Page 98 of The Little Board Game Café

‘I honestly don’t know, Em. You’d have to ask a lawyer.’

‘I had a lawyer. When I bought this place. Shouldn’t he have pointed this out? That it was a risk?’

Julia shrugged. ‘They probably hadn’t applied for planning permission then. But I’m not an expert. You’d have to ask someone.’

‘Another lawyer?’

A tear ran down Emily’s cheek. George, who’d been playing on his mother’s phone, pulled a grubby tissue out of his pocket and offered it to her.

‘Er, thanks, George, but I think I’ll pass on that,’ said Emily. She stood up and went to find a napkin. ‘And Rob offered to paint the sign. It was going to look so great. But I guess I won’t be needing that now.’

*

On the way home, she walked past Sweet Delights, its red and white for sale board still firmly fixed above the door.

Essendale had two independent cafés, but soon it would be left with none. Just a Costa Coffee. Not that Emily had anything against Costa Coffee or any of those coffee chains. But that was the point. They were chains. Big chains moving in would change the whole high street; one by one, the small businesses would close. It had happened in so many other towns and now it was happening here.

Unless…unless she bought Sweet Delights like Julia had suggested.

Nah. Emily didn’t need Google to know that it’d be out of her price range. She didn’t even have a price range. Buying Nico’s had wiped her out. Her café dreams were over.

*

It was probably best, she decided on Monday morning, to tell Annie straight away. Get it over and done with. Tell her that fabulous though her baking was – admittedly Emily was still a bit sore about that – the café would be closing soon. She had phoned the landlord to double-check, but Julia was right: the rumours were true.

‘I don’t suppose,’ he’d said, ‘you’d like to shut up shop sooner rather than later. Save yourself a few months’ rent. The developers will be chomping at the bit to get started as soon as the planning permission comes through.’

Saving herself some rent sounded good. If she was going to have to close anyway once her lease was up, what was the point in carrying on now? She could limit her losses. Move on from the place as soon as possible. Draw a line under the whole sorry episode.

But then…he was kicking her out for heaven’s sake. Did she really want to roll over and say, ‘Yes sure, here are the keys.’

She could at least make him wait for her answer.

‘I’ll think about it,’ she said.

*

On Monday morning, she was on autopilot. Her heart wasn’t in it as she served up the bacon and sausage butties to Rob and his mates.

‘Thanks for offering to do the sign,’ she said. ‘But I changed my mind. I don’t think I need one.’

‘Suit yourself,’ he said frowning. ‘Gift horse in the mouth and all that.’

‘What’s up with you?’ said Marjory later as she and Mr B tucked into their gingerbread meeples. ‘These are delicious. We thought your Chorley cakes were good, but these…! Sublime, aren’t they, Stan?’

‘Nothing’s up,’ Emily said. It wasn’t fair to tell them before she told Annie.

*

Annie was in a very cheerful mood when she arrived at twelve o’clock. She rolled her sleeves up and said, ‘Right, what needs baking?’

‘Can you do Gimme S’mores cakes?’ Emily said remembering how she’d promised George on his first visit. Might as well honour that promise before she closed the doors on the Little Board Game Café for the final time.

‘Sure,’ she said, ‘but you’ll need to buy marshmallows.’

‘I’ll pop out and get some. Before the lunchtime rush.’

Emily set off for the corner shop. She didn’t need Gimme S’mores cakes. Didn’t need to buy marshmallows. This was a delaying tactic on her part, putting off the awful moment when she broke the bad news.