Page 46 of Summer at Croftwood Cinema
Patsy agreed but quietly resolved to find some way of helping him.
When he’d dropped her off at her flat, she booted up the ancient laptop and dragged a chair out onto the roof terrace. She got changed into leggings and a sweatshirt which was warm enough to keep the late spring chill off, put some sunglasses on her head and stepped out of the window, laptop under her arm and a cup of tea in the other hand ready to do some serious research.
She had skills. She’d been a good software engineer three years ago and although things moved fast in that industry, she knew she had a sound, if rusty knowledge base. Could she take on a contract? Something she could work on in the evenings for a couple of months, maybe that would be enough money to see Oliver through.
There were a few websites she remembered where short-term software engineering contracts were posted but there was nothing that she thought would be doable at the right price in the tight timeframe they had. Then, when she went onto a Reddit thread which she thought might have some more leads, she struck gold.
Bug bounty hunting.
Ethical hackers could attempt to hack into a company’s website and if they managed to, would flag up to that company how they did it, and potentially then be paid by an organisation grateful that an ethical hacker had got there first, highlighting a potential way for a real hacker to get in. It was perfect because she could do it in any spare time she had, there was no expectation from anyone because you could just dip in and out, start a new hunt if you hit a dead-end but the pay could be huge. It might take some time to hone her skills because being a software engineer didn’t give her the same skills she would need to be a hacker, but she wasn’t starting from scratch. She was excited. She’d finally, hopefully, found a way to help Oliver without having to disrupt her life and without anyone knowing what she was doing. It was the perfect solution.
20
NOT LONG AFTER their visit to Birmingham, Oliver announced that it was time to confirm their plans for the interior of the cinema so that everything they wanted to do could be incorporated into the design and they wouldn’t waste money by changing their minds for lack of a definite idea.
Patsy and Oliver headed over to the cinema after work and sat on the floor at the front of the stalls with the plans before them and an array of paint, wood and flooring samples. Ed was upstairs working on the projector having complied with health and safety by texting her first. They hadn’t talked properly since Birmingham and Patsy was hugely relieved that Ed was willing to put their problems aside for the good of the cinema. Early on in the process, she’d realised that the putting back together of the projector was something she wasn’t going to be much help with and now he was at that stage, it was easy to feel released of the obligation to help him.
‘I think we should go for wooden block worktops everywhere,’ said Oliver, indicating a picture of a bar which looked like it could be a direct relation of the coffee house.
‘I think we should have either polished concrete or resin. If we went for resin, we could embed some actual celluloid film into it, it could look really cool. And it’d be easier to keep clean than wood.
‘I quite like that idea,’ Oliver said thoughtfully. ‘You’re right, wooden top on a bar probably isn’t great unless it’s varnished to within an inch of its life. And resin would be cheaper than polished concrete.’
‘And less industrial looking. We’re not going for that are we?’
All they knew was that they weren’t going for swirly patterned carpet and velvet curtains. It was a decision that had been made quite quickly after their night out in Birmingham. It had to look like more than an old-fashioned cinema. Both of them knew what it shouldn’t look like but the vision of what it should was evading them at the moment; it was a wisp of an idea that neither of them could capture.
‘No, I don’t think so. But also, we need to steer clear of the traditional red velvet look that all cinemas had in the eighties. The cinema in Birmingham hadn’t managed to shake off that image and I’m not sure it worked as retro, it just looked old-fashioned.’ Oliver looked at Patsy, gauging her reaction.
‘I know. I feel mean thinking that because I loved what they were doing in terms of the offer, but it looked like no-one had thought about how the place looked at all. If nothing else, that weekend made me realise what we shouldn’t do.’
‘I wonder whether we should settle on a colour scheme. That might help us make some decisions.’
‘Well, definitely not black and white or anything like that. And I think we agree on nothing too cinema-ey and traditional,’ she smiled. ‘I like the idea of mustards, oranges, greens, like a seventies palette?’
Oliver raised his eyebrows in a manner that Patsy knew meant that hadn’t occurred to him, but he thought it was a decent idea. ‘Hmm. I quite like that. He swiped through the paint samples. ‘This sort of thing?’
‘More like this sort of thing.’ Patsy toned down the brightness of his choices. ‘And we could use this dark wood laminate for the counters and cupboards and shelves which would look really cool.’
Oliver started to look excited. ‘And what about this flooring for the backstage bit behind the screen?’
‘Hey, that’s what we ought to call that space!’ Patsy said, excitedly. ‘Backstage at Croftwood Cinema!’
‘That is perfect! Nice one Pats.’
After another hour of brainstorming, during which time they’d hopefully made enough decisions for Matt to be satisfied they wouldn’t hold up the work, Ed appeared and offered to order pizza for them all.
‘I need to get off, actually,’ said Oliver, tactfully. ‘I’ll leave you to it. You okay to get home, Pats?’
She nodded, willing Ed not to offer to walk her.
After Oliver had left, they made small talk about the progress with the projector until the pizza arrived, then they sat cross-legged on the floor, across from each other with the open pizza box between them.
‘So have you made any decisions yet?’ Ed asked between mouthfuls. ‘About the decor,’ he clarified, gesturing towards the paint samples with his slice of pizza after seeing the look of panic cross her face when she thought he was referring to their relationship.
‘We’re getting there,’ she said. ‘I think Oliver’s taste is basically what you see in the coffee house so veering him towards something that’s not a carbon copy of that is a bit of a challenge.’ She smiled.
‘That wouldn’t be the worst thing you could do,’ said Ed with a shrug. ‘I like the coffee house.’
