Page 47 of The Pop-Up Cake Shop

‘We are indeed.’ She craned her neck to look up ahead as we drove along. ‘He’s coming this way. Can you slow down so I can speak to him?’

‘Now?’ I felt a weird panicky fluttering inside. ‘But we need to get parked.’

‘I’ll just be a second.’

She was already winding her window down and Caleb was strolling towards us, hands in the pockets of his pale jeans,looking the epitome of a self-assured and confident site boss – with, I decided, a smidge of arrogance in his expression.

I felt my mouth twist sourly. At least Ivan was funny.

Caleb was just . . . boring.

I pretended I was studying something important on my phone while Ellie made arrangements with him, and eventually she wound up her window.

‘Sorted?’ I asked, as if I hadn’t heard every word of their conversation.

‘Yup. He’s got something to do but he’s happy to show me around in a little while.’

‘Right. Good.’ I drove on, ignoring Caleb as he waved. (I wasn’t being rude. He was waving at Ellie, not me.)

I parked in our usual spot, and I told Ellie I would open up. I thought she was looking a little pale and tired, and unusually, she didn’t put up a fight when I suggested she should rest in the van for a while.

It seemed like I’d only just opened the van doors when a little queue of customers appeared so I got straight down to work serving them. The angel cakes were proving popular this week, and as I popped the remaining two into the last customer’s box and waved them off, I heard a familiar voice behind me say, ‘I’m not going to ask how your doughnuts are this week because I don’t want to get banned.’

Turning, I gave Caleb a fake smile.

Grinning, he said, ‘Can you tell Ellie five minutes?’

I was about to retort that he could tell her himself – she was feeling tired and having a little rest in the van – when I suddenly heard someone calling my name.

When I looked up, to my surprise I saw Mo hurrying towards me.

‘Kats! Glad I caught up with you. Slept in this morning. Bit of a hangover. Missed your Henley Green stop altogether. SoI decided to hop in the car and come to the market to give you some support.Women Rule!’ she shouted, raising her fist in the air and almost knocked a passing man’s glasses off in the process. ‘We females have to support each other, Kats.’ She flicked a snarly look in Caleb’s direction. ‘Otherwise, what chance do we have against this creeping plague that’s the patriarchy?’

‘Er, well... yes, of course.’ I nodded, not altogether sure what I was agreeing with.

Caleb was just standing there, hands in pockets, observing Mo in all her flamboyant pinkness. (She was sporting a bright pink T-shirt today with a slogan declaring ‘The Sisterhood Rocks!’)

She scowled at Caleb again, as if he was something nasty on her shoe (I supposed hewasa man, after all), then she turned her back on him and nudged me gleefully. ‘Guess what? I’ve done the deed. I told you I would. I’ve actually paid to have Gaz’s bollocks chopped off!’ She gave a maniacal laugh, sounding like all three of Macbeth’s witches rolled into one. ‘How bloody brilliant is that?’

‘Right.’ I flicked a look at Caleb. But Mr Cool as a Cucumber’s expression hadn’t flickered one iota. ‘Gosh, so how much did that cost you?’

‘Oh, money’s not important,’ she chided me. ‘To be honest, Kats, I’d pay an awful lot more than I did just to get my own back on that man, the nasty, cheating scumbag. I’ll give you the number of this place. In case you decide to treatyourex to a bit of the old hack-em-off treatment?’ She grinned. ‘You’ll be hacking him off in more ways than one. Boom boom. Love it!’ She chuckled at her own joke. ‘By the way, I really enjoyed yesterday. So when’s the gang getting together again?’

My head was swimming. But to my relief, Ellie appeared at that moment, which spared me having to continue chatting to Mo while Caleb was standing there, taking it all in.

He’d probably already written me off as bolshy and humourless. But now, after Mo’s chummy chat, he’d have me down as a crazy man-hater into the bargain.

‘Right. Shall we go?’ He smiled at Ellie.

She nodded. ‘Great. Okay, Katja?’

‘Of course. Enjoy.’ I didn’t mean to sound sarcastic but I had a feeling I did.

Caleb raised his eyebrows at me. ‘Nice to see you again,Kats. I’ll leave you with your... interesting friend.’ He grinned over at Mo, who had her head stuck in the back of the van, trying to decide which cake to buy.

‘It’s not how it sounds,’ I told him hurriedly. ‘We’re not really a group who go around... um... chopping things off.’

‘Right.’ Smiling, he leaned closer. ‘Nonetheless, I’ll keep things covered when she’s around. Just in case.’

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