Page 60 of Summer at Croftwood Cinema
‘That’s okay, it’s out of your way, Ed. I can walk her home.’
They said goodbye to Ed and Oliver who began walking back towards town together.
‘It isn’t on your way, is it?’
‘Not really,’ he said, turning to grin at her as they began walking. ‘But for some reason I wasn’t ready to say goodnight.’
Patsy’s eyes widened as she stared ahead. ‘To me?’
‘Mmm. It was fun tonight, mainly because of you.’
He was right, it had been fun. Even when she’d half expected him to produce a fistful of safety goggles once they’d started hacking at the banister, he’d looked like that was the last thing on his mind and it was refreshing to see him outside of a work situation again. Very much like the last time he’d walked her home, in fact.
‘I do enjoy larking around on a roll of carpet,’ she said, laughing.
‘You constantly surprise me, Patsy.’
Again, his words hit her unexpectedly. This time she waited quietly to see what he said next.
‘The cinema is going to be incredible. Your vision is beginning to shine.’
Patsy began to say that it was Oliver as much as it was her, even Ed was playing a fairly major part in it but Matt held up his hand to stop her.
‘No, you have to take the credit for how it’s coming together. That’s all you.’
‘And you didn’t think I could do it?’
He was looking straight ahead, walking with his hands in his pockets and she liked the way his eyes crinkled at his temple as he smiled.
‘Perhaps I under-estimated you.’
‘Perhaps you did.’ She tucked her hand into the crook of his arm because at the very least, they were friends now.
26
PATSY AND OLIVER decided to head to the cinema with coffee and cakes to plan the programme for the cinema opening. Now that Jack was a master barista, they felt comfortable leaving him to it and able to relocate somewhere other than the flat upstairs.
They sat in Patsy’s favourite spot, on the circle balcony which still wasn’t furnished so the appeal was a little lost on Oliver as he didn’t find the smell of new carpet as delicious as Patsy did.
‘Comfy?’ he asked, leaning against the back wall with his laptop resting on his stretched-out legs.
‘Yes, thanks.’ Patsy was lying on her back, reading a list of films which were available from the British Film Institute. ‘What do you think we should do? Run the same film for a week at a time?’
‘Well, that’s what everyone else does, isn’t it? I wonder if it makes more sense from a technical point of view.’
Patsy rolled onto her stomach to look at Oliver. ‘Maybe. I know the film comes in reels and has to be put together so I guess that takes time and you probably don’t want to be doing that every day.’
‘Okay, so let’s assume a film a week. We’re opening four nights a week, agreed? Thursday to Sunday,’ said Oliver.
‘Agreed. And I guess we close the cinema on nights when we have a function booked. As long as we advertise it properly and far enough in advance, it shouldn’t be a problem. Maybe we could do reduced rates for booking a function on a Monday to Wednesday?’
‘Good idea. Right. So what else?’
Patsy took a cake from the paper bag of goodies that they’d brought with them. ‘I’ve had some ideas about what we can do during the day. It doesn’t have to be every week, that might be too much, but what about a session for parents and their babies and toddlers? We can keep the lights up a bit, show a kiddies’ film and have coffee and cakes for the mums and dads.’
‘That’s genius, Pats. I love it. I wonder if we can easily show one film in the day and another in the evening?’
‘My limited technical skills suggest yes. I reckon you could have a film on one of those massive reels, put the other film onto another massive reel and you’re sorted. You could just swap them over, with some help, I think it’d be pretty heavy. And we’d have to buy another massive reel because we’ve only got two.’
