Chapter11
‘Ah, Miss Bligh,’ boomed Big Frank. ‘Good morning. I hear you were out on the town with that nephew of mine last night.’
‘You can’t do anything round here these days without someone knowing,’ Star said grumpily, standing at the counter and staring at the menu. She had a headache and felt out of sorts.
‘Don’t tell me he’s upset you already?’ Frank carried on refilling the coffee machine.
‘No, he hasn’t upset me,’ Star said ruefully. ‘Quite the contrary.’
‘Grand, grand. Ah, here comes that Kara Moon now.’
Kara pushed open the glass door, bringing in with her a gust of wind and a scattering of leaves. ‘Bloody hell,’ she gasped, ‘if I’d realised it was this windy, I’d have worn a hat.’ She patted down her unruly ginger curls and made her way to the counter to stand beside Star.
‘Want a coffee?’ Star asked her. ‘And I’m having some toast to settle my stomach. I had two large glasses of dry white wine last night and I feel really dodgy this morning. Have you got any paracetamol, mate?’
‘Two glasses, that’s an aperitiffor me.’ Frank put two slices of brown bread in the toaster.
‘May I have a large toasted crumpet with strawberry jamand clotted cream, please?’ Kara took her coat off and threw it on the nearest table.
‘Kara, did you really say clotted cream?’ Star had gone pale. ‘It’s eight o’clock in the morning!’
‘Oh, no – is it really? I didn’t realise dairy products cared what time they were eaten,’ Kara said cheekily. ‘I’m enjoying my curves now, doncha know.’
‘And so you should be, you scrumptiously voluptuous woman. I’ll get this.’ Star put her card against the contactless terminal. ‘Being such a Skinny Minnie has its own disadvantages. I’m sure that’s why I feel the cold so much, you know.’
Big Frank laughed to himself behind the counter. He would never understand women and their incessant worries about weight.
‘I’m hungry for badness this morning and I’m even more surprised you weren’t last night.’ Kara lowered her voice. ‘I know it was dark, but he’s fit as a butcher’s dog’s dog, isn’t he? I love my Billy, but bloody hell, that Conor issuper-hot.’ She handed Star a box of Nurofen.
‘All right, calm down. Thank God you’re having a crumpet, or you might internally combust.’ Star made a fuss of taking one of the tablets as Kara went into inquisition overdrive.
‘I want every detail. Is he as good as he looks? Is he funny? More importantly, what do you reckon? Was it a date? Do you fancy him? And the biggest question of the lot, do you want to shag him? I can’t imagine for one microsecond that’s a no!’
‘Bloody hell, Kar, give me a minute.’ Star shoved in a piece of the brown toast and Marmite that Frank had just delivered to their table. It was not until she had finished hermouthful that she blurted out, ‘To begin with, quite honestly, if he had said he wanted to have sex in the toilet I would have considered it.’
‘I knew it!’ Kara shrieked.
Doing his best not to listen, Big Frank carried on cleaning the coffee machine.
‘But hang on,’ Kara continued, ‘when I saw you, you scampered off like a frightened rabbit.’
‘Right – yes. Truth is, I was SO pleased to see you and Billy.’
Kara stared at her. ‘Why? You’re not making any sense now.’
Star tried to explain. ‘I don’t want to just jump into bed with someone. You know what I’m like usually, I don’t even like opening my legs for a smear test.’
At this, a now grimacing Big Frank hotfooted it through to the back kitchen while Kara put her crumpet back down on the plate.
‘And look what happened with Jack when I shagged him after ten minutes of meeting.’ Star went to take another bite of her toast. ‘He cleared off, used me! And despite all that, and ignoring my messages, he has been etched on my mind ever since.’
‘Jack was different though,’ Kara said gently. ‘He had a girlfriend; it was what is known in the trade as a one-off shag.’
‘You don’t know that.’ Star became agitated.
‘Oh, mate, please don’t tell me he is the reason you are hesitating.’
‘OK. OK. I thought of himagainlast night.’ Star confessed miserably. ‘And it gets worse. When I got in, I was a bit drunk,’ she made a little groaning noise, ‘so I emailed him.’
