Meet Me at the Cupcake Café (49 page)

Issy met Helena on the way.

‘I was just coming over …’ said Helena. ‘I’m so, so so—’

‘No, I am,’ said Issy. ‘I’m happy for you, honestly,’ said Helena. ‘I just want you to be happy.’

‘Me too!’ said Issy. ‘Please, let’s not fight.’

‘No,’ said Helena. The two girls embraced in the street.

‘Here,’ said Issy, handing over the piece of paper she’d been carrying about all day.

‘What’s that?’ said Helena. Then, as she stared at it, she understood. ‘The recipe! No way! Oh my God!’

‘Well,’ said Issy. ‘Now you have your heart’s desire.’

Helena smiled. ‘Come back,’ she said. ‘Come and have a cup of tea. It’s still your flat.’

‘I should get back,’ said Issy. ‘Got to see my man, you know.’

Helena nodded. She did know. Which didn’t make it any less odd, as they hugged tightly once again and parted, for them to head off home, but going in different directions.

Helena had given her her mail too. And Issy’s heart had sunk. More recipes; but they were ones she’d already had, or things that didn’t make sense. She’d spoken to Keavie on the phone, who’d said yes, he had been on good form when she’d seen him, but overall things weren’t good, and to pop in whenever she could, which she did the next day.

To her surprise, when she reached the hospital, someone was already in the room; a short man with a hat on his knee, sitting on the chair next to the bed, chatting away. When he turned round she realized she knew his face but for a second she couldn’t place him. Then she did: it was the ironmonger.

‘What are you doing here?’ she said, rushing over to kiss Gramps, so very pleased to see him.

‘A darling girl!’ said Gramps. ‘I am mostly but not completely sure which one. This delightful man has been keeping me company.’

Issy eyed him shrewdly. ‘Well, that’s kind of you.’

‘Not at all,’ said the man. He put out his hand. ‘Chester.’

‘Issy. Thank you for the keyring,’ she said, suddenly shy. The man smiled back, shy too.

‘I met your grandfather through your shop. We’ve become good friends.’

‘Gramps?’ said Issy.

Her grandfather smiled weakly. ‘I just asked him to keep an eye on you.’

‘You asked him to spy!’

‘You use a microwave! What next, margarine?’

‘Never,’ said Issy vehemently.

‘It’s true,’ said Chester. ‘She has never had a margarine delivery.’

‘Stop spying on me.’

‘All right,’ said Chester. There was that trace of a Middle European accent she couldn’t place. ‘I won’t.’

‘Or … well, if you must,’ said Issy, who rather liked the idea of having someone looking out for her. It hadn’t happened before. ‘At least come in and try one of the cakes.’

The man nodded. ‘Your grandfather warned me off eating your profits. He said you were too kind not to feed me for nothing and that I wasn’t allowed to ask for anything.’

‘It’s still a business,’ said Grampa Joe weakly from the bed.

Keavie popped her head in. ‘Hi, Issy! How’s the love life?’

‘So you know everything too!’ said Issy, stung.

‘Give over! Anyway, he does your grandfather a power of good. Perks him right up.’

‘Hmm,’ said Issy.

‘And I like it,’ said the ironmonger. ‘Selling spanners is a lonely road.’

‘And we both know the shop trade,’ said Gramps.

‘All right, all right,’ said Issy. She’d been used to being the only person her gramps would turn to for so long, she wasn’t sure about him having a friend. Now, though, Gramps was looking around, confused.

‘Where is this?’ he said. ‘Isabel? Isabel?’

‘I’m here,’ said Issy, as Chester made his goodbyes and left. She took Gramps’s hand.

‘No,’ he was saying. ‘Not you. Not Isabel. That’s not who I meant. That’s not who I meant at all.’

He grew more and more agitated, and his grip on Issy’s hand grew stronger and stronger, till Keavie came in with a male nurse and they persuaded him to drink some medicine.

‘That’ll calm him down,’ said Keavie, looking straight at Issy. ‘You understand,’ she went on, ‘that calming him down, making him comfortable … that’s all we can really …’

‘You’re saying he’s not going to get any better,’ said Issy miserably.

‘I’d say his lucid moments are going to get fewer and further apart,’ said Keavie. ‘And you need to prepare yourself for that.’

They looked at the old man settled back into the pillows.

‘He knows,’ Keavie whispered. ‘Even patients with dementia … Everyone is so fond of your grandfather here, you know. They really are.’

Issy squeezed her hand in gratitude.

Two Saturdays later, Des, the estate agent, popped his head round the door. Jamie was squawking his head off.

‘Sorry,’ he said to Issy, who was enjoying the
Guardian Guide
before the Saturday shoppers’ lunchtime rush arrived. Her Cupcake Café keyring was sparkling in the summer sunlight through the polished windows.

‘Oh, that’s all right,’ said Issy, jumping up. ‘I was just enjoying a quiet moment. Hang on, what can I get you?’

‘I wondered if you’d seen Mira?’ said Des.

Issy glanced at the sofa. ‘Oh, she normally comes in around this time,’ she said. ‘She should be here any moment. They’ve got a proper flat now, and she’s got a job.’

‘That’s brilliant!’

‘I know! I’m trying to persuade her to send Elise to the same nursery as Louis, but she’s having none of it and keeping her in a Romanian crèche.’

‘I didn’t even know they had such a thing,’ said Des.

‘Stoke Newington has everything … Aha,’ said Issy as Mira and Elise arrived. ‘Speak of the devil.’

Mira immediately took Jamie off Des and, as was his wont, he stopped howling to regard her with his large round eyes.

‘Ems has kicked me out the house … for a bit,’ added Des hastily, in case they imagined she’d kicked him out once and for all. (It was rather worrying, Issy thought, if you had to correct people’s impression of your marriage like that.) ‘He’s been right as rain, Mira, since he got over that colic, absolutely a splendid … he’s a great wee man.’ His voice grew slightly emotional as he regarded his son. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘anyway, right. The thing is, the last couple of days have been just awful, just terrible.’

Mira raised her eyebrows.

‘The doctor said it’s nothing, just teething.’

‘So you brought him to the baby-whisperer!’ said Issy cheerfully, lining up a tea, a babycino for Elise and a large cappuccino with plenty of grated chocolate. Jamie, previously content, was now opening his mouth in preparation for a huge wail, as Mira poked her fingers in his soft gums.

Des looked sheepish. ‘Uh, well, something like that.’

Mira gave him a stern look as Jamie screamed.

‘In this country they think it is so hilarious that nobody knows anything about babies, and the grandmothers, they say, “Oh, I will not interfere with the babies,” and the aunties, they say, “Oh, I am too busy to help with the babies,” and everybody ignores the babies and buys stupid books about the babies and watches stupid television about the babies,’ she said fiercely. ‘Babies are always the same. Adults, not so much. Give me a knife.’

Issy and Des looked at each other.

‘Uh, what?’ said Issy.

‘Knife. I need a knife.’

Des put up his hands. ‘Honestly, we can’t take much more of this at home. Ems is sleeping at her mum’s as it is. I’m going bananas. I’ve started to see ghosts out of the corner of my eye.’

‘
You’re
not having a knife,’ said Issy. Somewhat nervously, she handed Mira a serrated knife. Quick as a flash, Mira stuck Jamie down on his back on the sofa, pinned down his arms and made two little darts inside his mouth with the knife. Jamie screamed the place down.

‘What … what have you
done
?’ said Des, grabbing Jamie up from the sofa and cradling him in his arms. Mira shrugged. As Des glared at her he noticed that Jamie, once the initial shock and pain had passed, was gradually calming down. His great heaving gulps of air grew slower and slower, and his tense, infuri ated little body started to relax. He nestled his head lovingly into his father’s chest, and once again, no doubt utterly exhausted from his painful, sleepless nights, his eyelids started to droop.

‘Well,’ said Des. ‘Well.’

Issy shook her head. ‘Mira, what did you do? How did you do that?’

Mira shrugged again. ‘He has teeth coming. They are pushing through the gum. Very painful. Now I cut through the gum. Teeth through now. Not sore. Not rocket science.’

‘I have never heard of that,’ said Des softly, so as not to disturb his now snoozing baby.

‘Nobody here has heard of anything,’ said Mira.

‘You should write a baby book,’ said Issy, admiringly.

‘It would be one page,’ said Mira. ‘It would say, ask your grandmother. Do not read a stupid baby book. Thank you.’

She accepted the tea, and Elise, who had been sitting very quietly with a book, murmured a little thank-you for the babycino. Des rushed to pay for them.

‘This has saved my life,’ he said. ‘Actually, can I have mine in a takeaway cup? I’m going to go straight home and attempt a nap.’

‘Of course,’ said Issy.

Des looked around. ‘So … ahem … I hear rumours on the grapevine.’

‘What’s that then?’ said Issy pleasantly, ringing up the sale.

‘About this place … Oh, must be wrong then.’

‘What?’

‘I heard something about you selling up … assumed you were off somewhere bigger.’ Des looked round appraisingly. ‘You’ve done a really good job with this and no mistake.’

Issy handed him his change.

‘Well, you’ve heard totally wrong,’ she said. ‘We’re not going anywhere!’

‘Excellent,’ said Des. ‘I must have misheard. Sleep deprivation, you know. OK, well, thanks again.’

Suddenly there was a loud scraping noise outside. Issy rushed out; Des stayed inside in case Jamie woke up again. In the bright summer sunlight, the ironmonger was dragging two wrought-iron chairs past the tree. Next to that was a beautiful table, freshly painted cream. Issy stood and stared.

‘That’s amazing,’ she said. Doti came round the corner, still dejected because Pearl hadn’t made the lunch. While she was still caught up with an undecided Ben, she’d explained to Issy, she wasn’t going to complicate things. Issy rushed to help drag the furniture into position. There were two sets, each with three seats, and two heavy chains to stop them being stolen in the night. They were absolutely lovely.

‘Your grandfather ordered the whole thing,’ said Chester, putting up his hands as Issy gave him a hug. ‘And paid for it, so don’t worry about it. He reckoned you needed them.’

‘I do,’ said Issy, shaking her head. ‘What a stroke of luck you turned out to be. You’re our guardian locksmith.’

Chester smiled. ‘You have to look out for each other in the big city,’ he said. ‘And I know he told me not to but …’

‘Coffee and cake?’

‘That would be lovely.’

Pearl came out with a tray all ready, smiling shyly at Doti, and sitting down to admire the new view.

‘Perfect,’ she said. Louis scampered beneath her feet.

‘
I is lion in lion cage
,’ he growled. ‘
Grrrr
.’

‘And we can keep a guard lion to get rid of anyone we don’t like,’ said Issy.