Page 19 of The Pop-Up Cake Shop

‘The Future is Female.’

I felt a surge of empowerment just looking at it. And after the devastated way I’d been feeling over the past few days, I’d grab at any ounce of power that came my way.

On a whim, I smiled at the assistant and added the pink brooch to my haul of treasure.

Thanks, Richard!

CHAPTER NINE

The lunchtime rush was dying down when Fen appeared in the café.

She gave me a look of such deep sympathy I felt the tears well up.

Hurriedly handing over change to the last person in the queue, I turned away, not wanting customers to think I was sobbing into their coffee. It was that look of sympathy. It did for me every time.

A second later, I felt Fen’s hand on my shoulder.

‘Oh, Katja. I’mso sorry. I don’t know what the hell my stupid brother thinks he’s doing. He’ll never find anyone lovelier than you.’

I turned with a sheepish smile. ‘Well, apparently he has, and she’s called Emily.’

Fen shook her head in disbelief. ‘Well, it didn’t take her long to get her claws into him. He’s hardly been there any time at all.’

‘I know. But actually, she seems nice.’

‘Really?’ She looked at me in surprise.

I shrugged. ‘She was almost as angry as I was when she found out he hadn’t ended things with me before he got together with her.’

‘Right.’ She nodded. ‘So there’s trouble in paradise over there already?’

‘Maybe.’

‘He’s going to realise he’s made the biggest mistake of his life soon enough.’ She rubbed my arm encouragingly. ‘I’ll bet you anything he’ll return next month wanting you back.’

‘Well, we’ll see.’ I gazed at her doubtfully. It wasn’t just that I doubted Richard would want me back. It was that I doubtedwhetherI’dactually wanthimback after everything that had happened.

‘I’m in your corner, Katja. Just so you know. My brother’s an idiot and I’ll be telling him that next time I talk to him. I honestly don’t know what’s got into him since he started that high-flying job. Sometimes I don’t even recognise him anymore.’ She drew back and looked at my girl power brooch, pinned to my shirt. She nodded approvingly at the message. ‘The Future is Female. I like it. It’s onwards and upwards from here, Katja. Okay?’ She tapped the brooch and we exchanged a wry look.

I was so grateful for Fen’s support. You needed your friends so badly at times like these. But the last thing I wanted was to be the cause of a rift between sister and brother. So I nodded and said, ‘I know Richard went about things the wrong way, but maybe he did me a favour.’

She frowned. ‘Afavour?By having you fly all the way over to New York, only for you to find he’s met someone else?’

‘I know. That was despicable. But the thing is, we’d kind of drifted apart lately, Richard and I, so... maybe in a weird way him meeting someone else was the best thing that could have happened? There’s nothing sadder than being in a relationship that isn’t working but clinging on because you’re scared of what lies on the other side.’

‘That’s true,’ Fen agreed. ‘Hey, you’re in great shape emotionally if you’ve already worked that out. Good for you, my darling.’ There were tears in her eyes as she drew me into a hug. ‘Better dash. I just wanted to make sure you were all right. Rob’s babysitting the twins and he’s a bugger at giving them sweets to get them to behave.’ She grinned. ‘But listen, if you need someone to talk to, please don’t think that just because Richard’s my brother, you can’t come to me, okay? Because he’s well and truly off my Christmas card list for some time to come.’

We exchanged a smile as she left, and I really did feel better, knowing Fen had my back.

I’d been putting on a bit of a pretence of feeling okay for everyone, including Fen just then. But the truth was, a few days after arriving back from New York, I was still in bits beneath the surface. Everything at home seemed to remind me of Richard and the good times we’d had together, and it was all too easy to slide into desperate mourning for what-would-have-been. (Although at such times, I only had to recall that horror show on top of the Empire State Building to turn things around in my mind.)

But however badly Richard had behaved, it didn’t mean I didn’t miss him terribly. We’d been planning to buy a house together. Now, I had no idea whatsoever what my future looked like, and that was quite scary.

But at least I hadn’t given up my own flat and moved into Richard’s place.

And I was very grateful for my job in the café. It was such a good distraction. Without it, I’d probably be sitting at home endlessly wondering what I did wrong to make my relationship go down the pan.

Ellie herself had been brilliant since I’d returned broken-hearted from New York.

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