‘Bridie opened the shop door, and called out, ‘Guys! You’ve forgotten something!’
‘Oh, Auntie Bridie, can’t I stay here with you instead?’
Bridie looked at her nephew and sighed. He really needed a dog of his own. Bridie had a thought as Andy, Kate and Layla turned around and headed back to the shop.
George stepped outside, his face glum. He turned to look at Bridie. ‘Do I have to go to Southwold withthem?’
‘Would you enjoy going with them if Barney went too?’
George’s face was a picture.
Bridie realised she shouldn’t have said that before asking Kate and Andy.
‘Yes, of course we’ll look after Barney for the day. He’ll only get under your feet on your date.’
Bridie frowned at Kate.
‘Is that all right, Andy?’ Kate asked.
‘Yes, why not.’
Bridie collected Barney’s lead and his ball. She waved again, watching them all leave the yard. When she closed the shop door, she instantly regretted Barney going too. The shop was too quiet. The flat was too quiet. Without Kate and Barney, she suddenly felt very alone. It reminded her that she was alone; unlike her sister, she didn’t have anybody to call her own.
‘Even Barney isn’t my dog,’ Bridie said to the empty shop, feeling very sorry for herself.
Bridie checked her phone. Oliver hadn’t answered her text.
But Jack had. The meeting was on for that evening.
Chapter 43
‘You know, if you keep this up, I’ll have to start paying you for working on Saturdays.’
‘I’m not working, I’m helping out.’ Bridie thought it was the least she could do considering she was paying a negligible rent for the flat, and that was only because she’d twisted Hannah’s arm and made her take the money.
She saw Hannah glancing at the clock on the wall behind the counter. ‘Haven’t you got a date with Oliver this morning?’
Bridie wondered why everyone kept calling her meeting up with Oliver a date.
‘I’m not meeting Oliver at the café after all.’
‘How come?’
Bridie would rather not say. After her outburst the previous weekend, when she’d discovered that he’d told her mum about the theatre, she wasn’t surprised her text had gone unanswered. She was so disheartened. All because of the theatre, she’d lost his friendship. She looked at Hannah. ‘He didn’t answer my text about meeting at the café this morning.’
‘Perhaps something came up and he couldn’t make it. I wouldn’t worry.’
But she was worried. ‘He always has coffee at that café on Saturdays.’What came up, thought Bridie, is that he doesn’t want to meet with me.
‘Why don’t you go along, see if he’s there? Maybe he didn’t get your text for some reason.’
Bridie doubted that. It saidSent– she’d checked. It had crossed her mind just to turn up. Then he’d have no choice but to listen to her apology. She didn’t want to text or phone him to apologise. She wanted to do it in person. She definitely would have gone if it wasn’t for the thought of arriving at the café to find him enjoying a cup of coffee with another woman. She was thinking of that single mum – the young woman she’d given up her seat for the first time she’d bumped into Oliver at the café.
But what should it matter?she thought.I could still apologise.
‘Do you want me to come along and break the ice? I’m guessing there’s a bit more to this meeting than you’re telling me.’
Bridie sighed. ‘I was rude to him, the last time I saw him.’ She told Hannah what had happened.
