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‘That’s pretty much the jist of it, yes.’ Graham grinned. ‘So, what are your plans after your stint at Elsie’s is over?’
‘You’re asking if I’ll be moving down here too?’
‘Haha, no, just in general. You mentioned you were made redundant a few months back. Are you looking for another job on a cruise ship?’ Graham turned and leaned against the stall to look at her.
‘Honestly? I have absolutely no idea what I want to do much less where I want to settle or if I want to settle at all.’ She grimaced. The words escaped her mouth before she’d even realised she’d answered. ‘I’m not sure why I said that, I normally have a pre-prepared script to answer that question.’
Graham frowned, his eyebrows knitting together. ‘What do you mean? What do you usually say?’
‘I usually tell them that I’m currently exploring my career options.’ She shrugged. ‘It sounds better than admitting that I have no idea at all of what I want to do with the rest of my life.’
‘Exploring your career options.’ Graham nodded. ‘I like that. It means the same thing, though, doesn’t it?’
‘No, yes, I don’t know. I guess I think it sounds a little more mature.’ She shrugged and looked at the floor before meeting his eyes again. ‘At my age, I should know what I want to do. I’ve always been aware that I couldn’t carry on working on the cruise ship, not if I wanted to settle down, have kids, you know.’
He nodded, waiting for her to continue.
Layla shifted position on her feet and looked around the marketplace. There must have been about ten other stalls, all waiting and hopeful for a rush of customers. She could see three empty stalls, though. Presumably, the traders had taken one look at the cold weather and decided it wouldn’t be worth the effort. ‘I should have planned better. I’ve had years to think about the career I wanted to pursue after finishing work on the cruise ship, but I suppose I just never gave it much thought. And now, here I am, thirty-four, with not a clue of what I want out of life.’
‘You’ll work it out.’
‘Will I? You have more faith in me than I do in myself. I’m just floundering. The truth is, I came to Cornwall to try to find some direction in life, to spend some time trying to think about what I want to do without having to catch my parents discussing me, their voices full of worry.’
‘I’m sure they only want the best for you and would support whatever decision you make.’
‘Oh, you’re right. They do. But I’m old enough to worry about myself now. They shouldn’t be.’
‘I think parents always worry. Mine still worry about me and Harry.’ He smiled kindly. ‘Do you know what I think?’
‘Go on...’ She held her breath. Not that she should care what he thought of her, but for some reason, she was beginning to.
‘I think you should give yourself some slack. You’ve presumably travelled all over the world on the cruises and now you’ve come all the way down to Cornwall, to a place I’m guessing you’ve never even visited before, to work in a bakery with people you didn’t know. I wouldn’t say that was a lack of direction. I’d say that was pretty brave.’
Layla blinked. ‘No one has spun it quite like that before.’
‘Really?’ Graham grinned. ‘That’s what I see.’
Her parents had said they thought it was a good idea to give herself time to think about her future, but they hadn’t called her brave. And a couple of her old team members had told her it must be nice to be ‘gallivanting around’ instead of finding a job like they had. No one else had really commented on her decision to come to Cornwall. She tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled. ‘Thank you. That means a lot.’
‘You’re very welcome. I’m just telling you what I see, that’s all.’ Graham swallowed before running his fingers through his hair. ‘Look, I want to apologise for causing you to fall the other day, and for probably annoying the heck out of you yesterday. I can be a bit like that in new situations. It’s a bit of a front, I guess, before I’ve sussed everyone out.’
‘Okay.’ She tugged his scarf higher up. ‘I must admit, I just assumed you were annoying like that all the time.’
‘Thanks.’ He chuckled, his eyes lighting up.
‘You gave me something to think about yesterday, though.’
‘Did I? Really?’ He raised his eyebrows.
‘Yes, you did. When you teased me about having a crush on Eli, who I used to work with. You made me realise that was all it was and how one-sided it had been.’ She couldn’t believe she was actually telling him this. ‘It gave me something to think about.’
Graham pushed himself away from the stall and stood up. ‘And what did you decide to do?’
‘Nothing. I deleted that stupid picture I sent him, and I’ve decided it was just a stupid crush. I realise now he never felt the same way towards me as I did towards him. If he had, he’d have made sure to stay in contact more, to meet up.’
‘Sorry to hear that.’ He rubbed the palm of his hand across his chin, the stubble coarse against his skin.
‘Don’t be. You’ve done me a favour. You’ve opened my eyes and now I can move on.’
