And now I have made an utter nerk of myself, how would it be if I booked a flight to Nottinghamshire?
I will call once I’m certain this letter has reached you, and somehow try to carry on until I hear your sweet voice again.
With faith, hope and love
G x
I dreamed I was walking through wheat fields again. Only this time, Mum was there. Or rather, the younger version of her, in the wedding dress, pacing along several hundred metres in front of me. No matter how fast I hurried, I couldn’t catch her, and when I tried to call out, the sound died in my throat.
I woke several minutes before the alarm, the events of the past few days churning into a vague restlessness that made it difficult to focus. I crimped pasties, skidded the van around corners and dragged the trolleys to the kiosk with an urgency that did nothing to settle my nerves.
At the mid-morning lull between flights, I put on my jacket and left the kiosk, hoping a quick break outside would help me settle. For reasons that were probably all to do with letters and lentil pasties and lunch with a man who was about to leave forever, my eyes kept welling up, and the last thing I wanted was to burst out crying in front of a customer.
It was when I passed the Travel Shop, my agitated gaze roaming the windows, that I noticed the Lotto sign. Stopping, I reached into my jacket pocket and found the crumpled ticket that the woman had given me the day before.
My usual instinct would be to throw it in the bin, but nothing about this week was usual. I pictured vast blue skies, forget-me-nots dancing in a salty, summer breeze and walked straight into the Travel Shop.
Gregory spotted me while I was waiting in the queue, veering inside to talk to me.
‘Emmie. I saw the kiosk was unmanned and thought there must have been another emergency.’
‘I’m just taking a quick break.’
‘Right.’ He rocked back on his heels a couple of times. ‘Have you had a chance to look at the contract?’
I nodded. ‘I read it last night before I went to sleep.’
‘And?’ His gaze dropped to my hands, as if expecting me to be holding the envelope.
‘I haven’t signed it yet.’
‘Is there a problem? Like I said, it’s the exact same terms as the current one. Everyone else has to be open far longer hours,seven days a week. This is the same lease your mum was happy with for, oh, longer than I’ve been here.’
‘Yeah.’ I shuffled forwards in the queue. ‘I think that might be the issue.’
‘Okay.’ Gregory looked confused. ‘Would it help if we discussed it in my office later on? Because if you don’t get this sorted, management will replace it with a standard lease.’
‘Not really.’
I knew that the popularity of Parsley’s had enabled Mum to wangle a ridiculously good offer, back in the days when it was possible to get away with more flexibility. The problem was me.
His frown deepened.
‘But I’ll do my best to get it to you first thing tomorrow.’
‘Hey, Emmie.’ Barb smiled when I reached the counter. ‘It’s not like you to be roaming free before three o’clock.’
‘Just stretching my legs. Can you check this for me, please?’ The Lotto draw had been last night.
I held out the ticket, which she scrutinised with arched eyebrows before scanning it in the machine.
‘Not like you to gamble. Were you feeling lucky?’ Barb had an amazing gift to make the most innocuous phrase sound like juicy gossip.
‘Someone gave it to me.’
‘Well,’ she said. ‘Looks like you owe thatsomeonea drink.’ She waved the ticket in the air. ‘That chime means you’ve only gone and won.’
‘What?’
