Stirred with Love (11 page)

‘Kate, Chloe, this is Irene,’ Lily introduced, stepping to one side. ‘She’s what you two would call my best friend.’

‘It’s about time there were some young people working in this place,’ Irene smiled and then just as quickly changed it to a scowl. ‘Although I don’t think Lily should be working at all, at her time of life.’

‘I’m not going to be working here as much as overseeing.’ Lily pretended to sulk. ‘You make me sound like I’m ancient.’

Irene put down her tartan shopper. ‘You are ancient. And so am I.’

‘Says the old lady who’s swanning off to stay with her daughter and her family in Australia for the next six months and leaving me here all alone.’

Irene sighed. ‘You had the opportunity of coming with me, Lily,’ she chided. ‘But you just didn’t want to.’

‘I know.’ Lily gave her friend a quick hug. ‘I am going to miss you though.’

‘I suppose you two wouldn’t say no to a cup of tea?’ Chloe offered, with a sideways glance over at Kate. ‘We were about to stop for a break, weren’t we Kate?’

Kate grinned. ‘Yes, we’ve been working so hard.’       

Lily cast an eye around the room, failing to recognise any relics of the old café. It did look dreadful now that some of the paper had been removed. She was amazed at what it had been covering up, or even holding up. The counter and the one remaining table and chairs that had survived the skip yesterday were shrouded in remains of dreary curtains and there were stacks of black bags piled up in front of the window.

‘I never knew decorating was so long winded.’ Chloe wiped her sticky hands on a clean towel. ‘No wonder my dad always gets someone in to do it for us.’

Lily was only half listening. She’d decided to take a closer look at the wall nearest to her. Furtively, she rubbed a hand across the surface. In an instant, she realised it had more bumps and wrinkles than she had.

‘What colour is this suppose to be?’ Irene exclaimed at the top of her voice, sliding her glasses down the bridge of her nose before blinking exaggeratingly at the patch of lilac
on the tin. ‘Lily, I wish I’d had my cataracts done at the same time as you.’

‘It’s lilac, Irene,’ said Lily. ‘It’s exactly what the old place needs. And you hadn’t got cataracts to remove. You just have poor eye sight.’

‘At last I understand why your eyes are so blue,’ said Kate.

Lily nodded. ‘I had them done a while ago now. It was worth all the pain. Now, what else was I going to say? Oh yes. I’ve been given the name of a builder this morning, he comes highly recommended. Terry Allen – his son and nephew help him out. They’re a couple of jokers by all accounts, but Terry keeps them in order. Alex and, what was the other one called?’ Lily paused. ‘Tom, that’s it. I’m going to call him later.’

‘Sounds interesting,’ Chloe commented, looking forward to it already. ‘But I’m sure we can do better than any men.’

Lily smiled at Chloe’s self-assurance. ‘What I’d like you two to do now is source out some wallpaper books and we’ll sit down together to pick out a scheme. There’s no way we can paint these walls without it looking like it’s been done on the cheap.’

Lily carried her bag through to the kitchen and set it down on the table. She sat carefully, slipped off her court shoes and rubbed her stocking clad toes, smiling to herself when she heard the squeals of laughter erupting from the other room. They seemed to be getting on well, but it was early days yet. The crunch would be when they’d lived together for a few weeks after the coffee shop had opened. Once the fuss had died down and the excitement had been exchanged for hard work.

She sat back in the chair and visualised them both in the uniforms they’d picked out yesterday. Letting them have the final say had been a good idea, she’d realised, when she’d seen their reactions. The coffee shop would be a success, Lily was certain. So young, so full of ideas, she knew they’d attract a decent type of clientele.

‘Sorry, Lily, I was about to make a brew, wasn’t I?’ Chloe rushed in as if on the tail of a whirlwind, interrupting her thoughts. ‘I was talking to Irene. She’s a lovely old dear, shame about her dress sense though. That cardie looks as old as the ark. Now, about that drink.’

Somerley Leisure Centre was only a mile away from Church Square so it took Kate all of twenty minutes to drive there and enrol as a member. Easy to do at the weekend, she surmised, but she knew it would more than likely take her ages to get there in the rush hour traffic which would be trying its best to inch its way onto the ring road.

The gym was similar in size to the one she’d been a member of in Brentside. Rows of cardio machines stood in line like toy soldiers. Aside from the many sets of dumbbells arranged neatly in racks, there were machines to work every different muscle in the body. Mirror after mirror adorned the walls, making the room double in size immediately, the remaining spaces covered with posters explaining how to change from a Teletubbie into a Barbie doll in a matter of six…years.

She’d just started to walk over towards the stepper equipment when a man in a blue t-shirt beckoned her over.

‘Hi, I’m Eddie, your instructor for today. Do you need any help?’

Kate might not have been into appearances as much as the teenager she was working with, but she was impressed with anyone who took the time to improve their body. Not more than twenty-five at a guess, her eyes roamed over his firm torso barely covered by the thin-ribbed material stretched over it. Biceps bulged from underneath the sleeves and, as he ran a hand over his hair, she waited for his eyes to catch up with hers as he gave her the once over. She blushed at his look of appreciation.

‘I’ve never used that model of treadmill before,’ she pointed over to the far wall, forgetting all about the Stairmaster. ‘Can you show me how it works?’

Kate’s nerves began to settle as Eddie set the control panel to a steady pace for her. After a few minutes, walking she upped the speed and began her run. Through the mirror in front of her, she took a sneaky glimpse behind her reflection.

Considering it was a Sunday morning, the gym was pretty full. A guy in his forties was barely moving his legs on a stationary bike whilst reading a Mark Billingham novel. A young woman lay back, taking a break, reclining on the leg press. Two plump middle-aged ladies walked side by side on the treadmills along from her, deep in conversation. None of them seemed in any way intimidated by the group of men puffing, panting and screeching as they used the free weights over in the far corner.

Kate cast an eye swiftly over the display panel and found she’d already been running for twelve minutes. The young woman was now working hard on the chest press. That particular set finished, she drew a hand across her brow and wiped it dry with a sweatband, a matching scrunchie held back her hair in a ponytail. Kate caught her eye, smiled shyly and was pleased when the smile was returned.

Finally, she was done. Totally de-stressed as the endorphins got to work inside her body, she wiped her brow with a towel. The gym wasn’t so huge now. It seemed more inviting and she couldn’t wait to try out the other machines.

An hour later, she was in the changing rooms when the young woman she’d seen earlier came out of the shower.

‘Hi,’ she smiled at Kate. ‘I’m Lucy. I haven’t seen you here before, have I?’

‘No, I joined this morning.’ Kate smiled back. ‘It seems like a friendly place.’

‘Yes, I’ve been a member for three years. Mind you, I don’t think I would have been as regular if Eddie wasn’t one of the instructors, seeing as I’ve got my own gym at home. He certainly gets me into a sweat every time I see him.’ She laughed. ‘I suppose there’s no harm in looking, even though I’m married. Do you live around here? I live on the other side of Hedworth in a three storey townhouse, you know, one of the new ones overlooking the waterfront. It’s a brand new complex of executive houses. It’s only a few minutes from here. We’ve been there since we got married. Are you married?’

‘Well, I –’

‘You have a fantastic figure, by the way. You’ve obviously worked out for a while. Your muscle definition is amaaaazing.’

Kate spotted her looking down. For a split second, she thought she could see envy in her eyes. ‘Oh, get off with you,’ she squirmed. ‘I hate my legs.’

‘I wish mine were like that rather than thin and gangly. Yours are lovely!’

‘No, they aren’t. I’m five foot three – the reason I wear heels most of the time. I’d love to have longer legs. Mine are just stocky, which would be great if I wanted to be a footballer.’

‘Honey,’ Lucy said in a melodramatic tone. ‘You need to learn to love yourself more.’

 ‘I tell you it was bizarre,’ Kate declared as she relayed her morning to Chloe over a lunch of jacket potato and tuna salad. ‘One minute I’m swooning over this young fitness instructor, who is way too young for me by the way, and the next I’m listening to a woman I barely know telling me her life story in thirty seconds flat and then telling me I have fantastic legs when I know I absolutely do not have!’

‘There’s nothing wrong with your legs,’ said Chloe. ‘Did you ask if we can put a poster on the notice board?’

‘Yes, and we can put one in the reception too, by the front doors.’

‘Do you think they drink coffee,’ Chloe was curious to know, ‘what with their bodies being temples?’

Kate rolled her eyes to the ceiling. ‘Well, I do! And it’s the wrong time for me to stop, even if I wanted to. We’ll be sick of the sight and the smell of it soon.’

CHAPTER TWELVE

Lily shuffled around, knowing so well that it would be impossible to get comfortable on the chair. As well as its hardness, she knew getting up in the early hours when she couldn’t sleep last night had been a bad idea.

She totted up the huge column of numbers, double checked and transferred the figures to another notepad. Already she’d exceeded her budget, but still she wasn’t sure they’d created the right ambience for the coffee shop.

Oh, what the heck, she sighed and put down her pen. It was only time and money and it shouldn’t take long to do the few alterations that Kate had suggested. Both she and Chloe had come up with some wonderful ideas. Lily might as well get it right the first time and it always saved money in the long term.

‘Good morning, Lily.’ A familiar face greeted her as the mechanism of a silent bell sprang into action on the front door.

‘Good morning, Alf.’ Lily smiled, genuinely pleased to see him. Alf was a friend of both hers and Bernard’s. They had met when Bernard’s van had a punctured tyre. Alf kindly helped him out and Lily had given him free tea and a scone filled with home made jam and cream. They’d all been friends since. Alf’s wife, Joan, had died suddenly when he was thirty-six and he’d never remarried.

‘How are you this morning?’ Lily enquired as he sat down across from her.

‘Not bad, ta. Just thought I’d rest my legs for a while.’

Alf’s face broke into a smile. Lily didn’t know which she envied about him the most, his wonderful hardly-a-wrinkle-in-sight skin or the fact that he always seemed to be happy. Even though the day outside was fairly mild, he wore a black blazer, his huge stomach protruded from above his trousers, his braces pulled taut holding them tightly.

As he strained to see what was behind him, his burly hands, although ravaged with age and slightly twisting at the knuckles, gripped the side of the chair to stop him toppling over. Once he’d finished his inspection, he turned back to her.

‘So,’ Lily swept an arm around the chaos, ‘what do you think of my plan so far? Do you think it will work?’

Lily knew Alf was as sceptical as Irene so a little teasing was in order. After Kate and Chloe had finished the arduous task of stripping the walls, they’d been left with a completely blank canvas, which even she had to admit was more oppressive than the floral wallpaper. Terry Allen was coming to see her this afternoon to give her a quote on the work that was needed to make it look special again.

Alf removed his cap and placed it down on the table. ‘You know what I think. You’re mad to try again.’

‘That’s not the answer I had in mind.’

‘It’s the only answer I have. You don’t have to do this.’

Lily sighed. ‘I need something to occupy my time.’

‘But we can do things together. We could go dancing. And play bingo.’

‘We already go dancing and play bingo.’

‘What about the cinema?’

‘We went last Friday.’

‘To the museum, maybe on a picnic...’

Lily mentally switched off as he went through his endless list of possible outings that they could enjoy together. The twinkle in his eyes worked overtime to convince her, but she couldn’t return his affection. Not now, not ever.

At last she held up her hand to silence him. ‘Before you talk yourself hoarse, maybe it’s time for a nice mug of milky tea?’

‘I’ll tell you what you could improve,’ he said before she disappeared through the kitchen door.

Cautiously, she turned back to face him, and then hid a grin as he rubbed at his bottom.

‘These chairs are too hard for the likes of my well worn flesh. I think you need some new ones.’

‘Delivery for Mrs Mortimer,’ a voice shouted through the open doors an hour later. A short man with a huge stomach and the most outrageous shorts carried one end of a rectangular box. His equally short colleague appeared at the other end.

‘From Denleys? I’m sure it wasn’t supposed to arrive until the end of the month.’ Lily looked puzzled and went off in search of the order form.

‘What is it?’ Kate asked Mr Short and Fat.

‘Coffee machine, love.’ He wiped his brow with the back of a grubby looking hand. ‘Which is what we both could do with – a good cuppa. Isn’t that right, Markus?’

Mr Short and Thin nodded but Kate shook her head without more ado.

‘Sorry, but we’re not open for business yet. If you could put the box on the counter over on the far wall please, I’ll sign for the order.’

‘Here it is.’ Lily was out of breath when she returned to find them gone and Chloe spraying air freshener abundantly around where they had stood. ‘It shouldn’t have been delivered for another two weeks.’