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Of course she did.
Why did she have to look like a librarian all the time? The wire glasses were trendy, but come on? Her hair was scraped back so fiercely that Paige couldn’t be sure if it was dark blonde or brown, curly or straight? Not that it mattered. But she also didn’t know how long it was, again it didn’t matter, and the sudden image of Melanie letting her hair down until it landed and swayed around her was completely unnecessary and completely not relevant, not to mention cliched as hell.
‘Hi.’ Melanie smiled warmly and sat down opposite, but Paige didn’t miss the look of nerves that passed over her face as she settled on the seat.
Paige nodded, unable to unclench her jaw. It was all she could bring herself to do at that moment.
Clearly wanting to fill the awkward silence that Paige had created, Melanie continued awkwardly, ‘Louisa couldn’t make it today, so you’ve got me instead. Not, you’ve got me, I just meant the group, you know?’ She laughed a little and the sound settled in Paige’s head, unwelcome but unmoving; a laughing earworm.
Paige nodded in response, urging her jaw to relax, watching as Melanie pushed up her glasses on her nose. There actually wasn’t any further for them to go and Paige wondered if that was a nervous tell.
‘We don’t have to make small talk, you know? The rest of the group will be here soon.’ Paige inwardly cringed as soon as the words were out. Aiming to put Melanie at ease, instead her words had been tainted with her frustration.
Melanie gifted Paige a tiny and absolutely not real smile, her lips tight, before looking away as she grabbed her iPad out of her bag, and maybe it was the smile, or the efficiency, or the librarian nature, or the lack of mojo but Paige’s bad mood was now all encompassing and she had no idea how to make it better. She should have said nothing. Like the proverb said if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all. Her gran had never believed that, saying instead that if it needs to be said then say it. But what could she say?
‘What did you do with my mojo?’
Then again it probably wasn’t Melanie, it might not have anything to do with Melanie, just a coincidence then, just weird timing. Something that started around the first time she saw Melanie at one of these meetings. Maybe the lack of mojo was Melanie or maybe, God forbid, she was just ‘normal’ now. Her head dropped at the thought. Maybe instead of rage she just needed to adapt? But that didn’t feel right. Paige had always been a fighter; it was the way Connie had raised her.
Paige looked up again as Councillor Houghton sat down and she knew she had to regain her focus as the meeting was about to begin. If she didn’t pay attention, she’d end up with random tasks next to her name again in the minutes.
Chapter Two
Melanie
As Melanie power walked down the street towards All The Beans, she knew that she was very much done, and that was very much unlike her.
She usually had endless amounts of, whatever the opposite of done was, but today was proving particularly challenging and she was doing all she could to make sure that her failures weren’t visible to anyone else. The toothpaste her four-year-old nephew had spilled on her earlier, gone, vanished, in the rushed five minutes she’d had in the car to shimmy out of her skirt and to put on the replacement. The fact that the bar had ran out of prosecco for the bottomless mimosas served at brunch, no problem. She’d managed to run to Tesco and grab what she could, even if it did make her look bad to the cashier who was questioning why she needed to buy three boxes of the stuff before 10.30 a.m. on a Tuesday morning. Oh, and the disappearing napkins that the driver swore he delivered that nobody could find. Yep, done.
And now, several hours later, this. The Neighbourhood Business Alliance meeting.
She had only seconds to check her appearance on the glass door outside before stepping in, but she knew her hair was slicked back into its tight bun, and her black pencil skirt was neat — and clean.
Rushing into the coffee shop as quick as her heels allowed, she waved at Kazim behind the counter. Although she wasn’t able to stop, she quickly pointed to her eyes then at his and grinned at his professional looking eyeshadow blending.
‘Go on through, I’ll bring your oat milk latte in.’
Melanie waved her thanks, hoiking her bag further up her shoulder and cursing when she realised that there was an unexpected high-pitched whine coming from within. Looking through her bag at the same time as elbowing and hipping her way through the door, she discovered that her mostly adorable nephew Alfie, had left his PAW Patrol toy iPad in her bag. He was no doubt trying to be cute, thinking she might need it for work . . . but where the hell was the off button?
Finally managing to turn it off, she quickly shoved it back into the depths of her bag before entering the staff room, come meeting room. She grabbed a seat, sat down and dropped her bag to her side, before then rising slightly to sort out her skirt. She sat herself back down, straightened her back, and placed her hands gently on the table in front of her, all the time trying to take slow steady breaths. She hoped that she projected calm, confidence and perfect punctuality. But when she looked up she noticed that there was only Paige in front of her.
Her heart stuttered, her breath nearly came out in one go, and Melanie put it down to the fact that she was finally stationary after running around all day. And although her heart was often doing strange things around Paige it could all be easily explained. Just like at these meetings; that first one they’d been presenting their business idea and hoping they’d get the lease, and then the next one, being the new girl ? yeah definitely nerves. And when they’d been awarded the lease and she’d gone to Barbarella to say hello, and her heart had gone all jittery then, she recalled she’d had an extra latte that day, so that was clearly down to too much caffeine.
‘Hi.’
Oh so smooth. Open with a classic. Well done, Melanie.
A nod. A bloody nod, that was all she got? Oh, and now Paige was glaring at her. Yup, that seemed about right for the day.
Melanie looked at the clock on the wall: just another hour in her company and then she could go back to work, check on her bar, check on her business partner, check on her sister, make sure that they would be getting the prosecco order delivered. Presuming that all the wait staff were in, she could even be in her apartment by nine p.m., if she was lucky. Which at this point, she already knew she was not.
Looking up she noticed that she was still being glared at. What was Paige’s problem?
But more to the point, where the hell was everyone else?
The glaring and the silence was too much, and as usual Melanie opened her mouth having no idea what was about to come out.
‘So, Louisa couldn’t make it today, so you’ve got me instead. Not, you’ve got me — I just meant the group . . . you know?’
