‘Obviously you’re on the fence about it,’ I giggled.
When Emma pulled back, her cheeks were pink. ‘I was really, really trying to be impartial.’
‘You’re awful at it.’
‘I know!’ She cracked up. ‘But honestly, he’s a waste of your time – I’m glad you’re breaking up… again. I meant it when I said I was here for you no matter what, but I was basically just trusting that you’d make the right decision for yourself eventually… What was it that finally convinced you?’
I felt a small smile twitch at my mouth. ‘Aunt Lou.’
‘A wise woman,’ Emma nodded.
‘Wiser than me. But… I just sat with it for a moment and thought about what she’d say and how unfair it was to think of her life as being worse than life with Richard. She was happy with her hobbies and her friends… and I have a really great friend who’s actually there for me and cares about my interests. And who I’ve been taking for granted while I focus all my time on a man who couldn’t tell the difference between knitting and crochet at gunpoint. I’m sorry, and I promise not to do that again.’
She ‘cheersed’ her plastic fork to mine. ‘Welcome back, bestie! And hey, you don’t need to be sorry. We all lose our heads from time to time. Especially when it comes to love.’
We got back to our plates but, a few moments later, Emma swallowed a bite of sausage and tapped her fork on the edge of my plate.
‘Speaking of love… have you been up to the boat yet?’
‘Emma!’ I chased her fork away with my own and she looked abashed. ‘Just because I’m breaking up with Richard doesn’t mean I’m about to go chasing after Cooper.’
‘I know! But… did you go up there?’ Emma asked, eyes twinkling.
‘I… yes, okay? I did,’ I admitted. ‘But only because I wanted to see where we stood, you know? If he was maybe more open to being friendly now that the shock of seeing that car was over.’
‘And was he?’ Emma asked.
‘He didn’t answer the door,’ I muttered, sinking into myself a little. ‘I could hear the dog moving around and there was a fire burning but he wasn’t answering.’
‘Oh… are you sure he knew it was you?’
That was a fair point. I wasn’t exactly hallooing him with my full name while standing on the deck. But if he was hiding from someone specific, why not peek to see who it was? Either he didn’t want to see anyone, including me, or he didn’t want to see me specifically. I wasn’t sure one was better than the other.
‘I don’t really want to talk about it,’ I said eventually.
‘Okay, sure thing. Let me clear up from breakfast and we can start getting the Stitch and Witch supplies together and planning those crafting classes we were talking about – I think we can even get a temporary licence to do wine and cheese one evening.’
I was grateful to her for knowing when to push and when not to. I wasn’t really ready to talk about Cooper and how him ignoring me had made me feel. Step one was breaking it off with Richard again. Step two would be finding somewhere to live. I was right back where I’d started before the bust-up with Cooper. Fantastic.
Between us we planned out some ideas for the crafting classes, from specific projects like market totes and Croc liners to more general skills like granny squares and crochet in the round. By the end of the hour, we had a full syllabus, which Emma could type up, and I was going to print them out at the library and post them in as many windows as possible. With the exception of the charity shop, because I could never go in there again now. I’d also pop the details online and hopefully draw in enough people to turn a nice profit.
The supplies for the Stitch and Witch – black, purple and orange sparkly yarns, hooks, pattern sheets and stitch markers – were all set aside for later. Emma had even brought in a black lace tablecloth and I had my record player in the boot, along with some of Aunt Lou’s crystal dishes for snacks.
I updated my spreadsheet and was surprised to see how good the numbers were looking. If sales held firm and the classes and Stitch and Witch had even half attendance, we’d be comfortably in the black by the next rent period. The shop might actually not be a colossal mistake. It might just turn into a real business. I’d spent so long thinking of it as a failure that the prospect of mild success sort of blindsided me.
By the time Emma went on her lunch break, I was feeling quite positive about the classes. I’d already found some more cheap brown boxes that we could rubber-stamp with the shop logo and post kits in, for anyone who wasn’t local but wanted to join in virtually via our website. I had a webcam somewhere that would work for that.
I was hunting around in a box of cables for it when the bell over the door went. I stuck my head over the counter and saw a woman with dark curly hair all around her shoulders wandering towards me up the centre aisle. She was wearing jeans and a grey leather jacket over a Breton stripe top. She smiled at me, and I took a second to marvel at how precise her red lipstick was. I always ended up looking like the Joker.
‘Hi – I’m Addy,’ she said, ‘I was hoping you could help me.’
‘I’ll certainly try. I’m Tabitha, by the way,’ I said, filled with newfound enthusiasm for customer service now that I wasn’t an abject failure at business. What a difference one spreadsheet could make.
‘Nice to meet you,’ she said, digging around in the black tote hanging on her shoulder. It was Kate Spade and I was expecting her to pull out a pattern she wanted help with, or a magazine picture she intended to dupe fromVogue. Instead she produced an A4 piece of paper and handed it over to me.
I found myself looking down at a colour photo of Cooper, printed along with a phone number and an email address. Above the picture was typed ‘any information gratefully received’. Holy crap, was I holding a missing poster?
‘I’ve been asking around, seeing if anyone’s seen him,’ Addy was saying. ‘Not that I’m having much luck. The bakery’s closed for deep cleaning and I got chased out of the charity shop before I could even hand out a leaflet. What is that woman’s problem?’
