I walked Maria to the door and thanked her for staying to help.
‘No problem.’ She sighed as she glanced towards Zoe. ‘Do you think she’ll be okay?’
‘I hope so. She’s a tough cookie but she’s only seventeen. She’s still a kid. Breaks my heart.’
‘Can I get you something to eat?’ I asked when I returned to Zoe. Maria had positioned her on a cushioned bench with her right ankle raised on a small pile of towels.
She shook her head. ‘I’d love another tea, though. It’s bob on the way you make it.’
Zoe had clearly lost weight since I last saw her and that was worrying when she was so slender anyway. I was determined to feed her before she left, even if that meant sending her off with a doggy bag, but it was better not to push her for now.
‘Who was that woman?’ I asked, returning with a mug of tea.
‘That was the delightful Griff. She’s new at the hostel and seems to think she’s the boss of us all.’
‘She works there?’
‘No! She’s one of us.’
‘Have you complained to the staff about her?’
‘It’s not worth the grief. One lass threatenedto say something and, when she went to get dressed the next day, her clothes were in shreds.’
‘That’s awful!’ My heart broke for Zoe and this other girl for being at the receiving end of such shocking bullying.
‘It happens. I just need to keep my head down and hope Griff gets bored and moves on.’
‘I’m sure she will,’ I said, hoping that would be the case. ‘You need to rest your ankle for a while so how about something to eat in the meantime? I’ve got two portions of lasagne left and I was going to heat one up for my tea but the other will go to waste unless I can tempt you with it.’
I expected her to refuse so my heart sang when she accepted. I warmed some bread buns in the oven too and added a portion of salad, potato salad and coleslaw to a side plate.
‘Leave anything you don’t like,’ I said as I placed her food and a glass of water on the table.
‘It all looks great. I’ll eat anything except avocados but there aren’t many of those knocking around The Hope Centre.’
I brought my meal through and we ate in silence. I had so many questions for Zoe but I’d learned my lesson and wasn’t going to risk her leaving before she’d eaten a full meal.
‘That was delicious,’ she said after we’d finished. ‘Did you make the lasagne?’
I nodded. ‘Everything we serve is made on site by me or one of my team members, Sheila.’
‘You’re both fantastic cooks. I wouldn’t know where to start. I have to rely on Chef Mike.’
‘Chef Mike?’ I asked. ‘Does he volunteer at The Hope Centre?’
Zoe laughed and it was lovely to see her face lighting up for a moment. ‘Chef Mike’s the microwave.’
I rolled my eyes at her. ‘Of course! Well, thanks for thecompliment. I love cooking and baking. My grandparents had a bakery and they passed their skills to my dad who passed them to me in the short time we had together.’
‘Your dad died when you were young?’
‘In an accident at work when I was eight and then my mum died a few years later.’
‘What happened to her?’
It wasn’t something I’d usually share with a stranger but Zoe had never felt like a stranger to me. I still felt some sort of connection to her and couldn’t help thinking that, the more open I was with her, the more open she might be with me in return, no matter how much it might hurt to talk about it.
‘She took her own life. She’d struggled with depression and anxiety for years and she couldn’t cope with life without my dad.’
