Page 9 of Second Chances at the Board Game Café

It was like entering another world. She’d known there’d be a few games on offer, but had imagined a few boxes of Monopoly, Cluedo and Scrabble, games she’d played as a child, but hadn’t particularly enjoyed if the truth be told. She hadn’t envisaged that almost every table would be full and that at the majority of those tables there would be a game spread out, a game she didn’t recognise, or that the other customers would be so intently focused on what they were playing that they wouldn’t even look up and notice her come in. How weird. An ordinary morning yet all these people were sitting around playing board games.

She felt instantly out of place, and wondered if she shouldn’t go to Costa across the road instead and have a latte there. But a mixture of wanting to support a local business rather than a big chain – after all, she ran a small business herself – and curiosity about these strange individuals who actually had leisure time propelled her towards the counter.

Taylor looked at cakes on display. Alongside the usual chocolate brownies and lemon drizzle, there were domino biscuits, and snakes and ladders cupcakes. Clever, she thought approvingly. She studied the blackboard above the coffee machine, which listed all the various coffee types, along with different milk options and flavoured syrups.

A woman of around her own age appeared from the kitchen. Her fringe was so long that Taylor wondered how she could possibly see and wondered if she should offer her a trim – she could bring in her sewing scissors. The woman was wearing a navy dungaree pinafore with a stripy red and white top and chunky red beads. It was a good look.

‘What can I get you?’ The woman smiled.

Taylor ordered a latte, and then, still feeling spontaneous, asked to try the salted caramel syrup.

‘I haven’t tried those flavoured syrups,’ came a voice from behind her.

She turned to see a tall man with dark hair, wearing a drab grey suit. The accountant look, as she always called it. She knew she shouldn’t judge on appearances, but clothes – unlike body shape, height and sticky-out ears – were something you could choose, and you could tell a lot about someone by the garments they elected to wear.

‘Are they nice?’ the man said.

‘No idea,’ she said. ‘I’ve never tried one either. I felt like… you know, doing something different today.’

‘Do I know you from somewhere?’ he said.

Do I know you from somewhere? Was that a chat-up line?

She scrutinised his face, but his expression gave little away. She didn’t think she recognised him. A customer perhaps?

‘Have I altered your trousers?’ she said, then thought, for heaven’s sake, Taylor, who says that?! Have I altered your trousers?

‘No, I don’t think so.’

‘I’m a sewist,’ she said, by way of explanation.

‘A sewist?’

‘You know, a seamstress. Dressmaker. Although I mostly do alterations. I thought I might have…’

Her voice trailed off as she became aware of someone else standing beside her, too close for comfort really, in her personal space. A hand was placed on her arm. A hand that emerged from an electric blue checked sleeve.

Tarquin, the estate agent, was standing there in all his finery, looking stylish but, she had to admit, completely incongruous.

‘Hi,’ he said. ‘Taylor, wasn’t it?’

‘Taylor?’ said flavoured syrup guy. ‘How appropriate, given what—’

‘I guess you weren’t interested in the flat,’ Tarquin said, manoeuvring himself deftly between her and the man in the drab grey suit. He leaned against the counter. ‘It was a bit beige, wasn’t it? I have another two-bed place in Hebbleswick that you might like. It’s quirky. Full of character. Bigger too. How about you let me buy you a coffee and I’ll tell you all about it.’

5

Taylor had thought it was her lucky day when Tarquin the estate agent had come into the board game café and offered her a two-bedroom house.

He’d been hitting on her. She knew that.

He was undoubtedly attractive, and she liked his sense of style. That electric blue suit certainly made an impact. He obviously loved clothes as much – or almost as much – as she did, and he used them to express his personality.

Although she wasn’t sure she liked Tarquin’s personality. He was pushy, but maybe that was the nature of the job.

In any case, it was this two-bedroomed house that she was really interested in, not him, and she couldn’t wait to see it.

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