Page 28 of The Pop-Up Cake Shop

Ivan the Terriblezipped into my mind, a memory from school history lessons. If I remembered rightly, he was a Russian tsar, full of aggression. I glanced at his namesake here with scathing disbelief. He certainly seemed to be following in the Russian tyrant’s footsteps, if his behaviour towards us that day was anything to go by. He wasnevergoing to apologise.

But to my surprise, Ivan hung his head like a puppy who’d just ravaged the new rug while his owner was out. ‘Okay. I’m really, really sorry I almost made you miss your flight.’

I gave him my frostiest look and his eyes twinkled with suppressed humour.

‘The thing is, I’m not sure youaresorry.’

‘But Iam.’ His face protested his innocence.

I shook my head. ‘I have a feeling you’re the sort of man who uses his physical presence to frighten people into getting your own way. Let’s face it, prehistoric caveman had nothing on you that day, and now of course you’re trying to wriggle out of it with “humour”. A typical man, in other words.’

‘Heissorry, though,’ said the other guy seriously.

I looked over, not sure if he was joking or not. The March sun was right behind him, glinting on the chestnut strands in his dark brown hair and I squinted a little, trying to judge if he was being serious. Annoyingly, the sun was shining right in my eyes.

He shrugged. ‘He told me afterwards he felt really bad about blocking you when it was your right of way.’

‘Well, that’s good to know.’ I eyed the foreman doubtfully. He was shorter than Ivan. Mind you,everyonewas shorter than Ivan. But he had an air of authority about him that Ivan definitely didn’t have. He was the boss, of course.

‘I’m Caleb. And you’ve already met Ivan the Terrible.’ He delivered this line with a totally straight face and I almost laughed. ‘If he says he’s sorry, he means it. He’s not great at hiding his feelings.’

Ivan shrugged. ‘It’s true. I was having a proper mare that day. My lottery numbers had come up and –’

‘Yes, yes, I’ve heard the story,’ I snapped. ‘Your wife forgot to get a ticket.’

‘My soon to beex-wife, actually. She did it deliberately to annoy me. The only upside was seeing karma bite her well andtruly on the bum.’ He grinned. ‘She’d have had two grand or so to spend on her toy boy if she hadn’t decided she’d like to piss me off.’

‘Oh, so you weren’t going to win millions, then?’

‘No, no. Just short of five grand.’

‘Oh, well, in that case, there was evenlessreason than Ithoughtfor you to be so horrible to us that day.’

I turned to Ellie and shook my head in disgust, and she gave me a bewildered smile as if to say,I’m staying out of it!

I felt my face redden. It wasn’t like me to be so openly argumentative, but these two clowns were just really rubbing me up the wrong way. It was probably a bit unfair of me, though, to label Ivan a ‘typical man’, as if all men were idiots.

It was no doubt Richard’s cheating, scumbag behaviour that had given me this temporary prejudice against the entire male sex.

When I looked back, they’d disappeared and I heaved a sigh of relief and went to serve a couple who bought two chocolate brownies and then ate them right there on the spot.

‘Delicious.’ The man gave us a thumbs-up.

‘Will this be a regular thing?’ asked the woman, casting her eye over the van and its contents with a hopeful look.

‘Yes, it will be.’ Ellie smiled at them. ‘We’re from the Little Duck Pond Café in Sunnybrook? And the Brambleberry Manor Café? So glad you like the brownies.’

‘They’re gorgeous. See you next week, then.’ She turned to go. ‘Oh, what lovely flowers!’

I turned and Ivan was standing there, holding a bunch of carnations he’d clearly just bought from the stall next door.

He handed them to me with a rueful smile. ‘Sorry,’ he said, and this time, his apology seemed real. ‘Can we start again? I’m Ivan. And you are?’

‘Katja.’ Feeling slightly overwhelmed, I took the flowers, shook his oversize hand and said in a rather stilted manner, ‘Thank you. They’re... um... very nice.’ Actually, they were a bit wilted. But it was the thought that counted.

Ivan’s boss was standing there, coolly observing us, and I suddenly wondered if maybe he’d been the one to suggest Ivan apologise with a handy floral tribute. It was such a corny gesture, though!Cheated on your wife? Give the little woman flowers and everything will be okay!

At least my ex didn’t send me ‘guilt flowers’ after I caught him with Emily at the top of the Empire State building. Not that this was a surprise. Richard had become a real tight wad!

---