Page 76 of Barging In

She eyed two leftover blueberry muffins and a lone slice of lemon drizzle. She grabbed a muffin and shoved it into her mouth. It was a good job that she’d only baked half her usual batch. What had been forecast as intermittent showers for the last few days had turned into a non-stop downpour. It had eased up today, though not enough for her to risk a full bake.

She placed the remaining muffin and the lemon drizzle slice into a container, then locked up Florence. As she turned, she spied Max closing up shop on his own boat.

“Hey, Max!” she called. “Can I interest you in my last blueberry muffin?”

“Yes, please,” he replied, putting a box of vinyl back down and jogging over.

She held the container open for him.

“Oh,” Max teased, eyeing the slice of lemon drizzle. “Who might that be for?”

Clem narrowed her eyes at him but otherwise ignored the comment. “I haven’t seen you for a few days. Have you been avoiding the bad weather? Or just unable to extract yourself from a certain someone’s apartment?”

Max grinned. “Yes, to the weather. I popped around to my parents’. I store my sunshades in their garage over the winter. I figured I’d better grab them, what with all the sunshine we’ve been having these last weeks. I don’t want the vinyl melting. I hit a few record fairs with my dad; he’s a bit of a collector, too,” he said. “Then he helped me clear out a collection from a music lover’s estate — got some great finds.”

“Did you shout about your new stock on social media?”

Max rolled his eyes. “No. I will now.” He glanced at the dark grey sky. “I shouldn’t have bothered opening today, and if you’re giving away cake… you probably shouldn’t have either.”

“I did okay.” Clem shrugged. “At least people want hot drinks in this weather.”

“Oh! Look what I picked up today.” Max grabbed a small, plastic box from his chair and handed it to her.

She opened it to find a stack of loyalty cards and a custom stamp.

Max pressed the stamp onto the back of his hand. “Your idea worked well,” he said, showing her a cute record shape in black ink.

“That’s great,” Clem said, looking at the loyalty cards with ten circles on them andBuy 10, get £10 offwritten across the top.

“So, how was it?” Max asked.

“How was what?”

“Your tour. Jasper said he gave you one.”

“It was really interesting, more interesting than I expected. Jasper is great.”

“Isn’t he just?” Max replied, all dreamy-eyed.

Clem smirked at Max’s obvious attraction. “He’s so knowledgeable and such a natural tour guide. Everything rolls off his tongue. Did he tell you Victoria offered me a job?”

He took a bite of the blueberry muffin. “He mentioned you were baking for the wharf now.”

“Oh yeah, I am, but I didn’t mean that. Victoria wants to hire me as a marketing consultant. Only part-time or casual hours — whatever I want.”

“No, he didn’t mention that. Maybe he doesn’t know. Will you take it?” Max turned to her. “Wait. What about Florence?”

“I don’t know.” Clem shrugged. “I want to take the role. There’s something about the wharf; it kind of wraps you in a warm hug.”

Her friend laughed. “Are you still talking about the wharf?”

Clem gave his arm a playful punch. “I’ve got so many ideas to help, and I want to! It’s such a worthy cause. It makes sense to get paid for it.”

“Then why the hesitation? It sounds like you’ve made up your mind.”

“I have… and I haven’t,” Clem admitted. “I’m not sure how I’d manage it and Florence.”

“Why don’t you stop overthinking it and just give it a go?” he suggested. “That’s what brought you here in the first place, isn’t it? Spontaneity.”