Meet Me at the Cupcake Café (54 page)

‘
Ish my birfday!
’ announced Louis loudly, seeing as no one had mentioned it for at least three minutes.

‘Well, is it there, little man?’ said Doti, coming through the door. ‘Just as well I have some cards for you then.’

And he opened his bag and revealed half a dozen bright-coloured envelopes. The girls and Louis gathered round. Some were addressed just to him, others simply to ‘the little boy at the Cupcake Café’. Pearl squinted.

Issy picked him up. ‘Have you been telling everyone it’s your birthday?’ she asked him solemnly.

Louis nodded. ‘
On Satday. Mah birfday Satday. I say “Come to my birfday pahty Satday. Ah have mah birfday pahty in shop!
”’

Pearl and Issy exchanged slightly worried glances.

‘But I’m already closing the shop for a dozen toddlers,’ said Issy.

Pearl put her head next to Louis.

‘
Who
did you ask to your birthday, baby?’ she asked gently.

‘Well, me for one,’ said Doti. ‘Thought I’d come by when I’ve finished my rounds. I have quite the present for you, young man.’

‘
Yay!
’ said Louis, rushing up to the postie and throwing his little arms round his knees. ‘
Ah do laike presents, Mr Postman
.’

‘Well, that’s good.’

Doti checked his bag. ‘Oh, there’s another couple here.’

‘Oh God.’ Pearl rolled her eyes. ‘He’s invited half the town.’

‘Are you an irrepressible socialite?’ said Issy to Louis, rubbing his nose.

‘
I is ipress slite!
’ said Louis keenly, nodding his head. Pearl watched the two of them together, meaningfully, until she almost didn’t notice the postman leaning over.

‘Heavy bag this morning,’ he said. ‘Maybe I should have a coffee. And one of your gorgeous cakes.’

Pearl gave him her usual amused look.

‘What about a green tea?’ she said. ‘I might even come drink it with you. Seeing as you appear to be such a good friend of my son.’

The postman’s face lit up, and he immediately dropped his bag.

‘I would like that,’ he said, just as an Owl City song came on the radio. It was such a beautiful morning. Pearl and the postman sat down and Issy spun Louis round in a dance, feeling his little heart close to hers. She hugged him so hard she nearly squeezed the breath out of him.

‘
Hip hip h’ray!
’ yelled Louis.

‘
Bugger
it, Ow.
Ow. Ow
. Darny!’ Austin crumpled over on to the floor.

‘Well, you didn’t stay still,’ came the small, furious-sounding voice.

‘I bloody did,’ said Austin, pulling his hand away from his face. As he’d expected, there was blood on it. ‘Back to bears!’

‘I am
never
going to become Robin Hood if you won’t let me practise,’ huffed Darny. ‘And Big Bear said no more arrows.’

‘Why did Big Bear say that?’ said Austin, marching upstairs to the bathroom.

‘Um, because it is … so sore,’ said Darny, his voice tailing off.

‘
Exactly!
’

Austin looked at himself in the bathroom mirror – which, he noticed belatedly, was horribly smeared. He had just about enough money to pay a cleaner, but not enough to pay a good one. He sighed, and wiped it with a towel. Just as he’d thought, there was a perfect hole in his forehead – not much blood, but deep enough to leave a mark. He groaned. Obviously he shouldn’t have let Darny shoot that arrow at him but it was only meant to be a toy, and Darny had been so persuasive … He rubbed the sore spot. Sometimes this parenting lark was a steep learning curve. Dabbing it with tissue, he came back downstairs. There was also a
mountain
of work mail that he had thrown in his satchel the previous evening before he left the bank. He absolutely had to look at it, it wasn’t – as he repeatedly told his overdraft clients – going to go away.

‘OK,’ he said, going back downstairs and opening the sitting-room door. An arrow narrowly missed his head. ‘You can watch that Japanese strobe-y thing you like on TV. I have work to do.’

‘And we have a party this afternoon,’ said Darny laconically. Austin looked at him suspiciously. Darny didn’t get asked to many parties. Darny had explained to him that it was because he wore pants trainers, but had also said he didn’t care because pants trainers were a stupid reason not to like someone. In fact, they did get invited to a few, but it was no coincidence, Austin quickly realized, that it was all the single mothers who invited him along, whether their kids were boys, girls or sometimes not even in Darny’s class. Darny complained about this most vociferously of all and hated ‘being a pimp’, as he called it.

‘The problem is,’ as Mrs Khan, his form teacher, had put it, ‘he has an extremely advanced vocabulary for his age. Which is both good and bad.’

‘Whose party?’ asked Austin doubtfully. ‘Oh, and don’t shoot any more arrows in the house.’

‘You’re not the boss of me,’ said Darny.

‘I am, for the thousandth time, the boss of you,’ said Austin. ‘Shut up or I won’t take you to this party. Whose party?’

‘Louis’s party,’ said Darny, firing an arrow into the light fitting. It stuck there. Both Austin and Darny regarded it with interest.

‘Hmm,’ said Darny.

‘I’m not getting it,’ said Austin. ‘Who’s Louis?’

‘The boy in the café,’ said Darny.

Austin squinted. ‘What, little Louis? The baby?’

‘You’re very prejudiced,’ said Darny. ‘I would hate to only have friends from my own age range.’

‘It’s his birthday today? And he’s invited you to his party?’

‘Yes,’ said Darny. ‘When you went in with the bank bags.’

Austin had popped in the previous week. After Issy’s party he had wanted to see her, even if just to make sure that things were all right between them, and not too embarrassing. Also, even though it was tough to admit it to himself, he missed her. Whenever he went past the now-thriving old men’s pub, he remembered her, all sad, or excited, or just generally emotional at breakfast. He liked spending time with her, there was no getting round it. He had liked spending time with her. He supposed that was coming to an end now; she certainly wasn’t popping round at breakfast time any more.

At any rate, when he’d gone to the shop after school one day, she wasn’t there, just Pearl and that scary-looking woman with the prominent jawbone, who’d done a funny breathy voice when she was serving him and stared deeply into his eyes, which might have been meant to be sexy or was maybe just hungry, he couldn’t tell. And sure enough, Darny and Louis had been on the floor together, playing. Louis had announced that he’d seen a mouse, and Pearl was mortified – apparently they’d had a story about a mouse at nursery, but shouting ‘Mouse, mouse!’ in a catering establishment was frankly bad for business. Darny had shouted, ‘Mouse, mouse!’ the next five times they’d gone out, in every café or fast food restaurant they’d been in, and sure enough, nobody liked it.

‘Hmm,’ said Austin. Well, it was a beautiful July day, and he didn’t really have a plan for them that afternoon.

‘We’ll have to cut your hair,’ he said to Darny.

‘No way,’ said Darny, who had to continually flip it back now to see.

Austin sighed. ‘I’m going to work in the front room, OK? Don’t turn the music up too loud.’

‘Mouse, mouse,’ said Darny sulkily.

Austin was worrying about whether he had time to get Louis a birthday present when he opened the first of the work mail he’d brought home in a rush. He had to stare at it for a couple of minutes before he got his head round it. It was a loan application for a property development initiative marked Kalinga Deniki … all properly filled in, all up to date. He looked at the address. Then he looked at it again. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be right. Pear Tree Court. But not one number in it: the whole of it. ‘A new paradigm in work/life style, conveniently situated in the heart of buzzing Stoke Newington,’ it said.

Austin shook his head. It sounded horrible. Then he glanced at the name at the bottom of the paper and shut his eyes in dismay. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t. But there it was. Graeme Denton.

Austin lowered the paper in total shock. Surely not? Surely not Issy’s Graeme. But, of course, it was. Graeme. Which meant, as he had clearly seen at the birthday party, Issy and Graeme. Together.

So they must have planned the whole thing. This must be their little scheme. Posh up the area with a little cupcake shop then cash in on it. It was, he had to admit, very clever. The cachet would certainly add value to the properties. Then the two of them would scarf the profits and move on and do it somewhere else. Unbelievable. He was almost impressed. He glanced at the architect’s plans enclosed with the applications. There it was; a great big gate across the entrance to Pear Tree Court. Making it a private road. Blocking off that lovely little courtyard and the tree from everyone else. Austin remembered it just a few weeks ago, with the fairy lights in the tree and Felipe playing his violin. It had seemed such a happy place. He wondered how they’d managed to persuade the ironmonger to move. Well, people as ruthless as that … He supposed they’d stop at nothing.

He couldn’t help remembering, though, how eager, how keen Issy had seemed about her business; how hard she’d worked, how convincing she’d been. He’d been completely taken in. She must think he was a fucking idiot.

Austin realized he was pacing the room. This was stupid. Stupid. She was someone who’d needed a bank loan, and was well on the way to paying it back, and now they needed another and had good security and backing. It was a simple business proposition, and one that technically he’d support. Graeme’s company was a respectable one, and raising money from a local bank rather than a City titan made good practical sense for everyone, and would definitely impress the planners.

But he couldn’t believe his instincts about Issy had been so far off base. It made him doubt himself completely. She wasn’t what he’d thought at all, not a tiny bit of it. Amazing.

‘OK, so that’s Amelia, Celia, Ophelia, Jack 1, Jack 2, Jack 3, Jacob, Joshua 1, Joshua 2, Oliver 1 and Oliver 2,’ said Issy, counting from her list. ‘Harry can’t come.’

‘
Harry gaw chin pox
,’ said Louis. Pearl rolled their eyes. That meant they’d almost certainly all have it in a week.

‘
Get ice cream chin pox
,’ Louis told Issy importantly.

‘Well, when
you
have chicken pox,
you
will get frozen yoghurt,’ said Issy, planting a kiss on his head.

‘
Iss ogurt
,’ said Louis. Outside it was a glorious day, and Issy and Louis had already had a long game of running round the tree. Pearl looked on. Issy had told her everything that had happened. She thought it was for the best. Graeme had seemed such a petulant man. And when children came along, you didn’t want two infants to deal with.

She let her thoughts flicker briefly to Ben. But people could change. She was sure of it. Of course they did. Boys grew up. Became men. Did what men were supposed to do. But still, in Issy’s case, she thought it was probably for the best.

Pearl set her jaw. And even without Ben – she glanced over at Issy tickling Louis on the tummy – sometimes you took your family where you could get it. Still. She heaved a sigh. That nice scruffy young man from the bank. Yes, he was a little zany, but there was a real man. There was a man who knew how to look after his family.