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‘In that case we’ll see you again soon then, Mel. Lovely to see you.’
The group left and Melanie collapsed onto the seat. Cleo came and sat next to her. ‘You don’t want them back, right?’ Cleo asked softly.
Melanie shook her head. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘Good.’ Cleo nodded.
‘But you just gave them a discount code,’ Paige said. But the way that Cleo looked at Paige had a very much ‘you’re next’ vibe to it.
‘It’s fine, we can make it so the code never works and that we appear completely full every time she tries to use it. She’ll never try without the code because she’ll want the discount.’
‘You’re amazing,’ Paige said in wonder.
Cleo didn’t even acknowledge her, but turned to Melanie. ‘Was that OK?’
‘Yes.’ Melanie cleared her throat. ‘Yes, that was great. Thank you so much, Cleo. It was the perfect thing to do.’
Cleo nodded once and turned on her heel, going back to the bar.
‘Cleo’s amazing,’ Paige whispered in awe.
‘I know, an absolute godsend.’
‘What happened, Melanie? I lost you there for a minute,’ Paige said as she sat down.
‘Laura is my ex.’
‘I figured as much. The one who you still haven’t unpacked because of, right?’
‘It’s no big deal.’ Melanie stood up abruptly. ‘Right, where were we? Yes! Planning for the big reveal.’ Melanie had already pulled out her phone.
‘Melanie, you can talk to me, you know?’ Paige said.
‘Can I, Paige?’
‘Yeah, of course.’
‘I don’t even know if we’re friends.’ Melanie sighed before looking back down at her phone. ‘It doesn’t matter, look it was messy. I’m glad it’s over. I’m even glad that today happened because I was waiting for it and now it’s done.’ She continued tapping and scrolling. ‘I might even be able to unpack now. But right now, I need to plan the big reveal, or I need to do my forecasting.’
She knew when she was being dismissed. Mostly because it hurt. ‘Sure. I’ll leave you to it.’
‘Great, thanks. I’ll see you later.’ Paige watched as Melanie strode with deliberate purpose to the back.
And Paige felt like shit. Melanie didn’t even know if they were friends, and all Paige wanted to do was spend every minute of every day with her. How could she not know that they could be that and so much more. She got up and strode down the road, determined to make this better.
* * *
Paige spent her afternoon taking drinks orders. She wasn’t on shift, not strictly needed but she enjoyed doing it and on more than one occasion guessed the drink order before she was told it. She had the slightest glimmer of hope that at least part of her could be returning to normal. Well, normal for Paige at least. And she strongly suspected it had something to do with Melanie. But the reality was, the more time they spent together the more she felt her mojo might be starting to return. The only downside with that was her heart. Her mojo might be getting stronger, but Paige would be foolish to ignore that as her mojo grew so did her feelings. And really how could they not? For all that Melanie was going through she was a badass in her own way.
Distracted by thoughts of Melanie, again, Paige tried to empty her mind once more and focus on the tasks of running a bar. As she took orders, collected empties, and just did her job, her mind ran over different ways she could be more helpful to Melanie. To show that she cared in her own way. To maybe show Melanie that actually she was worth it. There was also the reading from Connie, and she knew that being a help was the answer.
What they really needed to do was go back to Councillor Houghton and explain that they needed additional support.
Yes, and with that in mind, Paige looked at her watch and saw it was just before five. She might catch him if she called now.
Rushing upstairs to her flat, phone in hand, Paige would later recall she had missed the signs, and there had been several. She had missed them all.
As she unlocked and pushed open the door, her phone was already at her ear. As she strode through the door, the dial tone was just about to start. Then she heard the thumping noises, the groans.
