Instead of letting Tabby’s critical gaze get to me, I pick up the bag of icing I’d put down earlier and continue icing the cakes. Bram and I are working like a well-oiled team. He passes a tray over, spins around me to collect the ones I’ve just finished and place them on the stands in the display unit, and she watches us for a moment. ‘I’m going to freshen up. Bathroom?’
I point out the door to the back room. ‘Through there and up the stairs, you can’t miss it. You can leave your coat up there too.’
Bram watches the doorway, and when she disappears, he jerks his head to get me to step closer to him, and he bends until his mouth is right next to my ear, and his fruity aftershave fills my nose.
‘I won’t tell anyone our secret, but she will delight in it. Be very careful.’
Oh, great. It was hard enough keeping it a secret from him, but now he knows, life has been so much easier. And I trust him, but the thought of someone else working here and finding out my little secret sends my thoughts spiralling. Just when things were starting to go well, I’m once again left in a spin of panic that my little white lie is going to get back to Mr Hastings and he’ll fire me on the spot. ‘Did you know she was coming?’
‘Heck no. Holy green tomatoes, she’s someone I never wanted to clap eyes on again, never mind work alongside.’ He sounds like he’s trying to sound upbeat and jokey to cover how much her appearance has thrown him. ‘Seriously thinking of quit—’
‘Don’t you dare!’ I reach out and grab his forearm, my fingers curling tightly around the sleeve of his lime green jacket. ‘The Wonderland Teapot wouldn’t be the same without you. You’re not allowed to go anywhere, ever.’
He seems flummoxed for a minute, and then his face breaks into the most genuine smile I’ve seen so far this morning. ‘Awww. And all this time, I thought you barely tolerated me.’
‘I barely tolerate you pulling things out from behind my ear. When you’re being yourself, you’re marginally okay.’
‘Be still, my dusty old heart.’ He puts a hand on his chest and gives me a sarcastic grin. ‘And on that note, I’m going to go and empty the recycling bin in case she pokes her nose in there.’
‘Did you see her nails? There’s no way she’s ever been near a recycling bin in her life.’
He lets out a loud unexpected laugh and his shoulders loosen for the first time since she came in. ‘Remarkably accurate. Back in a tick.’ He goes to walk out and then turns back. ‘Cleo? Thanks for saying that about straightening me out. Much appreciated.’
For just a second, he looks insecure and vulnerable, and I think I’ve just got a glimpse of why he hides so much of himself behind a character.
Having taken the supermarket packaging to his car, Bram is back inside by the time Tabby glides into the shop in her ridiculously oversized red ballgown. ‘What are you really doing here? Don’t forget I know you well enough to know that you’d never deign yourself to work in a tearoom if there wasn’t something in it for you.’
‘I’m just here to show willing. I put in an application to take over this building myself, you know. A wellness retreat. I think it would’ve been the perfect fit.’
‘A wellness retreat on Ever After Street?’ I say incredulously. Of all the things Ever After Street needs, I can’t think of anything more misplaced.
‘You know something’s a terrible idea when it rhymes,’ Bram interjects.
‘Well, my bid was unfortunately rejected, and as Mr Hastings was telling me about this place, I thought that what any Wonderland needs is a Queen of Hearts, and I wanted to show Mr Hastings there are no hard feelings and that I can be a valuable asset to Ever After Street too, and maybe next time, my bid won’t be rejected when an opening comes up on the street.’
‘You’re trying to prove you can play nice with other children,’ Bram says. ‘I don’t know what you think you’re going to get out of this. They’ll never agree to a wellness retreat here, it’s the least fitting thing I can possibly imagine for Ever After Street. This is a place where children come to believe in magic. Children are not the target audience for yoga and spa days. Acupuncture for five-year-olds will never catch on. Chemical peels? Eyebrow threading? Back waxes for seven-year-olds?’
‘You are never too young to start looking after yourself,’ she trills. ‘Mr Hastings thinks it’s a wonderful idea but he was outvoted by his fellow councillors.’
She puts a strange emphasis on ‘Mr Hastings’ every time she says his name and I’m not sure why. ‘I agree with Bram, it’s—’
‘No one has ever agreed with Bram.’
I glance up at him. The Hatter grin is plastered onto his face and it looks like he’s fighting to keep it there. Discomfort and defensiveness are pouring off him in waves. He’s still standing near enough that I can nudge my foot against his behind the counter without her noticing. ‘Well, I do. We have Rapunzel’s hair salon – they have a niche of doing Disney princess hairstyles for children and doing adult haircuts as well. A wellness retreat is an adult thing. It would never work on Ever After Street.’
‘We’ll see. I have plenty of ideas. I’m a trained beauty therapist and yoga practitioner, and this place is an untapped customer base. Think of how many knackered parents come here. They must be crying out for beauty treatments. Parents always forget to take care of their own needs and deserve a bit of pampering. For a price, of course.’
‘Are you also going to open a childcare centre? Because most of those knackered parents have got youngsters in tow and there’s nowhere to leave them and pop off for a quick hour of relaxation.’
‘I don’t know,’ she says with a huff.
‘You can burn that bridge when you come to it,’ Bram mutters, another mixed-up saying that might have made me laugh if the tension wasn’t so severe.
‘Oh, what a surprise, look at you being discouraging and negative. You never did support my dreams. That’s what comes from having the ambition of frogspawn.’
Negative and discouraging. That’s the last thing Bram is. And ambition? Admittedly I don’t know much about him, but he loves magic, and I know you don’t get that good at it without a lot more ambition than frogspawn.
A gentle knock on the door makes me realise it’s past 9 a.m., and before I have a chance to go over and open it, Tabby gets in first.
‘Off with your heads!’ She screeches at the two elderly ladies outside the door, and they step back in alarm.
‘Don’t mind her!’ I rush over to reassure the two regular customers who have been coming in for tea and toast most mornings. ‘This is the Queen of Hearts, a new addition from today who won’t be using that greeting on a regular basis. Come in, come in, make yourselves comfortable. The usual? Extra sparkle in your tea?’
They nod and when I go to start it, Bram has already gone to boil the kettle and put bread in the toaster. Because he’s helpful and encouraging, and although all relationships end with a degree of bitterness, he seems nothing like Tabby says, and she seems like the type of person who becomes an ex for many good reasons.
9
‘Well, it’s not bad,’ Bram says kindly.
We’re in his kitchen again and I’ve made a lemon drizzle loaf cake, hoping to be able to put slices of it out in the tearoom tomorrow. Which was definitely overly optimistic. After doing this for over a week now, I had hoped I might be improving slightly, but I’m still just as bad as ever.
‘I think you might’ve misinterpreted the context of “sponge” because it’s like eating a lemon flavoured bathroom sponge.’ Even so, he digs his fork into the cake tin again. ‘I’ve had worse this week. And it’s only Monday evening.’
He’s leaning on the unit and I’m sitting on it, with the loaf tin between us. I dig my fork into my end again too. It’s definitely got a spongey texture to it… as in, the cake tries to push your fork back out when you dig it in. A similar level of bounce to a trampoline.
‘The drizzle is nice though.’
‘You made the drizzle!’ I can’t help laughing.
