Page 73 of Second Chances at the Board Game Café

‘Yes, please.’

The easiest thing would be for him to make a simple gathered skirt, but to achieve the full look of the petticoats in The Railway Children, a circular skirt might be better. She took out her tape measure and slipped it around his waist, jotting down the measurement for him.

‘How long do you want it to be?’ she said.

‘Like in the film.’

She measured from his waist, almost to his ankle, allowing a little extra for a hem.

‘Now, Max. Do you know what pi is? I don’t mean pie like in apple pie. I mean, pi in maths.’

‘’Course. It’s 3.14159—’

‘Enough. Let’s call it 3.14. D’you think you could do some calculations?’

Taylor always used the calculator on her phone if she was making a circular skirt, but Max used pen and paper. Together they used tailor’s chalk to mark out the pattern pieces on the red fabric; luckily there was enough material. She showed Max how to cut them out, then helped him pin the edges together to make the seams. Then she explained how the sewing machine worked.

In all these years, Max had never showed the least interest in what his mother did for a living. It was strange how he was suddenly keen to make a garment – and even stranger that he’d chosen to make a petticoat of all things – but Taylor wasn’t complaining. It was lovely to be creating something together.

She ironed the petticoat once it was finished – he wanted to do it himself, but had never ironed anything and the last thing she wanted was for him to burn a hole in it, or worse still, to burn himself.

‘Are you going to try it on?’ she said.

Max looked at her as if she were mad. ‘Try it on?’

He was probably embarrassed.

‘Don’t worry, darling, if you don’t want to. I wanted to see how it looked.’

He shook his head.

‘Okay, no problem,’ she said. ‘Shall I make you a hot chocolate before you go to bed?’

The following day, Max went off as usual with Ava and Oliver, and Taylor wandered into his bedroom. It was as if she couldn’t quite believe the events of the previous evening – had they really made a petticoat? – and she wanted to see the garment for herself to prove it had actually happened.

But the petticoat was nowhere to be found. Taylor looked in Max’s drawers, in his wardrobe and under his bed. There was no sign of it. She hoped for his sake that he hadn’t been daft enough to take it to school.

38

The train was nearing Hebbleswick station. Harry had the sign in his hand ready to hold up. He wished he could think of something new to say other than It’s complicated. Max had had a different sign each morning, although they’d all said much the same thing. Max had made his position completely clear: he wanted Harry to ask Taylor out.

Harry would have loved to do just that, and he would if he thought there was a cat in hell’s chance of her saying yes. But he wasn’t convinced, and being rejected by her once had been difficult enough.

He was being honest with the boy. It was complicated, more so now than ever. She was going to move her business into his house. If he asked her out now, she might feel obliged to say yes, and that was the last thing he wanted.

Or she might say no, which could ruin their friendship, and Harry couldn’t bear for that to happen either.

He had decided to bide his time. Perhaps one day he might pluck up the courage, but not yet.

The train began to slow down and Harry unrolled his sign, ignoring the glances from other passengers.

As the train stopped, Harry saw Max on the opposite platform as always, only he wasn’t holding a sign, but what looked at first like a large red flag. A second later, Harry realised it was a skirt.

Of course, The Railway Children. Harry laughed. He should have guessed sooner; the film had given Max the idea for the signs, and now he was waving a petticoat. It had been years since Harry had seen it himself, but he remembered that there’d been a rockfall across the tracks, and an approaching train; the girls had removed their red petticoats to signal the imminent danger to the driver.

Max continued to wave the garment with one hand, but gestured with the other to the sign that his friend was holding up.

Please, Harry. You make her happy.