Page 6 of Summer at Croftwood Cinema
‘Oh, for sure. I think we need to keep anything that gives us that nostalgic vibe, unless it’s something naff from the eighties.’ He turned off into a side street and pulled up outside a Victorian semi. ‘Here we are.’
Patsy grabbed her bag and followed Oliver up the path. He let himself in.
‘Ooh, you’ve already got your own key. Nice.’
Oliver rolled his eyes but he looked pleased. ‘Well, it made sense.’
‘Hey Amy!’ he called out.
Amy came into the hall. ‘Oh Patsy, were we expecting you?’ she asked, pointedly looking at Oliver and making Patsy cringe for him.
‘My heating’s broken down and Ollie kindly offered me a bed for the night.’ Anything she could do to help Oliver out in the face of this uptight excuse for a loving girlfriend. He threw her a look of gratitude.
‘Hope that’s okay Ames,’ he said, attempting to placate her with a kiss and receiving a reluctantly offered cheek. ‘The spare room’s opposite the top of the stairs if you want to take your bag up, Pats. Make yourself at home.’
’Thanks.’ She headed upstairs, hearing Oliver and Amy move into the kitchen with the beginning of a conversation about however was Amy going to stretch a two-portion risotto three ways, with Oliver patiently suggesting garlic bread from the freezer before the door closed behind them.
The spare room was pretty sparse, a double bed upon which Patsy dumped her bag before taking her coat off, a chest of drawers and a bedside table. Patsy opened a drawer. It felt nosey but it wasn’t as if it was Amy’s bedroom, that would be a step too far. It was full of neatly folded clothes which wasn’t that surprising since Amy never seemed to wear the same thing twice. Although to be fair to her, she would have had to make room for Oliver’s clothes in her wardrobe so perhaps she had been kind by moving some of her things out.
She looked in the other drawers to find them all filled with more clothes, a couple of drawers of bikinis and other summer holiday paraphernalia. She was killing time, conscious that she ought to give them a few more minutes alone before she ventured back downstairs.
‘Glass of red?’ asked Oliver, beginning to pour before she’d had chance to even utter the words, ‘yes, please.’
‘Thanks for inviting me to stay, Amy. Your house is lovely.’
‘You’re welcome,’ she said, as she busied herself with chopping a lettuce. ‘It’s no fun having no heating, even in March.’
After a delicious dinner of butternut squash risotto with a colourful side salad and garlic bread, they headed into the lounge with their glasses of wine and the rest of the bottle. Amy crouched down by the fireplace and began to light the fire. Patsy mouthed, ’Tell her!’ to Oliver, who was sat opposite her on the other sofa. He nodded vigorously, looking very sincere, yet said nothing.
‘What was that auction like that you went to the other day?’ Patsy asked, giving Oliver a determined look while he responded by shaking his head and waving an arm until Amy turned around.
‘Um, yes, it was interesting.’
‘Did they sell the old cinema in the end?’ Amy asked, sitting on the sofa next to him and laying her hand on his thigh, making Patsy want to childishly mime sticking her fingers down her throat, but she resisted.
‘Well, actually,’ Oliver began with a laugh that was far too jovial, ‘I ended up bidding for it.’
‘Good one,’ said Amy with a giggle, obviously thinking he was joking.
Patsy was starting to enjoy herself. She shouldn’t be pleased seeing her friend squirming like this as he attempted to confess that he’d made a fairly big decision without even mentioning it to his girlfriend of three years, but she was and it was his own fault he was in this situation.
‘No, really Ames.’ He gulped the last of his wine down and refilled his glass without offering either of them any.
‘But we’re business partners, Oliver.’ Amy’s tone was as pinched as her face.
‘In the coffee house, yes but you don’t want anything to do with running it any more so I didn’t think you’d be interested.’
‘You could have asked me.’
Now, she sounded hurt and Patsy couldn’t help but sympathise with her. Oliver should have spoken to her about it, even if it was to explain that he wanted to go it alone.
‘I’m sorry. It was a spur of the moment thing. If you want to come in with me on it, you’re more than welcome.’
There was silence. Patsy wondered whether it would be strategically best to say goodnight and head upstairs but she felt that Oliver probably still needed whatever moral support he could get to dig himself out of this hole.
‘Blimey, Ollie, that’s crazy!’ she said, trying to convey that the news was a surprise and that she thought it was a bit bonkers, to make it a more realistic reaction. As soon as it came out of her mouth she realised it sounded like she was on Amy’s side.
‘My thoughts exactly, Patsy,’ Amy said, confirming her suspicions. ‘Buying somewhere like that on a whim…what were you thinking? We don’t have the money and you don’t know anything about refurbishing something that size. It’s one thing tarting up a high street unit to be a coffee shop,’ Patsy willed Oliver not to correct her and say it was a coffee house. ‘And quite another taking on an entire building which has lain derelict for years and years.’
