Page 84 of Second Chances at the Board Game Café

She took her seat on the front row at the end of the catwalk, so she could get the best view of the clothes. There wasn’t a programme, so she had nothing to read, and she was so nervous that she didn’t know quite what to do with herself. She studied her phone, checking her Instagram to see how many likes she’d had on the photo of the train waistcoats that she’d recently posted.

She was aware of the hall filling up around her, and every now and again she looked up, wondering if they’d get a full house.

Five minutes to go and there was barely an empty seat in the hall. In fact, there were at least a dozen people standing at the back. She glanced over at the closed curtains on the stage, picturing the scene behind them. Max and Harry would be there in their matching waistcoats. How many children from his class would be here to see him? she wondered, and scanned the sea of faces around her to see if she recognised any.

It was then that she noticed Ludek, the handsome GP from the health centre sitting across the catwalk, exactly opposite her. Beside him on one side was the equally kind and almost as handsome Dr Razz. Taylor thought she’d heard somewhere that he was Jo’s boyfriend. And on the other side of Ludek was Emily from the board game café, and she was wearing the weebles pinafore.

Of course, Taylor thought now. She should have guessed. They weren’t little gingerbread men in primary colours; they were games pieces. They weren’t in any of the train games she’d seen Max playing, but they had to be, didn’t they? So Kate had had both dresses made for Emily – it made sense now. But why hadn’t Emily wanted the Scrabble dress? Scrabble was a board game, wasn’t it? She wondered who it belonged to now.

Emily must have seen Taylor looking and waved.

Taylor waved back and forced herself to look away, conscious of the fact she’d been staring at the woman.

‘Taylor.’

Someone tapped her shoulder, and she turned to see Sylvia sitting on the row behind with a woman around her own age, and two small children.

‘Sylvia, I didn’t know you were coming,’ she said.

‘Wouldn’t have missed it for the world,’ said Sylvia. ‘These are my grandchildren and this is my daughter-in-law, Nadine.’

‘Oh hello,’ Taylor said. ‘How’s life in Spain?’

‘Spain?’ said Nadine.

‘Sylvia said you lived in Spain. Costa del Sol, wasn’t it?’

Nadine laughed. ‘Costa del Calderdale more like. Sylvia, why on earth did you say we lived in Spain?’

Sylvia grimaced. ‘I think the show’s about to start.’

‘We still have a minute or so,’ said Taylor.

‘Yeah, come on, Sylvia. I’m all ears,’ said Nadine.

‘Kate said you wouldn’t accept my offer to babysit, unless I pretended you’d be doing me a favour.’ Sylvia glanced from Nadine to Taylor. ‘Sorry. I shouldn’t have lied, but she said you weren’t keen on accepting help.’

‘Well, she got that right,’ said Taylor. ‘I wouldn’t have. And if I hadn’t, we wouldn’t be here now, so I’m very grateful.’

The hall fell silent then and Kate stepped out from behind the curtain. She was wearing the emerald silk dress and it looked perfect on her.

Garment of the week, Taylor thought, thinking of The Great British Sewing Bee. Or at least garment of the evening. Of everything she’d made, this was definitely her favourite.

‘Welcome, everyone,’ she said, ‘to our upcycled fashion show.’

There was a round of applause.

‘Hang on,’ said Kate. ‘You haven’t seen the clothes yet.’ She gave a mock grimace and a few people laughed. ‘All of the garments, including the beautiful dress I’m wearing this evening, have been created from unwanted clothes. Clothes that might have been thrown away, but have been revamped and restyled, and are now getting a second chance. So without further ado, cue music.’

The song ‘In These Shoes’ by Kirsty MacColl began to blare from the speakers and the curtains opened to reveal the first model, who strutted down the catwalk in the sparkly silver dress. The volume of the music dipped and Kate began to speak again.

‘This fabulous cocktail dress that Jenna’s modelling for us was created by Taylor. It was upcycled from a long evening gown…’

The dress looked far better on Jenna than it had on the mannequin, Taylor thought. The crowd applauded as the tall, dark-haired woman reached the end of the catwalk and turned to return to the stage, and another model appeared, wearing Ava’s amazing shirt, with its bright red cherries and see-through net back.

Taylor watched more of her designs being paraded down the catwalk. The weebles apron. The Scrabble waistcoat, modelled by Ollie. The corduroy skirt with its hummingbird panel. The blue and white check coat dress with the bow at the back, her little nod to her heroine, Esme Young.

‘And now we come to the denim section,’ said Kate, as the song changed and Neil Diamond’s ‘Forever in Blue Jeans’ began to play. ‘I give you the flowerpot and daisies dungarees. Again, this fabulous garment is by Taylor, who has cleverly embroidered the daisies so that they look like they’re growing out of the flowerpot pocket.’