Page 39 of Summer at Croftwood Cinema
‘True. So are you and Ed excited about the weekend?’ Jess asked with a knowing look that told Patsy she’d dropped her in it on purpose .
‘Ed? Who’s Ed?’ Sue was so keen to know that she’d put her knitting down.
Patsy explained. There was no point trying to keep anything secret from these women, up to a point.
‘How romantic. There’s something about Croftwood Cinema,’ said Penny. ‘Me and Jeff met there, you know. He was working in the box office and I used to go to every Saturday matinee with my friends, it didn’t matter what the film was. It took him months to ask me out.’
‘That’s so lovely, Penny, and a great idea. We need to do that, have a Saturday matinee for kids. There’s nothing for them to do in Croftwood when they’re early teens and it always made me feel so grown up going to the cinema without my parents,’ said Patsy, the idea forming as she spoke, knowing she must remember to tell Oliver.
‘You have so much to do before you open, Patsy. A little break will do you the world of good,’ said Mary.
‘I am looking forward to having a change of scenery, it’ll be a real treat.’
‘It will,’ agreed Jess. ‘I’m sure it’ll be good for Oliver to have a proper break from work for a couple of days as well.’ She knew too well the pressures of owning your own business.
‘I can’t remember the last time I went to Birmingham. I used to love going to the museum and art gallery.’
‘As well as the cinema, Oliver’s planned a few other places to check out. There are some bars which he thinks we could take inspiration from.’
‘Sounds like that’s code for a bar crawl.’
‘It could be.’
‘I’ve met someone too.’ Jess had waited until the other women were talking about something amongst themselves on the other side of the table.
‘That’s great,’ Patsy said, knowing that Jess had had a series of unsuccessful Tinder dates. ‘From Tinder?’
‘Yes, is there any other way?’
‘Honestly, I have no idea but I didn’t think Tinder was coming up with the goods for you.’
‘Neither did I! But he messaged me and was very flattering and very persistent but good-looking enough to get away with it so…’
‘Have you seen him yet?’
‘Not yet but we’ve been talking. I really like him.’ Jess had a slightly dreamy look on her face.
‘Well I hope it works out.’
Patsy waited until the very last minute to leave the shop that night, putting off the moment she would have to walk home alone. When Jess began locking the door, it seemed weird to still be hanging around.
‘Thanks for waiting around to lock up with me,’ Jess said. ‘It gives me the willies having to do it when it’s dark and so quiet out here.’
‘Oh, that’s okay. Where are you parked?’
‘The other side of the church.’
‘I’ll walk with you.’ It sounded benevolent but it meant that she’d have someone to walk with almost half of the way home. And she highly doubted that even if Dan was watching her, he would have hung around for hours waiting for Knit and Natter to finish. So although it was the first walk home alone in the dark since it had happened, she felt okay about it.
When she got in, she locked the door behind her and realised that despite the reality that it was unlikely Dan would have followed her, she’d been almost holding her breath since she’d left Jess at her car. But at least she’d done the walk home alone and that was a step back to normality. Ed wasn’t going to be there every night and she wasn’t sure she wanted him to be. She could do this. She was ready to navigate her life knowing that Dan could play some kind of part in it at any time. It wasn’t what she wanted but she could accept that she couldn’t move on without dealing with it.
The next morning at the coffee house, Toby was back. It seemed like fate that Patsy had resolved to move on and face her past just as he was back to hopefully help her do it.
‘Morning, Toby,’ she said as he walked in with his bag slung across his shoulder as usual, looking a little more relaxed than he normally did. He’d probably been on holiday.
‘Morning guys, I’ll have a latte, please and one of these pain au chocolats. They look huge and very tempting.’
Jack was sharing the shift with Patsy to give him a bit more confidence before they left him by himself on Sunday while they went to Birmingham, so he busied himself making Toby’s coffee.
