Page 24

‘What about throwing class?’

She was already packing up, eyes cast down. A clump of mascara spotted the space below her lashes, and he fought the urge to wipe it away. ‘I’ll catch up.’

He didn’t like it. Not at all. She was already behind, and now she was skipping their workshops?

But he knew better than to point it out, so he only said, ‘I’ll cover for you with Chris, then.’

‘No need. I don’t need your help.’ She slung her bag over her shoulder and left without a goodbye.

Aiden gritted his teeth and kicked the leg of the chair she’d just been sitting in out of frustration. He couldn’t bloody win with her, and she seemed to be intent on keeping it that way.

12

‘Cold. Again.’

A mug was slammed down in front of Juniper on the marble countertop, foamy coffee splashing onto the surface she’d only just finished cleaning. Her fingernails bit into her rag at Gianna’s condescending tone. The manager had been on her case all shift – rightly so, probably, because Juniper was terrible at her job. Between causing a milk explosion at the steamer, dropping several toasted paninis on the floor before they reached the table, and accidentally inputting the wrong numbers into the till, charging somebody ninety-eight pounds for a cup of tea, she would have been better off going home and giving up on everything.

In her defence, hard-faced Gianna was an even worse teacher than Christopher. Her dark hair was slicked back into a painfully tight bun, which only accentuated the prominent vein on her forehead. Every time Juniper messed up, she feared it might pop. With a narrow face, pointy chin, and icy blue eyes, she was terrifying. More so because she was able to switch to a different personality altogether around the customers, harsh Italian lilt turning dolce sotto when she was behind the counter.Juniper was all for strong, scary women – when they weren’t shouting at her.

Throwing down her rag, she stretched out her stiff back and went to discard the ruined coffee under Gianna’s watchful gaze. She should have been in class, but she was aware she had a lot of proving herself to do if she wanted to keep this job and Gianna wasn’t the type of person who took no for an answer. She dreaded to think how much she was missing and could only hope this would be the first and last time she was called in to cover a shift unexpectedly.

So, she pasted a smile on her face and was extra careful as she remade the oat milk latte.

‘Too slow,’ Gianna barked out as first the coffee and then the milk was poured in. ‘Faster next time.’

The older grey-haired woman whose coffee she had made a pig’s ear of watched from behind a display of pastries, chin tilted in a haughty show of disapproval. She clearly expected the best, and currently, Juniper might have been the absolute worst in all of London.

It didn’t help that she was still curled up in a little ball of self-loathing and regret since Tom’s party. Seeing Aiden this morning had left her hollowed out and vulnerable, something she never liked to be, let alone with him. She’d let him get too close, and now everything was all tangled and confused. There was a cord between them, tightening evermore since they’d hooked up, and she wasn’t sure what would happen if it snapped. She’d take scissors to it herself if she thought it might get rid of him, but he had a way of softening her with his patience and charm whenever she got close, and his tongue,eager and skilled, had also had an effect. A very, very big effect that she still felt between her legs now.

‘Thank you for your patience,’ Juni said as she set down the coffee on a saucer and added two extra amaretti biscuits for good measure. ‘So sorry about that.’

‘As you should be,’ the customer declared before returning to her table by the leafy monstera plant in the corner. Caffé Verde stayed true to its name, with greenery all around. An accent wall of artificial roses drew customers to take selfies, and the hanging strings of pearls and sugar vines across the ceiling made her feel like she was in an elegant, fairy-tale greenhouse. Juniper would have loved it if not for the management, the air tasting fresh and cleaner than most places in the city even when mingling with the fog of hot coffee and spiced pastries.

‘I think that you should stay behind for extra training tonight,’ Gianna said. ‘Let’s go over everything one more time, yes?’

‘Sounds good,’ lied Juniper, wiping the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand. She was just about to go back to cleaning when another customer entered, announced by the tinkle of the bell above the door. The sounds of London’s mid-afternoon pandemonium were a much-needed reminder that life existed outside of this place, that she would eventually be allowed to leave. It felt as though time stood still in here sometimes, like Gianna might hold her hostage forever.

An even more appreciated reminder appeared in the form of Tilly. Juniper waved at her friend, who bounced in with an enviable amount of spring in her step. ‘Look at you, coffee queen! You look like you’ve been busy.’

‘Not busy enough,’ Gianna muttered, but then checked her rose-gold wristwatch. ‘Take your break now. Back in fifteen.’

‘Thank you.’

Juniper tore her striped moss-green apron off in lightning speed, then hopped around the counter to find a seat with Tilly. They settled at the island by the window, Juniper struggling to climb onto the tall stools. Regent Street was as manic as it had sounded, red buses honking at unbothered cyclists while shoppers wrestled with overflowing bags. She hated to even think it, but she missed Manchester. It might have been just as packed some days, but she lived just far enough outside of the city that she had plenty of peace and quiet at home. Until her dad came home from work and put on the football, at least.

‘Your boss is terrifying.’ Tilly cast a wary glance towards the front of the café.

‘Tell me about it.’ Juniper blew her fringe from her eyes only to find it was too sweaty to really move it. She’d gotten the haircut as another symbol of her new start, but like everything else, was proving difficult to maintain. ‘She’s not very happy with me. I’m crap at this.’

‘You’ll get the hang of it.’ Tilly’s words were the reassurance Juniper needed, although she wasn’t certain they were true. She’d worked at her last place for long enough and had still served raw chips on a regular basis. It was just too difficult to balance all of the responsibilities, to keep track of each step in the task. Her brain was too noisy, too full, too quick to forget something and hurtle into distraction.

‘How was class? What did I miss?’ Juniper asked worriedly. She dreaded to think what she might have fallen behind on in only her second week.

Tilly’s expression did nothing to calm her down this time. She nibbled on her lower lip as she pulled out a notebook from her bag, the spiral-bound cover patterned with illustrated frogs lazing on lily pads. ‘We learned to glaze today. I made as many notes as I could. Feel free to go through them and copy them down.’

‘Thank you so much.’ Juniper flicked through the pages to find Tilly’s neat, round writing clear and easy to read. ‘I can’t believe I’m already behind. Actually, that’s a lie. I can.’ At this point, it felt like it was written in her DNA. She didn’t know if she could blame it on her ADHD, or if it was a fundamental flaw in her personality. Only knew that nothing ever seemed to go as planned – and even when it did, she had a knack for ruining it. She’d tried to fix it with planners and meditation and even medication, but none of it helped.

‘I’d ask if you wanted to go over it properly tonight, but I have that job interview at Nando’s and then I’m meeting up with Owen for the project.’ Tilly winced.