The air was cold once again, as it always seemed to be in Hiraeth in January, but the sun was shining. I pulled Llywelyn’s coat around me for warmth and breathed into the scarf around my neck. I headed toward the bakery. As I approached, I saw familiar van a few shops down and my heart thudded just a little bit faster. I walked straight past the bakery and to where the van was parked.
The little shop was obviously no longer in operation, and the windows had been whitewashed on the inside. I pressed my face up to the glass to see if I could see anyone inside. Suddenly, a face appeared in my vision and I jumped back. Llywelyn grinned at me, and gestured for me to come in.
I pushed open the door, which tinkled to announce my presence. Llywelyn looked a bit grimy and sweaty, and wiped the sweat off of his forehead with one arm.
“Hi,” he said. He looked down self consciously at his messy clothes. “Sorry I’m a state, I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”
I wanted to kiss him but knew that I shouldn’t. We weren’t together or anything, it might just be weird if I did. Instead, all I could manage was a measly “you look fine.”
“Liar.” Llywelyn smiled at me, and I felt like melting. I wasn’t a liar at all, and I really was still attracted to him when he was sweating. It was the thought of the physical labour that I’d never really been able to do in my jobs.
“What you doing in here then?” I asked, looking around the dusty place for the first time.
“A bit of a project for Mr Prentis, he used to run this place and he’s hoping to sell up. Fat chance as there are no buyers around here but he’s paying me 50 quid a day to get it done.”
“Fifty?” I balked. “That’s nothing!”
“Yeah, well…it pays the bills.” Llywelyn shrugged. “That, and he’s a really nice guy. He offered a hundred but I haggled him down.”
“You…you what?” I was amazed. “What did you say yesterday about wanting more in this town? And you’re haggling peopledownin price? That’s insane.”
“Well, thanks.” Llywelyn took a sip from a bottle of water. “But that’s the way things are in a small town, you wouldn’t understand.”
“I understand needing enough money to live on,” I replied. Things had gotten frosty quite quickly, so I took on a more conciliatory tone. “I just mean…don’t sell yourself short. You’re obviously providing a valuable service, please don’t struggle to survive just to do so.”
Llywelyn was quiet after that. I took an opportunity to look around. Llywelyn had obviously been fixing some kind of hole in the ceiling, based on the ladder that he stood next to and the brown plaster above, as well as speckled on his clothes.
There was opaque tarpaulin covering what looked to be tables and chairs laid out around the walls. In the far corner was a dusty brown wooden bar, and behind it, taps and sinks.
“Was this a cafe?” I asked.
“Yup,” said Llywelyn. “Mr Prentis has run it since the 60s and struggled for years before deciding to pack it all in in the end. It was still running great, but he got old.”
“It’s gorgeous.” Whilst Llywelyn had been talking I ran a finger across the dust on the bar. The dark mahogany beneath the dust shone. “Are you done on this end? Mind if I start cleaning up a bit?”
“I couldn’t ask you to…” Llywelyn started.
“If you can use the help, I’m all hands on deck,” I said.
“In that case, there’s cleaning stuff under the sink.” Llywelyn started to climb the ladder again, smoothing down the plaster above him. I found a rag and some surface cleaners and polish under the sink, and ran the hot water.
“Who does Mr Prentis think he’s going to sell to then?” I asked.
“No idea. But half these shops have been closed down for years. The problem is we’re far from everything, and the parish council.”
“What about the parish council?”
“They hold a lot more power than the usual,” said Llywelyn. “Always have. So every time a big organisation or company tries moving in to one of the shops, the parish council blocks it.”
“So no local Tesco?”
“God no, they wouldn’t dream of it. Beca keeps saying about getting new blood into the town, but I can’t see how she thinks she’s going to get new blood in if they reject every company that tries.” Llywelyn frowned. “I just worry that by the time I’m gone, everyone else will have moved out.”
I thought back to Beca arguing with my mother when I was a kid. Was she that keen on kicking people out if they didn’t fit in with her idea of the village? I decided not to bring it up right in the moment.
The sink had filled with hot water, so I took the rag and gave the surfaces a quick run over with it, dipping it in the water every now and then and wringing it out. After my first pass over the worktop I could see that there was some beauty to be had under all the dust and the water in the sink was almost black. I was vaguely aware of Llywelyn getting his paintbrush out as I wiped it down.
I took the polish and did my best to buff the worktop to a shine. By the time I was done my right arm was sore from wrist to shoulder and I was starting to sweat. I shed the coat on to the floor. “You look like you’ve been working as hard as me,” Llywelyn said. He walked slowly toward me, and with one rough knuckle wiped at my cheek.
