Page 5 of For My Finale

T he morning rush was winding down, leaving behind the usual battlefield of used mugs, spilled sugar, and a counter that looked like a crime scene from an oat milk massacre. Blossom moved efficiently, wiping down surfaces with practiced ease.

“Too much cheerful,” groaned Ives.

“Shouldn’t you be at school already?” asked Blossom.

“Eh, there’s a special assembly about the Bicycle Proficiency Test,” Ives said. “Since I’ve already passed mine, I thought I’d skip it and give you the pleasure of my company instead.”

“I’m charmed,” Blossom said.

“So, what’s new?” asked Ives, holding out her cup for a refill.

“New?” asked Daisy, pushing open the door just in time to hear Ives’s question. “New? I’ll tell you what’s new!” She was practically gasping, and she clutched onto the cafe counter like she needed support. “What’s new is that Lilah Paxton has moved into Bankton!” she finally managed to huff out.

Blossom, who knew that keeping any kind of secret in town was practically impossible, sighed and came clean. “Yeah, um, about that. I sort of know.”

“Know?” Daisy blinked. “What do you mean, you know?”

Blossom shrugged and tamped down some espresso grounds. “Um, she lives next door.”

There was a silence so thick that Blossom could have cut it with a butter knife. Then Daisy let out an ear-piercing squeal.

“What?” she said, grabbing Blossom’s arm and shaking it. “You… she… what?”

Blossom gently removed Daisy’s fingers. “Daze, you’re the postwoman, remember?”

“And?”

“And, didn’t you find out that Lilah Paxton was in town from some sort of letter or change of address card or something?”

“Yeah,” Daisy said. “Her name was on an envelope…” She trailed off for a second. “Right, yeah, I see what you’re getting at.”

“We have almost the same address,” Blossom agreed.

Ives cleared her throat and raised an eyebrow. “And when exactly were you planning on telling me this?”

Blossom felt heat crawl up her neck. She knew that she’d deliberately not told Ives, but now that didn’t seem like the best decision. “It’s not a big deal, it’s really not.”

“Mmm-hmm,” said Ives, a slow, knowing smirk starting to spread across her face. “Totally normal to have an A-list celebrity as your next door neighbor and say nothing about it. Right. Sure.”

“Ives,” Blossom said. “It’s not like that.”

“Right, nothing to do with the enormous crush that you’ve got on the woman,” said Ives.

“Next door,” Daisy said, clutching at her heart like she might actually faint, which, given the fact that she was more rotund than she should be for her age, was a definite possibility.

“You saw her? You talked to her? Is she glamorous? Is she completely stunning? Is she….” She took a breath as she ran out of questions.

“She was soaking wet, covered in mud, being chased by Billy apparently, and then she didn’t like my tea,” Blossom said, trying to make the encounter sound as bad as possible. Though now that she thought about it, she didn’t have to try that hard.

Daisy looked scandalized. “She insulted your tea?”

“She insulted everything,” Blossom said. “But given that she thought Bill had almost trampled her, she was having a rough day, so I forgave her.”

“You’d forgive Mussolini,” Ives said.

“For inventing the radio?” asked Daisy, confused.

“That was Marconi,” Blossom said to be helpful. “Mussolini was the fascist dictator. Italian.” She turned back to Ives. “And I certainly wouldn’t forgive him.”

Daisy was still practically vibrating. “I can’t believe this. Lilah Paxton. In Bankton. The whole town is going to lose its mind.”

“Only because you’re going to inform them all,” Ives said. “Don’t you have letters to deliver?”

“Oh god, yes,” said Daisy. “I got a bit over-excited.” She pulled a batch of envelopes out of her bag and handed them to Blossom. “Yours. Mostly bills by the look of things. And I’m off to spread the news.”

She practically danced out of the cafe, leaving Blossom staring at the envelopes.

“Bloss?” Ives said.

“What?” said Blossom, sticking the bills under the counter where she wouldn’t have to look at them.

“This isn’t going to be a problem, is it?”

“What?” she said again.

Ives sighed. “You and Lilah Paxton separated by just a stone wall.”

“You think I’m going to creep into her bedroom at night or something?”

Ives looked at her doubtfully. “Just… be careful, eh? Celebrities aren’t like their on-screen personas. It’s easy to think that we know them when in actuality we really don’t.”

“I’m not sixteen,” Blossom said.

“Mmm,” said Ives, as though she didn’t believe her. She looked down at her watch. “Crap, I’d better go. Talk to you later.”

Blossom picked up Ives’s cup and wiped the counter under it. The cafe was empty now, and she usually enjoyed this little lull. It was her most peaceful time of day. She found herself humming as she washed cups.

Humming despite the fact that Ives seemed to think she was some sort of crazed stalker who was going to, what, peep on Lilah Paxton from the bushes?

Blossom intended to do nothing of the sort.

An occasional glimpse of the movie star would do her just fine.

In fact, she didn’t even need that. She was just going to pretend that nobody lived next door. That would be easiest.

Bankton was the only home that Blossom had ever known. And she loved it. She loved the little cobbled streets. She loved how Mrs. Wilkins the grocer always called her ‘petal’ despite the fact that she was a grown woman. She loved the little town museum and the fountain by the police station.

She loved the fact that even though both her parents were gone now, she’d been a surprise when they were both well into their forties and resigned to being childless, this still felt like home. She still felt loved and protected and safe here.

Hollywood though, that would be a different world entirely. Like something off TV. Glamor and flashing lights and designer outfits. A life that Lilah must see as perfectly normal.

For a second there she could see herself sitting in a palatial mansion up in the hills.

The kind that Lilah had probably lived in before she’d started slumming it in Bankton.

The floors were gleaming marble, there was a chandelier the size of a VW bus, and a robot butler that would serve her coffee on a silver tray.

“Your flat white, Madame Baker,” the robot would say in a posh accent.

Blossom could see herself draped in silk pajamas, lounging on a velvet chaise. “Why, thank you, Geoffrey,” she’d say grandly.

And Lilah would be there too, in a long ball gown, smiling at her, those green eyes twinkling, telling Blossom just how much she’d changed her life, and then…

“Oi! What are the chances of a coffee around here?”

Blossom jolted back to reality just as Arty slid onto a stool at the counter. “Sorry, Art, I was a bit lost there.”

“Yeah, you looked it.” He looked around the cafe. “Mind you, this place is hardly buzzing at the moment, is it? Got plenty of time for dreaming. I’ll take a black coffee, strongest you’ve got. Had a late one last night. ”

Blossom poured him his coffee and set it in front of him. “Anything special going on?”

“Last night?” he said, picking his cup up, sipping, and then wincing at the heat. “Not really. But everyone was talking about that new neighbor of yours.”

Blossom groaned. “It’s all anyone can talk about this morning.”

“Can’t blame folks for being excited,” Arty said. “It’s not every day a movie star moves into a sleepy little English town.”

“You’d know, I suppose,” said Blossom, leaning on the counter.

“I’ve had my fair share of celebrity encounters,” said Arty.

“Mind you, I was press, so most of ‘em couldn’t stand me. Some of ‘em were nice, though.” He sniffed. “Bit of a tough life, if you ask me. I mean, the money’s alright, but then there’s the public eye, isn’t there?

Can’t say I’d fancy it myself. But they sign up for it. ”

“I suppose they do,” Blossom said. To be honest, she hadn’t really thought about it. Probably it wouldn’t be nice not to be able to go shopping or eat a burger without someone taking your picture.

“You’ve probably got bigger things on your mind though, haven’t you?” Arty asked.

“Like what?”

He frowned at her. “Rumor has it that Coffee-To-Go is poking around, want to rent that place around the corner and open a branch. You must have heard.”

Blossom felt a chill go down her back. She had heard, but she was busy pretending that she hadn’t. “Oh, please. That’ll never happen. Not in a place as small as this.”

“Stranger things have,” said Arty, chugging down the rest of his coffee. “Alright, back to the grindstone. See you later.”

Blossom was left alone again, stomach twisting as she thought about the bills under the counter.

The cafe wasn’t exactly thriving, something that she really wished she didn’t have to think about.

A big name chain moving into town could be enough to put her out of business entirely.

She sighed and then forced herself to smile.

“Look on the bright side,” she said to nobody at all.

But the words made her feel better. A little.

How much could her life really change? A silly movie star next door and rumors of a coffee chain? She shook her head. Nope. She didn’t need change. She was perfectly happy as she was. And if that meant ignoring said movie star and coffee chain, then that’s what she’d do.

The cafe door flew open so hard that the bell clattered against the glass.

“Have you heard?” Gloria said, clutching her chest and sweeping in like a hurricane.

“Yes,” sighed Blossom, sure of what Gloria was about to say.

But Gloria thoroughly ignored her.

“Lilah Paxton has moved to Bankton!”

Blossom switched on the espresso machine and poured some milk as Gloria began speculating about what had happened. Ignoring her new neighbor was going to be more difficult than she’d thought.