Page 46 of Twilight at Croftwood Library
When the doorbell rang the next morning, Lois ran down the stairs wondering why he didn’t just use his key.
‘Hi… oh, hi.’ It wasn’t Alex. Instead, Rich stood awkwardly on the doorstep holding Alex’s key out to Lois.
‘He couldn’t face it. Are you okay if I pick his stuff up?’
‘Yes, of course. Come in.’
Together they carried Alex’s things out to Rich’s car. Lois was upset at how badly Alex was taking her decision not to get back together.
‘Is he alright?’ she asked Rich once he was ready to leave.
Rich shrugged. ‘I don’t know. He hasn’t said much but I think he’s only just realised what he did by moving to London. You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone, and all that.’
‘Right. Thanks for doing this, Rich. I think it’s for the best, for both of us.’
He nodded, gave an awkward wave and got into the car.
Lois sat on the sofa and was momentarily surprised when she began crying. The whole thing was overwhelming. She hadn’t cried when Alex had broken up with her, at the time it had even felt like a relief. But now, she was sad for him that he had finally realised what a grown-up relationship might look like, and it was too late. At least now she knew what she wanted even if she couldn’t have it. What she’d had so briefly with Oliver had made her sure that she and Alex weren’t right for each other and in time Alex would realise that too.
26
Rosemary had done a fabulous job of spreading the word about the library’s Christmas light switch-on competition. The lights were officially going to be switched on at 5 pm but all day there had been a steady stream of people coming into the library, not just children taking part in the competition.
Linda had made what seemed like several hundred gingerbread reindeer biscuits which they had put on festive paper plates and dotted around the tables and Lois had bought a flask of mulled wine with her for them to share later in the day to make it feel like they were part of the festivities even if they couldn’t all leave the library to go and join in properly.
There were plenty of children taking part in the competition and so far, it was going very well. Lois had hidden fifteen children’s books on different shelves throughout the library. The children had to find them and write down the name of the book they’d found. To make it fair, Lois had three age categories. The under-fives had to find five books, the under-tens ten books and fifteen for anyone ten and over.
The books had been hidden high and low within the shelves of the library and Lois had made a careful note of the position of each to make it easy to retrieve them afterwards. A couple of them were very tricky to find and Lois privately thought she would give an extra prize to anyone who found those particular books. Rosemary had amassed prizes from local businesses who had donated selection boxes to book tokens to cinema vouchers and Lois was thrilled that they had been able to pull off an event which had captured people’s interest.
The donation bucket on the top of the information desk was visible to people as they came in and Linda said she’d seen someone drop a five-pound note in there which was thrilling for all of them. They had an identical bucket at Oliver’s and another at the Tourist Information Centre, and the Library of the Year competition flyers had been dropped to lots of places around the town too.
Lois hadn’t seen Oliver since the day after she’d come across Amy crying. She had been thinking about him and wondering if he was okay. When there was a lull in visitors to the library after lunch, Lois decided to pop into the coffee house to see how he was. She took coffee orders from Rosemary and Linda to make herself feel better about leaving.
The high street was closed off to traffic for the day and people were milling around, enjoying the festive feel of the town. There was a craft market along one side of the street, in front of the church where there was a gap in shopfronts. Stalls were selling high-end hot dogs and burgers and the delicious smell of them, mingled with the aroma of mulled wine drifted towards Lois making her determined to sample something from them later on.
Oliver had decorated the coffee house with tiny white fairy lights, filling large jars with bundles of them as well as having them strung around in between the plants and other paraphernalia on the shelves and walls. It looked so pretty. Lois looked through the window and could see Oliver and Patsy behind the counter, chatting to each other as they worked.
She walked in and was greeted straight away by an exuberant Patsy. ‘Lois! What can we get you?’
‘A skinny latte and two cappuccinos to take out, please.’
‘Coming up,’ said Patsy as she busied herself with making all three drinks at once, waving Oliver away with a flap of her hand.
‘How’s it going at the library?’ he asked.
Lois was pleased to see he was his normal smiling self. ‘It’s been quite busy. The competition seems to have been a hit and we’ve seen a few people donate money into the bucket so yes, we’re having a good day. How about you? The place looks great, by the way. I love all the lights.’
‘Thanks, got to make an effort to be festive,’ he said, sounding as if perhaps it had been quite an effort. ‘It’s been really busy, and we’ve seen plenty of pound coins going into your bucket.’
‘Great. And are you okay?’ She hoped she was conveying her concern as she looked at him.
Panic flashed across his eyes, but he said, ‘I’m great, thanks.’
‘He’s been under my feet all day,’ said Patsy as she placed Lois’s drinks in a holder and handed them to her. ‘Take him with you, he needs some fresh air. Go on!’ She gave Oliver a playful shove to which he rolled his eyes and grabbed his coat from the back of the door which led up to the flat.
‘Come on then, I’ll treat us both to a mulled wine. I’ve been tempted by the smell every time the door opened today. One for you, Pats?’
‘No, me and Matt are going later,’ she said, nodding towards a table where the blond man Lois remembered from the backstage bar at the cinema, was chatting to one of the coffee house regulars, Toby.
