in front of him like Clark Kent flying through the air.
‘Don’t get too cocky. The landlord hasn’t backed down yet.’
‘He will,’ said Zach, scrunching up his baguette wrapper, ‘he will.’
Eugene offered to open up the following morning so I could have a ‘birthday lie-in’ but I still woke at seven. Lying in bed, I tried to gauge whether thirty-three felt any different to thirty-two. Looking at it from a purely mathematic basis, I’d gained a year and a boyfriend but lost a cat. Did they cancel one another out? Was I any wiser? Hard to tell.
I rolled on my side and looked at the photo taken twenty-nine years earlier of Mum crouched around me as I puffed my chubby red cheeks to blow out my candles. I frowned as if willing her back to life, wondering what she’d say to me today if she was still here.
‘Get into the shower, probably,’ I muttered, throwing back the duvet. My habit of talking to Marmalade in the morning hadn’t stopped.
I dressed and walked to the shop but it was eerily silent. ‘Hello?’ I shouted. No answer. There was nobody behind the till, nobody on the shop floor and nobody downstairs. ‘HELLO?’ I shouted again, down the staircase at the office. Nothing. What the hell? I leave them for a morning and the place goes to sleep.
‘Men,’ I grumbled, pulling off my rucksack and very nearly dying from immediate cardiac arrest when Eugene, Norris and Zach leapt like salmon from behind the till. Well, Eugene and Zach leapt. Norris just stood up a bit faster than he would usually.
‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY!’ they shouted as I reached for a bookshelf to steady myself.
‘Jesus!’ I said, clutching the shelf. ‘I wasn’t expecting an aerobatic display.’
‘I think my hip’s gone,’ said Norris. ‘I need to sit down.’
‘Hang on,’ said Eugene, ‘we have to give her the card.’ He held out an envelope.
I opened it to find it was signed by all three of them plus, clearly, whoever had been into the shop that week. Rita the cleaner. Mrs Delaney. I squinted at one of the messages: A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND I HOPE THE NEXT YEAR BRINGS YOU EVERYTHING YOU WISH FOR, BEST REGARDS, TERRENCE.
‘Who’s Terrence?’
Eugene looked embarrassed. ‘He bought a book about bicycles yesterday while you were at lunch with Zach.’
‘Thanks, guys.’
‘There’s something else in the envelope,’ he added, nodding at it.
I pulled out a slip of paper: a voucher for a massage at a posh spa nearby.
‘We thought you could do with it after, well, everything,’ Zach added.
I grinned again. ‘Thank you, I’m very touched.’
Norris limped downstairs and I kicked my bag under the till. I’d brought in the same black dress I’d worn on my first date with Rory and my trusty black heels, which I could actually walk in. I still wasn’t sure where his Italian restaurant was. He’d texted me that morning saying I was to ‘await further instructions’.
‘What you doing later?’ asked Eugene.
‘Not sure, it’s a surprise.’
‘Remember what I said about Nando’s,’ said Zach, narrowing his eyes at me, ‘if he even dares.’
‘It’s not going to be Nando’s,’ I said, reaching for my pocket as my phone vibrated against my hip.
Darling, the meeting’s been delayed. Not sure what flight we’ll get back but probably not much before 10pm at this rate. I have to stay until the minister’s done. I’m so sorry, forgive me. Can we go out tomorrow night instead? Rx
‘Oh,’ I mumbled. ‘It’s not going to be anywhere.’
‘What?’ Zach and Eugene asked simultaneously.
‘Rory’s meeting has been delayed so he’s not getting back until late.’ I tried to smile at them. ‘Want to come to Nando’s for a birthday dinner?’
‘No,’ said Zach, shaking his head. ‘We can do better than that. Eugene, you free tonight?’
Eugene nodded.
‘Right, leave this one to me.’
‘What d’you mean?’
‘Never you mind, but Superman to the rescue. There will be no peri peri chicken and you will have a good time. Deal?’
‘Deal,’ I said, trying to sound less glum than I felt inside. Maybe a cat was better than a boyfriend after all.
When the shop closed that night, Eugene told me to put my coat on and Zach appeared from the office waving a blindfold. I almost told him about the time Rory pinched one of Mia’s sleep masks and tied my wrists together, but I wasn’t sure it was the right moment.
‘What’s this for?’ I asked, standing in front of him while he fastened it around my head.
‘You’ll see. And drink this.’ I felt Zach’s hands