Page 37 of Summer at Croftwood Cinema
‘Okay. I’ll make it. Go on then, tell me what happened at the site meeting.’
‘They showed me the back door and my god, Pats, it’s going to be amazing.’ His eyes were shining with excitement. ‘It slides back and the light turns the whole place into something different. It’s better than I could have imagined. I know I’m getting ahead of myself but I think we should have a party when it’s finished for our friends in the town, you know, the other traders and anyone else we can think of.’
‘That’s a great idea. Like a soft-launch thing?’
‘Exactly. So we can see how it functions as a space for events before we start marketing it. I mean, the cinema stuff is easy but the rest of it, it’s hard to know how it’ll work.’
‘The more I talk to Ed about it, the more I realise how naive we are about the cinema stuff.’ Patsy finished making the coffees and they sat down at a table near the counter. It was quiet and although there were customers in there, they were all happily enjoying their own coffees, so they could take advantage of the lull.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, for one thing, they stopped making actual films for projectors like ours a few years ago. There’s only been the odd one since then and that was only because the directors insisted, so you can get a recent Quentin Tarantino on 35mm film but not much else.’
‘Oh, right. I didn’t know that.’
‘Me neither. But you can get classics. We probably need to pitch ourselves as a cinema that shows retro films, which is good because it means we’re not competing with the big cinemas in Worcester.’
‘That could work. How classic are we talking?’
Patsy shrugged. ‘I think maybe seventies and eighties could be a draw but they were still producing plenty of 35mm films in the nineties too.’
‘I wonder whether we ought to think about retro as a more general theme for the place as a whole?’ They’d talked about this before when they were deciding on the finishes for the interior with Matt. There were a lot of original features from the 1920s but even more from the 1980s so they were going to try and strip it back to whatever they could that was truly original.
‘Hmm, I’m not sure the seventies or eighties have design aesthetics that are going to lend themselves to a cinema, and tempting food offerings from either decade are probably limited, if we’re going down that road. I think we should stick to the plan we had of decorating it with a nod to the twenties, when it was built. You know, make the most of the original features that are left and food-wise, come up with a very simple, strong menu. We don’t want to restrict ourselves by being too themey.’
‘Okay, agreed. I don’t like the idea of a theme either but I wondered if we should go all in to make ourselves stand out.’
‘Didn’t Matt say something about how the building shouldn’t be the thing that defines the place? It should be remarkable in an understated way that let’s everything else we do shine.’ It was hard to believe that not only was she quoting Matt as the font of all knowledge on building design, but she must have been listening to him at some point and remembered what he’d said.
‘That makes sense. I do remember that conversation now you mention it. Actually, I was thinking of taking Amy to a cinema in Birmingham which does something similar to what we’re trying to do. Why don’t you and Ed come too? We can make a night of it, stay over somewhere.’
It was ages since Patsy had been anywhere like that and the thought of going with Ed was exciting. A night out together in Birmingham would be a nice break from the norm. She hoped he’d be up for going as a foursome and as he already knew Oliver was easy to get along with, she didn’t think he’d object. Hopefully Amy would manage to join in and relax as well.
‘That sounds like a great idea. A research trip! Has Amy come round to the idea of the cinema now?’
‘Well, not exactly. I’m hoping a jaunt to Birmingham might soften her up so there will have to be quite a lot of non-research mixed in,’ Oliver grinned. ‘Check with Ed and I’ll book something up. If we could do a Saturday night that’d be easiest. We could leave right after we close and I’ll see if Jack’s around to work the Sunday here.’
‘Perfect. I’ll ask Ed tonight.’
Since Ed had spent the night at her flat, they’d spent almost every night together, at hers or his, depending on what they were doing. To start with, Patsy had worried that they were taking things too quickly but she soon came to realise that she wanted to see Ed as much as she could and it was daft to worry about abstract ideas of how much was too much time to spend together. The fact was that she’d spent so long being alone, that it felt very different now to hardly be by herself at all, and she loved it. Getting away for a night in a hotel together would be a wonderful treat. She was sure that Amy and Oliver would want some time to themselves as well and she would enjoy sharing her favourite places in Birmingham with Ed. She hadn’t been back there since she’d left her job three years ago and despite everything, it held some good memories for her. It could be like a little test to see how it felt to mingle her new life with a bit of the old.
She put her hand in her apron pocket and fingered Toby’s business card. He hadn’t been in the coffee house for a few days which was unusual and so she hadn’t called him in case he was away or something. But it was weighing more heavily on her, especially because she hadn’t told Ed she was still married. She needed to find out what her options were before she created a huge drama about something when it might not be necessary. Maybe it was possible to get a very easy, quiet divorce. She had no idea, and until she did she was best keeping all of that to herself.
That evening, Patsy was in her flat alone. She’d expected Ed to come over after work but after their conversation about the trip to Birmingham, she’d told him in the nicest way possible, not to bother.
She had texted him at lunchtime to ask if he’d be up for the Birmingham trip and he’d sent her a cryptic text saying that it was ‘logistically tricky’. It had sounded like an excuse, but rather than let it balloon into something from nothing, she’d called him.
‘Don’t get me wrong,’ he’d said, which straight away made her think that he was about to offend her, ‘I love staying at yours and having you to stay at mine but I’m getting behind on work and I could do with the weekend to catch up.’
‘I’m not going by myself and playing gooseberry, it’s meant to be the four of us. And the cinema we’re going to sounds amazing, I thought you’d love that.’
She heard him sigh and rolled her eyes as she waited for him to speak.
‘That does sound good. Could I come perhaps for the Saturday evening and get the last train back to Worcester? You can stay the night though.’
‘It’s hardly worth coming if you’re going to get the last train, Ed. Look, if you’re struggling to keep up with work, you should have said. We don’t have to spend every night together and even if we do, you can still get on and work, or whatever. I don’t mind.’
‘I’m just feeling a bit overwhelmed, I think.’
