32

River lifted her head from beneath the covers which she had tugged tight around herself, becoming the tiniest ball she could possibly make. It was still night and all her luggage still sat upon the floor as though taunting her. She had heard a noise, however, and her personal problems would have to wait until she found out what had made it.

Struggling to unravel herself from the covers, she reached out for the first thing she could find to defend herself. Now armed with a hairbrush, which, she noted, needed to have millions of lost hairs extricated from the bristles, she crept to the door. Her hand hovered over the door handle as she heard another noise. The squeak of a stair.

With a step back, she considered jumping out of the window. Confronting a burglar was not one of her skills. She couldn't fight. The bedroom door did not have a lock and the only thing beneath her window was twenty feet of nothing before the hard pavement outside. Another squeak, a loose floorboard, and River made a decision. She had done enough running. She could only hope that a sudden appearance and inhuman shrieking might scare the intruder away.

In a rush, she stepped forward, grabbed the door handle, opened the door and launched forwards, yelling as loud as she could. The torchlight flashed into her eyes and she struck outwards with the hairbrush, giving the intruder the nastiest, hair-filled scratch they had ever suffered. Her yell became a squeak as the intruder slapped her.

She slapped back and soon the entire situation became a slapping match, filled with intermittent squeaks, shrieks and pained yelps. When the intruder grabbed River's wayward hair, that was it. River had seen the move in movies and it always seemed to work. She shot her knee upwards, aiming for where she hoped the intruder's stomach was, only to clash her knee against a bony elbow.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" She hopped backwards, the back of her legs catching against the bed, sending her tumbling to her back, the brush falling from her hand.

"River?" The intruder switched on the bedroom light and River winced as she found herself momentarily blinded. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here?" Eyes adjusted, River saw Erisa standing in the doorway, large, heavy torch held by her side. If that had hit River, she would have had a terrible bruise. "It's the middle of the night!"

"You're supposed to be in China!" Erisa put the torch on the bedside cabinet and moved in to hug River. "The app on my phone said someone had turned off the burglar alarm. I thought, maybe, Jenson had worked out the code while he's been helping me out."

"An app? That's not even a thing." River returned the hug, glad to be around someone she loved and who loved her. "Is it a thing? Why don't I have this 'app'? Should I have it? Do I have it? I'm home, by the way. China isn't happening. I should have texted. Phoned. Texted and phoned. Sorry."

Jenson, Erisa's cousin, was one of the people helping her out during River's absence. He had very little in common with Erisa. Where she was dedicated, determined and focussed, he tended towards the flighty, free-spirited and mischievous. She could imagine him using the shop to sleep off a night out. Not through any malice, but because he simply wouldn't think anything wrong with it. In his eyes, friends, people, allowed it. He was very, very wrong about that, obviously, but that was Jenson.

Within minutes, Erisa had forced River into a dressing gown and dragged her downstairs to the shop while she made some camomile tea for them both. She knew River would prefer to sit and talk in the shop. Upstairs, in the flat, was for living and sleeping. Downstairs, in the shop, was River's sanctuary, surrounded by her first and greatest love. Tea.

"Explanation. I need one." Erisa turned the cup for River, offering her the handle, and River took a deep breath of the calming concoction. "You were supposed to be away for weeks. Why are you back so soon? What could possibly have ..."

"We kissed. On a bed. We kissed and it was ... it was fantastic." She stopped herself from touching her lips. Every time she thought about that kiss, she touched her lips. There seemed no point in labouring the point. "And then she told me that she's in the middle of making 'Leaves' a franchise. Right in the middle of it! Not, 'Hey, what do you think about starting a franchise?', no! Actually, actively, deliberately in the middle of it! She had a powerpoint presentation! I mean, she does that, yes, but ... about 'Leaves'!"

Erisa sat back, her features darkening and her delicately painted fingernails began tapping the tabletop. River had seen that scowl before. Right when Erisa's boyfriend had stepped in to warn off one of Erisa's friends for being too friendly. After an intense period of talking, mostly from Erisa, he never did that again and had apologised, profusely, to Erisa's friend. River had never seen a more terrified person. Mollified by quiet, carefully chosen words.

"Where's your phone? I'm going to have words with her." Standing, Erisa began to move towards the door to the flat, stopped only by River's hand on her arm. "I warned her. And don't defend her, River! This is not on! She can't just go ahead and do something so ... so life-changing without consulting you. And after you kissed her ..."

"She kissed me." That stopped Erisa in her tracks. River knew why. Celeste had not shown an ounce of attraction towards River and that caused Erisa to scowl in thought. "I know what you're thinking. Did she kiss me to soften this deal thing? I don't think she did. I think she genuinely thinks it would be what I want. And the kiss? I think she meant it. She's ... complicated."

Erisa returned to her seat and the tapping fingernails restarted their staccato tap, tap, tapping. River loved how much her friend felt protective of her, but, sometimes, River thought it a little misplaced. Perhaps a little too forthcoming. Perhaps, not often, but, a little, aggressive? That protectiveness had started almost as soon as Erisa met River and she had remained steadfast in that self-appointed duty.

River knew what she came across as. Twee and soft, naive, even, and she was. She so was! But, she also had a stubborn streak and if she set her mind to something, no-one could shake her from it. People had tried. When she had started talking about opening 'Leaves', people had tried to tell her it wouldn't work. People wanted their beverages fast. They wanted coffee and they wanted it now! No-one wanted a quaint tea room where the tea was made individually and taking time for the tea to mash.

And, after a fashion, they were right. But enough people did want the slow pace and the large selection of 'Leaves'. River had customers. Regular, satisfied customers. Enough to keep 'Leaves' running without having to dip into any more savings and River never wanted anything more than that. She never expected to become wildly successful. She only ever wanted to make tea.

"Alright, so she kissed you. We'll get to that later." With a look around the shop, Erisa had a little sadness creep onto her features. "Do you really want to turn 'Leaves' into a franchise? It doesn't sound like something you'd want."

"Oh, it's not! Absolutely not! No! No. No. No." Her hair whipped about her face and River wished she'd brushed it before coming downstairs, but the thought of using the hair-clogged brush made her grimace. She tried, and failed, to tug her hair into some order. "'Leaves' is a little shop. That's what it is. A franchise of it wouldn't be it. I'm sure there's lots of money in it and if Celeste is the one promoting it, it'd be a success, no doubt, but it wouldn't be 'Leaves' anymore."

With a glance to the side, River gave the game away and the slight, imperceptible, change in Erisa's attitude became magnified within the small space. River began to cringe, expecting a tirade akin to the one Erisa had visited upon her boyfriend. In a rush, she picked up the tea cup and took a drink, hoping to stave off the impending verbal attack.

"But you're going to do it, aren't you?" Erisa turned away, rubbing her forehead. "Oh, River."

"The thing is, she quit her job, you know, I told you. And she needs something to restart her career." The tea cup clinked upon the saucer as River put it down, reaching out for Erisa's hand, but Erisa held back, shaking her head. "If a 'Leaves' franchise can get her back in business, then that's a good thing, right? I'm being a good person, helping her. I've been thinking about it all the way back. I was angry, at first, but, the more I think about it, the more I think it's the right thing to do."

"You'd be giving away something important to you. 'Leaves' is more than just tea. 'Leaves' is you." Standing, Erisa tugged a set of keys from her jeans pocket, sorting through them as she continued, not looking at River. "If it's want you want to do, I'll support you, but I don't think it is. I think it's what she wants and what she wants, you want. You're so desperate to be loved by this woman, you'd give away something precious to you. I can't support that. Call me if you change your mind. And, River, I will always be your friend. Always."

River watched as Erisa removed a pair of keys from the keyring. Keys that River knew very well. They unlocked the shop. Erisa placed each key on the table and pushed them towards River and, as she lifted her hand from them, River could see tears in her friend's eyes. River had not expected Erisa to react in this way.

But River also felt certain she was doing the right thing. If it helped Celeste, how could it be wrong?