An A to Z of Love

by Sophie Pembroke

  “Well, I hope it won’t be like it was last year,” Heather Jenkins said as she doled out biscuits to the Sunday school. “All the men running off to the pub.” She clucked her tongue. “Disgraceful.”

  “I suppose that is always a risk,” Mia said, trying to sound like she didn’t care one way or another. “I mean, unless you’ve got any good ideas of how to stop that.”

  “I should say I have...”

  “Excellent!” Mia interrupted, sloshing tea into her saucer in her excitement. “Then you must join the committee.”

  “Oh, well.” Heather turned to fussing with the cake plates. “I don’t know about that. I mean, I’m very busy at the moment.”

  “Lot on your plate,” Mia said, sympathy oozing out of her mouth, even while thinking of the note cards resting at the bottom of her bag. “I’m sure. And isn’t the Mother’s Union cake competition coming up soon? I heard you won last year.” Mia took an excessive bite of her lemon cake, praying Mrs. Jenkins would get the hint before she actually had to repeat what Ditsy had written on the card.

  Nothing.

  Mia swallowed her cake. “It must have been something special to beat Mrs. Davies’s lemon cake,” she went on, staring Heather Jenkins in the eye.

  Mrs. Jenkins broke. “What do you know?” she whispered, glancing across to make sure the vicar and his wife were still occupied shaking hands by the door.

  “I know you didn’t bake the winning cake,” Mia whispered back. “I heard someone swapped the labels before the judges arrived, and I’d bet anything I know who you swapped yours with.” Mia took another telling bite of lemon cake.

  “What do you want?” Heather ground out between clenched teeth.

  “I want you on the festival committee.” Mia had thought long and hard about who she needed most. Heather Jenkins would bring most of the rest of the Mother’s Union. And there was no one else in town more capable of getting things done than the Mother’s Union. “And I want the people you’ll bring with you.”

  Heather gave a sharp nod. “Fine.” She gave Mia an appraising look. “Maybe you’re not as daft as your father, after all.”

  Deciding not to examine that comment too closely, Mia left Heather to her teas and set about finding April Havers. After all, everybody knew April’s husband was the best electrician in town, and they’d need electricity down on the beach if they wanted bands to play. And it just so happened Ditsy had two note cards with April’s name at the top. Mia smiled. Magda was going to be so proud of her.

  * * * *

  Tuesday morning was slow at the A to Z shop. Mia, driven to distraction by her attempts to formalize the actions from the minutes of the last committee meeting, found herself reaching for Ditsy’s book once more–for entertainment rather than guidance, she told herself. Reading R: Relationships require respect, responsibility–and retaliation! she held in a hysterical laugh as she considered her relationship with the local community. None of them respected her, but they’d let her take on a huge responsibility, and if she failed? She was sure they’d all be ready to retaliate.

  She slammed the book closed. It really wasn’t that funny.

  “What are you reading?” Magda asked, slipping in through the front door. “Sounds hilarious.”

  “An old, out of date and very unhelpful book of Ditsy’s.” Magda raised an eyebrow, so Mia pushed it across the counter toward her.

  “An A to Z of Love. Interesting.” Magda glanced up. “And Ditsy gave it to you?”

  “I know. Feel free to read and mock me.” Mia slumped onto her stool and propped her elbows on the counter.

  Magda flicked through a few pages, and stopped somewhere near the end. “Q: The quest for true love may be littered with dragons or magic, but the prize is always worth the adventure.”

  “See what I mean?”

  “Actually,” Magda said, shutting the book again, “That’s quite helpful.”

  Mia raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

  “My own quest appears to have reached a dragon,” Magda said, somewhat cryptically.

  Mia thought it through. “Kevin?”

  Magda sighed. “I should know better than to date a colleague.”

  “Yes, you should.” Mia tried not to imagine blond, beautiful Magda turning her attentions to Charlie. As if Becky wasn’t enough to worry about.

  “It was just... He asked. And it’s my personal rule to give every opportunity a fair shot, you know?”

  “Sounds tiring.” Although Mia had to admit, possibly better than her policy of giving nothing a chance, just in case.

  “But practical.” Magda patted the book. “I know the right man is out there somewhere. So I just need to keep looking.”

  “But Kevin is not that man.”

  “No, he is not,” Magda, a heavy emphasis on every syllable. “Which is why I need your help.”

  Mia wasn’t sure she was really the right person to go to for any sort of relationship advice, but she liked Magda, so she said, “Sure. What can I do?”

  “He wants to go on another date. Tonight at the Fox.”

  “And you want me to...” Mia trailed off. “No, I don’t understand. What do you want me to do?”

  “Come with me. If there’s two of us, he won’t get any sort of ideas.” Magda pulled a face at the word ‘ideas.’ Much as Mia disliked the thought of being relegated to spinster chaperone, she knew she couldn’t leave Magda alone with Kevin and his ideas.

  “Fine,” she said, already regretting it. “What time?”

  “Eight.” Magda bounced on the balls of her feet. “You are a true friend. Thank you.”

  “No problem.” It wasn’t like she’d had any real plans for the evening anyway. Well, no plans beyond obsessing about the festival and concentrating on not thinking about how Charlie was still avoiding her. “A night out might do me good.”

  “Take your mind off things,” Magda said, with a sympathetic nod. She flipped the book open again and pointed to the page. “See? S: Love is often found in the most surprising places.”

  “Check O,” Mia suggested. “I’m pretty sure it tells us love is obvious. I’m telling you, that book is not to be trusted.”

  Magda shrugged. “Or maybe it’s just saying love is different for everyone. For me, it could be quite surprising. For you, utterly obvious.”

  The look she gave Mia cut closer to the bone than Mia wanted to admit, so she reached out and shut the book again. “Well, you have to admit, Kevin would have been a surprise.”

  Magda looked thoughtful. “But maybe not the most surprising possibility.” She left with a contemplative look on her face, and Mia hoped Ditsy’s book of crazy hadn’t just inspired Magda to go off and try and seduce Reverend Davies.

  But if it had, it was one too many problems for Mia to deal with. She turned back to her pile of notes from the last committee meeting and resumed her attempt to make one coherent list of things to do.

  After all, apparently she was the responsible one in this relationship.

  * * * *

  The walk to the cottage always did wonders for clearing his mind, Charlie had found. Something about the sea air and the breezes that always hit as he reached the crest of the cliff side path made it impossible to worry, or fret, or even think about anything except the beauty of the Aberarian coastline.

  Inside the cottage, however, was a different matter.

  Maybe it was because it had been bought to be his home with Becky, or because he’d spent all morning hiding in the kitchen, avoiding Mia and her committee meeting. Kevin, preparing all the breakfasts on his own while Charlie peered through a tiny gap in the kitchen doors, had despaired of him.

  It hadn’t helped that Jenny, standing in for Magda while she did committee things, had banged the door into his head three times on her way in and out with the dishes. Apparently Mia had some new recruits since Reverend Davies’s sermon on Sunday–enough to call an emergency Tuesday meeting to catch up. Charlie supposed he should be grateful. The pla
ce had been packed.

  Except he hadn’t seen Mia in a whole week.

  Whatever the reason, wherever he turned, Charlie could think of nothing except the women in his life–one he wasn’t even sure he wanted there, and the other he couldn’t even tell how he felt. She wasn’t ready. He knew she wasn’t ready. Hell, she’d told him as much. Just like Becky hadn’t been ready to settle down in Aberarian with him.

  He shook his head. He wasn’t going through that again.

  But obsessing about his lack of a love life was getting him nowhere fast. He needed to do something constructive–after all, if he was going to have less time with Mia, he had to come up with something else to take his mind off everything that was wrong in his life.

  He’d brought his tools up with him on a previous visit, accompanied by Magda’s brother, who appeared to be under the misconception that Charlie had some sort of designs on his sister, much to Magda’s amusement. She’d laughed far too much while translating the occasional difficult phrase for Charlie to be entirely comfortable with whatever she’d told her brother in fast-flowing Polish.

  Selecting a sledgehammer from the sprawling pile of tools, he turned his attention to the first project Magda’s brother felt Charlie could take care of himself and that might help wear out some of his frustration: knocking open a bricked-up fireplace.

  It only took a couple of blows for Charlie to see it wasn’t actually a fireplace after all. As he swung for the third time, bricks fell away in a cloud of dust to reveal the opening, whatever it was, went much deeper than a fireplace would have any call to.

  Dropping the sledgehammer on the bare floorboards, Charlie stepped into the hearth and felt his way into the hole, only to discover that just an arm’s length later there was another layer of brick. But was it the wall, or just another blockage? He was contemplating calling Magda to get her brother out to look at it, when his phone rang.

  “Hello?” He wandered over to the tool pile to search for the torch he was almost certain he had there.

  “Charlie!” Even over the phone, he could see Becky’s bright and sparkling smile. It was one of the things to first attract him to her. “I just wanted to check with you about your plans for tonight. I thought it might be nice for us to go and get a drink at the Crooked Fox, for old time’s sake. You know, catch up.”

  Since Becky had avoided going anywhere near the Fox during the three months they’d lived in Aberarian together, Charlie wasn’t sure whose old times she was referring to. But by then he’d found the torch and was trying to shine the light on the brickwork to get some idea of whether it was supposed to be there or not.

  “Why don’t I meet you there at seven?” Becky went on without waiting for an answer.

  The light finally found its target. “Okay,” Charlie muttered, reaching forward again to feel the mortar between the bricks.

  “Great!” Becky’s voice rang out again, and Charlie realized he’d just agreed to meet her. Well, it wasn’t like he had anything else to do. “See you in half an hour,” Becky said, and hung up.

  Of course, if he didn’t want to be covered in plaster and brick dust when he arrived, he’d better get home and shower. With one last look at the possibly-not-a-fireplace, Charlie switched off his torch, gathered his things and set off down the hill.

  On the plus side, Mia wouldn’t be there. She’d be too busy with the festival. He sighed. It wasn’t that much of a comfort.

  He wondered what Becky wanted, really. Probably an update on her StarFish investment. At least he had some good news on that front–the breakfasts were going down a storm. And, really. Would it kill him to be nice to her? Just for one night?

  * * * *

  The Fox was packed. Mia was already regretting agreeing to accompany Magda on her sort of second date with Kevin. But she hadn’t wanted to risk her growing friendship with the Polish girl.

  Of course, now she was tucked in behind Joe, who’d shown up just moments behind them and had stuck his chair between Magda and Kevin until Kevin had managed a fancy maneuver after getting the drinks. Her other side was pressed against the bare stone wall by the fireplace, offering no escape at all. She couldn’t help wondering what the hell she was doing there. Joe was perfectly capable of thwarting Kevin’s expectations, she was sure.

  And then, just when she’d thought the evening couldn’t get any worse, the pub door banged open again and in bounded Becky, dragging a reluctant looking Charlie behind her. Apparently all the StarFish staff were taking advantage of their new opening schedule.

  “Mia!” Becky’s smile had reached improbable proportions, but still managed to look less sincere by the day. “What a surprise!” Somehow, she made it sound like Mia was interrupting her evening, even though Mia had been there first.

  Charlie, it seemed, had headed straight for the bar. Sensible man. Looking around her, Becky appeared to realize the only table free was the one next to them. “Good to see somewhere in the old town is doing a good trade,” she said. “I suppose it stands to reason it would be the pub.”

  “Why don’t we just pull this over here,” Joe said, standing to grab the end of the other table. Looking resigned, Becky pulled up a chair.

  Mia wondered how keen Charlie would be to join them, but at that point he arrived from the bar, carrying an entire tray of drinks.

  “Right,” he said, starting to dole them out. “Let’s get on with this.” His pint was already half empty, Mia noticed, but since he had three more on the tray–one each for Joe and Kevin, she hoped–along with wine for her, Magda and Becky, she didn’t suppose he was worried.

  Apparently, an evening alone with Becky was worse than sitting with her. On the other hand, one or both of them seemed to be driving him to drink. Mia sighed.

  She didn’t envy Becky the job of carrying him home tonight. Except, given what happened last time Charlie got drunk, the idea was less appealing than it would have been. He was also sitting as far away from Mia as he could manage. Mia reached for her glass.

  The pub doors opened again and Tony walked in, completing their disagreeable group.

  “What a surprise,” Tony said, his voice flat. “Finding you all here. Mind if I join you?” He grabbed a spare chair before anyone could answer.

  Across the table, Charlie silently finished his first pint and picked up the second. Tony, watching, said, “I’ll just go get some more drinks in,” and wandered off to the bar.

  “So, you’re Charlie’s sous chef,” Becky said to Kevin, leaning so far forward Mia began to fear for the structure of her top. “How do you feel about the changes Charlie’s been making at StarFish lately?”

  “Uh...” Kevin glanced from Magda to Charlie, who glared at and ignored him by turn. “Well...”

  Mia pitied the poor man. People like Becky preyed on your natural good manners. Most people were too nice to tell her to sod off, so they ended up answering questions anyone else would be too polite to ask. Then they usually found themselves agreeing to something they didn’t mean to because they were also too polite to admit that they’d drifted off five minutes ago and had no idea what the question was.

  “That would be lovely, don’t you think, Mia?” Tony said, and Mia tried to zone in again. She hadn’t even noticed him coming back to the table, but Charlie had another pint in front of him, so the expedition to the bar had to have been successful.

  “Um, yes?” she said, hoping it was somewhere near the right answer. The way Charlie was glaring at her across the table suggested it wasn’t. Still, it was the first time he’d looked at her all evening, so she returned the glare with a small shrug.

  Whatever it was, it was too late now. Becky squealed and squeezed Charlie’s arms. “That’s wonderful! It’ll be sort of a double date. You don’t mind, do you, darling? We can all talk at length, properly, without all this racket. And you’ll get a chance to try Charlie’s marvelous cooking, Tony.”

  “Cooking?” Mia asked, wondering who she was supposed to be partnering on this d
ouble date. From the look on Tony’s face, he wasn’t sure either. And he didn’t look too happy about it. Mia wondered exactly what his relationship with Becky was.

  “Dinner for four at StarFish, of course.” Becky giggled, and Mia checked out her wineglass. Empty. She never could hold her drink. “After all, it is the best restaurant in Aberarian.” Mia glanced at the others; apparently Becky had ignored their companions when issuing her invitation.

  Suddenly Charlie’s glare made perfect sense. “Oh, but if Charlie’s working, it won’t be much fun for him, will it…” Mia tried.

  “Oh, that’s not a problem.” Becky reached out and squeezed Charlie’s arm again. He didn’t respond. “Charlie has very sensibly responded to the market by deciding to close StarFish for two extra nights a week. We’ll do it on Thursday, so we’ll be the only customers.”

  Charlie’s face turned darker, and Mia winced. How had she forgotten that? No wonder he was so intent on getting drunk.

  “Why don’t I go get the next round in,” she suggested, and Magda gave her a grateful smile. Mia headed to the bar, figuring if she had to spend all evening with Becky, sobriety was impossible. In fact, it might be best just to carry on through dinner on Thursday.

  Leaving the table, she saw Becky’s hand resting very high on Charlie’s thigh. Maybe she’d get an extra-large glass of wine for herself.

  Chapter 11

  He shouldn’t have taken it out on Mia. That was the first thought to float through Charlie’s head the following morning, when he woke up, painfully sober. After all, he was the one with the problem, not her. And if he wanted her as a friend, even if she wasn’t ready for more, he couldn’t sulk every time he saw her. Or avoided her. And he definitely shouldn’t have let Tony be the one to walk her home, even if it was on the way to the Grand. If only he hadn’t drunk so much, his legs would have been up to the challenge. The headache behind his eyes started to pulse, and Charlie sighed. He supposed regrets were all part and parcel of getting drunk and stupid. He should probably be grateful it wasn’t worse.

  “Good morning,” Becky said, her voice a purr in his ear, and Charlie realized exactly how much worse it really was.