They would have to.
Chapter Thirty-One
What I’d like to know is, if carbon offsetting is supposed to work then why can’t we have calorie offsetting? I like the idea of me stuffing my face with chocolate and some skinny bitch on the other side of the world bloating up. Any politician who introduced that would certainly get my vote.
As it is, I have to bear my own carb-loading, but that’s not stopping me from trying these delicious Christmas cupcakes that Alexandra has brought in. Hmm. Her creativity knows no bounds and, despite her protesting that she can’t wait for it all to be over, I think she’s really getting into the festive groove. Spread in front of me are cupcakes galore – gingerbread latte, pink ones topped with a stripy candy cane, some flavoured with eggnog; others have a green swirl of icing for a Christmas tree and there’s an almond cupcake with an angel piped on top in pale apricot frosting. But my favourite of all is the mince pie cupcake, baked with mincemeat in the sponge and topped with brandy-flavoured buttercream. These babies are going to be gone in sixty seconds.
I’m licking the crumbs from my fingers – essential quality control – as Chantal arrives. She breezes in with an excess of carrier bags.
‘I don’t need to ask where you’ve been.’ I nod at her stash of shopping.
‘It’s only however-many-shopping-days-it-is until Christmas,’ Chantal informs me. ‘Thought I’d better make a bit of a dent in it.’
‘Looks like you’ve done a sterling job. I haven’t seen you laden down with bags like that for a good while.’
‘Hasn’t been done in a while. More’s the pity.’
‘No baby girl today?’
‘Stacey’s been looking after her, but I’ve just texted them. I caught her mid-feed so, as soon as she’s done, she’ll be coming along in a minute.’
‘She’s nice, isn’t she?’
‘Lovely,’ Chantal agrees. ‘It’s funny how things work out. Who’d have thought that we would become friends? But I’m glad that we’re trying to make it work.’
‘What does Ted think about that?’
Chantal laughs. ‘On the one hand he seems quite relieved but, on the other, I’m sure it makes him quite nervous. He’ll simply have to live with that. Better that the two women in his life are mates than at each other’s throats, surely?’
‘I’ll second that.’ Then, ‘What can I get for you?’
‘I don’t care,’ Chantal says. ‘Just load me up with as much sugar as possible, I’m exhausted.’
‘A caffeine hit too?’
‘Whatever you say.’ She flops into the sofa by the window and sighs.
A moment later, Autumn arrives with Lewis. I’m still thinking a crèche corner would be a good idea. Get them started on chocolate young and these are my customers of the future.
‘Usual?’ I ask.
‘You’re a lifesaver, Lucy.’
‘You’re looking very flush-faced,’ I note.
‘We’ve been to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. Haven’t we, Lewis?’
He nods. ‘It was fun. We went on the carousel and skating on ice and on a ride with penguins.’
‘Fabulous. Are you any good at skating?’
‘The best,’ he says modestly. ‘Miles said so.’
‘He did?’ I give Autumn a knowing glance. ‘Good for you. You can have a chocolate-chip cookie as a reward.’
Lewis’s eyes widen. ‘Thank you, Auntie Lucy.’
As casually as I can manage, I say to Autumn, ‘So, it wasn’t just the two of you?’
‘No.’ She grins at me. ‘Lewis and I were with Miles and Florence.’
‘Hmm,’ I say. ‘This Miles, his name is getting dropped into the conversation quite regularly.’
‘He’s nice,’ Autumn admits, flushing a little more. ‘I like being with him.’
I know that things aren’t going well with her and Addison at the moment, but I don’t know how bad they are. It seems that this Miles is quietly edging into the picture, though.
Just as I’ve got one lot of drinks ready, both Nadia and Stacey arrive at the same time. Stacey has the two babies tucked tightly into the buggy together like two peas in a pod. They look like twins rather than half-sisters.
I hand the tray over to Autumn. ‘Be a love and take these to Chantal and Nadia. I’ll bring yours in a sec. What can I get you, Stacey?’
She gives me her order and Chantal comes over. ‘Let me give you a hand with these lovely girls.’
‘They’re both fast asleep,’ Stacey says. ‘Shall I bring them over in the buggy?’
‘Sure. We’ll park it right here.’ Chantal laughs. ‘I used to hate the yummy mummies taking up all the room in cafés with their baby paraphernalia and now I’m the worst of them.’
It’s so very tempting to put up the closed sign on the door so that I can have some quality time with my best girls, but I daren’t. As I predicted, Alexandra’s cupcakes are proving to be a huge hit and nearly every customer who’s come in today has taken some away with them or has placed an order in time for Christmas. I’ll have to keep running backwards and forwards so that I can keep up with the gossip.
After I’ve dealt with the little rush, everyone in the café seems happy for a few minutes so, when I take over the rest of the order, I sit down for five minutes. I’ve got a cuppa and a slice of coffee cake for myself – which is, technically, lunch.
Nadia pulls Lewis onto her lap and gives him a cookie. ‘Did you have a nice time today?’
‘We saw Father Christmas and everything,’ he answers, chocolate round his mouth already.
‘She went with Miles,’ I say and flutter my eyelashes.
Autumn blushes furiously. ‘Stop it, Lucy. There’s nothing in it,’ she insists. ‘He’s just a nice man.’
‘Well, I think romance is in the air,’ I declare. ‘It’s Christmas and that is the perfect time for lurve.’
‘I do actually have a fiancé,’ Autumn retorts.
‘Whatever.’ I make a W sign just to tease her a bit more.
‘Lucy, how are your plans for your romantic weekend coming on?’ Nadia asks.
‘I booked my tickets for Bruges in a brief lull between customers this morning,’ I tell them excitedly. ‘We’re all set to go. I can’t wait to tell Crush this evening. It will be wonderful. A chocolate festival and a Christmas market.’
‘You’ll think that you’ve died and gone to heaven.’
‘And Marcus is definitely not going to be there?’ Chantal, probably with good reason, has a very suspicious nature.
‘Absolutely not.’ I texted him this morning to let him know that I’ve booked my tickets and all I got back was one saying Great. Nothing more. No declarations of love. No kisses. Nothing.
And I, for one, am pleased that Marcus and I can remain friends.
‘I promise to bring you home some fabulous Belgian choccy treats.’
‘You and I can manage between us, can’t we, Autumn?’ Nadia says.
‘Definitely.’
I kiss them both. ‘I love you,’ I say. ‘And not just for Christmas.’
‘Nadia bites into a double choc cookie. ‘I’ll make sure it’s in the diary. Tarak hasn’t asked me to work weekends yet, so I’m sure it will be all right.’
‘How’s it going in the heady world of fashion?’ Chantal asks.
‘Tricky,’ Nadia admits. ‘I like the job well enough and it’s great being with Anita again, but my brother-in-law and I have a difficult relationship. He likes me a bit more than he maybe should.’
‘Awkward.’ That’s Chantal again.
‘Yeah. But I’ll deal with it. Somehow.’
She does look worried, though. ‘Statistically, you’re more likely to run off with your brother-in-law than anyone else,’ I say to lighten the mood.
‘I suspect that only works if your brother-in-law is George Clooney,’ Autumn counters.
Which, at least, has the desired effect of making Nadia laugh.
‘I take it that Tarak’s
certainly no Gorgeous George?’
‘No,’ she laughs. ‘I guess that makes him a lot easier to resist.’
‘We could put a date for our naming party in the diary too,’ Chantal suggests. ‘Clive and Tristan are coming back this weekend. I know it’s a rush, Lucy, but could we do it then?’
‘Sure. We can do it after the shop shuts on Sunday. Would that work for everyone?’
‘I don’t see why not,’ Chantal says. ‘Does that suit you, Stacey?’
‘Yes,’ she says. ‘I’m going nowhere else.’
‘Do you want to check with your family before I book it in?’ I ask her.
‘No,’ she says. ‘They won’t travel for this. The snow’s quite bad where they are and they wouldn’t view it as a proper christening.’
Chantal gives her a hug. ‘We’ll make it a lovely party.’
‘How are you feeling?’ I venture. She certainly looks a bit brighter than when she first came in with Chantal.
‘I’m hoping to get a cleaner in place soon,’ she says. ‘Perhaps later this week. Even that makes me feel better. And I know that there’s somewhere I can go if I feel lonely.’
‘I always have tea, sympathy and chocolate available here,’ I assure her. ‘There’s nothing else you need in the world.’
‘Thanks,’ she says shyly. ‘You’ve all made me feel very welcome.’
‘Sunday it is then,’ Chantal says. ‘I’ll phone Clive and Tristan and confirm it with them.’
‘I’ll get Alexandra to sort out some cakes for Lana and Elsie.’ I can also get some balloons and decorations online. I can’t wait already. Oh, I do love a party.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Crush and I are lying in the bath together being all romantic. My back is against his chest, his arms round my waist. I’ve poured us both a glass of wine and there’s a row of chocolates lined up along the edge of the bath. My smoochy Christmas songs playlist is serenading us. Our favourite Elvis rubber duck bobs around my nether regions. We are covered in bubbles and bathed in the light of a dozen candles. I could lie here for ever and never get bored. This is the life.
‘Put some more hot water in, Gorgeous,’ Crush says languidly.
I am Keeper of the Taps and with that job comes great responsibility. With a skill that has been honed over many years, I move the tap lever with my big toe and, lo, hot water gushes in. Elvis bobs in the torrent.
When the temperature has risen sufficiently we snuggle down again. I sip my wine.
‘Oh, good news,’ I say. ‘I managed to book for Bruges today and, considering it’s coming up to Christmas I got a good deal, too. It wasn’t cheap, but it wasn’t hideously expensive either. We go out by Eurostar from St Pancras on the Friday morning and we’ll be back by Monday lunchtime. Sorted.’
‘Ah,’ Crush says.
And not in a good way.
I twist in the bath to look at him. ‘Tell me you can get the time off work.’
He shakes his head. ‘I can’t, Lucy. I meant to call you this morning and I was so busy that I clean forgot. I was all set to go and an important job came in at the last minute. It’s a potential multi-million-pound contract and I just can’t risk letting my sales team go on their own. I’m the manager. It’s my neck on the block. I need to be there.’
‘Aiden.’ I try my most whiny voice. ‘We need this break.’
His arms tighten around me. ‘We do. You’re right. I really hate to let you down. Believe me, it’s the last thing on earth that I want. But, if I can get this in the bag, then next year will be a lot easier for me. You know what it’s like at Targa – we’re being pushed to bring in more revenue all the time and this would take me a long way towards my target. It might even get me a big, fat bonus. Who knows what fun we could have with that?’
‘What sort of fun?’
‘I’m thinking sparkly rings kind of fun.’
‘Really?’ I want to stay sulky, yet I can’t help but grin. ‘You’re not just saying that because I’m sulking?’
‘No,’ he laughs. ‘Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, but I don’t think it would be premature for us to become engaged people next year.’
‘Engaged!’ Wait until I tell the girls. Finally, I have bagged my man, the man of my dreams nonetheless. ‘I’d like that,’ I say. My little, loved-up heart beats erratically. ‘I’d like that very much.’
He kisses me long and hard. There’s something else bobbing around my nether regions and I don’t think that it’s Elvis the duck.
When we break apart again, Crush looks at me earnestly. ‘So you see why I need to go to Scotland?’
‘Scotland?’ I can’t help but let my face fall.
‘Edinburgh. I’m going up there next Friday morning and I have to take the clients out to dinner that night, but I’ll be back by Saturday afternoon. Couldn’t we go to Bruges then?’
‘It would hardly be worth it,’ I say. ‘Besides, I can’t change it now. The reason I got a great price is that it’s fixed. I’ve paid for it up front.’
‘I’m sorry, Gorgeous.’
I know that Crush wouldn’t let me down unless he absolutely had to. He is kind and reliable. Earnest. He’s nothing like Marcus.
‘I’ll still have to go. Marcus has arranged for me to give a talk about the chocolate market in the UK on the afternoon we’d arrive. Plus he’d got tickets for us to go to the ball the same evening. I can’t let him down.’
Crush frowns.
‘Marcus won’t be there,’ I reassure him. ‘I’m just worried about going alone.’
‘Would one of the girls go with you?’
‘I’ve already roped in Nadia and Autumn to look after Chocolate Heaven in my absence, so they can’t. Maybe Chantal would come with me.’
I pout at him.
‘I know it’s not the romantic weekend that you had all mapped out for us.’
‘I had all manner of very kinky sexual treats planned for you. Lots of them involving chocolate.’
‘You did?’ He raises an eyebrow at that.
I didn’t really, but I’m sure I could conjure something up if push came to shove – as it were.
‘I hate to remind you, but it didn’t go all that well last time you combined chocolate with foreplay.’
Oh, crap. Hoped he’d forgotten about the Dirty Protest Incident. Clearly, he is as scarred by it as I am. It will be a long time before I consider smearing chocolate on my breasts again. Or anywhere else for that matter.
‘I’m sorry, Gorgeous. What can I do to make it up to you?’
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ I murmur as he pulls me close and his lips find mine again. I knock all the chocolates off the side of the bath and into the water, but I don’t care. Elvis gives a squeaky quack in protest as he’s squashed in the tangle of our limbs. ‘I’m sure I’ll think of something.’
Chapter Thirty-Three
Autumn didn’t know what was wrong with her. She normally wasn’t the kind of person to feel down in the dumps, but she was more depressed than she’d ever been before. She felt as if her life was crumbling apart at the moment, as if it had all become too much to take.
Autumn had left Chocolate Heaven with Nadia and Lewis and had gone back to their house to eat the dinner that she’d prepared earlier. As always, it was lovely to spend time with them, but now she had to go home by herself and she felt as if she’d put on a layer of loneliness along with her coat. If she was honest, she was beginning to feel a little outside of the group of friends, too.
She loved Lewis to pieces and it was getting harder to fill the hours when she wasn’t looking after him. Nadia always thought that it was Autumn who was doing the favour in babysitting her son, but Autumn didn’t know what she would have done without those hours with her small charge.
Chantal and Stacey had their babies to keep them fully occupied and perhaps she was dwelling on that too much. Sometimes she ached so much with the need to hold Lana or Elsie that it made her feel nauseous. Sometimes she could a
lmost feel the essence of her own child in her arms and Autumn wondered how much longer she could keep her secret from the other girls. She’d told Miles about her daughter, but still hadn’t mentioned it to the Chocolate Lovers’ Club, who’d been her best buddies and confidantes for years. Why was that? Wouldn’t it be better if it was all out in the open?
Sadness overwhelmed her and her head seemed to be filled with regrets. Regrets that she’d been compelled to give Willow away. Regrets that she hadn’t been able to keep her brother on the straight and narrow. Regrets that she had no relationship with her parents to speak of. She thought she was a good, caring person, so why was it that all her relationships were so difficult? Had she done something really terrible in a former life and her punishment was to see everything that she loved taken away from her?
Lucy was completely besotted with Crush and he with her. That’s how it should be. But who did Autumn have? She hadn’t heard from Addison all day. Again. She’d sent a couple of texts, but hadn’t received a reply. It seemed as if their relationship had cooled and she didn’t really understand why. They needed some time to sit down and discuss what was going wrong with them and whether it could be fixed. She’d been avoiding talking to him, partly because she knew he wasn’t supportive of her feelings about Rich and, right now, she needed someone to care.
Autumn stayed at Nadia’s house into the evening, lingering until she couldn’t put off going home any longer. She left Nadia curled up reading Lewis a bedtime story and took a cab back to her own place. The central heating had gone off and it was cold and unwelcoming. Christmas was only a few weeks away and yet she’d never felt less festive. She didn’t even think that she’d bother with a tree this year. If she needed a Christmas fix then all she had to do was pop to Chocolate Heaven, as Lucy had done a great job in there.
Reluctant to take her coat off, she turned on the gas fire and flicked up the thermostat. Still, the flat was small and would soon warm up. In the meantime, she went through to the kitchen to put the kettle on. When she opened the drawer to find a spoon, there was a packet of cigarette papers there and a lighter that Rich had left behind. She’d thrown the weed that she’d brought from his flat in there and now she took it out and slipped it into the pocket of her cardigan.