on the large rectangular island in the kitchen. A hairnet concealed her dark hair, and she wore a white apron over her clothes. It was a chilly November day, but the kitchen was warm and Ellie’s cheeks were rosy.
‘I’ll take these out and come back and help you.’
Pearl had an appointment this morning, so it was just Thora and Ellie running the café.
While Ellie had stayed in the kitchen, Thora had been out front serving customers.
They’d had a breakfast rush, then a quieter hour, but now she had three tables of customers to serve and some had requested items from the festive menu.
She pushed open the door with her foot and went through to the café, then set the tray of mince pies on the counter.
She served the waiting customers, then went about making their drinks.
After she’d delivered them to their tables, she returned to the counter and picked up the tray of mince pies.
Ellie had said they could hand them out as complimentary treats this morning to see how they went down.
Carrying the tray with both hands, she crossed the café and started offering them to customers, making conversation with regulars as she went around. She’d just finished speaking to the couple at the table with the leather sofa when she heard the front door opening again.
‘Be there in a moment,’ she called over her shoulder.
When she’d checked that everyone sitting at tables was happy with their food, she went back to the counter.
There were two men waiting, so she walked around them to get behind the counter, but the taller man turned just as she was passing, and his elbow caught the tray.
She lost her balance as she tried to right the tray, but it slipped from her grasp and flew up into the air, then dropped to the floor.
‘No!’ she cried out as the tray clattered on the floorboards and mini mince pies rolled off in all directions.
‘Shit! I’m so sorry,’ the man said as he realised what had happened. ‘Sorry! I meant, damn .’
Thora crouched down and started picking up bits of pastry and blobs of icing and putting them on the tray.
She was so busy tidying that she didn’t look up at the man who was responsible for making the mess.
When she’d retrieved as much of the butchered pastries as she could, she grabbed the tray and stood up.
Her hands were sticky, her hair had fallen forwards into her face and she could feel sweat trickling down her back.
‘What a waste,’ she said as she stared at the mess on the tray.
‘I’ll pay for them,’ the man said. ‘That was totally my fault and I am terribly sorry. Oh … Uhm… Hello.’
Thora raised her eyes, and her heart skipped a beat.
The blond hair was shorter.
The face was fuller.
There were fine lines around the eyes that hadn’t been there before. But they were the same eyes — as blue as cloudless summer skies. And they were filled with surprise, just as she knew her own eyes would be right now.
‘Lucas.’ His name slipped from her mouth like a sweet caress, followed by a soft sigh.
‘Thora.’ His lips quivered slightly as if he found it difficult to say her name, even though he’d said it many, many times before.
‘Will you two quit staring at each other like love’s young dream and get an old man a drink?’ Eddy Grant cackled as if he’d said the funniest thing ever and Thora shook herself inwardly then hurried around the counter.
‘I’ll be with you in a moment … I just need to wash my hands.
’ As if to show why, she held up one sticky hand, then she backed through the door to the kitchen, her face flaming with shock, embarrassment, and something else.
Something she couldn’t even remember how to name anymore because it had been so long since she’d felt it.
‘What happened?’ Ellie stopped cutting circles in the sheet of pastry and looked at the mess on the tray. ‘Are you all right?’ She dusted her hands on her apron then placed a floury hand on Thora’s arm.
‘I … I don’t know, to be honest.’
‘You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.’
‘I … I kind of have.’ Thora shivered.
Ellie peered into Thora’s eyes, touched the back of a hand to Thora’s forehead. ‘You’re roasting. Let me get you some water.’
‘There are customers waiting.’
‘I can do that. You need to take a break and drink some cold water. I hope you’re not coming down with something. There are lots of winter bugs around right now.’
Ellie took the tray from Thora, ushered her to the island and pulled out a stool, then made her sit down.
While Ellie washed her hands and filled a glass with water, Thora tried to slow her heartbeat down.
She couldn’t believe that Lucas was here in the café, the village, Cornwall.
She hadn’t seen him in years and hadn’t thought she would see him again, so seeing him here today was a complete shock.
‘I’ll go and serve, then I’ll be back to check on you. Gran won’t be late back, I hope, but if you need to go home, then you should.’
Thora sipped the cold water. ‘I’ll be all right in a bit.
I just had a shock when Luc — the man — bumped into me.
’ She found she didn’t want to say his name out loud again because it wasn’t easy feeling it on her tongue, the way the L made her tongue touch the roof of her mouth and brush against her front teeth.
The way the U made her mouth pout as if for a kiss.
The hard C and then the lingering S. She had loved saying that name once upon a time but then it had become synonymous with pain and heartbreak, and so she’d stopped herself saying it, had pushed it to the back of her mind and the bottom of her broken heart.
‘You do look shocked.’ Ellie nodded. ‘Drink that water and I’ll be right back.’
Ellie went through to the café and Thora sipped the water and tried to think about other things. Tried to focus on what she would do later when she got home.
His eyes were the same yet different, like he’d been through a lot since you last saw him.
Run a bath, grab a new book, soak in the bubbles…
He had some grey in the hair of his sideburns. Did you see how it glinted in the light, making him look distinguished? Age has improved him.
Soak in the bath, then dry and moisturise. Put on your favourite fleecy pyjamas, go downstairs and pour a glass of wine.
His jaw was so square, his shoulders so broad. Did you notice how he still has the scar above his left eyebrow where he caught it while surfing the summer he turned eighteen?
Turn on the TV and find a new drama on Netflix. Something gritty and not at all romantic.
Lucas was romantic. Remember how he used to bring you roses he’d grown in his parents’ garden?
How he cut a pink one, tucked it behind your ear, and then told you he’d love you forever.
How he took you to your favourite spot in the woods where he’d sprinkled rose petals on the ground and set out a picnic for your seventeenth birthday.
How he made you feel like you mattered and swore he’d love you forever.
Thora snapped herself back to the present. Pressed the cold glass to her face, then drained it, feeling the water’s chill spread through her.
And he’s out there right now in the café!
Lucas.
The man she’d once adored.
And he was with his father, Eddy Grant. The man who’d often mocked them for being so much in love and who’d often irritated a teenaged Lucas to the point of utter frustration.
Lucas had never bitten back at his father even when he’d been fit to burst and had shown enormous self-control.
But it had been hard, and Thora had struggled too.
She’d loved Lucas and wanted to be able to love him without shame or harassment, and sometimes his father had made it challenging for both of them.
Now Eddy Grant was an elderly man and very altered.
Not that she’d seen him for some time either because he kept to himself these days, but back then he’d been young and filled with self-confidence bordering on arrogance.
It wasn’t until she’d known more about him that she’d understood why he was the way he was.
Deflection, some might call it. And when Lucas had found out, he’d been furious with his father but also torn because making a fuss would have risked upsetting his mother and that was the last thing Lucas had wanted.
And so, heading off to university had been a blessing for him in more ways than one.
But now he was back after a very long time and Thora wasn’t quite sure how she felt about it.