The Chocolate Lovers’ Wedding

by Carole Matthews

  catch up. I’ll be about an hour. I can bring some food in.’ ‘I’ll make something for us. There are noodles in the cupboard

  and vegetables that aren’t too floppy in the fridge.’ ‘Those are the words to make a woman’s heart glad.’ He laughs. ‘Don’t eat too much cake or you’ll spoil your

  appetite. I’ll see you later, Gorgeous. I thought we had some

  wedding planning to do?’

  ‘I’m too tired,’ I confess. ‘Maybe at the weekend?’ ‘Sounds good to me.’ Then he adds, ‘Is Autumn coming in

  tonight? Are you going to talk to her about coming in to help

  run Chocolate Heaven?’

  ‘Yes. I hope she’ll agree. It can’t happen soon enough. Then

  we can think about the wedding.’ I’ve yet to tell him that I still

  have qualms about the place we’ve booked.

  ‘See you later,’ he says. ‘Love you.’

  ‘I love you, too.’ I hang up just as Nadia knocks on the front

  door. I let her in.

  ‘A lock-in at a chocolate shop,’ she says. ‘What kind of joy

  is this?’

  ‘I thought you’d have Lewis with you.’

  ‘I’ve just dropped him off at Anita’s so that he can play with his cousins. They’re very good with him. She’s making dinner

  for us later, so I can’t stay too long.’

  ‘How are things with your sister?’

  ‘With Anita, they’re fine. She’s disappointed that my parents

  weren’t so keen to welcome the prodigal daughter home, but

  at least we both tried. I feel quite ambivalent about it, if I’m

  honest. Besides, I have a lot more to worry about.’ ‘Tell all,’ I say.

  ‘Soon. When the others are here.’ She hands over a couple

  of bottles of wine. ‘Let’s put it this way. Tea isn’t going to hit

  the spot. I thought we needed something a bit stronger.’ ‘Sounds like a plan.’ While she sits on the sofa, I get some

  wine glasses from the back room.

  I’m just pouring the first glass when Chantal and Autumn

  arrive within seconds of each other. ‘Did you smell the scent

  of Pinot Grigio?’

  ‘No,’ Chantal says. ‘It was, as always, the lure of chocolate.

  And good company, of course,’ she adds with a laugh. But she takes the wine with a welcome sigh, nevertheless. We all kiss each other and they sit with Nadia. ‘Look at you,’ I say to Chantal. ‘Ms Beach Body.’ She looks

  tanned, healthy – deceptively so – and relaxed. You’d think she

  hadn’t a care in the world.

  ‘We’ve had a fantastic week,’ Chantal says. ‘I highly recommend honeymoons.’

  ‘Nice to see you all loved up.’

  ‘It’s been very therapeutic to take some time out and think

  about anything other than you-know-what for a week.’ I wrinkle my nose. ‘I thought honeymoons were all about

  you-know-what?’

  ‘The other you-know-what!’ Chantal chides.

  ‘Oh, that.’

  ‘Well, you look great,’ Autumn says. ‘And you’re feeling good?’ ‘Yes,’ she says. ‘Ready for the next stage. I’ve been into the

  chemo ward today for a first glimpse. It’s like an airport lounge

  with IV drips. Not quite as scary as I’d imagined.’ ‘We’ll make sure we have a rota so that we can all take turns

  in coming with you.’

  ‘That would be great. The whole session will take about

  three hours, so it would be good to have some company.’ ‘Sitting around gossiping, we can do very well.’ ‘There were some very young and fit-looking people in there,

  too. Just goes to show that cancer can strike anyone.’ She takes

  the glass of wine that I hand to her. ‘I might have to knock

  this off soon. It depends on the drugs they give me and how I

  react.’ She sighs longingly at her glass. ‘At least there’s no adverse

  reaction between chocolate and chemotherapy; then I really

  would be stuffed.’

  ‘Ah,’ I say. ‘Speaking of which.’ I bring the assortment of

  cocktail cupcakes from behind the counter. ‘I need your opinion

  on these babies. They’ve gone really well today and it would

  be nice to know which ones you think should be regulars.’ They fall on them the minute I put the plate down. I’m not

  sure that this will be a discerning audience for my wares. I pour myself a glass of wine and join them in the cupcake

  research. The strawberry margarita is particularly good.

  However, I too am at the point in the day when I’m not very

  discerning. It’s cake. What can I say? ‘I also have news. I think

  it’s good.’ They look at me expectantly. ‘Marcus is heading off

  to work in Dubai. Ms France is going with him.’

  ‘No,’ Nadia says, aghast. ‘I didn’t see that one coming.’ ‘Me neither,’ I admit.

  ‘It’ll certainly be more difficult for him to meddle in your

  life from Dubai,’ Chantal says. ‘I’m pleased to hear it.’ I cringe before I say, ‘Is it wrong of me to say that I’m going

  to miss him?’

  ‘Lucy!’ they all shout.

  ‘I know. What can I do?’ I nibble my cupcake for comfort

  and, when that’s not enough, take a swig of wine. ‘It’ll be funny

  without him.’

  ‘A blessed relief is what it will be,’ Chantal tells me. ‘Crush said pretty much the same,’ I admit. ‘There was one

  good thing, though . . . ’ I turn to Autumn. ‘He said he’d be

  open to you putting in an offer to buy into the company. That’s

  if you want to.’

  ‘Really?’ She looks surprised.

  ‘Would you be up for it?’

  ‘I still have the money from my parents sitting in my bank

  account. I can’t think of anything better to do with it. Are you

  sure?’

  ‘I have lots of plans,’ I say. ‘It would be lovely if we could

  do it together.’ I show her my chocolate-course brochure. ‘I’m

  thinking of training to be a chocolatier. A proper one.’ ‘That sounds great, Lucy.’ Autumn looks quite animated.

  ‘Perhaps we could both do it.’ She flicks through the pages,

  scanning quickly. ‘What do we have to do?’

  ‘We’ll need to put a proposal to Marcus about buying the

  business and we can take our time with that, but I’m desperate

  for help here now that Ms France has gone,’ I tell her. ‘If you

  want to come and work here as an assistant, in the meantime,

  it would be fantastic. The sooner you can start the better.’ She looks at Nadia. ‘Is that going to be possible? I’d love to

  do it, but I don’t want to let you down with childcare.’ Nadia touches her arm. ‘Autumn, you help me out on an

  entirely voluntary basis. You owe me nothing. You have to grab

  this chance. It would be terrific if you and Lucy could run this

  place together.’

  Autumn grins. ‘I’m so excited.’

  ‘What would you do with Lewis?’ I ask.

  ‘Ah,’ Nadia says. ‘You’re not the only ones making major

  changes. I have some news of my own.’ She sets down her cake

  and puts on her serious face. ‘I’ve decided to sell up and go to

  the Lake District to be with James.’

  We all sit there, stunned.

  ‘I’ve had the estate agent around to value the house and

  that’s going on the market this week. He said he didn’t think

  it would take long to sell.’

  I’m the first one to speak, but all I can say is ‘Wow!’ Nadia looks at
us anxiously. ‘You do all think I’m doing the

  right thing?’

  ‘Absolutely,’ Chantal says. ‘He’s a great bloke and that’s where

  your heart is now. But, heaven only knows, we’re going to miss

  you.’

  ‘Don’t.’ Nadia holds up a hand. ‘You’ll start me off crying

  again. I’ve done nothing but blub since I decided. What am I

  going to do without you?’

  ‘We’re all just going to have to spend our holidays in the

  Lakes from now on,’ I tell her.

  ‘I’m pleased that I’ve made the decision,’ she says. ‘But I’m

  scared to death as well. There’s so much to think about.’ She

  holds out a hand to Chantal. ‘I want to be here for you, but

  I’m looking to move up there as soon as possible, so that I

  can get Lewis settled before he starts school full time in

  September.’

  ‘I’ll still be here,’ Chantal says. ‘There are phones. We can

  Skype. You have to take this chance of happiness. I’m having

  six rounds of chemo and then radiotherapy afterwards. This

  could go on for ages. Don’t even think about putting anything

  on hold for me.’

  ‘You can come to stay with me for some rest and recuperation,’ Nadia says, sniffing back a tear.

  ‘I’ll hold you to that.’ Then they hug each other tightly. ‘Now you’re starting us all off.’ I wipe away a tear. ‘How

  can we let you go to the untamed wilds of the north without

  a celebration? There’s only one thing for it. We have to have

  one hell of a party before you go.’

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Pushing my noodle surprise around my plate, I stare into the middle distance and try to calm my whirring mind. ‘You seem a bit quiet, Gorgeous,’ Crush says. ‘Are the noodles not to Madam’s liking?’

  ‘It’s not that. They’re lovely. No one else could create something so tasty from such meagre ingredients.’

  He gives me a sideways glance. ‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’

  I eat my noodles with feigned gusto.

  ‘Sure you didn’t eat too much chocolate or cake?’

  ‘No. Well. Maybe. Yes.’

  He laughs.

  ‘In my defence, we have some excellent summer chocolates and cocktail cupcakes just in. I’ve put a couple in the fridge for you to sample later.’

  ‘This is why I love you. How many other women come with free chocolate and cake?’ He smiles at me. ‘Everything else OK?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ I try a light-hearted shrug, but my heart is too weighed down to give it the levity I strive for. ‘There’s so much going on at the moment, I feel as if I can’t keep up with it all.’

  ‘You said you had a nice time with your girls. You haven’t had a proper catch up in ages.’

  ‘We did. We always have a great time together.’ I put down my fork. ‘But there are so many changes in our lives, I can’t help but worry. Most of them are good. Yet it’s still a lot to get my head round.’

  ‘Tell all,’ he says.

  ‘Well . . . ’ I fiddle with my food some more. ‘Nadia is going to live with her new man in the Lake District.’

  ‘That’s going to be tough on you all. I know how much you love Nadia.’

  ‘We’re distraught. But pleased, too.’ Those two emotions are quite difficult to hold in one head.

  ‘It has to be a good move for her, doesn’t it? It’s a fantastic part of the world and I confess that I’m quite envious.’

  ‘Part of me is, too. It’s so fabulous up there and it would be lovely to escape London, but I’m tied to Chocolate Heaven now.’

  ‘Are you?’ Crush asks. ‘In my view, you could walk away at any time. You don’t owe Marcus anything and now he’s scuttling off to Dubai you don’t have to bend to his every whim.’

  I’d like to argue the point that I don’t bend to Marcus’s whims, but I probably do. ‘Autumn’s agreed to come and work at Chocolate Heaven, which is fantastic. She’s going to start straight away, but part time so she can carry on helping Nadia with childcare until she goes to Cumbria.’

  ‘Seems fair enough,’ Crush says.

  ‘When I last spoke to Marcus, he said he’d consider Autumn buying into the business. She still has a large sum of money from her parents and they’re getting on much better now, so she’s keen to use it. I chatted about it to her today and she was really enthusiastic.’ That would prise another couple of fingers of Marcus’s grip from me. ‘I might be able to get a slice of it too, further down the line.’

  ‘If that’s what you want. But surely it would be mega-bucks? It’s in a great location, no doubt, but it might always be out of our league.’

  ‘What if I do the course to become a chocolatier?’

  ‘I’m all for that,’ he says. ‘I’ll support you in any way I can. It also gives us more options. In the future, we might be able to set up our own place and it would be a lot easier to do that out of London. Don’t you fancy your own little shop or café somewhere ridiculously picturesque?’

  I do. In fact, I can just imagine it. ‘Is it really something you’d consider?’

  ‘I can’t see myself being at Targa for the rest of my career; I’d be burned out by the time I’m forty-five. Besides, there are redundancies on the horizon.’

  ‘You didn’t say.’

  ‘It’s nothing new, Gorgeous. There are always redundancies on the horizon. It’s just that, this time, the spotlight is turning on my department.’

  ‘Are you worried?’

  ‘It depends,’ he says. ‘If they give me a big enough payout, it could be a blessing in disguise. When we have a family, we might want to have a different lifestyle. Would we really want to bring up children in the middle of London? If we have a lump sum, we could do something radical.’

  ‘Wow. That’s even more to think about. It’s all so unsettling.’

  ‘It will sort itself out. Fretting about it won’t help. And you won’t lose touch with the girls whatever happens. Things change. We’re growing up, settling down, coming into a new phase of our lives. Nothing stays the same.’

  ‘But we will, won’t we?’ I reach out and grab his hand.

  ‘No. We’ll change, too. We’ll have good times, bad times. Ups and downs. We’ll stay together through it all, though. That’s what matters.’

  I abandon my noodles and go to sit on his lap, winding my arms round his neck. ‘You are very wise.’

  ‘We can even spend the rest of the evening looking at endless wedding stuff on Pinterest if that will take your mind off things.’

  ‘Even the wedding is stressing me out,’ I admit. ‘I was all raring to go, but inspiration has deserted me. Chantal’s was so lovely and I don’t want to spoil her day by replicating it. Now I don’t know what to do.’

  ‘We don’t have to rush it,’ Crush says.

  ‘I really, really want to get married.’ I lay my head on his shoulder. ‘But something doesn’t feel right.’

  ‘Let’s wait.’

  ‘I’m scared that if we postpone it, I’ll do something stupid and it will never happen.’

  Crush laughs. ‘The odds on you doing something stupid are very high, but I’ll still be here. I’m going nowhere, Ms Lucy Lombard.’

  ‘And I so want Chantal to be there.’ My voice catches on a sob. ‘What if she doesn’t make it through this? Cancer is such an awful thing.’ We’ve talked about it in a jolly, bolstering manner and I know that we’re all trying to stay upbeat for her. But what if the chemo doesn’t work? What if she’s one of the more bleak statistics?

  ‘You need to be there for her,’ Crush says. ‘We don’t have to rush it all at once. We can get married any old time. Support Chantal while she goes through her chemo, then sort out your chocolatier’s course when you can give it your full attention. After that,
when we know what my job situation is, we can think about buying into Chocolate Heaven or doing our own thing. Then, when we’ve got lots of time to plan something fabulous and it all feels right, we should do it.’

  A feeling of relief floods over me. That’s what I love most about Crush. He makes everything sound so easy. ‘You’re quite the most logical and adorable person there is.’

  ‘A result of far too many team-building courses at Targa.’ He smiles smugly. ‘I knew they’d come in useful one day.’

  ‘I’ll phone and cancel the register office.’

  ‘Let me sort it out,’ Crush says. ‘You’ve got enough on your plate.’

  ‘You are so very wonderful. As a reward for your utter wonderfulness, I think we should now focus on some team-building of our own.’ I turn so that I straddle him and, when I kiss him, my cares go out of the window. At least for a short time.

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  It was the first time in many years that Nadia had been to her parents’ house. She’d tried to convince herself that a telephone call would suffice, perhaps a letter, or even a message sent through Anita but, in the end, she’d decided to do the right thing and say goodbye to her parents in person.

  Now that she was standing outside the door, she wished that she had written a letter instead. The house seemed somehow to look smaller, scruffier than when she was last here. They lived in a quiet street of semi-detached houses, but it was all looking a bit more run-down now, including her parents’ house. The wheelie bin was in the garden and the grass was overgrown. There were a few bricks missing from the top of the boundary wall and the windows looked grubby, as if they hadn’t been washed in a long time. Her father wasn’t getting any younger and clearly the jobs he used to take such a pride in weren’t now being done. Her heart squeezed with sadness.

  If it was up to her, she’d be round here regularly making sure these things were done. It would take a couple of hours every week to get it back up to scratch. She felt cross with her sister. Obviously, Anita didn’t notice and, even if she had, she wondered if her no-good brother-in-law would care enough to give them a helping hand. As a family, you had responsibilities. But then she wondered whether she had taken her own family responsibilities seriously enough. Should she have tried harder, especially in the early days, to build the bridges between them?