Page 113 of The Little Board Game Café

‘Yeah. I suppose. I already knew about her. I didn’t tell you, but I saw her leaving his house.’

‘Oh, Em. You should have said.’ Kate glanced in her rear-view mirror. ‘I think that’s Rob in the car behind. Can you believe how much he’s changed?’

‘I can, actually. I watched it happen.’

Kate turned to look at Emily.

‘Keep your eyes on the road,’ Emily warned as they narrowly missed a parked car.

‘You watched it happen?’

‘Yeah, he used to come into the old café. He started work as a builder. Guess that helped get the weight off.’

‘You might have mentioned him.’

‘You dismissed him,’ Emily said. ‘Sweaty, fat guy, you called him.’

‘Hmmm. Bit judgy of me.’

‘Very judgy of you. And he’s on a keto diet. Imagine the low carb dinners you could share.’

‘I’ve given up on that. Annie’s cakes have proved my downfall. Anyway. Back to Rob. I’m so embarrassed that I didn’t recognise him at running club. Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘I didn’t realise it was such a big deal.’

‘He looks like that, Em, and you didn’t realise it was a big deal?’

*

Mr B and Kate were arguing again about the colour of the walls in the toilets when she arrived the following morning.

‘White would look fresher,’ said Kate.

‘And need repainting sooner,’ said Mr B. ‘Besides, the grey matches the walls in the café.’

‘But…’ began Kate.

Annie appeared carrying a freshly baked batch of croissants, Marjory hot on her heels with a large cafétiere of coffee.

‘Kate,’ said Marjory, ‘I think it’s important we stick to our assigned roles.’ She gestured at the list which she’d now moved to the side of the chiller cabinet.

‘We’re not changing anything now, anyway,’ Emily said. ‘Everything’s ready for the grand opening. Let’s sit back and enjoy it.’

The café looked amazing: a mixture of the tables that she and Mr B had painted for The Little Board Game Café with some of the tables from Sweet Delights painted to match – although they’d decided not to paint any more game boards on the table tops since they now had such a fantastic selection of games to choose from.

Dad had paid for the café, but Emily had paid for the games. She’d sold her old engagement ring, the ring that Peter had bought – she’d asked his permission – and that Ludek had prised off her finger. The brightly coloured boxes of Azul and Agricola, Puerto Rico and Powergrid, SpaceBase and Steam were now stacked on her shelves, along with quite a few others. She wished Ludek was here to see them; wished he’d been part of all this preparation. After all, he was the one who’d introduced her to board games in the first place.

Each table had a set of meeple-shaped salt and pepper pots and a menu. The menus – all designed and printed by Mr B who’d learned Photoshop at his Silver Surfers Club at the library – had dice going all the way round the edges. Kate had even found napkins with hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds on Etsy. Emily suspected they’d cost a small fortune and she’d be resorting to plain ones once they ran out.

‘I’ve got you a new dress, Em,’ said Kate, ‘since you gave the Scrabble one to the hospice shop.’

‘I feel bad about that. I was going to buy it back.’

‘Nope. New café. New beginning. New dress. You’re going to love it. Drumroll, please.’

Mr B, Annie and Marjory obliging drummed on the table top, so hard that the meeple salt and pepper almost jumped up and down, and Kate handed Emily a parcel, wrapped in the same brown paper that the Scrabble dress had been wrapped in.

Emily pulled off the Sellotape and folded the paper back. Inside was a pinafore, in exactly the same style as her Scrabble dress.