The South West Series Box Set

by Rebecca Paulinyi

  She managed to park almost outside the café, dusting off the parallel parking skills she had not regularly used in many years, and was so excited she almost bounced into the coffee shop.

  “How does one buy a lease?” she asked Val the second the door had closed. No-one else was there; Val was slowly packing up, ready to head home. Her last customer had left five minutes previously.

  “Oh, hello again. Sorry, to buy a lease?”

  “Yes. How much is it, and what does someone have to do to buy it?”

  Val looked confused at the turn of the conversation, but duly shuffled in a pile of paperwork beneath the till and pulled out the information needed. “It’s all in there - the prices, the process, how it all works. But why do you need to know?”

  Lee didn’t speak for a few moments, flicking through the documents in front of her. She was pleased then for her lawyer training - she could understand everything written and could tell that the paperwork wasn’t signing over anything crazy. It was a ten year lease - although it could be sold on, of course, if a willing buyer was found - and the cost was certainly doable; presuming it could turn some sort of a profit.

  “I hate to ask, Val - but what sort of profit are you making?” A little more shuffling and another pile of paperwork was produced.

  “It’s all there - I’ve got nothing to hide. The accountant keeps an eye on it all too. You will have to explain the interrogation in a minute though, young lady!” She spoke with a smile, and Lee smiled back before pulling up a stool and perusing the paperwork. After a few minutes, Val started her tidying up again, occasionally throwing bemused glances at this whirlwind of a woman who had come in and asked to see her financial paperwork.

  The smile didn’t leave Lee’s face as she leafed through the paperwork. It certainly wasn’t making millions, but it did turn a small profit. A profit that could perhaps be capitalised on, if someone knew what they were doing in a busy high street like this… Not that Lee did know what she was doing. But she thought she knew someone who might; and she thought she could learn.

  “Okay,” she finally said, piling the paperwork up and handing it back to Val. “I’d like to buy the lease.”

  “You want to buy the lease?” There was a look of shock and disbelief in Val’s lined features. Then her eyes narrowed. “I thought you were only going to be here for a month.”

  “I probably am. Maybe longer. But I love this place - and I have a plan. I can buy the lease, I can get it all started and then - not that I’ve asked her yet - I think I can persuade my flatmate to take over the running of it if - when - I leave. Do you know her? Gina Travis.”

  “Oh, everyone round here knows Gina. Used to be a bit of a madam back in the day, getting into trouble, but she’s settled down a lot since then. Besides, I never minded a bit of graffiti myself…” She was clearly mulling things over, and Lee let that new piece of information sink in as she waited for a response.

  “It all seems a little sudden, dear. You turn up, you decide to stay, you want to buy the lease to a café…”

  “I’ve never been a spontaneous person in my life, Val. I’m a lawyer. I’ve got a solid career, I have - I had, a marriage and a nice house. And this week I’ve made more spontaneous decisions than in the last five years - and I feel alive. I want to do this. I can afford to do this. You don’t need to feel like you’re taking advantage of me - I promise. Just say yes…”

  Val only paused for a moment; “Yes!” she said, and a broad grin spread across her face, making the wrinkles seem less obvious and her eyes seem brighter. The tiredness seemed to lift from her as she reached across the counter and gave Lee a hug. “I’ll get in touch with my lawyer in the morning. You’ve made me a very happy woman, Lee… What is your last name?”

  “Lee Jones,” she immediately said - and found the sound of it didn’t sit well in her mouth. “Actually no - I’m not keeping his surname, not when he decided to ruin our marriage. Lee Davis. Back to my maiden name - that’s the way forward.”

  “Well,” Val said, putting her small hand over Lee’s. “His loss is very definitely our gain.”

  ***

  She drove straight from the café to the small town of Dartmouth where she had visited a few years previously on holiday. Luckily it was somewhere she had been with her mum and sister, not Nathan; she wanted to avoid anywhere with memories of Nathan right now. She knew there had been good times, but she didn’t see the need to look back on their marriage with any lens of positivity right now; there was far too much anger and far too much hurt.

  She still hadn’t answered his phone calls, which had dropped off a little - only two today, although she’d set her phone to automatically reject them. As she drove along the windy country roads, surrounded by hedgerows as the stars and moon lit up the sky above her, Lee played Christmas tunes through the car speakers. That Christmas magic still felt alive, she was pleased to find - even with her current state of mind. The four weeks she’d said she would stay would take her to the twentieth of December - but she found herself imagining herself in that little flat for Christmas day and thought it wasn’t a terrible idea. She planned to give it another week and see how she felt then; she certainly thought that the Christmas magic felt stronger here than it had back in Bristol.

  Despite the dark and the rain, Lee recognised Dartmouth before her sat nav told her she’d arrived. Christmas lights were strung up here too; multi coloured light bulbs that lit up the water and the rain and made the whole place feel like it was some sort of dream. Wrapping up in the raincoat she’d found in her latest charity shop trip (which was two sizes too big but didn’t seem to let any water in) and an umbrella she’d found languishing in the boot of the car, Lee battled her way over to the railings and stood overlooking the water. In the distance she could see the lights of a boat; in the water the Christmas lights on the railings and in the trees were reflected, twinkling like lost sailors in the water. She wasn’t sure how long she stood there for, but the rain hitting her face made her feel something - something strong, something very much like being alive. It felt like Gina had been right when she’d said about sleepwalking through life…

  When she realised she had begun to shiver - and that passers-by probably thought she was crazy, staring over at brightly coloured houses that she only knew were brightly coloured from a photo she had on her desk at work - she decided to head back to the car. Her eye was caught by the warm, inviting, yellow lights of a large hotel; at the same time her stomach rumbled.

  It was an old fashioned hotel, with a black and white facade and a large restaurant with golden chandeliers. It was the fanciest place she had ever eaten alone, and let alone as soaking wet as she was, but she bravely asked for a table for one and was seated in a window seat looking out into the bleak rain, punctuated every so often by Christmas lights. Window seats seemed to have become her thing; watching other people living their lives as she tried to figure out the direction in which hers was going.

  Once she’d ordered from a waiter who she was sure was judging her dishevelled, wet appearance, she pulled out her phone and fired a text off to Gina. Plan in motion. I’ll be home by 9, talk then if you’re up! Gina responded with a smiley face and a thumbs up.

  It was with her phone open and no dining companion that she made the questionable decision to read the unread messages in her inbox. Almost all of them were from Nathan and, without really knowing what she was doing, she clicked ‘open’ and began to read the one-sided conversation.

  Lee, I’m so sorry. Please ring me - N.

  Lee - where are you? You haven’t been home and I’m worried. N x

  Your sister says you’re in Devon - I don’t understand. We need to talk about this - I can’t fix it if we don’t talk. Nathan x

  Our marriage isn’t over, Lee, it can’t be - ring me, we can work through this. N xx

  This is ridiculous. I think you’re being childish to just ignore me. Nathan.

  I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. I
’ve spoken to your mum and we’re worried about you - ring me Lee, please. For our marriage. Nathan x

  Her emotions cycled through many phases as she read them, from nostalgic, to upset, to furious. She settled on angry. How dare he say she was childish? How dare he say he was worried? It was his decisions, his actions, his inability to control his penis that had led them here - she’d not cheated, not even considered it. She’d not taken some colleague back to their marital bed and…and…

  She felt tears, hot and furious, running down her cheeks and tried to wipe them away before she added to the crazy ‘staring into the darkness in the rain’ image that she had already propagated with the people of Dartmouth.

  She felt somehow that the people in Totnes wouldn’t have thought she was quite as strange.

  Chapter 8

  Gina was waiting up when she walked in, and she was pleased that she had got control over her emotions before seeing her new friend and flatmate.

  “You look like you got soaked,” Gina commented, sat in her pyjamas under another of the brightly coloured throws that seemed to multiply around the flat.

  “Oh, I definitely did. Blew away the cobwebs though! Let me stick the kettle on and get out of these wet clothes and then I’ll tell you everything…”

  “Hurry up then!” Gina shouted as Lee went into her bedroom. “You’ve had me on tenterhooks all evening!” Lee laughed but insisted on making a cup of tea before she spilled the beans.

  “Okay. You’re probably going to think I’m mad-”

  “That ship sailed when you randomly turned up in Totnes with no clothes, nowhere to live and no job I’m afraid,” Gina said with a smirk.

  “Oh, okay, fair enough, even more mad. But I’ve got a great plan.”

  And so she told her - told her about the café, the lease, her dreams for it and how she hoped that Gina would run it once she’d left.

  “Let me get this straight. You’d be paying the lease, you’d be paying me for working there, and I’d be in charge once you were gone?”

  “Yeah, that’s the plan, if you’re interested…” Suddenly she wasn’t so convinced by her plan - what if Gina didn’t want that sort of responsibility? Then she’d have to find someone else she could trust as the manager once she’d left town - and she wasn’t sure why, but she felt an easy trust with Gina that she thought might be hard to replicate.

  “Of course I’m bloody interested! That sorts my job problem and Val’s lease problem in one fell swoop. I just don’t really get what’s in it for you - not that I’m criticising!”

  Lee sighed. “I guess… There’s just something about that place. And I can’t sit here and do nothing - wallowing in my sadness and self-pity won’t help me. I need to do something, something to wipe away all the rubbish so when I go back, I go back with a fresh slate, ready to start again. And this came up and I thought… why not! So she’s speaking to her lawyers tomorrow, and hopefully we can get in there pretty soon! I’ve got some menu ideas and some redecorating ideas…”

  They spent a companionable evening discussing colour schemes, menu choices, names and ways to get the customers through the doors - and by the time Lee went to bed she felt a lot more confident in her spontaneous decision. She truly felt they could make this a success.

  ***

  As the nights got colder and the end of November was in sight, Lee found that the café plan went far more smoothly than she could have possibly imagined. Val was keen to begin her retirement; Lee didn’t need to hire a lawyer and had plenty of savings. One thing she was eminently grateful for now was that she had always kept her savings in her account from before she was married, and continued to pay into it. While she was still using their join account for every day expenses, she could take large deposits from her own savings account without anyone batting an eye lid. Soon, she knew, she should try to discuss the financial situation with Nathan - but it wasn’t something she could face just yet.

  Once the lease had been signed and the keys had been handed over, Lee immediately closed the café in order to get things sorted. She was so excited when she wrote the sign that she had to stop several times as her hand was shaking. Under new management! Closed for refurbishment. Reopening December 1st.

  December first - it was perfect. The build up to Christmas, the market, the countdown, the excitement… That would get people through the doors, she was sure of it.

  On the first day after they closed, she and Gina headed down in their oldest clothes, hair scraped back and tins of paint at the ready. It was only a small space; eight tables, the counter and a small room out the back. It needed a decent spruce up, and they’d decided on a whole new colour scheme together: grey baseboards and counters, with duck egg blue for the walls. They threw themselves into the task whole heartedly, covering the coffee machine and the tables with old sheets, getting ladders and playing music from Gina’s radio that she’d brought along. At the end of the first day they were paint-splattered, exhausted, but happy with their progress.

  On the second day they painted another coat, and stood high up on ladders to paint blackboard paint way up behind the coffee machine; by late afternoon they were building a new tall table with help from Gina’s friends Dan, Kelly and Lydia. Along with high stools that Lee had ordered online, she hoped that they would be busy enough to need the extra seating.

  “It’s looking great in here Lee - a real breath of fresh air,” Dan said as he drilled into the wall.

  “Yeah, we’ve told everyone to make sure they get down here December first - you should be packed!” Kelly added. She was holding the new counter up while Lydia used the spirit level to make sure coffees weren’t going to go whizzing off the table as soon as someone put them down.

  “Thank you - and thanks again for coming in. We couldn’t have got all this done alone!”

  “It’s fine - I’m sure you’ll make it up to us in coffees!”

  Gina laughed. “Discount maybe, but no mates rates. Right, Lee, I’ll get started on the sign for out front shall I? Dad dropped off the piece of wood, it looks great - now I’ve just got to make sure the lettering stands up to scrutiny!”

  “Your calligraphy is brilliant, Gina, I have every faith.” That had been another lucky coincidence - when tidying up around the flat the previous week, Lee had stumbled across pages of beautiful letters - band names, people’s names, sayings, you name it - and had discovered that Gina was the artist behind it. So of course she had to paint the sign for their new business venture.

  It was an exceptionally busy week, with stock to be ordered, adverts to be put in papers and shop windows, painting to finish and cleaning to do. On the Friday night, just a weekend between them and the opening day, Lee and Gina sat in their paint splattered garments on the floor of the café with a bottle of wine and two glasses.

  “Here’s to our new venture,” Gina said, raising her glass to toast Lee. “And to friendship. And to Totnes!” It wasn’t the first glass of wine they’d had, and Lee giggled and toasted back each time.

  “I’m so pleased, Gina. It looks better than I could ever have imagined.” She gestured to the space around her; the menu written up on the blackboard paint behind them (in Gina’s beautiful handwriting, of course) listing every kind of coffee imaginable. Soya milk, nut milk, goats’ milk - and cows’ milk too, of course. Food had left the menu for now, but they planned to cater for every coffee and cake need they could. Dairy free cakes, gluten free cakes, different sponges and cookies and fruit cakes… all locally sourced or made in house. Gina had proven to be a real find; not only did she hold food hygiene qualifications, she’d also had experience making all these weird and wonderful hot drinks that they had dreamed up together. It was a partnership made in heaven.

  In the far left corner of the menu was Lee’s favourite part, and the part she had had been personally responsible for. On a blackboard surrounded by drawings of holly and tinsel was a menu of ‘festive favourites’; gingerbread hot chocolates, mint lattes, mistletoe and r
aspberry tea… the list went on, a list of drinks and cakes that brought some of the Christmas magic that Lee often felt into the forefront of their little café.

  “Come on. Let’s lock up and get home - we’ll need to get our sleep before the craziness of opening a new business really hits us!” They downed the ends of their glasses of wine, leaving the glasses next to the dishwasher and the bottle in the recycling bin, then exited the premises. After locking up, they linked arms, ready to start the long walk up the hill and through the town to their little home.

  “Lee.” The voice came from the darkness behind them, and they both stopped their tipsy giggling to turn and see who it was.

  When Lee saw, the alcohol and cheer seemed to evaporate from her veins in a heartbeat.

  “How… how did you find me?”

  “Our bank account statements. You’d been spending regular amounts in this café, so I looked it up…”

  Lee didn’t explain that she owned the business now; she didn’t explain the paint splattered clothing, nor introduce her new friend.