Page 2 of Summer at Croftwood Cinema
Oliver lived upstairs in a very masculinely-decorated flat, heavy on tweed and leather. He shrugged. ‘I’m at Amy’s most of the time anyway and lots of my stuff is there already. It’ll force me to finish the job.’
Oliver disappeared upstairs and one of their newest regulars came up to the counter for a refill.
‘Same again?’ Patsy asked.
‘Yes, please.’ Toby had spent almost every day over the past two weeks in the coffee house, sitting at his laptop with a fresh coffee every hour or so and a sandwich for lunch. He treated it like an office, although Patsy hadn’t managed to find out yet what he actually did. One of the perks of the job were the little insights you got into the lives of the regular customers and Toby had established himself as one of those relatively quickly. He always looked as if he was at work, wearing a shirt and smart dark jeans with brown leather boots, and he wouldn’t be the only customer who used the coffee house as an office. It was so cool, with its plank-top tables and trailing greenery that even a local designer held all of his client meetings over coffee and there was a woman who wrote rhymes for greetings cards, spending most of the day gazing out of the window with a pencil in her mouth. Perhaps the signs that were dotted around the place served as inspiration, Patsy’s favourite being, ‘May your coffee be strong and your Monday be short.’
‘Having a good day?’ she asked.
‘Not bad thanks. You look as if you are?’
Until he’d mentioned it, Patsy hadn’t realised that she had a big grin on her face. She was pretty excited about Oliver’s new project.
‘Oliver’s bought the cinema, the one in the park.’
‘Wow, that’s quite something. I can imagine whatever he does with it will be a real boost for the town.’
Patsy handed over his coffee. ‘For sure. It’ll be nice not to have to trek to Worcester to see a film at least.’
Toby laughed. ‘It’s only six miles, but it’s easy to forget how close it is when there’s no need to leave Croftwood most of the time.’
Although the town of Croftwood was small and centred around the high street, with the library at one end and the Post Office at the other, it had everything most people needed. You couldn’t go clubbing or eat at a different restaurant every night of the week but if you were happy with a Chinese takeaway, a couple of pubs and excellent coffee, it was perfect.
Patsy watched Toby return to his table, the laughter gone from his face almost immediately as he went back to whatever he was doing on his laptop.
She smiled. If Oliver’s vision for the cinema could match up to what he’d done with the coffee house, Toby was right, it would be brilliant for the town. And it’d be nice to have a new challenge in her own life, after three years of making coffee and keeping herself to herself, it might be just what she needed.
Once they’d closed up for the night, Patsy waved to Oliver as he drove off in his Mini to Amy’s house in Worcester, before she headed through the churchyard towards the old part of the town where she lived. The streets were tree-lined avenues and most of the houses were Victorian. Patsy lived on the third-floor of a Victorian villa conversion. The tiny dimensions of her attic flat along with the killer stairs were made up for by the flat roof she could climb out onto through her bedroom window. In the summer, the leaves of the enormous oak tree which rose higher than the house, grazed the edge of the roof and provided privacy from the overlooking windows of the neighbouring house. But despite the day having been bright and sunny, now that the sun had dipped beneath the horizon, the March evening was too chilly for her to consider climbing out there tonight.
She unlocked the door to her flat, closed it behind her and then made sure to flick the latch to deadlock it and put the chain across for good measure. Catching her reflection in the mirror, she rolled her eyes. Her thick chestnut hair was half in and half out of the bun she’d piled it into that morning and the cheap mascara she’d bought in a moment of thriftiness had migrated to her under-eye area over the course of the day. She sighed as she pulled the pins out of her hair and rubbed her fingers under her eyes. Not that anyone was going to see her, but she had principles.
Once she’d made a quick dinner of pasta and arrabbiata sauce, her absolute favourite, she put the TV on and settled in front of the latest Scandinavian boxset she was bingeing through on Netflix. She liked to have something on while she knitted, and the socks that she had on her needles were plain enough that she could knit and still read the subtitles.
Her mind was still on the conversation she’d had with Oliver. The offer he’d made her was tempting but now that she had a chance to think seriously about his proposal, the idea of getting involved in anything long-term, however exciting it might sound, frightened her. She’d known Oliver for years, since she’d lived in Croftwood as a teenager and when she appeared again three years ago, he’d given her the job at the coffee house when she’d really needed it, without asking any questions. Of course, back then he was in the first throes of his relationship with Amy and he needed someone to hold the fort for him while he attended to her demands. Patsy had never quite taken to Amy, finding her high-maintenance and an odd choice for Oliver, but they had been together for all of that time and it was hypocritical of her to think she knew any better given her own relationship history. Anyway, the job at the coffee house had been the perfect solution for both of them and Patsy would be forever grateful.
Something like this which would move her out of the comfort zone she’d built for herself was a big step. When she was at the coffee house, she was her old self; confident, feisty, Oliver called her, but it was easy with him. They were best friends and could be completely honest with each other. It crossed her mind that Amy might not like her being so involved with the project, especially when she was effectively being cut out of the deal. It would be interesting to see if that ended up being the case and a tiny part of her hoped maybe some sparks would fly. She loved a bit of harmless drama occasionally. But whatever she might think, she was happy to accept that he was happily settled with Amy and she wanted to support him in this next phase of his life.
Maybe she should speak to him, tell him why she was worried but that would mean telling him everything and no-one knew everything. Most of the time she didn’t even think about it because she’d managed to get to a place in her life where she’d started to leave it behind and if she did say yes to Oliver, it felt like she’d be cracking open the door of her fortress. Opening it even a tiny bit felt dangerous because who knew where that might lead. Even feisty-Patsy might not cope in the face of that.
2
OVERNIGHT, PATSY HAD gone back and forth, thinking over Oliver’s proposal and had eventually resolved to put aside her fears.
‘Okay, I’m in,’ she said the following morning when she arrived at the coffee house to find him arranging the pastries in their baskets ready for the early crowd.
He dropped his tongs onto the counter and hugged her. ‘That’s excellent, thanks Pats. That’s one less thing for me to worry about. I thought you’d be on board but because I hadn’t asked you before the auction and you didn’t seem that keen yesterday, I was a bit worried. I’m not sure I can do this without you.’
‘Of course you can, it’ll be much better if I’m involved though. God knows the mess you’d make of it on your own.’
He grinned and she knew it was going to be okay. He was so easy-going and had no expectations of her. She completely understood where he was coming from with the vision he had for the coffee house and she could already imagine the kind of plans he had for the cinema.
‘The first thing we need to do is find someone who can take on some of your hours here. Don’t worry,’ he reassured her. ‘I meant what I said yesterday. I’ll pay you the same as I would normally, just that some of your hours will be working on the cinema project now instead.’
‘No problem. Have you got anyone in mind or do we need to put a notice in the window or something?’
‘Rosemary mentioned that Linda’s nephew Jack is looking for some hours. He’s in sixth form so can be pretty flexible. I’ll see if we can get him in to meet us.’ Rosemary and Linda worked together at Croftwood Library and were regulars at the coffee house. ‘The other thing we need to do is go and have a proper look at the place. I’m meeting the architect there tomorrow morning. I wonder if we could get someone to cover the coffee house so you can come with me? I’d love you to be in on all the discussions right from the start.’
‘We could ask Beth. She’s back from university for reading week, I’m sure she’d fill in.’ Beth was their old Saturday girl and had left the previous summer to go to university in Sheffield. ‘I’ll text her.’
