Page 66 of Big Nick Energy
‘Mint choc chip?’ a voice suddenly pipes up. I freeze but it’s a female voice so I turn around curiously. Behind me is a lady with a fur cape draped over her shoulders, her hair pinned back in a bun, furry boots on her feet. She looks like a villager fromFrozen, I feel like she’s about to sell me ice.
‘Natalia!’ Lucy says, reaching over to hug her.
‘Natalia, this is Kay, a friend of mine and Kay, this is Natalia North – Nick’s mother,’ she says half smirking.
I take a deep breath. What is it with the Nicks’ parents sneaking up on me this week? I don’t quite know what face to pull, what emotion to go with as I’ve had indecent thoughts about her son so seeing her kindly face in person feels slightly wrong.You’re tiny but you have the same green eyes as your boy.She’s wearing a long embroidered skirt as if she’s going to lead a folk dance and bake me some pretzel. I never met her the day I stopped at his house. I saw photos, and she is how I imagined, this little matriarch that probably has all that family under her spell. I immediately want to hug her.
‘You are the book lady,’ she says, an Italian accent shining through.
‘I guess I am. It’s lovely to meet you,’ I say, smiling. So she knows about me too. I wonder how much I have featured in the family gossip channels.
I see her scanning my face, and she grins broadly; there is no judgement there or at least none that I can see from her eyes, just joy that she’s got to meet me. ‘Bella…’ she mutters under her breath. She puts a hand to my face and then reaches into a pocket to get her phone. ‘Why is my son keeping you waiting? Silly boy. I text him now.’
‘Oh no, I’m early. It’s been nice to catch up with Lucy, to be fair.’ I look down to see her screensaver is a photo of her with all her kids, Nick may even be smiling, his arm tightly around his mother’s shoulder.
‘Thank you for getting my boy out there and doing this with him. I know his face doesn’t always say it but he’s a lovely boy really. He says he enjoys your company,’ she informs me.
‘He can be super grumpy, Natalia,’ Lucy comments.
She tuts. ‘Oh shush, he cannot change his face. He is a brooding, serious boy. That can be a good thing. You don’t want a complete joker in your life, all of the time.’
‘I do,’ Lucy says, putting her hand in the air. Natalia narrows her eyes at her then looks back to me. There is something about her that is fizzing and excitable so I will assume Nick doesn’t get his dour exterior from her.
‘You like cannoli?’ she asks me.
‘I do.’
‘Then I will make you a box. Nick says you have a long night ahead so you will need your energy,’ she says. Naturally, this makes Lucy snort quietly with laughter, raising her eyebrows at me. I shake my head at her.
‘You like mint choc chip, we do some fudge with that flavour and maybe we can see what paninis are left too. We’ll put together a care package,’ she explains. ‘Lucy, do your job,sweetie. Wave to the people,’ she says, blowing her a kiss as she links an arm through mine and drags me away. I look around, still no Nick in sight, but hell, I don’t think I mind this. There is a lovely embracing energy there that reminds me of Nana, and which is sorely missing from my life sometimes. We walk along a wooden boulevard that winds around these log cabin buildings outside the farm and she looks at me, her eyes almost sparkling.
‘You have lovely skin, sweetie. What do you use?’
I smile at her questions – all at once nosey, if a little maternal. ‘Actually, for a moisturiser, the blue Nivea in the tin. It’s what my nana uses and she passed down that skincare tip to me.’
Natalia throws her hands up in the air, almost as if she’s praising someone. ‘This is what I use too. It is the best, my daughter uses all these expensive things with gold and frog juice and honestly, it does nothing. You always lived in London?’
‘Born and bred. You?’ I ask.
‘Oh, I was born in Milan but I met an Englishman and he stole my heart so I moved here in the nineties. I met a farmer, can you believe it? My mother always said, marry a doctor, a pilot, an accountant, but I married a man who sells trees.’ She puts her hand out to indicate the farm, to the pine trees in rows, still waiting to be claimed.
‘It’s a unique business,’ I say.
‘It is, but you know why I fall in love? I think it takes a special man to nurture and care for something so it grows. It takes light and love.’
I like how we’ve just met and she tells this story with such fondness and affection. Is there a hidden meaning there too? Possibly. But you have to love a mother who bigs up her own son like this.
‘So you’ve been together long?’ I ask.
‘My love, he passed six years ago. My Norman.’
‘I am very sorry, I didn’t know,’ I say, a little worried I’ve upset her.
‘It’s good to talk about him. It keeps him alive for me,’ she says, holding a hand to her heart to reassure me. She pushes at the door of the shop and leads me in, and I’m immediately hit by a gush of warm air, a spiced, sweet scent. I’d only been in Nick’s office before so this place had passed me by, but I grin widely at how homely and gorgeously festive it is. It’s draped in red and white Scandinavian-style decorations, panettones stacked in one corner, touches of festive everywhere from jars of jams to gingerbread, to those freshly baked mince pies Nick once told me about. I look around at the decorations, customers sifting around the tables with wicker baskets filled to the brim with parcels and boxes wrapped in ribbon and twine.
‘You like my shop?’ she asks.
‘It’s beautiful,’ I say, still awestruck by the charm of it all.
