Jim laughed. He climbed up the stepladder and fastened a red fringed lightshade in place. ‘What do you think?’ he asked, dusting his hands together.
Lottie came downstairs, and she and Greta gathered beneath the lightshade, looking up.
‘Hmm. The big gold chandelier at the Anvil Inn made more of a statement,’ Lottie said before breaking into a grin. ‘Only joking . . . this one looks great.’
Jim climbed back down the ladder, looking pleased. ‘Good.’
Greta took off her apron and folded it into a small square. She reached out and plucked a shaving of wood from Jim’s hair, then pointed out to Lottie that she had a smear of paint on her cheek.
The Perks weren’t the family they’d once been—the glossy version who made you think drinking coffee could make your life perfect. But who needed that kind of pressure anyway?
Greta now thought that love and acceptance weren’t about trying to recreate the past—they were about finding a way to move forward together. No promises. No guarantees. It would take time to figure things out and for them to follow new paths, but they were all willing to try.
‘I think we’re finished here for today,’ she said, picking a fleck of paint out of her own hair. ‘How about we go and grab a coffee? My treat.’
‘Sounds perfect,’ Jim replied.
The three of them walked through the park together, the tips of their noses shining red from the crisp January air. The snow had cleared, leaving only traces of white in the flower beds where snowdrops were beginning to push through.
Greta wasn’t entirely sure where they were heading, so it wasn’t a surprise to find themselves veering in the direction of Iris’s coffee shop.
As Christmas and New Year had come and gone, Greta had found herself thinking about the unusual coffee shop less and less. Any side effects from Iris’s coffee had faded. But as she drew closer to the place, anticipation stirred inside her. Would the shop still be there in all its eccentric glory? Or would it appear run-down and unloved?
‘Remember that flyer in my car promoting the perfect blend?’ she said to Lottie. ‘It was for a coffee shop around here.’
Lottie peered along the street. ‘Yeah? Where?’
‘You’ll see,’ Greta said, eager to show Jim and Lottie the inspiration behind Brewtique’s new décor.
As they approached the space between the launderette and newsagent, Greta slowed her pace. She let out a sharp, disbelieving laugh.
‘What’s so funny, Mum?’ Lottie said, looking around. ‘There’s nothing here.’
Greta stood still, taking in the desolate area. Iris’s coffee shop was nowhere to be seen.
Jim’s jaw hinged open as he scanned around, too. ‘But that’s not possible,’ he said. ‘The building was right here.’
‘I know,’ Greta said quietly.
‘Oh, come on,’ Lottie said with an exaggerated shrug. ‘I know you guys are actors, but this is ridiculous.’
‘Ex-actors,’ Greta corrected her.
The three of them stared at the patch of deserted ground. Weeds had taken over, and a broken bike lay abandoned.
‘What was the perfect blend anyway? Lottie asked. ‘Some kind of fancy coffee?’
‘Something like that,’ Greta said. ‘If you drank it, it made your wishes come true.’
Lottie burst out laughing. ‘Now you’re just making things up.’
Greta paused. She supposed it did sound like a fairy tale. She would never have believed it herself if she hadn’t experienced it.
‘Are we going somewhere else for coffee?’ Jim said, eyeing the space with a shiver. ‘This feels even weirder than last time.’
Greta wasn’t quite ready to leave yet, or to accept that Iris and her shop had completely vanished. She gazed around one more time and noticed something fluttering—a piece of paper trapped under a stone. Stepping closer, she picked it up. It was a faded flyer with a faint illustration of a white rabbit. The space for the address was blank, perhaps washed away.
She handed it to Jim, and he shook his head with a frown.
