Kristina O'Grady - All For You

“Is that who I think it is?” she asked Charmaine, pointing at the little old lady with purple hair.

“Suzy? Oh yes, she loves it in there. She declares it’s her very favorite place to eat. Of course she’s fallen in love with Beth ever since Beth catered for her birthday party last year and put all the other ladies of the nursing home out of sorts. You know how she loves the attention.” Charmaine smiled. “Come on, let’s see if Beth still has that job available.” She opened the door and herded her three youngest kids into the welcoming café.

The aroma of freshly ground coffee hit Lily as soon as she walked through the door. The tea she’d drunk earlier at Charmaine’s threatened to wash Beth’s floor. She covered her mouth, shoved Charmaine’s kids out of the way and dashed back outside.

She ran a few steps and dragged deep breaths into her lungs, trying to settle her stomach. Cold sweat ran down her face from her forehead and she shivered as the cool breeze rushed up the street. It was still cold out even though it was supposed to be spring.

Spring. Concentrate on spring, she told herself. Flowers, green grass, new babies… no, that is not what she wanted to think about… rain, thunderstorms, little birdies, newborn lambs, newborn calves, newborns…

Oh God, she couldn’t do this. She leaned against the building, gasping for breath. She was seeing stars again. How was she going to get any work if she was going to lose her lunch every time she smelled coffee? Everyone lived on coffee in this western town.

“Lily, are you all right?”

She jumped at the hand that touched her shoulder and she spun around.

“Beth?” she whispered. She hardly believed her eyes. She hadn’t seen her friend for years. “You look exactly the same,” she blurted.

Beth’s tinkling laugh filled the street.

“Thanks… I think.” She looked at Lily and asked again, “You okay?”

She realized she was still leaning against a wall of a building. She straightened up and looked around. She’d made it past Bill’s Barbershop and Tony’s Hardware. She didn’t realize she’d run so far from the café. She thought she’d only just made it out the door. She took a step away from the wall and straightened her skirt. “Um, fine. I uh, just don’t like the smell of coffee right now.”

Beth tilted her head and looked at her for a moment, just long enough for Lily to grow uncomfortable, then shrugged. “Well, you should meet Helga then,” Beth said, “she doesn’t like coffee either at the moment. She used to live on the stuff, now she gags at the sight of it.”

Lily didn’t know what to say and after a few moments of awkward silence Beth pulled her into a hug.

“It’s so good to see you again. I can’t believe you’re finally here. Charmaine mentioned you might be coming home, but when you didn’t show up for Christmas, I thought you must be busy. Are you? Busy, I mean?”

Lily missed this. The happy chatter of close friends who want to know anything and everything of each other no matter how much time has passed since they last saw each other. But Lily wasn’t ready to let her secret out and because her life hadn’t exactly turned out the way she’d planned, she didn’t really want to head down this road right now.

“Who’s Helga?” she asked, instead of answering Beth’s questions. “You said she doesn’t like coffee either?”

“Helga Hansen, surely you know she was shooting a film here last year? Your mom would have mentioned it I imagine… and it was in all the papers, not to mention the magazines. Do you still read them? Remember when we were teenagers and we’d pool our money together to buy the latest DIRT edition? I was still getting it up until last year.”

“Why’d you stop?”

“They published some unfavorable reports about Helga.” Beth’s usual happy look turned hard.

“You know her then? What’s she like? Just like in the movies?” Lily couldn’t stop the curiosity from coursing through her. After all, she’d wanted to be an actress too.

“I’ll introduce you to her. She’s really nice.”

“Is she still here, in Bassville?” Surely not. Why would a big movie star stay in small town Canada?

Beth looked at her strangely for a moment again. “Don’t you know?”

Lily thought she must be missing something. “Know what?”

“Helga’s marrying Ben this weekend.”

“What?” Lily felt as though the rug had been pulled out from under her feet. How had she missed the news about a movie idol marrying her friend’s brother?

“Come on, Lily, I’ll make you some mint tea. It always settles Helga’s stomach when it’s upset. And if you’re lucky I might have one of my cinnamon buns left. If Helga hasn’t stolen the last one.” Beth looped her arm through Lily’s and pulled her along the sidewalk back to the Cat Whiskers Café.

Lily hoped she didn’t have to bolt for the door again.

The interior of the café was welcoming and warm after the coolness of the breeze outside on the street. Once Lily choked past the smell of the coffee she was able to detect the mouthwatering aromas of Beth’s treats. Front and center in the display case was a lone cinnamon bun which Beth whipped onto a plate and presented to Lily.

“Enjoy,” Beth said with an easy smile.

Lily had been away too long. She hoped to reacquaint herself with friends before the rumors started flying about her enlarging belly. She knew from the past how vicious the local gossips could get with someone who’d ‘fallen from grace’, as her mom was apt to say. Ironically, her mother was one of the biggest gossips in town.

She slid into a stool at the counter and tucked into the cinnamon bun in front of her. God, it was delicious . A groan of pleasure growled in her throat.

Beth and Charmaine chatted over coffee but Lily was too preoccupied by the sweet bun to pay any attention to what they were saying until she heard her name.

“Lily’s looking for work. Do you know of anyone looking for help around town?” Charmaine said between mouthfuls of blueberry pie.

Lily blushed. Trust Charmaine to get straight to the point. Lily had planned on asking Beth once she had finished her tea and bun. She reluctantly put down her fork. She might as well listen.

Beth was smiling. “I could really use some help around here. I’ve been advertising for ages but, besides some school kids, no one’s applied. Mark helps out when he can and Shirley Jenkins from Hobart helps on Wednesday through Saturday. But the rest of the time it’s mostly just me and Samantha. It gets hectic all right.” Beth looked at Lily and her smile grew. “What do you say, Lil? Want to come and work for me?”

Lily couldn’t think of anything better and was about to accept when a customer placed an empty coffee cup next to her on the counter on his way out the door. “Thanks Beth,” the man said before turning away.

Lily’s stomach heaved. The cinnamon bun threatened to reacquaint itself with the plate and Lily clasped her hand over she mouth in a desperate attempt to keep it down.

Beth grabbed the offending coffee mug and thrust an empty metal mixing bowl in front of Lily’s face in one smooth movement.

Lily quickly found out that cinnamon bun and mint tea do not taste very good on a return trip. Charmaine yelped and jumped down from her stool away from any splashes.

“Here you go,” Beth said, handing Lily a napkin as though this sort of thing happened all the time. “I’ll get you a glass of water. Just sit there a minute and get your bearings.”

Beth went into the kitchen to fetch the water. Lily sat at the counter with the busy café in shocked silence behind her. She’d never been so embarrassed in all her life. When Beth returned, she gratefully took a sip of the water as Beth removed the bowl. “I don’t think working here is a good idea at the moment.” Her voice was raspy and acid rose again in her throat but she choked it down. “I think I should go.” Her stool scraped against the tiles when she stood up. The room tilted for a moment but Charmaine grasped her by the arm and glared at anyone and everyone who dared to look their way.