Page 29 of The Pop-Up Cake Shop

‘Glad you like them.’ Ivan glanced over at the cakes in our van. ‘Now, how about we get down to the serious business of the day. Food. I’m starving.’ He winked at me, his eyes sliding briefly to my ample cleavage in the low-cut top. ‘Hey, is it me or are the stall-holders at this market getting more attractive all the time? What do you think, boss?’

I wasn’t going to wait around to see his boss’s reaction. I needed to put this ‘apology’ bouquet in the van. So as Ellie served him, I pulled up the zip of my jacket as far as it would go and hurried away.

‘Great pair of doughnuts!’ said Ivan.

His remark stopped me abruptly in my tracks. ‘Ibegyour pardon?’ I spun round, ready to show my complete disgust at such a puerile and really very sexist comment.

But Ivan had his back to me and was pointing at the jam-filled sweet treats in Fen’s bakery tray. ‘I’ll take them both, please. I’m a hungry lad and my meat and potato pie will barely touch the sides.’

‘Certainly,’ said Ellie, popping the doughnuts into a bag for him. She smiled at Caleb. ‘I saw you interviewed on the local news about this eco homes project of yours. It sounds amazing.’

‘Thanks. I can show you around one of the houses if you like. Next time you’re here, maybe?’

They continued chatting away, completely oblivious of me standing there, feeling like a complete pillock for having jumped to the wrong conclusion. I scurried off and hid behind the van. On reflection, I doubted even Ivan would be so crass as to judge my ‘doughnuts’ in public!

As my face furnace gradually cooled down, I dumped the carnations on the passenger seat and comforted myself with the fact that they clearly hadn’t heard my embarrassing exclamation of disgust.

Back at the serving end of the van, Ivan had gone but Caleb was still droning on about his eco project. Was Ellie really interested? Or was she only being polite to a customer? I just wished she would stop encouraging him, then hopefully he might go away.

‘Right, thanks for these.’ He smiled warmly at Ellie, holding up his bag of goodies. ‘I’ll leave you to your other customers.’

His smile froze slightly as he turned to me. ‘Sorry about Ivan. He’s got a good heart but he doesn’t have much of a filter.’

‘That’s okay.’

His lips twitched suspiciously. ‘He’s right about your doughnuts, though.’

With that, he turned and strolled off, giving a nearby stall-holder a friendly wave and a hello.

Ugh, so hehadheard my reaction to the doughnuts comment!

I stared after him, my cheeks glowing with a mixture of annoyance and humiliation. Why did everything about that Caleb person and his prehistoric sidekick make me feel so...rattled!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Since I’d returned from New York, I’d had a few missed calls and texts from Richard, which I’d just ignored.

I reckoned he’d be feeling bad about the way things ended and probably wanted to ease his conscience by explaining himself. But I told myself I wasn’t interested in his grovelling apologies.

Part of me, though, was burning to hear what he had to say for himself.

I hated to admit it, but there was a black hole in my life where our relationship used to be and even though I despised him for what he’d done, I couldn’t help feeling empty and sad thinking about our wrecked future.

His texts kept repeating the same thing – that he just wanted to talk to me. But I was determined not to answer. He really didn’t deserve a response from me.

But then late one night when the phone rang and Richard’s name flashed up, I finally gave in to temptation and picked up. (I’d had several glasses of wine and was feeling lonely and very sorry for myself.)

‘Katja. How are you?’

‘Fine.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Absolutely hunky dory.’

A pause. ‘Are you really fine, though?’

I’d snorted. ‘Oh, sorry, was that the wrong answer? Am I supposed to be feeling sad and alone without you and drowning my sorrows in a bottle? Well, if that’s what you were hoping for, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed.’ I glanced at the almost empty wine bottle with a grimace.

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