Page 108 of The Little Board Game Café

But now he was with someone else.

A man approached with a dog on one of those extending leads. He went one side of her, the dog went the other and the lead wrapped itself around her legs. She tried to step over the lead as the man came back round behind her, tugging at the dog, and the lead somehow became entangled round one leg. Tears began to roll down her cheeks.

‘Get a grip,’ said the man, finally unwinding the lead. He swore under his breath as he went on his way.

And still she stood there, in the middle of the pavement, outside Ludek’s house. The house where they’d shared curry and played Wasabi! and Dinner in Paris. The house where he’d kissed her gently then led her upstairs, undressed her slowly and made love to her, looking into her eyes the entire time, making her feel as if she was the only woman he’d ever want. Why the hell had she walked away from all that?

Chapter Thirty-Nine

The following morning Marjory arrived at the café with a printed sheet, which she proudly Blu-tacked to the wall.

‘Marjory!’ said Mr B. ‘We’ve painted that. It’ll leave a mark.’

‘It’s important,’ she replied. ‘I’ll put the kettle on.’

Emily and Mr B hurried over.

Marjory had printed out a list of jobs.

The (Not So) Little Board Game Café – Roles, she had written.

Emily – Manager. Annie – cake designer and head chef. Mr B – interior designer. Kate – publicity / chief cake taster. Marjory – head cleaner.

‘Now everyone’s clear,’ she said. ‘And there’ll be no more arguing.’

Emily wished Dad’s name was on that list, but she could hardly have expected Marjory to have included him, when he was never there.

And Ludek’s too. Health and Safety Manager, Emily imagined it saying. Appropriate she felt, given his job and the way he’d leaped to Marjory’s rescue in the old café.

*

Kate was doing all the publicity but she had given Emily one task: to go to the board games group and invite all the players to the launch. Emily suspected that this was Kate’s attempt to get her back together with Ludek; she’d never told her best friend about the woman she’d seen leaving his house a few days earlier. Kate would say that it was her own fault; that she should never have run away from him the morning after they’d slept together. And she’d be right.

Emily longed to see him again, but, at the same time, she dreaded it. Seeing him – smiling as he caught sight of her walking in, carefully unpacking his little games pieces from their Ziploc bags, getting excited with Alan over the rules to a new game – would stir something in her, something she needed to suppress. He belonged to someone else now. In many ways, it would be easier if she never saw him again, if she forgot he existed.

But she couldn’t avoid him for ever. She was starting a board game café – again – in a small town where he ran the local board games group. Their paths would inevitably cross.

The atmosphere in the upstairs room of the Red Lion was a little more subdued than normal, and there was no sign of Ludek. The Dungeons and Dragons crowd were in the corner, engrossed in some campaign against the forces of evil. Some train game – not Ticket to Ride, but one she hadn’t seen before that appeared to involve trains and, of all things, cows – was underway on the Trainspotters’ table. One of the players looked up and called, ‘Hi, Emily! Lovely to see you!’ And then the others all looked up and waved.

On the table where she’d first met them, Malcolm was poring over some games rules and Alan was laying out a board and arranging the pieces ready to play.

‘May I join?’ she said.

Malcolm patted the chair beside him. ‘This chair has your name on it.’

She sat down next to him and looked at the unfamiliar board: a map of Europe, major cities marked out with lines connecting them.

‘Powergrid,’ said Alan. ‘Do you know the rules?’

Emily shook her head.

‘I’ll explain,’ said Malcolm.

They would each build a network of cities across the board, Alan told her. The aim was to supply electricity to those cities by buying power plants. Some of the power plants were green – wind turbines mostly – so worked out cheaper to run. For the others, you had to buy coal, oil or uranium.

Emily glanced at the door. Still no Ludek.

‘Cities, power plants and fuel all cost money,’ said Alan. ‘How much money do we have to start with, Malcolm?’