Page 3 of Could It Be Magic?
Nick watched Thea suppress a sigh. ‘Oh, all right then. But you’ll have to share them with your sister.’
‘Thanks, Mum!’ Dylan gave a gap-toothed grin.
Thea finished the mince pie and turned back to the counter. She looked a little unsure of herself again, and Nick wondered why.
‘Is there something else I can help you with?’ he asked.
‘Well, yes, actually,’ Thea replied. ‘I, er, I haven’t done this before, but there’s this app… Too Good To Throw? You guys have just registered on it, and I’ve reserved a Throw Bag?’
Nick tried to hide his surprise. Thea hadn’t ever struck him as the penny-pinching type. Then, he checked himself – just because someone took advantage of a good offer on an app, didn’t give him the right to judge.
‘Sure,’ he said. ‘Bear with me – we put the bags together about an hour ago and they’re just out the back. I’ll pop and get you one.’ He hurried out to the area beyond the shop floor where there were six Saints’ Farm carrier bags already assembled and being kept cool in one of the fridges. He’d put them together himself, and all had a selection of chilled and baked goods that were expiring today. Glancing inside the bags, he looked for the one that had an extra Chelsea Bun in it – there’d been one spare, and rather than pinch it himself for after dinner, he’d shoved it into a bag. There were three in the bag in total, as well as a bottle of milk, a loaf of bread and a couple of swedes, again from a local organic farm. On impulse, he grabbed a box of the mince pies and popped them in, too. His dad wouldn’t approve of the freebie, but he wanted to give Thea another reason to smile. She looked as though she needed one. As he brought the bag back through to the counter, he wondered what was on her mind.
‘Here you go,’ Nick said, putting the bag with the marshmallows. As he rung up the discounted price, he noticed the pint of milk Thea had nipped off and got while she’d been waiting. ‘No need for that, unless you’re going to be using a lot over the next couple of days,’ he added. ‘There’s a four-pint bottle in the bag.’
‘Oh, that’s lucky.’ Thea smiled more convincingly this time. ‘I, er, I only popped in for milk, really, but the Throw Bag seemed like a great idea.’
‘Well, I hope you can make use of what’s in there,’ Nick replied. ‘I hope you like swede!’
Thea grinned. ‘Funnily enough, I suspected there might be one in the bag. I’ll have to look up some recipes.’
‘Well, let me know how it turns out.’ Nick smiled back at her. ‘See you soon.’
As Thea turned to leave, Dylan was already reaching for the marshmallows, and Nick couldn’t resist another grin. He remembered how his mother used to tell him he ate the family out of house and home when he was that age, and it seemed as though Dylan was going through the same stage.
‘I’m going to start bringing in the baskets from the front,’ he called to Annabelle as he caught sight of her out the back. ‘It’s already getting dark.’
‘OK,’ Annabelle called back.
Nick sauntered to the front door and towards the baskets of fruit and veg on the far left of the shop’s generous frontage. It was a job that kept him fit, bringing them out and then back in again every evening, so he couldn’t really complain about it. And if anyone needed an emergency sack of spuds before closing, they were just inside the front door.
The car park was empty apart from Thea’s Volvo, and Nick found his eyes drawn to her as she put the shopping in the boot and then slid into the driver’s seat. Hefting a basket of carrots off the wooden units that sat outside the shop, he brought it inside and then walked briskly back to collect the next one. He noticed that Thea was still sitting in the car but assumed that she was talking to Dylan. He grabbed the next basket of veg and stacked it carefully on top of the first one.
On his third trip outside, he looked briefly towards Thea’s car again. She still hadn’t moved. Perhaps she was checking her phone before she left? By the fourth trip to the front of the shop, he wasn’t so sure. When he chanced another glance towards her, he noticed a look of upset and frustration on her face and watched as she hit the steering wheel with her right hand. Shaking her head at Dylan, she appeared to be trying to turn the ignition key, but the Volvo’s engine just spluttered and died, rather than firing into life. As she got back out of the car, he could clearly see how worried she looked.
3
Great. That’s just great. Swallowing back the urge to let rip with all the swear words she knew, and kick the car in frustration, Thea made do with leaning against it instead. Fuel tank roulette had finally failed her. The irony of this situation, after what had happened between her and her ex so many years ago, was too irritating to be entertaining. Ed had risked a lot more than an empty fuel tank when he’d gambled away their savings and they’d had to sell the house they’d bought. Somehow, by playing the fuel tank game, it felt as though someone up there was laughing at her. But, whichever way she gave herself a bollocking, it wouldn’t solve the immediate problem. The car really was empty, and didn’t even have enough fumes to catch from the ignition. And she’d not renewed her RAC membership to cut costs.
‘Mum? Are we going home?’ Dylan’s voice cut through her annoyance, and she turned and gave him a quick smile.
‘In a sec, darling. Just got to sort something out.’
It was five miles to the nearest petrol station. In resignation, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialled her grandmother’s number. Lorelai lived in a charming cottage on the other side of Lower Brambleton and hopefully would be able to give her a lift to the pumps. She hoped a few litres of diesel, plus, irritatingly, a can to put them into, wouldn’t set her back too much. So much for saving money with the Throw Bag – that saving would now be cancelled out immediately.
Lorelai wasn’t answering her phone. As she ended the call, Thea realised that her grandmother had mentioned she was heading into Taunton to do some Christmas shopping that afternoon, and she huffed in frustration. Perhaps her twin brother, Tristan, could help? Another flare of frustration hit her when she remembered that he was working on a project on the other side of the county and so wouldn’t just be able to drop everything and help her.
Who else was there? Charlotte, Tristan’s partner, might be working from home today. Charlotte was a historical astronomical archivist who was based at the University of North West Wessex in Bristol, but she often chose to work from the house she shared with Tristan on the outskirts of Taunton. Hurriedly, she rang her.
‘Oh God, I’m so sorry, Thea,’ Charlotte said once Thea had filled her in. ‘I’m at the archive today so I won’t be back until after six o’clock. Have you tried Tristan or Lorelai?’
‘Gran’s shopping and Tristan’s on that job two hours away, isn’t he?’
‘Oh yeah.’ There was a pause. ‘Will the RAC come out for no fuel?’
Thea didn’t want to admit that she’d cancelled her membership, and that she wasn’t sure they’d come out for that, even if she hadn’t.
‘Look, keep me posted,’ Charlotte said. ‘I’ll see if I can get off work a bit early and get over to you.’
