“Sure, if you have time, that would be great. I’m in the James Barrie Arcade.”
“Lovely. You can show me around your very own shop.” She smiled really hard at him.
Ryan smiled back, and she wondered if he could still read her like he had when they were kids. Did she want him to?
“Sure. I’ll be happy to show you around.”
“I think I hacked your friend off,” Warren said when Ryan had left. He grimaced. “Sorry. I say stupid things when I’m flustered; it’s a terrible trait for a journalist.”
“Why were you flustered?”
Color filled his cheeks. “I thought maybe you and he…” He was awkward now, and it sent Fred into a fast melt. “I got the impression that there might be something between you, and felt like I was maybe treading on his toes, and I…I don’t know, I panicked. I didn’t want to cross any lines…”
Fred smiled. “Ryan and I are old friends.”
Warren rubbed his hands on his jeans, and she wondered if his palms were sweating. She felt a bit sorry for him.
“Okay, I feel like I screwed this coffee up royally. Can we start again? I’d like another chance to talk with you where I don’t act like a giant arse.”
She laughed. “Sure, why not. Everyone deserves a second chance.”
“Thank you!” He seemed both relieved and genuinely delighted, and she couldn’t help but be flattered. “In that case, Fredricka, could I please have your phone number?”
Her smile was wide and genuine, maybe things were finally looking up for her. Her first day back in Pine Bluff and a handsome stranger had snagged her phone number.
6
After swapping numbers they headedtheir separate ways; Warren to get a feel of the area for his article, and Fred to find Coast Roast.
The James Barrie Arcade was a small cobbled courtyard accessed via an arch in the stone wall between two shops on the main high street. From the outside it gave nothing away; even the sign for the arcade was so modest that you could walk straight past and never know that, through the archway, was a cluster of the prettiest hotchpotch of shops you ever did see. Between the ivy tumbling down the walls, the generosity with fairy lights, and the brightly colored crooked shop fronts, it felt like stepping into Christmas all year round.
The air was filled with the inviting aroma of freshly roasting coffee. Fred followed the scent to a sweet double-fronted shop with bags of Coast Roast coffee, wrapped in red ribbons, nestled in wooden gift boxes in the windows. The door was open, and she stepped in behind a cluster ofFrench tourists who appeared to be buying up the shop. The walls were lined with shelves showcasing thick paper bags of coffee of various strengths and bars of chocolate from the handmade chocolate shop on the high street, Cocoa Me, specially chosen to complement each blend. A small coffee machine sat behind the counter with a stack of paper cups on top of it.
She spotted Ryan serving alongside a woman sporting a sharp black bob and perfect eyeliner flicks. They had the air of two people well used to working together, and between them they fulfilled the orders with a swift and practiced ease. Fred had a sudden yen to still be the one who knew him best. She gave herself a talking-to. It was nostalgia, nothing more. When she’d left for university, despite how they’d drifted apart those last few months, she’d truly believed they were still BFFs, that in the near future they’d pick right back up where they’d left off. But seventeen years had passed since then, and neither of them had cared to revisit their friendship in the intervening years. Despite the enticing sense of familiarity, they didn’t know each other anymore, and the thought made her sadder than she’d expected.
The crowd in the shop thinned, making the deep whirring sound of machinery coming from a door behind the counter more acute.
“Hi, can I help you?” asked the woman serving.
“Oh…um.”
Ryan looked up from his till roll at the sound of her voice.
“Fred, you came!” He smiled at her, and she felt the warmth of his greeting twinkle inside her. “Mina, this is Fred, my oldest friend…I mean, we knew each other when we were kids, we were best friends.”
She couldn’t help the wide smile spreading across her whole face. If Mina noticed, she was polite enough not to show it.
“It’s lovely to meet you, Fred,” said Mina. “Are you back in town for the holidays?”
“Ah, no, I’m staying. Temporarily. Or not. I’m in a transient phase.”
“Well, you came back at the right time. There’s nowhere like Pine Bluff at Christmas.”
“I’m starting to remember.”
“Fred, Mina is my right-hand woman. This place would go to the dogs without her.”
Mina gave him a friendly shove. “He’s lying. I am the manager, although since I’m the only member of staff I guess that’s not so impressive.”
