Page 97 of The Little Board Game Café

Emily found it quickly and handed over her phone.

‘Blimey, that is bad.’

George arrived back at the table with Ticket to Ride. He nuzzled up to his mother so he could see her phone screen. Emily went to peer over her shoulder, although she knew it practically word for word by now as she’d read it so often.

...The cakes and coffee aren’t bad but their nothing special. But the worst thing is the woman who runs it – she’s so rude.…She needs to be more tolerent if she’s going to run a café.

‘Mum would never, ever take any notice of that,’ said George. ‘There are spelling mistakes. It’s tol-er-ant. And they put “t-h-e-i-r” when it should have been “they’re” with an apostrophe.’

‘No one’s going to take any notice of this,’ said Julia. ‘It’s a bit of a rant. I don’t think you need to worry about it.’

‘That’s good, because I took your advice and I’ve found someone to help with the café. Annie. I used to work with her at Ridley’s. She’s doing the baking.’

‘Ah,’ said Julia. ‘I was hoping you wouldn’t have done that quite so soon.’

Chapter Thirty-Five

Julia waited until Annie had gone home at four o’clock before she explained.

‘How long did you sign the lease on this place for?’

‘A year initially. Normally they’d want you to sign for longer, but less commitment felt like less risk. I thought that was a good thing. You know, in case it didn’t work out? And if it did work out, I could just renew it.’

‘Yeah, I can see why you’d think that. You haven’t seen the planning notices, have you?’

‘Planning notices?’

‘On the lamp-posts outside.’

There were always notices in Essendale – as Rob had said, there was a shortage of homes in the valley and people were always wanting to build new ones, or extend existing ones – and Emily never stopped to read them. They never seemed that interesting.

She stared down at the table, barely able to take in what Julia was saying. ‘…outlying planning permission…demolish…block of flats …’

‘So, they mightn’t get planning permission?’

‘You could fight it, of course. Get your customers to object. I’d be happy to write something, although I doubt the council will listen. There’s such a demand for homes here.’

‘But…but…what about Annie?’

‘Yeah, I know. And what about you?’

‘I’ll be okay,’ Emily said. ‘I’m staying with Kate. She doesn’t charge me rent. Although, well, we had a bit of an argument, but she’d never turf me out. But Annie was hoping to save up and get her own place again. Not that I pay her enough for that, but a job is something, isn’t it?’

‘It certainly is. Being unemployed isn’t exactly good for the self-esteem.’

‘God, poor Annie. Laid off twice in the space of just a few months. First by my fiancé – well, ex-fiancé – and now by me.’

‘My fault for encouraging you to take someone on. I was hoping I’d get a chance to tell you before you found anyone.’

‘It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I bumped into her outside Oxfam and felt sorry for her. I can’t believe it. Do they really want to demolish this place?’

‘Seems so.’

‘But I’ve decorated it. Bought canvases. What will I do with all the tables? Mr B and I spent hours painting all them. Days, in fact.’

Julia put her hand on Emily’s. ‘Perhaps you could start again. Set up a new board game café. Isn’t Sweet Delights for sale?’

‘Yeah, but I couldn’t afford it. I blew all my money on buying this place. Surely they can’t just do this – let you spend thousands buying a business then kick you out when you’ve barely got started.’