Page 60 of Second Chances at the Board Game Café

‘Can I buy you a coffee?’ Harry said. Going up to the counter might give him time to gather his thoughts.

‘Max can go.’ She gave him a faint smile, then rummaged in her handbag and took out her purse. ‘Max, go to the counter and order a cappuccino for me and whatever you want. Can I get either of you anything?’

They shook their heads.

‘Can I have a milkshake?’ said Max. ‘And a s’mores cake?’

‘Have whatever you like,’ said Taylor.

‘I’ll go and help him,’ said Ludek, ‘and I’ll grab another chair. Come on, Max. What flavour milkshake d’you fancy?’

Taylor watched as they went up to the counter together then turned to Harry.

‘I’m so sorry. I should have explained about Max sooner. But you’d cooked that lovely dinner – I can’t tell you how good it felt having someone spoil me like that. And then the wine went to my head and… well, you know.’

So she’d only gone to bed with him because she’d been drunk?

‘And it felt so good being held by you,’ she was saying now. ‘And I needed a hug. I don’t get many of those.’

Harry knew the feeling. ‘If you needed a hug, you could have asked me for a hug.’ He lowered his voice. ‘You didn’t have to sleep with me for that.’

‘No, I’m not saying that. I wanted to. I do like you, Harry, but I should have told you about Max first. Only I thought you’d run a mile.’

‘I’m not a cad,’ said Harry. ‘If you think that, then you don’t know me at all.’ He sounded a little cold; he knew that, but he resented being lumped in the category of men who would lose interest in someone because she had a child. He wondered if he should tell her how much he cared for her. How much he longed for her. He glanced towards the counter. Max and Ludek were standing behind it now, and Ludek appeared to be showing Max how to make a milkshake.

He took a deep breath and opened his mouth, intending to tell her that he really liked her and that her being a mum didn’t change that in the slightest, but what came out was a panicked, ‘I knew you had a child.’

‘Really?’ Taylor picked up one of the little plastic carriages from the game and began turning it over in her hands.

‘I often see you with him from the train when I’m on the way to the office in Halifax and you’re waiting for the 8.23 to Essendale.’

‘You should wave next time,’ said Max, sitting himself down at the table.

‘I’ll do that,’ said Harry.

‘Ready to play?’ Ludek looked from Harry to Taylor hesitantly. Harry had the distinct impression that his friend had been trying to occupy the boy for as long as possible to give them time to talk, but it hadn’t been nearly long enough.

‘Mum doesn’t know the rules yet,’ said Max.

‘Okay, I’ll explain,’ said Ludek. ‘This is a map of the Netherlands and all these cities are connected by potential train routes…’

Harry couldn’t believe this. He was sitting in his favourite café with this lovely woman and her son, about to play a board game, and a railway-themed one at that. Throw in one of the café’s delicious Bakewells and this would be his idea of heaven.

Except that she’d said a relationship was impossible for her because of the child.

And in all honesty, he wasn’t sure if that was the real reason, or if Max was just an excuse. Deep down, he suspected she wasn’t that into him, an expression his colleague Janice often used when she was on the phone to one of her many friends.

‘We each draw five route cards,’ Ludek was saying.

‘Three route cards,’ Max corrected.

Taylor glowered at him. ‘Max! Don’t interrupt.’

‘But it is three,’ said Max.

‘This is the Netherlands edition,’ said Ludek. ‘There are loads of versions of Ticket to Ride and they’re all a little bit different. In this one, we draw five route cards and we play with forty trains instead of the usual forty-five. There are also toll tokens. Every time you play a route, you pay a toll to the bank. If you’re the second player to build on one of the double routes, you pay the toll to the first player who built that route.’

‘I’ll never remember all this,’ said Taylor.