Minnie felt her cheeks flush with heat; he’d tracked her down. She felt relieved, as though the growing bubble of anticipation over whether or not he would be in touch had finally been burst.
‘Who’s that message from?’ Leila asked, her eyes locking onto Minnie like heat-seeking missiles, trained to identify the suspicious glow of embarrassment.
‘No one,’ Minnie said, thrusting her phone back into her apron pocket. ‘Come on, let’s get this batch in.’
Minnie clapped her hands together, creating a cloud of flour in the air and closing down Leila’s interrogation on the subject. Leila put the first tray of pies in the oven, Beverley sweated over the timer, and Alan went to pull the van around front in preparation for loading up the day’s deliveries. Fleur looked at her phone and took selfies of her new hairstyle with various filters.
‘Hey, Minnie, I forgot to say, I need next Tuesday off,’ said Fleur, still snapping away on her phone. ‘My cousin’s mates with Tarantino and he’s in London researching ghost stories on the Underground for some new movie idea. It’s what I did my dissertation on, so I said I’d help him out, show him some of the spookiest sites. Mega-bore, I know.’ Fleur rolled her eyes skyward.
‘Fine,’ Minnie muttered. She didn’t have time to delve into one of Fleur’s fantasies today. Fleur had a habit of telling the most ridiculous tales about why she needed a day off. It was never simply, ‘I’ve got a dentist appointment.’
A few minutes later, Alan bounced back into the kitchen wringing his hands, his mouth twitching furiously.
‘We have another problem,’ he said, mouth opening and closing like a goldfish.
‘What now?’ shouted Leila.
‘Van’s been clamped,’ Alan said, his feet skipping from side to side.
‘You are kidding me?’ Minnie said wearily. ‘Where did you park it?’
‘On the double yellow,’ he said with a frown, ‘but double yellows don’t count on a bank holiday, it’s a parking amnesty.’
‘A – they do count. And B – it’s not a bank holiday today,’ said Minnie, closing her eyes in despair.
‘Oh,’ said Alan, his mouth stretching into a long, slow grimace.
How could all this be happening on the second of January? Maybe the jinx knew she’d tried to cheat it by sleeping through her birthday? Maybe the bad luck had been paid forward? Minnie thought for a minute. There was only one person she knew who had a car they could borrow at such short notice. She walked out onto the street for some privacy and made the call.
‘Greg?’ she said, as he picked up.
‘Finally.’ His voice was quiet on the phone. ‘How’s the migraine that’s so bad you can’t answer the phone?’
‘Much better, thank you.’ Minnie paused. ‘How was the party I missed because I was trapped in a bathroom and no one came to find me?’
‘How was I to know you were stuck somewhere? Some waiter said he saw you leave. I walked up and down the street looking for you for at least half an hour; it totally ruined my night.’
‘Why would I have left without telling you?’
‘Some kind of jinx-related paranoia, I don’t know why you do half the things you do, Minnie.’ Greg paused, ‘I mean, if you only kept your phone charged … ’
‘Well I didn’t leave, I was stuck in the loo, all night.’ Minnie took a deep breath, tempering her irritation and reminding herself that she was calling Greg for a favour. ‘Listen, I’m sorry the night was such a disaster. Are you at home? I’m having a nightmare at work. Please can I borrow your car?’
‘No Minnie, you can’t borrow my car … ’
Greg sounded annoyed. The phone made a noise like screws in a blender and then the line went dead. Had he hung up on her, or had she just lost the connection? Minnie pawed at the keypad, trying to call him back. Greg had a thing about people hanging up on him. Maybe he had tried looking for her – whatever the truth, right now she needed to swallow her pride and get him back on side for the sake of today’s pies. Her phone screen looked as if it was resetting some temporary glitch. Minnie started to sweat as she desperately thumbed the keypad again, and finally it started to ring.
‘Hello?’ he said.
‘Look, I’m sorry if you are pissed off about the other night,’ Minnie blurted out, ‘I didn’t mean to get stuck in the toilet, did I? I tried calling you as soon as I could, and I really did have a migraine yesterday. Now I’ve got forty pies to deliver all over London and Alan got our van clamped and if we don’t get them out today, we’re going to be in serious trouble, and you’re the only person I know with a car, so please, please can I borrow it and I’ll make things up to you later?’ she paused, weighing up how much ground she needed to recover. ‘Maybe I’ll even dress up as a dental nurse again, I know how much you liked that. I could pick up some new toothbrushes and appointment cards on the way home?’ Minnie closed her eyes, willing Greg to soften.
‘Minnie?’ he said, but he didn’t sound like Greg any more.
Minnie looked down at her screen. The caller ID was displaying some random number she didn’t recognise.
‘Greg?’ she said.
‘No. It’s Quinn. Quinn Hamilton.’
Minnie froze, not knowing whether to hang up the phone or throw it across the street like a burning lump of coal that had scorched her hand. How in the name of dentistry had she managed to call Quinn Hamilton?
‘Oh god, sorry,’ she said, clutching the phone to her ear and closing her eyes. ‘I don’t know how I managed to call you, I was trying to call someone else.’
She must have somehow clicked on the Facebook message when the call dropped.
‘Clearly,’ said Quinn. He sounded amused. ‘You got my message then?’
‘Uh-huh.’ Minnie still had her eyes closed. So much for her plan to play it cool and leave it a few days before replying.
‘And you need a car?’ said Quinn.
‘No,’ said Minnie, shaking her head. ‘Well yes. Sorry, I honestly don’t know how I ended up calling you, my phone must have a mind of its own.’
‘I have a car you can borrow,’ said Quinn.
‘No honestly, I don’t need your car, I can borrow my boyfriend’s car … ’ She paused. ‘Thank you, though, it’s kind of you to offer.’
‘Well if you borrow Greg’s car, you’ll have to go and buy new toothbrushes and that sounds – ’ his deep voice cracked slightly – ‘like hard work.’
Minnie flexed out the fingers on her other hand, every fibre of her body cringing.
‘Honestly, Minnie, I’d be happy to help you out. Let me know where you are and I’ll come drop off the car. Consider it restitution for stealing your name.’
Minnie walked back into the kitchen with a dazed look on her face.
‘Is Greg bringing his car?’ Leila asked, as she folded flat-packed cardboard into pie boxes.
‘No,’ said Minnie staring off into space, still shell-shocked. ‘Quinn Hamilton is bringing his.’
New Year’s Eve 2015