Meet Me in Bendigo

by Eva Scott

  No one had flirted with her since Ben died. Or if they had, she’d been too wrapped up in her sadness to notice. Maybe that’s how she needed to see Ed, as the man who woke her up from her long sleep. The idea made her roll her eyes. She was no Disney princess.

  Either way, there was no point making too much of Ed paying her attention. He’d be leaving again soon. The smart thing would be to accept the attraction as a gift, telling her that she might be ready for love again.

  Her mind gravitated to GardenerGuy94. If he turned out to be half as good-looking as Delicious Ed, she’d be a goner.

  It had taken every last ounce of Ed’s resources to walk into that bakery and act like nothing of significance had happened between him and Annalisa. He charmed the baker’s wife, bought enough cream donuts to clog the arteries of the old men and acted casual as Annalisa waved goodbye and left.

  Her departure was almost a relief. He figured he had enough time to get his act together before seeing her again if he took his time, bought a coffee and checked his messages before walking down the main street to Cappelli’s Hardware.

  As he went through the motions, his mind replayed his exchange with Annalisa on a loop. From the moment when he’d steadied her, the shape of her shoulders imprinted on his palms, he’d wanted to touch her again. Her black curls, the colour of midnight, had been too much of a temptation as they’d blown about in the morning’s breeze. As she’d stood there, looking up at him with those dark chocolate eyes, he hadn’t been able to help himself, he had to reach out for that curl.

  And something had happened between them. He knew she’d felt it too by the look on her face. They’d managed to get under all the superficial, everyday surface stuff right to the connection. Bam! No denying it, and for the second time.

  Even though he’d been sure that, given a chance, this was exactly what would happen with Annalisa, Ed found himself rattled and thrown off-centre. He gave himself a little shake in an effort to get all his parts reconnected so he could function properly. All he managed to do was slosh a bit of coffee out of the cup.

  ‘Damn it,’ he muttered, shaking the droplets off his hand.

  He glanced up and down the street to see if anyone had seen him acting like a fool. The place looked empty—thank god for sleepy towns.

  Ed had to get a grip on whatever it was that compelled him towards Annalisa. Nothing good could come of it. She’d reject him and Rosie would flay him publicly. Possibly disembowel him too if she could get away with it. Yet the thought of walking away from Annalisa made him feel sick to his stomach. She provided the only bright spot in his life. There had to be a way to work through this mess.

  He walked down the street to where Cappelli’s Hardware sat at the end of the row.

  ‘Hello, all,’ he said as he entered. ‘I’ve come bearing gifts.’ Ed held the cream donuts aloft. ‘Real cream too.’

  A woman sat behind the counter flicking through a magazine. Must be Annalisa’s nonna.

  ‘What are you waiting for? Get over here.’ Joe beckoned him over while Terry slid out the spare chair. ‘We’ve been waiting for you.’

  ‘Sorry I’m later than I intended. Where should I put these?’

  ‘Here, here.’ Dave patted the top of the table with the enthusiasm of a man starved. ‘What? We’re in between games,’ he justified himself to Terry and Joe.

  ‘Okay, but don’t be all day about it,’ Joe conceded. ‘Nancetta, meet Ed. Ed meet Annalisa’s grandmother, otherwise known as Nonna.’

  ‘Pleased to meet you,’ he said, flashing his most charming smile. ‘Would you care for a donut?’

  ‘No thank you.’ Nonna took him in like she was taking inventory, peering over the top of her reading glasses.

  ‘Come on,’ said Joe. ‘One donut is not gonna hurt.’

  ‘I’m watching my figure,’ she said primly.

  ‘I’ll watch it for you. Have a donut.’ Joe winked as he finished the cliché.

  ‘You eat mine,’ she said, and Joe shrugged.

  ‘Where you been?’ he asked Ed.

  ‘Had some business that cropped up.’ He took a bite of a donut. ‘These are good.’

  ‘Best in the Goldfields,’ said Dave, with cream all over his face.

  ‘Annalisa’s gone out if you’re looking for her,’ said Terry between mouthfuls.

  ‘I saw her up the street. She’s out putting flyers up for her doll houses.’

  ‘Yeah, great idea if you ask me. Gotta stick it to those Carpenter guys somehow, right?’ Joe said.

  Ed busied himself with the paper bag that had, until recently, contained cream donuts. He made a great show of tidying up the debris, hoping the old guys wouldn’t notice he was hiding something from them. Namely himself.

  ‘The cheek of big business coming out here to the regions and destroying small holdings,’ muttered Nonna. ‘They ought to be ashamed of themselves.’

  The temperature dropped several degrees in the room. Nonna effectively ice blasted any doubts he had as to how the news about his identity would be taken. He wanted to explain to them how he couldn’t have prevented this from happening and how he wanted to offer Annalisa a payout so she’d be okay.

  ‘On the bright side, it will bring jobs to the region.’ His lame attempt to lighten the mood.

  ‘But at what cost to the community?’ Nonna pinned him with her laser vision and he had to stop himself from squirming. He swore she could see straight through to his soul, see every secret he’d ever kept.

  Ed Before had never been a fan of secrets. Yet Ed After seemed to be riddled with them.

  ‘We’ll see,’ said Terry philosophically. ‘People might not want to drive thirty minutes to get a shovel. They can still come here. Save petrol.’

  ‘Good point,’ said Dave. ‘We’ve got to stay optimistic.’

  ‘Writing is on the wall, if you ask me,’ said Nonna. She turned the page with such violence Ed thought it would tear. ‘Carpenter’s will be the end of us, and then what is Annalisa going to do?’

  ‘She’s young and she’s clever,’ said Joe. ‘She’ll do fine.’

  ‘I’m not so sure.’ Apparently, Nonna refused to consider optimism as an option. ‘Survival takes more than that. It takes money.’

  ‘You never know,’ Ed said, ‘Carpenter’s might offer to buy her out. It’s happened before.’ He spoke lightly, throwing the concept out there like he’d place a poker bet.

  Nonna snorted in a very unladylike fashion, leaving him in no doubt of her opinion on that subject.

  The entire conversation made him so uncomfortable he thought he could feel a bout of hives coming on. He hated lying to these people, even if it was technically a lie by omission. The truth pinched in every direction he tried to move, like he was wearing a pair of too tight shoes. This was not who he was. He needed to find a way to come clean, a way that did the least amount of damage to his budding relationship with Annalisa and her family.

  ‘Come on,’ said Joe impatiently. ‘We didn’t come here to eat cream donuts and talk business. We came to play cards. Who’s dealing?’

  Ed knew an opportunity to change a subject when he saw one. ‘I will,’ he volunteered eagerly. ‘What are we playing?’

  ‘Five-card draw,’ said Joe as he rubbed his hands together. ‘I hope you brought plenty of money.’

  Ed changed the energy of any room he occupied. She’d felt his presence before she’d seen him as she’d barrelled in through the front door of the shop, full of triumph at her day’s work.

  They’d all turned to look at her—Joe, Terry, Dave, Nonna and … Ed. All the words she’d intended to say, the story about her day, flew out of her head and left her blank. Annalisa stood in the middle of the shop floor, blinking owlishly with her mouth open in surprise.

  ‘You’re here.’ Now what did she have to go and say something as daft as that for? Of course he was here, in glorious technicolour 3D, as delicious as when she’d seen him this morning.

  ‘I am,’ he che
erfully confirmed as if his poker game attendance was a regular event. The way he looked at her froze her to the spot, like a small animal flushed from its cover.

  ‘Turns out he’s lousy at poker,’ said Joe as he swept a pile of low denomination coins towards him. ‘No chance you can change this lot for notes?’

  The spell broke as the moment evaporated, and Annalisa found she had freedom of movement and speech again.

  ‘No way,’ she said, placing her empty bags on the counter. ‘Don’t even think about dumping those coins on me.’

  ‘Good day?’ Nonna inspected the bags, her glasses perched halfway down her nose.

  ‘Got rid of the lot. There’s barely a shop between here and Bendigo that doesn’t have a flyer in their window.’

  The day had been a long one. Driving from small town to even smaller town had proved tiring. Fronting up to often indifferent shopkeepers had been exhausting on an entirely different level. But she’d done it; she’d managed to market herself across half the Goldfields. Something her lack of confidence would not have allowed a few weeks ago. If she got nothing else out of this enterprise, at least she had some personal growth.

  ‘That’s my girl,’ said Nonna. ‘Now, sit back and let the bookings roll in.’

  ‘From your lips to God’s ears.’ Annalisa unwound her scarf and shook out her hair. ‘I need coffee. Does anyone else want one?’ She turned to the men seated at the table to find the kind of startled, frozen-in-headlights expression on Ed’s face that she herself had worn only minutes ago.

  ‘Not bloody likely,’ said Terry. ‘I’m going home for a ham sandwich and a lie-down.’ He gathered the playing cards up into an unruly pile and began massaging them back into an orderly pack.

  ‘If I have any more coffee I’ll be awake all night.’ Dave rubbed his belly as if its roundness could be attributed to caffeine rather than a liking for bacon and eggs every morning.

  ‘I don’t even need an answer from you.’ Annalisa held up her hand as Joe opened his mouth to speak.

  ‘I’d like one,’ said Ed.

  ‘Of course he would,’ said Joe, screwing the lid on his thermos extra tight for the journey home. The other old guys chuckled like geriatric schoolboys.

  ‘That’s enough out of you lot,’ said Nonna. ‘About time you all packed up and went home.’

  ‘What do you think we’re doing here?’ Joe spread his hands across the now empty table.

  ‘We’re moving as fast as we can,’ said Terry, proceeding to unfold himself from the chair with painfully slow movements.

  ‘How long am I going to live that I can wait for you to get your act together,’ muttered Nonna. She slipped her apron off over her head, careful not to let it mess with her coiffure. ‘Annalisa, darling, I’m going to go home too. I hate to leave you here unchaperoned’—she shot a sideways glance at Ed—‘but my feet are killing me. I’ve got to get my orthotics checked.’

  Annalisa leaned in and gave her grandmother a hug, grateful and terrified of being left alone with Ed. The field of electricity that surrounded him made her wary of being zapped, of being lit up with something she couldn’t control.

  ‘Come on, then.’ Nonna picked up her handbag and waved the old guys towards the door. ‘Who needs a lift home?’

  Dave and Terry exchanged a look Annalisa couldn’t read.

  ‘We’re good,’ said Terry.

  ‘Yep, fine and dandy,’ said Dave.

  ‘I suppose you need a lift.’ Nonna spoke to Joe as if she were exasperated with him. Annalisa began to suspect this was all for show.

  ‘Yeah, why not? Save these old legs for dancing later.’

  ‘Dancing?’ Nonna snorted. ‘When do you dance?’

  ‘There’s a social every week over at the bowls club. I’m very good at waltzing I’ll have you know.’

  ‘That’s something I need to see with my own eyes.’

  ‘Nothing stopping you.’

  Joe held the door open for Nonna, both of them so intent on their banter they’d forgotten Ed and Annalisa.

  ‘Are they a thing?’ Ed suddenly appeared at the counter beside her, making her jump.

  ‘Um … I’m not sure. I’m still looking for clues. How about that coffee?’ She spoke too brightly, trying to cover her awkwardness as she endured the tiny zaps of attraction besieging her senses. He was too close.

  ‘Sure.’

  He followed as she turned to go towards her kitchen. Her awareness of him sharpened as they walked the length of the aisle, the shelving hemming them into a too small space for her comfort. The closer he got, the more the fizzy sensation inside her grew until she virtually hummed with her own electrical current.

  ‘Excuse the mess.’ She wished she’d tidied up.

  Glue, glitter and coloured pens were scattered all over the tabletop and piles of coloured paper dotted the kitchen bench. ‘Wow.’ Ed stopped, taking in the whole catastrophe.

  ‘I know. Messy, right?’ She nervously tucked her hair behind her ears and began busying herself with making coffee.

  ‘I was thinking more along the lines of all the effort you’ve put in. If it were me, I’d probably draw something in black pen on a piece of paper and get it photocopied.’ He shrugged. ‘Your production line is impressive.’

  She spooned the coffee granules into cups, pretending her senses weren’t scrambled, while she waited for the kettle to boil.

  ‘I have every intention of making more flyers after work so I can saturate the other half of the Goldfields.’ She poured boiling water over the granules. ‘Milk?’

  ‘Please.’ Ed was still too close, reducing her to a version of her fifteen-year-old self, all blushes and trembles. ‘First the Goldfields then world domination?’

  ‘What?’ She missed the joke, the penny dropping on a three-second delay. ‘Oh, yes.’ She laughed a little late. ‘Shall we take our coffee outside?’ She could put some space between them out in the courtyard and maybe regain her ability to think.

  ‘Great idea.’

  He followed her through the sliding door out into the neglected courtyard. The brickwork had warped with age, providing a mini obstacle course to get to the two chairs waiting for them in the last of the day’s sunshine.

  Annalisa settled herself down and took a sip of her coffee. She had a good metre between her chair and his. He was so damned good-looking she struggled to look at him straight on as it was, let alone have him so near she could feel the heat coming off his body.

  ‘So,’ she said.

  ‘So?’ He smiled in a way that said I-know-I-make-you-uncomfortable.

  ‘How did your poker game go?’ Might as well start there. Safe ground.

  ‘Those old guys are sharper than they look.’

  She laughed at this unexpected confession. ‘Come on, we both know you threw those games to let them win.’

  Ed shrugged. ‘I’ll never tell.’ He sipped his drink and she found herself relaxing for the first time since she’d gotten home.

  ‘Tell me your story.’ She stretched out her legs, enjoying the warmth of the sun on her limbs.

  ‘Which one? The official story or the uncensored one?’

  The thought of Ed uncensored sent provocative images swirling through her head.

  ‘How about we start with the official first and we can move to the uncut version later, if we think we’re up for it?’

  He raised his eyebrows as if she’d suggested something altogether different. Had she? Her head dizzied at the possibilities of exploring an unrestricted Ed. It had been so long since she’d last flirted, she’d forgotten how.

  ‘I’m up for it if you are,’ he said, causing Annalisa to blush. They were flirting and he was much better at it than her.

  He began to talk, telling her about living in London and attending the School of Horticulture at Kew Gardens, while making ends meet as a barista and part-time muscle for a landscaping business. He’d lived in a grubby flat with a bunch of other expats, enjoying orphans’ Christmases
and short summers spent in beer gardens and attending music festivals.

  ‘But that was a long time ago,’ he said.

  ‘How long were you away from home?’

  He screwed up one eye as if trying to draw the past into better focus. ‘About six years.’

  ‘That’s a long time to be away from your family. Didn’t you miss them?’ She couldn’t imagine going without seeing Nonna for such a long time.

  ‘You haven’t met my family.’ He laughed without humour. ‘My mum is great. We talked and emailed all the time. My dad was never the type to communicate unnecessarily and as for my brother and sister … well …’ He trailed off, letting her fill in the gap for herself.

  ‘I always imagined having a family around me would be a happy thing. I guess that’s not always the case.’

  ‘No, it’s not.’ He looked off into the distance and she got the sense she’d triggered his shutters.

  ‘Are you happy to be back?’ What kind of question was that to ask a man who clearly didn’t want to talk about his family situation? She’d give herself a good kick on the shins if she could.

  Ed turned to her, surprise on his face. ‘No, I am not.’

  ‘Oh.’ She hadn’t expected him to be so blunt.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I’ve known that I’ve been unhappy for a long time. It’s that no one has ever asked me directly and saying it out loud kind of startled me. To answer you properly, I am unhappy with my current circumstances.’ She could sense him tasting his words, getting the flavour of them for the first time.

  ‘Okay, then.’ She hadn’t a clue what to say. This handsome, sharp, witty man was not happy and she didn’t know what she could do about it.

  ‘Are you happy?’ he asked, turning the tables.

  ‘Me?’ As if there was anyone else around. ‘Yes, no … maybe. I don’t know.’ She sighed. ‘I have my moments, I guess. I’m happy in my community. I’m happy with my small extended family and my friends. I’m happy being home.’