After glancing over her shoulder, Teresa laughed. ‘Aw, I can’t believe I’m missing her first day back. I’ll go and have a quick chat before I go through to the kitchen. Just give me a shout if you hear Elsie screaming with exasperation.’
‘Haha, I will.’ Merri grinned as she watched Teresa head towards the bakery counter before turning around and picking up the tray laden with used crockery. Elsie referred to the people who worked here and who had volunteered here in the past as her bakery family, and from what Merri had seen, that’s exactly what they were, family. They may not be blood-related, but the family unit was as strong as though they all were.
‘Was that Teresa?’ Brooke emerged from behind the large Christmas tree and called towards Merri.
‘Yes, they’ve popped in for snacks for the car.’ Merri tilted the tray, trying to shift the weight of the crockery into the middle to make the load more balanced.
‘Ooh, I’ll pop over and say hi then.’ Frowning, Brooke pulled a strand of silver lametta from her hair.
‘Wait, you’ve got another piece...’ Merri nodded towards Brooke’s right shoulder. ‘On your shoulder.’
Craning her neck down, Brooke plucked another silver lametta strand from the wool of her jumper before twirling both pieces around her fingers. ‘Thanks, wouldn’t want to drop any of that stuff into a pile of pasties or something.’
‘No, imagine plucking that from between your teeth.’ Merri laughed.
‘Haha, exactly.’ Grinning, Brooke headed towards the bakery counter.
Turning towards the coffee and cake counter, Merri checked there were still no new customers before heading towards the kitchen. If she could get the empty tables cleared and cleaned before the lunchtime rush, she’d feel as though she were on top of things. Glancing towards the left, she spotted a lone mug on the table closest to the Christmas tree. She could probably fit that one on the tray.
After walking across to the table, she balanced the tray on the edge of it before stacking the mug on top of a plate and straightening her back again. She’d wiped the table down when she’d dropped these off. Just as she began to walk towards the kitchen again, she felt the toe of her trainer catch on something and lurched forward, the mugs and plates teetering on the tray. As she tried to steady herself, she realised that whatever she’d tripped over had now wrapped around her trainer and, against all her will, she felt herself losing her balance. As she fell, she lostgrip on the tray, and the crockery landed with a clatter in front of her. Throwing her hands out to break her fall, she felt dregs of coffee, hot chocolate and tea spraying down on her as a large thud sounded behind her followed by a series of smaller thumps and clangs.
She heard a couple of screams as chairs were pushed back, their legs scraping across the black-and-white tiles of the bakery floor.
What had she done? Groaning, she rocked back on her ankles and forced herself to look over her shoulder. The Christmas tree! That had been what the loud thud had been. It had tilted precariously, saved by the table beside it. Leaning heavily against the table and chairs, it tilted precariously, an inch or two away from having fallen completely. From what she could see, no one was hurt. The table having saved the tree from falling complexly had also saved the customers sitting on the next table from ending up crushed by the weight of the top branches, being able to walk away unscathed, albeit with pine needles in their lattes.
A shiny red bauble rolled towards her, coming to rest beside her foot. What had even happened? She’d felt something tug on the toe of her trainer; she must have got caught on something, which had then resulted in this chaos.
She felt the stark heat of embarrassment sweep across her face as she heard footsteps rushing towards her.
‘Merri! Are you okay, Merri?’ Tilly raced towards her behind the bakery counter, shortly followed by Teresa, Brook and Diane.
‘What was...?’ The kitchen door swung open as Elsie emerged, her face ashen as she hurried forward. ‘Merri, Love. Are you hurt?’
Fighting back the urge to cover her face with her hands, cry or leg it out of there, Merri nodded instead. ‘I’m okay. Sorry, I...’
‘Oh, love, I don’t need your apology, I just need to know if you’re hurt or not.’ Kneeling beside her, Elsie looked at her, concern etched on her face. ‘Are you sure you’re not hurt?’
‘No, I’m really not. I’m okay. I don’t think the same can be said of your tree though.’ She grimaced as a group of people, Brooke, Diane, Teresa, Tilly and the customers who had been in the bakery at the time gathered around her.
‘Elsie, where’s the blue icing?’ Pippa’s voice rose above the chatter as she forced her way through the group of people before coming to a stop in front of Elsie and Merri. ‘Oh, Santa’s not going to be very happy.’
A wave of laughter swept across the crowd and, despite her dented, not cratered, pride, Merri joined in, and as Teresa turned and ushered Pippa back into the kitchen, the crowd began to disperse. She must remember to thank little Pippa before she left for her holiday.
‘That’s it. Give us some space. Diane, you go and carry on serving before we end up with a queue a mile long, and Brooke and Tilly, you set the Christmas tree right.’ Standing up, Elsie waved her hands in various directions, dispersing the crowd, and slowly the customers went back towards the bakery counter to wait to be served whilst the people who had been sitting headed back to their tables, the show over.
‘We’ll help you with the tree.’ Nick and Gabby got to work setting the tree back up.
‘Thank you, loves. Now that’s being taken care of, Tilly, can you go back and help Diane, please and, Brooke, love, can you get this lovely pair a couple of fresh drinks, minus lametta and pine needles, please?’ Elsie indicated the couple who had narrowly escaped being squashed by the tree.
‘Coming right up.’ As she hurried towards the coffee and cake counter, she paused in front of Merri and held her hand out. ‘Do you want a hand getting up?’
‘Thanks.’ Taking Brooke and Elsie’s hands, Merri let herself be pulled to standing before she smoothed down her bunched apron. She felt it. She could feel wet patches from the spilt drinks on her jeans, and the palms of her hands hurt from the fall. She hardly dared look around and really take in the mess she’d created.
The kitchen door was pushed open, and Pippa peered out into the bakery. ‘Nanna Elsie! nanna Elsie! The oven’s beeping.’
‘The pasties.’ Glancing from Merri to Pippa and back, Elise frowned.
‘You go. I’m fine. I’ll get cleaned up here.’ Merri forced a smile.
