Page 53 of The Little Board Game Café

Peter was suddenly out of the car and standing beside her, saying, ‘Hi, haven’t we met?’ and holding out his hand to Ludek.

‘Yeah, I brought Em… Emily…home when she twisted her ankle at running club. Peter, isn’t it?’

‘Do you want to come in for a cup of tea?’ she said, looking at Ludek, all thoughts of the baking forgotten.

‘That’d be lovely,’ said Peter.

Ludek looked from Emily to Peter and then back to Emily. ‘I’m fine, thanks. I was just… Well, I just wanted to give you this. I’ll see you at board games on Friday. Bye, Peter. Nice to see you again.’

He thrust a plastic carrier bag into her hands, turned and walked away. Emily looked after him and waved. She wasn’t sure why she waved; he wasn’t even looking.

‘Do you really want tea?’ she said to Peter. ‘Only I’ve got baking to do…’

‘No, it’s fine,’ he said. ‘I should get off.’

But he stayed where he was, watching until Ludek had disappeared round the corner, before saying, ‘Right then. I’ll get off.’

When Peter had driven away, Emily didn’t bake. Instead she put her feet up on Kate’s sofa and reached inside the bag that Ludek had given her, pulling out a box. It had been a shoebox, but was now covered in photos of different curries, with the word ‘Masala’ written across the lid in black marker pen. She opened it; Ludek had made his very own version of the game Wasabi! that they’d played the night before, only in place of the maki, shrimp, tempura and scallops were Indian ingredients like coriander, mango chutney, naan bread, and paneer. He must have designed all the little cards and the two games boards on his computer; he’d even gone to the effort of laminating them.

He had made this for her. In just one day.

He liked her. He definitely liked her.

But how long had he been standing there on the pavement? Had he seen Peter kiss her? He must have. And now he was probably thinking she was back together with her fiancé.

Oh god. What a disaster. She’d always liked Ludek, right from the moment she first saw him, at the running club, a broad smile on his face, his curly mop of hair bouncing with every step. She liked the way he’d held up the traffic – pleasantly but assertively – and the way he was the first at her side when she’d fallen. But she’d never been sure – not one hundred per cent sure – that the feelings were mutual. Now, as she marvelled at the little ingredients cards, each one carefully printed, cut out and laminated by him, she was sure. He liked her.

But, looking back, she was also pretty certain that he must have seen that kiss.

Chapter Nineteen

Emily texted Ludek later that evening to thank him for the game. No reply.

She re-sent the text on Monday morning, just in case it hadn’t arrived. Well, you never knew with technology. Still no reply. He was probably with a patient.

She gave up after that. She would see him at Friday’s board games evening. And, in the meantime, she would focus on the café. Things were getting worse, not better. On Thursday, Mr B and Marjory were her only customers. She was propping up the business with the remains of her savings to the tune of… Well, she didn’t like to think how much it was costing her each week to stay open. She put that figure to the back of her mind, along with the number of weeks – not very many – that she could continue if things carried on like this.

Her Sunday afternoon with Peter had been intended to inspire her to move forwards with her business rather than just setting back her love life, but she still hadn’t come up with a way to transform the café’s fortunes. The Lancashire Hotpot needed a Unique Selling Point, something that would make it a destination, to persuade people to drive miles out of their way to visit. Or, at least, schlep a few hundred yards from Essendale’s high street instead of just going to Sweet Delights.

She walked past her rival café most evenings on her way home to Kate’s. She’d always peer in through the window, trying to ascertain if they’d had a busy day by how messy the floor looked and how harassed the staff appeared. The floor was always messy and at least one of the waitresses always looked incredibly harassed. Business must be booming.

Emily saw Peggy the owner folding up her A-board one night.

‘I know you, don’t I?’ the older woman said. ‘You bought Nico’s place. How’s it going?’

Emily was loathe to admit that trade wasn’t good. ‘Brilliantly, actually. Plenty of customers.’

‘Well, not for long,’ Peggy said. ‘Good luck though. Reckon we’re both going to need it.’ Then she hurried back into the café with the A-board, and bolted the door behind her.

Not for long? What did she mean by that? Had she some trick up her sleeve to lure all of Emily’s customers over to Sweet Delights? Not that there were many customers to lure, but Peggy didn’t know that.

Good luck though. Reckon we’re both going to need it. What was the woman going on about? Was she hinting that Essendale wasn’t big enough for two cafés to co-exist and only one would survive? Well, unless Emily pulled her finger out and thought of an idea pretty quickly, one thing was certain: it wouldn’t be hers.

*

She had her eureka moment sitting in the bath that evening, thinking about what Peggy had said. There was a statue in Manchester’s Vimto Park – yes, it really was called that – of Archimedes having his eureka moment, also sitting in the tub. She wasn’t quite sure what his idea was – something to do with physics? – but he’d immediately sprung from the bath and run naked through the streets of – well, wherever he lived – shouting, ‘Eureka’ which was Latin or Greek or something for ‘I’ve got it.’

Emily didn’t think Essendale was quite ready for the sight of her galloping naked over the cobbles, and this was West Yorkshire and it was quite parky out. Besides, she’d only just run the bath and didn’t want to waste the hot water.