34

River opened the shop the next day. And the next. And the next. It was the only thing she could do. The bump in customers, gathered by Celeste's bogus reviews had not reduced and were it not for Antoine taking on more shifts, River doubted that she could have dealt with it half as well. Though he still had much to learn, his clumsiness began to evaporate the more he worked.

Erisa had called a number of times, but she had not returned. River doubted that she would. Once Erisa set her mind to something, she stuck with it unless that decision proved to be wrong. She wasn't inflexible, only driven and determined. In the course of their calls, they never spoke of the possibility of 'Leaves' becoming a franchise. Which ever way River decided to go, she felt more than a little betrayed by Erisa not supporting her.

And Celeste. Before River could call her, she couldn't help but check the messages. Or, rather, message. A single, simple message, telling River that Celeste would give her some space and that they could talk once she returned. Celeste had continued on to China, because of course she had. In many ways, Celeste and Erisa were very similar and River wondered if she attracted such people to her to offset her own, wildly chaotic, personality.

Except Antoine was nothing like either of the two strong-minded women. River wondered, then, if it were only that kind of woman that seemed to fall into her orbit. The thought that she had that kind of 'type', even though she didn't look at Erisa that way, made her wonder whether she unintentionally gravitated towards them, not the other way around.

During the post-mid-day lull in customers, River pottered around behind the counter, washing cups and saucers, emptying and wiping teapots before getting ready for the afternoon uptick of customers. Countertops had to be wiped, as did the tables. Spoons shined within an inch of their lives. Containers of tea, all clearly marked and placed in a very specific, but utterly illogical pattern became straightened, adjusted and stared at as River wondered whether she should rearrange them in alphabetical order.

With a vigorous shake of the head, she rejected that idea. Logic and order had no place in River's world. Eclectic. Disorganised. Chaotic. These were River's strong points. Anything else would soon fall into disarray during the normal course of the day. By the time she had finished tidying, cleaning, failing to rearrange things and fail to find anything else to occupy her time, she realised she had filled an entire half-hour. Far, far less time than she had hoped to fill.

"I was wondering, if it's alright, if I could go out for an hour? Or so?" Leaning upon the counter, Antoine had the wide eyes of a child begging for an ice-cream. The expensive kind. "Only, it's my Mum's birthday in ... tomorrow. It's tomorrow! And I haven't bought her anything. Yet."

"Of course!" With a furrowed brow, River tried to think whether she had remembered her own mother's birthday. Or her father's. "Go! Buy her something lovely. No ornaments! No-one likes to get ornaments for birthdays. They just gather dust and remind people that you haven't really thought about what they like. How old will she be?"

"I haven't a clue." Antoine grimaced, removing his apron, folding it and leaning over to tuck it under the counter. "One of the big ones, I think. I'm fairly certain it ends with an 'oh'. Fairly certain. See you in a bit!"

Before River could even begin to give him some advice for buying a gift, Antoine had scooted through the door, pausing outside before looking both ways, trying to figure out which way to go to find the right shop and the right gift. It was probably going to be an ornament. Listening was not one of Antoine's talents. Other than having older ladies want to pinch his cheeks, River wasn't certain he had any talents.

Left alone in the shop also left River with far too much time to herself. Time enough to think and she had done more than enough thinking over the past few days. After coming to her very definite, unchangeable, set-in-stone, never questioned decision, she had, predictably, flip-flopped several more times. Sometimes she changed her mind almost every hour and it had started to affect her physically.

In addition to worry lines, that she felt certain were now permanent and she could probably plant vegetables in, she had started to visit the loo far more often than she liked. Practically the only thing she could rely on was her regularity concerning morning toiletry habits. That had gone and now she felt her stomach were in turmoil and the loo her current home-away-from-home. Even Antoine had noticed and he wasn't the most empathic of people at the best of times.

"May I have ..." The older woman at the counter jolted River from her reverie and she now tapped her lips with a gnarled finger as she considered which variation of tea she wanted. "... a strawberry crème tea, please?"

River waited until she turned her back before she allowed herself to pretend to gag at the older woman's choice of tea. She returned a recently boiled kettle to the hob as she prepared the woman's tea cup. River stared at the string, attached to the tea bag, as she dangled it over the lip of the cup, awaiting the fresh boiled water to engulf the bag.

She felt a little like that string. Attached to something far more important, the thing that most people wanted. The string, itself, was nothing without the tea bag, but the tea bag did not need the string. River wasn't prone to philosophical musings, but this felt true. It felt appropriate for her current situation.

"There you go." River placed the cup and saucer before the older woman, balancing a plastic-wrapped biscuit on the edge of the saucer. "Mind you don't scold yourself, it's hot."

"Thank you, lovey." The older woman gave River a sweet smile as she accepted her brewing tea, then she squinted at River's head before glancing out of the window. "Is it going to be sunny later? I brought my brolly because they said it was going to rain."

River's hand rose to her hair and she felt the unmistakeable shape of a pair of comedy sunglasses she had bought on a whim a couple of years ago. The kind of sunglasses worn by androgynous seventies rock stars, shaped like stars and overwhelmed by glitter. She didn't need to ask herself how they had got there. Rummaging through her drawers for spare batteries for the tv remote, she had put those glasses aside. At some point, she had transferred them to her hair and had worn the glasses all day.

With a sheepish grin, she tucked the sunglasses into the pouch of her apron and turned away, rounding the edge of the counter and then folding herself down to a squat, overcome by embarrassment. A natural state for River. She popped her eyes above the counter, but the older woman wasn't looking. She only stared out of the window as she nibbled upon her biscuit and River took the opportunity to drop the sunglasses into the waste bin.

And so the day wore on. As the day before had worn on and the day before that. Antoine returned from buying a present for his mother and River didn't doubt that she would hate it, but smile and tell her son it was lovely. He seemed happy with it and River didn't have the heart to burst his bubble. River would have to meet Antoine's mother, one day, and apologise for not advising her son better.

Afternoon passed into the evening and Antoine left after his shift ended. River missed the days when Erisa would sit and wait for her taxi, or her boyfriend, switching from employee to customer with such ease and always having good advice for River's many worries and foibles. River felt certain an apology wasn't enough for Erisa to return and, if she were honest with herself, she wasn't even certain she needed to apologise.

Erisa had overreacted. That River also felt certain about. But River also felt certain she could have done something to appease Erisa. The way she had explained Celeste's plans for the franchise could have been explained better. Perhaps, if River had made certain that the plans wouldn't change 'Leaves', this 'Leaves', then Erisa may not have reacted so viscerally.

Then again, the more River thought about it, and she had thought about it a lot, the more it felt personal, rather than about 'Leaves', or the proposed franchise. River wondered whether jealousy had something to do with Erisa's reaction. Not jealousy in River and Celeste kissing, Erisa and River were not into each other in that way, but, possibly, in the prospect of losing their friendship. That Celeste could, somehow, take River away from Erisa.

That seemed a weird thought. If Erisa worried about losing their friendship, why would she walk away from the one thing that connected them? It all made River's head spin. Relationships and friendships and business relationships and franchises and growing customers and ... everything. Simply everything. River missed the days when not a single customer came through the door of the shop, some days. Quieter and more simple.

"Hello." River's back stiffened at that voice. Almost time to close and here she was. "I expect you want to talk."

River turned to find Celeste at the other side of the counter, her luggage in a pile beside her, standing tall, elegant and flushed. She had come straight from the airport.